May 29-31, 2019
Javits Center, NYC
Check out the Buzz selections!
Adult Selections
How We Fight for Our Lives
Saeed Jones
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: October 8, 2019
“People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’ ”
Haunted and haunting, Jones’s memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.
Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one of a kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
My Dark Vanessa
Kate Elizabeth Russell
William Morrow
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
A brilliant, all-consuming read that explores the psychological dynamics of an emotional and sexual relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher—and the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.
Amid the rising wave of sexual assault allegations against powerful men in 2017, thirty-two-year-old Vanessa Wye learns of one that involves her intimately: her high school English teacher Jacob Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.
The scandal brings back memories of her past and the idyllic campus of the exclusive boarding school she attended in Maine. A scholarship student, serious, lonely, and yearning for adulthood, Vanessa was both baffled and enthralled when Strane singled her out for his attention. Here was a man three times her age who recognized and praised her intellect, writing talent, and beauty—and, at fifteen-years-old, she fell into a fiery and life-defining affair with him.
Now, nearly two decades later, another woman has shone a spotlight on Strane, and Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenaged self willingly engaged in the relationship or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? How can she accept that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may have seduced and abused other girls?
Alternating between Vanessa’s present and the time of the affair and its aftermath, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. A masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and the far-reaching effects of abuse, this thought-provoking, impossible to put down literary debut raises vital questions about agency, power, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is a powerful and timely novel that brilliantly captures and reflects this current cultural moment and the shifting mores transforming our relationships and society itself.
The Secrets We Kept
Lara Prescott
Alfred A. Knopf
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
In Moscow, Olga Ivinskaya is arrested. She is the muse of Boris Pasternak, the Soviet Union’s most famous living writer. The State is aware that Pasternak is working on a novel, titled Doctor Zhivago, that criticizes the October Revolution, and seeking to acquire intel and pressure the author, sends his lover to the Gulag.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the newly formed CIA has begun smuggling books banned by the USSR back into the Motherland; to show Soviet citizens how their government is keeping great literature from them, and how true freedom can only thrive within a democracy.
After three years in the labor camps, Olga is reunited with Boris. He finishes the novel, only to see it banned by the State. As the couple battles increasing persecution by their government, the CIA establishes a mission to acquire the manuscript, covertly print it, and smuggle it back behind the Iron Curtain.
The Agency enlists former OSS agent Sally Forrester to vet and mentor a new member of their typing pool, Irina Drozdova, in the art of carrying and delivering intelligence, so that she may slip Doctor Zhivago to Soviet citizens during an upcoming World’s Fair.
The story unfolds around the Soviet State’s persecution of Boris and Olga, the growing relationship between Sally and Irina, and the CIA’s clandestine Zhivago mission. And it follows Pasternak’s masterpiece as it travels around the world. This is an intricate and timely story of political and social persecution and the war of words between the US and the USSR.
It explores themes of sexism, sexuality, secrecy, and how people change over time.
Such a Fun Age
Kiley Reid
Putnam Books/Penguin Random House
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
Uncanny Valley
Anna Wiener
MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: January 14, 2020
The Warehouse: A Novel
Rob Hart
Crown
Publication Date: August 20, 2019
Cloud isn't just an online storefront. It's changing the world. The company's massive warehouses keep millions of Americans employed, and its green-energy initiatives are turning back the clock on catastrophic climate change.
Best of all, the company's live-work facilities are models for a new, environmentally sustainable way of living. Powered by Cloud's solar farms, these MotherClouds are crime-free, climate-controlled utopias, where workers live minutes from their jobs, not hours, their every need anticipated by Cloud's high-tech facilities.
Or at least, that's the pitch. Cloud's latest two employees--security guard Paxton and stock-picker Zinnia--are learning that life in the Cloud isn't quite as wonderful as it's made out to be. Twenty-four/seven monitoring. Mandatory overtime. The employee star system and the horrors of cut day. Navigating Cloud's massive warehouse, meeting ruthless quotas. But still--it's better than going back outside, right? And at least they've found each other.
Except that Zinnia is not what she seems. She's a corporate spy, infiltrating Cloud on a mission that could bring the company to its knees. And Paxton, with his all-access security credentials? He's her meal ticket.
When Cloud's ailing founder arrives at the MotherCloud on his farewell tour, Zinnia is forced into a desperate scheme that risks Paxton's life, even as it leads her to the horrifying truths at the center of the Cloud.
Young Adult Selections
Frankly in Love
David Yoon
Penguin Young Readers
Publication Date: September 10, 2019
The Grace Year
Kim Liggett
Wednesday Books
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.
Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for their chance to grab one of the girls in order to make their fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.
The Last True Poets of the Sea
Julia Drake
Hyperion
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
Following her brother’s hospitalization, sixteen-year-old Violet Larkin is exiled for the summer to her uncle’s house in Lyric, Maine—the same town her great-great-great grandmother founded many years ago after surviving a shipwreck. Wracked with guilt over her apparent inability to be a supportive sister (and over her recent history of personal misdeeds), Violet shaves her head and tries to lose herself in her summer job: scrubbing tanks at the local aquarium.
