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Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer
Buzz Books 2021 presents passionate readers with an insider’s look at the buzziest books due out this spring season. Such major bestselling authors as Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Lisa Scottoline, and Tia Williams are featured, along with literary greats Leila Slimani and Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize-winner. Other sure-to-be popular titles are by Julie Murphy, of Dumplin’ fame, with her first adult novel; Marie Benedict’s book about J.P Morgan’s personal librarian; and Flynn Berry’s thriller about two sisters and the IRA. At the end of most excerpts, you will find a link to the full galley on NetGalley!
Buzz Books has had a particularly stellar track record with highlighting the most talented, exciting debut authors, and this edition is no exception. Amanda Dennis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Carolyn Ferrell, Gabriela Garcia, are among the literary standouts, while Emma Stonex’s The Lamplighters, inspired by a true story, has already been optioned for film.
Our nonfiction selections include two World War II stories, one by Boys in the Boat author Daniel James Brown and a second by Mari K. Elder. Jennifer Gunter, M.D. of The Vagina Bible renown, returns with her Menopause Manifesto. Kat Chow, Erin French, and Danielle Henderson have written three very different memoirs, about a Chinese family, a restaurateur, and an unconventional Black childhood, respectively.
Finally, we present early looks at new work from up-and-coming young adult authors: Safia Elhillo (Home Is Not A Country), Graci Kim (The Last Fallen Star), and Alexandrea Weis (Have You Seen Me?).
Be sure to look out for Buzz Books 2021: Fall/Winter, coming in May.
Buzz Books has had a particularly stellar track record with highlighting the most talented, exciting debut authors, and this edition is no exception. Amanda Dennis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Carolyn Ferrell, Gabriela Garcia, are among the literary standouts, while Emma Stonex’s The Lamplighters, inspired by a true story, has already been optioned for film.
Our nonfiction selections include two World War II stories, one by Boys in the Boat author Daniel James Brown and a second by Mari K. Elder. Jennifer Gunter, M.D. of The Vagina Bible renown, returns with her Menopause Manifesto. Kat Chow, Erin French, and Danielle Henderson have written three very different memoirs, about a Chinese family, a restaurateur, and an unconventional Black childhood, respectively.
Finally, we present early looks at new work from up-and-coming young adult authors: Safia Elhillo (Home Is Not A Country), Graci Kim (The Last Fallen Star), and Alexandrea Weis (Have You Seen Me?).
Be sure to look out for Buzz Books 2021: Fall/Winter, coming in May.
- GenresFiction
742 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 19, 2021
4 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
January 25, 2021
How can I not love another way to find MORE books that I want to read. This is my go to book when I'm waiting somewhere but feel like reading a novel would be too distracting. It's a great way to window shop for upcoming books. Thanks to Publishers Lunch BUZZ BOOKS and NetGalley for this ARC.
January 31, 2021
Compendium
As a NetGalley addict, I have this unrelenting temptation to keep requesting books to a point of overwhelming odds against ever reading them. The problem is that after requesting one, you will invariably find another that sounds even better or from an author that you just can’t pass on. So this compendium offers an overview of publications coming over the next 6 months and I can pretend to be in control of my unforgiving and monumental TBR list.
Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer includes a comprehensive list of coming releases, that are divided into:
The bulk of the book includes excerpts from selected books including authors such as Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Committed), Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray (The Personal Librarian), Leila Slimani (In the Country of Others), Kaitlyn Greenbridge (Libertie) and Tia Williams (Seven days in June). I’ll give a special shout out for Flynn Berry’s novel Northern Spy based in Northern Ireland. Notably, excerpts are NOT provided for Kazuo Ishiguro, Edward St. Aubyn and Haruki Murakami. The commercial fiction list contains household names such as James Patterson, David Baldacci, Harlan Coben, B.A. Paris, and Clive Cussler, while the considerable list of debut authors coming our way, illustrates just how creative and exciting a time it is for writers everywhere. In total, 17 samples are included for Fiction, 15 for Debut, 9 for Nonfiction and 3 for Young Adult. NetGalley is in an excellent position to assess and promote books to be published with leading publishers and this is a very interesting resource to review for planning your ARCs. Think of it as stopping in a book shop and doing a bit of taster reading, the only drawback being, you can’t smell the books.
