Thank you to Publishers Lunch BUZZ BOOKS and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of Buzz Books 2024: Fall/Winter edition. I enjoyed getting a sneak peek at the upcoming books.

An excellent selection of upcoming book previews. Most of the excerpts are at least fifteen pages, which gives the reader a great idea of what to expect. My TBR is packed!

As always, a fascinating preview of new books coming out in the fall and winter. My only regret is that excerpts are not provided for all of the titles.

Buzz Books 2024: Fall/Winter" offers a sneak peek into nearly fifty upcoming releases, and while it does include some exciting titles from well-known and debut authors, it feels overwhelming. The excerpts are too short to get a real sense of the books, making it hard to form a solid impression. I appreciated the diversity and inclusion of different genres, but the sheer volume made it difficult to focus on any one book. The nonfiction section stands out for addressing important topics, but overall, I found the collection a bit lacking in depth. Despite these issues, it's a handy guide for those looking to keep up with new releases.

I love having a digest to see what's buzzworthy for later in the year! I particularly enjoyed seeing the excerpts for Entitlement and Sky Full of Elephants.

Fantastic resource for us readers. Only negative is that my endless TBR list has again grown...ahh the pitfalls of being a bibliophile.
Thank you Netgalley for this resource.

As an avid reader and indie bookseller this is a great source for what's to come! It's key to be aware of new publications and it feels impossible to keep up at times, so this is super helpful!

Loved this! It led me to books I would typically overlook, and it got me really excited for some of my favorite authors!

I'm an avid reader and this was great to look at new buzz books of 2024 Fall/Winter! There are some very interesting books in here that helped me start to make my future reading list.

This has such a great variety of excerpts of upcoming releases! Nonfiction, biography, all different genres of fiction, YA, and even a graphic novel Something for almost everyone here!

There are some of my favorite authors: Juhea Kim, Victoria Christopher Murray, and Fiona Davis; as well as debut authors; and some who have published before but I just hadn't read previously. I have really enjoyed getting a sneak peak at what will be published later this year, and being able to add them to my TBR and request the ARCs.

Thank you to NetGalley and to all these publishers for providing this fantastic sampler of upcoming books!

Thank you again for the sneak peek to help make book ordering easier. This are always helpful in our process.

5★
“All anyone cares about are the Children, Libby thinks, grabbing a roll of packing tape. She seals the box until it shines. She is insignificant.”

Well, they’ll be sorry! If they don't care about Libby, those children will remain forever lost in the woods. Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth is one of the debut books I think looks interesting in this big omnibus of previews.

Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth Libby

Libby is a popular children’s author the way J.K. Rowling was an outrageously popular children’s author during the Harry Potter craze. But readers were more than. Parents, siblings, grandparents friends, and teachers were all reading this series at the same time, often waiting impatiently for their turn.

Here, we have Libby Weeks.

The publisher’s blurb:

“Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-best-selling fantasy series, 'The Falling Children'. When the last manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Already suffering from crippling anxiety, Libby’s symptoms quickly accelerate, and she has to admit she needs help finishing the latest book. Desperately, she turns to eleven-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the books even better than Libby does. Tensions mount as Libby’s dementia deepens—until both Peanut and Libby swirl into an inevitable but bone-shocking conclusion.”

The excerpt is quite long and includes several pages of Libby’s current manuscript for the latest in the series of The Fallen Children. Her situation is exacerbated by the absence of any family or friends in her life to help. She lives completely through her stories and considers these “falling” children to be hers.

How can she leave them stranded, stuck in the forest? Fans are waiting – sending bribes to an anonymous address, urging the author to write faster. What will happen to her real-life dog if he has to go to a shelter when she deteriorates from this rapid Alzheimer’s condition?

I skimmed the Falling Children pages because it’s Libby’s own predicament that intrigues me.
==============
Brightly Shining by Ingvild H. Rishøi

Another that looks nice is Brightly Shining by Norwegian Ingvild H. Rishøi. It is not a debut, as she is already a published author, but this one has been translated. Her bio:

“Ingvild Rishøi was born and raised in Oslo. She has published several collections of stories in Norway, and her debut novel, originally titled Stargate, was published in Norway in 2021. She is one of Norway’s most revered literary voices. Caroline Waight is a literary translator working from Danish, German, and Norwegian. She has been a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.”