There, Violet meets Orion Lewis, an ace trumpeter and burgeoning boat builder, and his friend Liv Stone, an amateur wreck hunter with a particular interest in Violet’s ancestors. Together, they embark on a mission to uncover the wreck of the Lyric, the sunken ship that first brought Violet’s family to this town. But if Violet is going to uncover the true history of her family, she’s going to have to first be willing to rewrite her own story and redefine her relationship to her friends, her family, her past, her future—and most important of all, herself.
Inspired loosely by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and narrated in Violet’s wry voice, THE LAST TRUE POETS OF THE SEA will appeal to fans of Jandy Nelson and Jesse Andrews.
The Revolution of Birdie Randolph
Brandy Colbert
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 20, 2019
Dove "Birdie" Randolph works hard to be the perfect daughter and follow the path her parents have laid out for her: She quit playing her beloved soccer, she keeps her nose buried in textbooks, and she's on track to finish high school at the top of her class. But then Birdie falls hard for Booker, a sweet boy with a troubled past...whom she knows her parents will never approve of.
When her estranged aunt Carlene returns to Chicago and moves into the family's apartment above their hair salon, Birdie notices the tension building at home. Carlene is sweet, friendly, and open-minded--she's also spent decades in and out of treatment facilities for addiction. As Birdie becomes closer to both Booker and Carlene, she yearns to spread her wings. But when long-buried secrets rise to the surface, everything she's known to be true is turned upside down.
Scars Like Wings
Erin Stewart
Delacorte Press
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
Before, I was a million things. Now I'm only one. The Burned Girl.
Ava Lee has lost everything there is to lose: Her parents. Her best friend. Her home. Even her face. She doesn't need a mirror to know what she looks like--she can see her reflection in the eyes of everyone around her.
A year after the fire that destroyed her world, her aunt and uncle have decided she should go back to high school. Be "normal" again. Whatever that is. Ava knows better. There is no normal for someone like her. And forget making friends--no one wants to be seen with the Burned Girl, now or ever.
But when Ava meets a fellow survivor named Piper, she begins to feel like maybe she doesn't have to face the nightmare alone. Sarcastic and blunt, Piper isn't afraid to push Ava out of her comfort zone. Piper introduces Ava to Asad, a boy who loves theater just as much as she does, and slowly, Ava tries to create a life again. Yet Piper is fighting her own battle, and soon Ava must decide if she's going to fade back into her scars . . . or let the people by her side help her fly.
"A heartfelt and unflinching look at the reality of being a burn survivor and at the scars we all carry. This book is for everyone, burned or not, who has ever searched for a light in the darkness." --Stephanie Nielson, New York Times bestselling author of Heaven Is Here and a burn survivor
Middle Grade Selections
Free Lunch
Rex Ogle
Norton Young Readers
Publication Date: September 10, 2019
Jinxed
Amy McCulloch
Sourcebooks Young Readers
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
Then, one night, Lacey comes across the remains of an advanced baku. Once it might’ve been in the shape of a cat but it’s now mangled and broken, no sign of electronic life behind its eyes. Days of work later and the baku opens its eyes. Lacey calls him Jinx – and Jinx opens up a world for her that she never even knew existed, including entry to the hallowed halls of Profecus. Slowly but surely, Jinx becomes more than just a baku to Lacey – he becomes her perfect companion. But what is Jinx, really? His abilities far surpass anything written into his code or built into his motherboard. He seems to be more than just a robotic pet. He seems ... real.
My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich
Ibi Zoboi
Penguin Young Readers
Publication Date: August 27, 2019
Pavi Sharma’s Guide to Going Home
Bridget Farr
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
Twelve-year-old Pavi Sharma is an expert at the Front Door Face: the perfect mix of puppy dog eyes and a lemonade smile, the exact combination to put foster parents at ease as they open their front door to welcome you in. After being bounced around between foster families and shelter stays, Pavi is a foster care expert, and she runs a “business” teaching other foster kids all she has learned. With a wonderful foster family in mom Marjorie and brother Hamilton, things are looking up for Pavi.
Then Pavi meets Meridee: a new five-year-old foster kid, who is getting placed at Pavi’s first horrendous foster home. Pavi knows no one will trust a kid about what happened on Lovely Lane, even one as mature as she is, so it’s up to her to save Meridee.
With help from Hamilton, brooding eighth grader Santos, and Hamilton’s somewhat obnoxious BFF Piper, they set off on an important mission with life-changing stakes. Pavi will stop at nothing to keep Meridee from the home that still haunts her nightmares.
Weird Little Robots
Carolyn Crimi
Candlewick Press
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
Candlewick has bought world rights to Carolyn Crimi's debut middle grade novel, Weird Little Robots, illustrated by Corinna Luyken. In a new town with only the robots she creates for company, it only takes a little bit of magic to change everything for nine-year-old Penny Rose. Publication is set for spring 2019.
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