This is a useful reference and worth getting your hands on. Some gems to look forward to and some exciting possibilities. Many thanks to Publishers Lunch and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.
As a NetGalley addict, I have this unrelenting temptation to keep requesting books to a point of overwhelming odds against ever reading them. The problem is that after requesting one, you will invariably find another that sounds even better or from an author that you just can’t pass on. So this compendium offers an overview of publications coming over the next 6 months and I can pretend to be in control of my unforgiving and monumental TBR list.
Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer includes a comprehensive list of coming releases, that are divided into:
Fiction – The Notables, Highly Anticipated, and Emerging Voiceswith each entry giving Title, Author, Publisher and Release Date.
Debut
Commercial Fiction
Nonfiction – Biography & Memoir, Business, Politics and Current Events, Essays, Criticism and More, History & Crime, Science & Technology, and Social Issues
The bulk of the book includes excerpts from selected books including authors such as Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Committed), Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray (The Personal Librarian), Leila Slimani (In the Country of Others), Kaitlyn Greenbridge (Libertie) and Tia Williams (Seven days in June). I’ll give a special shout out for Flynn Berry’s novel Northern Spy based in Northern Ireland. Notably, excerpts are NOT provided for Kazuo Ishiguro, Edward St. Aubyn and Haruki Murakami. The commercial fiction list contains household names such as James Patterson, David Baldacci, Harlan Coben, B.A. Paris, and Clive Cussler, while the considerable list of debut authors coming our way, illustrates just how creative and exciting a time it is for writers everywhere. In total, 17 samples are included for Fiction, 15 for Debut, 9 for Nonfiction and 3 for Young Adult. NetGalley is in an excellent position to assess and promote books to be published with leading publishers and this is a very interesting resource to review for planning your ARCs. Think of it as stopping in a book shop and doing a bit of taster reading, the only drawback being, you can’t smell the books.
This is a useful reference and worth getting your hands on. Some gems to look forward to and some exciting possibilities. Many thanks to Publishers Lunch and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.
February 1, 2021
5★
“You can’t tell from the outside, but the IRA has this city under its thumb. They run security rackets. Every building site has to pay them protection money, and all the restaurants in west Belfast have doormen.
. . .
MI5 comes here to test new methods, to build capacity, to prepare its agents for their real fight, which is against international terror groups. We’re only their training ground.”
from Northern Spy
Oh, there are some good ones here! As always, there’s something for almost everybody. Each entry, whether from an established or a debut author, has a reasonably detailed introduction to the book followed by an excerpt of a chapter or so. The Goodreads blurbs probably come from the same publicity and will give you a brief idea, too.
This publication is divided into Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-fiction, and Young Adult. I have a quick look at each introduction (often a page or more long) and then read the selections that appeal to me. I tend to skim or skip what look like light romances or chick lit and avoid horror and dragon-wizard fantasy, but even then, I never say never.
I’ll just mention a few that I’d like to read myself. The first quote is from Northern Spy by Flynn Berry, about two sisters, one of whom is asked by police where the other is. They say her sister has joined the IRA - could she be held hostage? It reads well and the author's first book won an Edgar Award (mystery) for best first novel.
My next choice is Viet Thanh Nguyen's latest, The Committed a follow-up to The Sympathizer, which I haven’t read and wasn’t planing to. It won the Pulitzer Prize but had such mixed reviews, I figured I wouldn’t like it. Having read a chapter or two of this one, I can see I love the quirky style that I think irritated other readers. (Takes all kinds, eh?)
The protagonists are Vietnamese men, newly landed in Paris and offered hashish by one’s “aunt”. There's enough background for me to know they've come from prison and desperate circumstances, and this woman's elegant lifestyle is foreign to them (but enjoyed).
“Marijuana was what hippies and teenagers smoked, its symbol the terminally unfashionable band called the Grateful Dead, whom Yves Saint-Laurent would have lined up and shot for popularizing tie-dyed T-shirts. Hashish evoked the Levant and the souk, the strange and the exciting, the decadent and the aristocratic. One might try marijuana in Asia, but in the Orient, one smoked hashish.
. . .