I enjoyed it. Here’s the blurb:

“Beautifully told with humor and tenderness, a Norwegian Christmas tale of sisterhood and financial struggles, far-off dreams and tough reality, acclaimed by reviewers and beloved by readers across Europe, where it has been a major bestseller.”

Two young sister are being raised by their father who lives pretty much hand-to-mouth doing whatever jobs are around (that he wants to do). I enjoyed the tone of the older sister, who tells the story, and the warmth and imagination between the sisters.

The older girl spots a flyer for a Christmas tree seller, and she’s so keen that her father get the job, she takes all of the flyers so nobody else will see it. Father sounds dubious, declaring it a job for country bumpkins, but she convinces him it’s better than nothing, which is what he has now.

“ ‘Maybe we can have a Christmas tree this year, then,’ I said.

‘What?’ said Dad.

‘If you’re a Christmas tree seller,’ I said. ‘Then can we have a Christmas tree?’

‘Of course,’ said Dad, turning to face me. ‘My Robber’s Daughter. You reckon employees get a discount?’

‘Yeah, definitely,’ I said.

‘Or even a free tree, maybe?’ Dad said, and I nodded, because I did think so.

‘My Robber’s Daughter,’ Dad liked to call me. ‘You are my Robber’s Daughter and my Treasure Chest and my Rainy-Day Fund.’

He liked to call us Star and Moon and Macaroni and Caramel. He called us Ronja the Robber’s Daughter and Melissa Moonlight, he walked in through the door and said, ‘Where’s my Robber’s Daughter and my Moonlight?’

‘Here,’ we’d say. ‘We’re just sitting here eating Frosties.’ ”

I got the impression that ‘Frosties’ were probably their staple diet, and they could use a little luck and a bit of income.
==========================

Penitence A Novel by Kristin M.E. Koval

Another debut that caught my eye is Penitence: A Novel by Kristin M.E. Koval, a former lawyer. Her story opens with a thirteen-year-old girl sitting in a Colorado jail, thin and cold.

“She doesn’t look like the sort of girl who just shot her brother.

The two cops in the adjoining room, arguing about what to do next, don’t stop to think about whether or not Nora is cold. Lodgepole, a three-hour drive from the nearest small city, is not equipped to handle a murder or a murderer, and not equipped for a thirteen-year-old criminal of any kind. The older cop is thinking of his fourteen-year-old daughter, sleeping at home under a polka-dotted comforter, and her upcoming ‘quinceañera’, when she thinks she’ll become a woman. The younger cop is thinking of how quickly the life drained out of the three holes in the dead boy, how quickly a human body pales without its blood. Both wring their hands, at times squeezing so hard their fingertips blanch. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in their town. It only happens on the news. It can’t be real.”

In addition to the excerpts are long lists of the books readers and the industry are looking forward to in the coming months. If you like being up to date with what’s on the bookselling radar, get a free copy of the Buzz Books when they come out and have a look at the lists.

Thanks to #NetGalley for my copy, but you can download them from the PublishersLunch at Publishers Marketplace. There are three editions at the moment, one of which is all Romance.
https://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/

I always love getting a sneak preview of upcoming books in these collections. I actually didn't have any of these books on my radar yet but there are several that look interesting!

Always a favorite. I use Buzz Books to check out the up and coming novels for our book clubs. I always find a least 1 debut novel that other organizers didn't know about.

I love reading the Buzz Books reviews seasonally. There is a good variety of books featured. Reading this collection of excerpts allows me to sample the various books and know which ones I would like to request ARCs for or purchase.

I didn’t find this particular version to be as helpful as I have in the past. It was mostly literary fiction which I do read from time to time, but I am primarily a fantasy, romance, and horror reader, so I was not able to find as many things I was interested in within this issue as I have with past issues.

Always love these as a great preview into what is coming out for the next season. A couple of authors I have read and more that I haven't. Great opportunity to give them a try.

Thank you for this opportunity to sample some authors that I haven't read before and to find some new titles to devour. Love these samplers and feel privileged to get a "sneak peek!"

Very help list and I appreciate being able to see what's on the horizon for the rest of the year! Thanks for putting this together.

Buzz Books are something I always look forward to reading. I love that you get a preview of books to come and by default are introduced to new authors. Some have become my favorites.