March 14, 2010
Between the sunny skies, mild temps and extra hour of daylight today, it’s hard not to have Spring Fever in Central Vermont right now. Among booksellers, Spring Fever manifests itself in looking forward to the new book releases. There’s a number of books that are getting a lot of buzz both here at Bear Pond and among others in the book selling community we chat with. Here’s a sampling of some of the books coming out this spring that book sellers are excited about:
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson out now
At a meeting for Vermont and New Hampshire book sellers I attended last week, this was the book everyone had just read and loved. A British novel in the style of P.G. Wodehouse, this tells the story of Major Pettigrew, a proper English gentleman living out his retirement years in the village of Edgecombe St. Mary. Deeply bound to tradition, Major Pettigrew finds his life moving in unexpected, and sometimes hilarious, directions after the death of his brother and his new friendship with the village shop owner, a Pakistani woman named Mrs. Ali. For fans of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (but funnier).
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson, May 25th
Part three in the “Girl Who” trilogy, you don’t have to be a book industry insider to know that the next and last Lisbeth Salander novel is anxiously awaited. This one picks right where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off – Salander is under arrest and hospitalized. Only she knows who’s really to blame for the crimes she’s been accused of. What feats will she pull off to prove her innocence?
The Passage by Justin Cronin June 8th
This book came to my attention when it started popping up with 5 stars on all my book seller friend’s GoodReads pages and Stephen King gave it a glowing review calling it a novel of “tremendous imagination”. Set in the near future in a dystopian New Orleans this a novel I promise you’ll be hearing more about.
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes March 23rd
This 600 plus page novel is being called the ultimate Vietnam War novel with comparisons to Tim O’Brien. It is a raw (sometimes extremely so) and compelling story of young Marines dropped into the mountain jungles of Vietnam who fight not only the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain, mud, leeches, tigers, disease and malnutrition to find themselves forever changed.
The Lonely Polygamist by Barry Udall May 1st
I’ll willing add to the hype that the publisher and other book seller’s having been whipping up about this new novel by the author of The Secret Life of Edgar Mint. This is the story of Golden Richards, his many wives, many, many more children and the mid-life crisis that is throwing them all into a tailspin. This book is funny, engaging and filled with unforgettable characters who may be polygamists but are just like the rest of us when it comes to love and belonging.






























