If you don’t need a break from all the politics by now, you really haven’t been paying attention. Now is your chance to duck and cover with a good spring and summer read.
Here are a few notable titles, fiction and nonfiction, that are on their way over the next few months:
FICTION
America America, by Ethan Canin, $27. The story of Corey Sifter, the young son of working-class parents. He’s befriended by the powerful Metarey family. He becomes an aide to a New York senator who decides to run for president. After a crime is committed, Corey struggles with issues of morality, politics, love and loyalty. (June)
Blood Colony, by Tananarive Due, $25. A small but powerful underground of immortals is pushing its blood on the public. The good news is that the blood is a vital incredient of Glow, a new drug on the street that is slowly wiping out the AIDS epidemic around the world. (June)
City of Thieves, by David Benioff, $24.95. From the author of “The 25th Hour” comes a story of two young men who do all they have to to survive against desperate odds in a Europe torn apart by World War II. (May)
A Dangerous Age, by Ellen Gilchrist, $23.95. The National Book Award-winning author’s first novel in more than a decade tells the story of three cousins in a Southern dynasty who are no strangers to contoversy and sadness. (May)
The Front, by Patricia Cornwell, $22.95. The characters from Cornwell’s “At Risk” return in a story where falsehoods rule the day. (May)
The Hakawati, by Rabih Alameddine, $25.95. In something of an Arabian Nights for the 21st century, Alameddine tells the story of Osama al- Kharrat, who returns to Beirut after years in the U.S. to spend time with his ailing father. He finds solace in those things that have always soothed him — gossip, laughter and most of all, stories. (April)
Hold Tight, by Harlan Coben, $26.95. The master of suspense returns with the story of parents who are forced to spy on their own child for his own good. (April)
Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child, $27. Buckle up for another adrenaline-laced Jack Reacher novel. This time our solitary hero is taking on an entire town — on the Eastern Plains of Colorado, no less. (June)
The Other, by David Guterson, $24.95. In Guterson’s (“Snow Falling on Cedars”) latest, John William Barry has the inherited wealth of two of Seattle’s elite families. Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. The two strike up a lifelong relationship that leads to secrets and tragedy. (June)
People of the Whale, by Linda Hogan, $24.5. The CU-Boulder English professor’s latest is centered on Thomas Witka, whose decision to fight in Vietnam changes his life forever. When he returns home, he finds his tribe in turmoil over the decision to hunt a whale. (Aug.)
Pelican Road, by Howard Bahr, $25. After the dark yet elegant “Judas Field,” Bahr is back with a story about the people who worked on the railroad in the early ’40s, the men and women in the depots and freight houses, as well as those on the trains. (May)
The Reapers, by John Connolly, $26. In his most recent thriller, Connolly tells the story of a group of elite killers. Charlie Parker, one of the Reapers, is about get his comeuppance. Someone is hunting him, someone with a personal vendetta against him. (June)
The Size of the World, by Joan Silber, $23.95. Set in wartime Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico and Sicily, Silber, who won the National book Award for “Ideas of Heaven,” tells the stories of travelers, colonials, immigrants and returned expatriates. (June)
Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian, $25. Here is the fictional story of a group of people who set out in 1945 on a long journey across the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine, in order to reach American and British lines. (May)
So Brave, Young, and Handsome, by Leif Enger, $24. Enger’s (“Peace Like a River”) latest is the story of an aging train robber who is on a quest to make amends for the mistakes in his life. (May)
The Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst, $25. Nobody does World War II intrigue better than Furst. In his newest outing, Furst tells us a story of spies for France and Germany in Warsaw in 1937. In a first for Furst, one of them finds himself in a passionate love affair. (June)
Swan Peak, by James Lee Burke, $26. Another of Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels. In this one, Dave heads away from his Louisiana home to Montana . (July)
NONFICTION
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris, $25.99. In a new collection of essays, the humorist transforms everyday life into entertaining insights. (June)
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon, by Steven Rinella, $24.95. By telling the story of his own bison hunt, Rinella puts togther a history of the way in which the animal has shaped American national identity. (July)
Eight Lives Down: The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Job in the World’s Most Dangerous Place, by Chris Hunter, $26. Here is a first-person account of the day-by-day details of what it’s like to identify and dispose of bombs in Iraq. (April)
Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, by Fred Burton, $26. Burton exposes the shadowy world of counterterrorism. (July)
Green Is the New Red, White, and Blue, by Thomas L. Friedman, $24. The New York Times columnist takes on the issues of climate change and energy, problems that could get out of hand if we don’t act quickly. (Aug.)
Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East, by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, $27.95. Here is the story of the modern Middle East as told through the eyes of the Britons and Americans who made it what it is, people like Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell and Miles Copeland and Paul Wolfowitz. (June)
Not Just the Levees Broke: Living Through Hurricane Katrina, by Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, $20. LeBlanc was featured in Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke.” Now LeBlanc offers her account of the harrowing days in the 9th Ward before, during and after the hurricane devastated the city. (Aug.)
Panic in Level 4: Tales of Intrigue From the World of Science, by Richard Preston, $26. In this collection of essays, the author of “The Hot Zone” takes readers into military laboratories, hospitals and jungles to see the unimaginable. (May)
This Land Is Their Land: Reports From a Divided Nation, by Barbara Ehrenreich, $24. Ehrenreich (“Nickle and Dimed,” “Dancing in the Streets”) turns her attention to the “oughts” to take a satirical look at what the current decade has offered us. (June)
Books editor Tom Walker: 303-954-1624 or twalker@denverpost.com
