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From The Millions' 2016 Book Preview

I'll be honest, I needed something with descriptions, cause I don't really pay attention to book releases ...

Good on Paper by Rachel Cantor

Has to do with academia and fulfillment apparently, which speaks to me right now.

The Happy Marriage by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Sounds like kind of a battle of sexes thing, with marriage analysis

Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine by Diane Williams

I like short story collections

Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

Has to do with "psychic" scam artists

And Again by Jessica Chiarella

I dig sci-fi about cloned bodies and "designer" humans

Tender by Belinda McKeon

I'm Irish, author's Irish, takes place in Dublin

The Fugitives by Christopher Sorrentino

Fugitives interest me

The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

A woman piecing together how she wound up in Zimbabwean jail

Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney

I have a black, gay friend, premise is interesting

The Arrangement by Ashley Warlick

Mmmmm food writer

The Ancient Minstrel by Jim Harrison

Sounds like self-parody; I can dig that

The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder

I'm curious how a novel stems from a football play

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

Immigrant story

Gone with the Mind by Mark Leyner

Makes me hungry for Panda Express ...

Innocents and Others by Dana Spiotta

Sounds salacious

Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett

Controversy; I like it

Hold Still by Lynn Steger Strong

What is this unfixable discretion separating mother/dughter

Now and Again by Charlotte Rogan

Whistleblowers interest me

Hystopia by David Means

Alternate history where JFK survives and wipes peoples' minds with drugs

Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings by Stephen O’Connor

Title caught my eye

LaRose by Louise Erdrich

Gun-related accident between neighbors; sounds tense

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Generation gaps are getting wider faster; I see it every day in my classes; I should not be as far removed as I am at 25 as I am from my 18 yo students

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

Importance of art and such

The Fat Artist and Other Stories by Benjamin Hale

Super Mario came up several times in description ...

Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett:

I'm interested in mental illness

They May Not Mean To, But They Do by Cathleen Schine

Apparently, the main woman becomes as rebellious as her kids; I can sometimes relate; I have a lot of cognitive dissonance about being in authority

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam

I'm neither

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Compares lives of one slave and one free sister

How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball

Interesting teenage angst premise

I Am No One by Patrick Flanery

Stalkers, man; creepy

Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard

Apparently "Hitchcockian?"

Monterey Bay by Lindsay Hatton

Apparently draws inspiration from life of John Steinbeck, whose books I've enjoyed

Losing It by Emma Rathbone

26 and 58 year old female virgins GONE WILD

Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías

Anything with noir and film, I'm in

So that was fiction ... I will end up reading MAYBE two of those, but those are what sounded interesting.

Onto non-fiction (deep breath):

Lists and Notable Articles

Most Anticipated, Too: The Great 2016 Nonfiction Book Preview

Last week, we previewed 93 works of fiction due out in the first half of 2016. Today, we follow up with 45 nonfiction titles coming out in the next six months, ranging from a new biography of the late Leonard Nimoy by his Star Trek crewmate William Shatner to a book-length essay on art, modernity, and the city by Olivia Laing to a pair of new studies looking at the legacy of the 1960s-era War on Poverty. Along the way, we profile hotly anticipated titles by Jhumpa Lahiri, Annie Dillard, Tama Janowitz, Thomas Piketty, Roxane Gay, and many more.

Set aside some space on those bookshelves, Millions readers. This is looking to be a very, very good year for nonfiction.

January

Eternity Street by John Mack Faragher

Thought it was about 90s gang L.A. from description, but it's actually about cutthroat 19th century livin'

Why the Right Went Wrong by E.J. Dionne Jr.

Not trying to start a fight, just a news/politics junkie

Leonard by William Shatner, with David Fisher

I liked Nimoy ...

Pandemic by Sonia Shah

I might not have the stomach to learn about how cholera spread ...

The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan

Title alone, fact it releases in March, possible bday gift

All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister

Sounds interesting; about the culture and impact of single ladies; immediately song pops in my head

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Interesting to me; possibly a gift for a friend too

The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter

I kinda love the social justice warriors who made progress in society

Heads by Jesse Jarnow

I've always wondered how we got from 50s to 60s; such vastly different decades

Girls & Sex by Peggy Orenstein

I could make a hardee har har joke, but I'm genuinely interested in how lives have been changed by hypersexualized media

The Gunning of America by Pamela Haag

Very interested in how modern interpretations of 2nd Amendment came to be

67 Shots by Howard Means

About the campus shooting of hippie protestors during 'Nam

Why Save the Bankers? by Thomas Piketty

I really want to seek out more financial books to better understand both my personal finances and what causes national economies to succeed or collapse

CRUSH edited by Cathy Alter and Dave Singleton

Endearingly silly premise; celebrity crushes; might be worth a library checkout

We Are As Gods by Kate Daloz

About the people who well ALL naturale to get away during Vietnam

The Midnight Assassin by Skip Hollandsworth

Like any good American, serial killers interest me

Kill ‘Em and Leave by James McBride: A biography of James Brown

Lots of dichotomies and conflict

Pretentiousness by Dan Fox

Interesting argument that we NEED pretension to have certain art

Violation by Sallie Tisdale

A Buddhist woman who’s written about porn,” one critic has said of Tisdale. “Do you really need another reason to read her?”

I mean ... I'm sold

Labor of Love by Moira Weigel:

Dating is unpaid labor? Yes. Yes it is. Except that I'm paying.

Unforbidden Pleasures by Adam Phillips

Does forbidding something reallu make it more enjoyable? Interesting question

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Hinton

Extremely interesting

You May Also Like by Tom Vanderbilt

I'm getting a bit tired of academia refusing to let go of the "wow" factor of social media, but sometimes research on it is interesting

The Apache Wars by Paul Andrew Hutton

I should know more NA history than I do.

Oneida by Ellen Wayland-Smith

Super devout sex-cult ... huh

The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner

Title sells it

Battle for Bed-Stuy by Michael Woodsworth

Another Johnson-era non-fiction

 

So ... I'm interested in pretty much ALL the nonfiction. I've become a news and politics junkie, so that has a lot to do with it.

 

Anyway, without this list I'd have no idea what's coming out and it only goes to June really ... what books are you anticipating in '16?