This fall, the largest number of new titles by brand-name authors in recent memory is hitting bookstores, and the publishing world is asking itself an unusual question: Can there be too many good books?
As Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Lunch, a book industry Web site, put it, “there’s a legitimate question whether this is too much at once, whether the market can handle it. There are just so many of them.”
The situation has publishers trying novel marketing and publicity strategies as they struggle to get attention for their authors. There are new books from best-selling “blockbuster” types such as John Grisham, making his first foray into nonfiction; John Le Carre; Stephen King; Michael Crichton; Robert Ludlum; James Patterson; Dean Koontz; Michael Connelly; Tess Gerritsen; David Baldacci; and Danielle Steel, all of whom rarely, if ever, publish a dud. In literary fiction, there are new novels from Margaret Atwood; Cormac McCarthy; Isabel Allende; Richard Ford; Mary Gordon; and Charles Frazier, his first since “Cold Mountain” 10 years ago. There is Alice Munro’s latest short story collection, and the last installment of the “Series of Unfortunate Events” children’s books by Lemony Snicket. There is a new nonfiction title from Michael Lewis, along with the second volume of Gore Vidal’s memoirs and eagerly awaited new books from icons who publish very infrequently, such as Thomas Pynchon, “Silence of the Lambs” author Thomas Harris, and Joseph Wambaugh, who has his first LAPD novel since 1983. There is hot-potato political nonfiction from Bob Woodward, Frank Rich, Bill O’Reilly, Andrew Sullivan, John Ashcroft, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and a biography of Colin Powell.
All will be filling bookstores between now and Thanksgiving, in what is traditionally publishing’s heaviest season. “It’s raised the bar for everyone in the business, at the most crucial time of the year,” said Sandi Mendelson, a veteran book publicist in New York.
Some observers, such as Jerome Kramer, editor-in-chief of Kirkus Reviews, said that it might have made more sense to hold some titles back. “Publishing is caught up in the blockbuster mentality, and there was a clear pattern this year of saving everything up for the holiday season,” Kramer said. But few houses have the luxury of delaying the release of a product for nine months, as Sony Pictures did with “All the King’s Men.”
For booksellers and readers, however, the new season is something to savor. At Vroman’s Books in Pasadena, Calif., general manager Allison Hill was upbeat. “There’s no down side to a plethora of good books,” she said. “Not for sellers, for customers, or anyone.”
Here are some of the bigger titles recently released or set to be published this fall:
September
“Moral Disorder: And Other Stories” by Margaret Atwood
The author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Blind Assassin” offers a vibrant book of linked stories, her first collection in 15 years. With her characteristic precision, Atwood renders a powerful portrait of a family’s pain and domestic turmoil.
October
“State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III” by Bob Woodward
Woodward’s latest glimpse inside the Bush White House depicts administration officials incapable of working together and in disarray over the war in Iraq. Woodward’s trademark use of telling anecdotes is here in abundance, as it was in his previous books on the Bush administration since Sept. 11, “Plan of Attack” and “Bush at War.”
“Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell” by Karen DeYoung
A comprehensive portrait of the son of Jamaican immigrants who rose to become Joint Chiefs of Staff chair and then Secretary of State in the first George W. Bush administration. The book also includes Powell’s struggle with the idea of running for president in 2000 as well as the strains of making the case for war with Iraq.
“The Innocent Man” by John Grisham
Grisham’s first nonfiction book explores accusations of murder and rape in an Oklahoma town and questions the convictions of two men, one a former major league ballplayer, arguing that these were based on junk science and dubious jailhouse witnesses.
“The Lay of the Land” by Richard Ford
In this, the third volume of the Sportswriter trilogy, Frank Bascombe has reached his mid-50s, the so-called “Permanent Period” of his life. But what does this mean, Ford’s novel asks, and what does Frank do now? Taking place over Thanksgiving week 2000, the novel brings Frank full circle, as he navigates the deep, still waters of middle-class American life.
“A Series of Unfortunate Events No. 13: The End” by Lemony Snicket
In the finale to the series, the Baudelaire children are stranded on a desert isle that’s beautiful and peaceful – until the arrival of the relentless Count Olaf. The friendly island natives are led by a man with a mysterious book containing secrets about the children’s parents, who died in a fire in the series’ first book.
November
“Against the Day” by Thomas Pynchon
Pynchon’s first novel in nine years begins with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, but to call it a historical fiction is to miss the point. Rather, it’s a kaleidoscopic view of humanity at the crossroads, moving from Chicago to Siberia to the Hollywood of the silent age, and interweaving historical figures as diverse as Nikola Tesla and Groucho Marx.
“Lisey’s Story” by Stephen King
This one is a departure by King – a book about the widow of a writer, and the process by which she comes to terms with her husband’s loss. Of course, no King novel would be complete without a touch of horror, but the real subject here is the transformative, and lasting, power of love.
“Ines of My Soul: A Novel” by Isabel Allende
A sweeping historical novel of the founding of Chile. A young wife travels to the New World in the 16th century to look for her missing husband and finds love instead with a soldier intent on building a utopian society amid the harsh conditions of colonial life.
December
“Hannibal Rising: A Novel” by Thomas Harris
This novel recounts the origins of that brilliant murderer with a taste for human flesh, Hannibal Lecter of “Silence of the Lambs.” A tormented orphan on the Eastern Front, Lecter is taken to France and raised by his uncle, a painter, and his exotic wife. There, his interests in food and art – and cruelty – are indulged.
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