Given their gastronomic peculiarities for eating brains, guts, snails, and the like, the French were honorary Asians in their heroic determination to eat every kind and part of an animal.”
from The Committed
The Lowering Days is a debut by Gregory Brown and looks like a winner to me. It’s told by one of the sons of an alternative (my term) couple who live on the Penobscot River in Maine, where father builds wooden boats but doesn’t charge customers enough (to mother's annoyance). There is description of the old ways and now talk of a push to reopen an old paper mill. Mother decides to publish a paper and call it The Lowering Days. When told this sounds ominous, she says “People don't pay for cheer.”
“Over the years she’d sometimes tell people the name came from her great-grandfather, who’d been a doctor up the Penobscot in Prospect and also routinely presided over funerals, gathering the townspeople in mourning on these lowering days, as he called them, when a body was sent into the earth. Other times she said the name came from the birthing day for a boat, the lowering day, when the finished hull was first slipped into the waiting sea.” from The Lowering Days
The references to death and birth remind me of the shorthand often used for the section of the newspaper referred to as Hatch, Match, and Dispatch, although there’s no matching included here.
Another appealing debut is The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, about a 17-year-old girl with terminal cancer, who tells us that the nurses keep correcting themselves and saying “life-limiting condition” instead. Of course, I immediately reminded myself of the black humour that says birth is a terminal disease.
But I digress. In this excerpt, Lenni has discovered she can visit a part of the hospital she’s never seen – the chapel. And they have to let her go there! An adventure, of sorts. At least it's somewhere new.
“I wheeled my drip behind me and as I reached the pew, I tied my dressing gown more tightly around my waist. ‘Can you tell God I’m sorry about my pajamas?’ I asked as I sat.
‘You just told him. He’s always listening,’ Father Arthur said as he sat beside me. I looked up at the cross.
‘So tell me, Lenni, what brings you to the chapel today?’
‘I’m thinking about buying a secondhand BMW.’”
from The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
I hope to meet Lenni and the 83-year-old Margot who between them have 100 years, hence the title.
I’m interested in Her Here, the debut of Amanda Dennis* about a young woman who accepts the task of tracking down someone’s missing daughter. I gather her own memory issues get mixed up with the journals she’s reading to find the missing person.
“Her is Ella. She is so alive in her journals, the way I want to be. Looking for her feels urgent, a task with clear edges, purpose. She is someone I might love.”
. . .
“In the coldness of her face, I wanted to find that smile again. It was my mother’s.”
from Her Here
*Note, this is not the Amanda Dennis that the Goodreads entry links to. This is her first book and here is her website. https://www.amandadennis.net/home
My last selection sounds like my kind of historical mystery, An Unlikely Spy, although I bet I wouldn't have picked it up because of the cover. Shouldn't judge.
England. Evelyn and Stephen have met for their weekly drink and are chatting, not quite as a couple, but not quite as not a couple. We don't know. He has actually said he must go to Italy for a month and will miss her. Would she consider going with him?
As she seems to stall a bit, he says quickly that she doesn’t have to answer now, and he thinks he’d like another whisky. He leaves the table to go to the bar, and Evelyn looks out the window, seeing a little girl and a woman, browsing at a picture card stand.
“Evelyn watched the graceful swoop of her gloved hand until, almost as if she sensed she was being watched, the woman turned. Her eyes met Evelyn’s and what followed was a moment of perfect calm, just as the air had felt before a shell dropped.”
from An Unlikely Spy
The woman comes in, “the past” is spoken of, the War Office is mentioned, and Stephen is confused. Evelyn worked in a hospital during the war . . . didn’t she?
Plenty to choose from! Thanks to NetGalley and PublishersLunch for my copy, but if you’d like to read their Buzz Books without using NetGalley, they are all available for download on their own website. Lots of genres, too. You’ve got nothing to lose but more sleep, right?
http://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/
Please note that all of these quotations are from preview copies and may well have changed by the time the books are in print. I just hope to give some idea of what appealed to me.
These covers may change, too, of course.
“You can’t tell from the outside, but the IRA has this city under its thumb. They run security rackets. Every building site has to pay them protection money, and all the restaurants in west Belfast have doormen.
. . .
MI5 comes here to test new methods, to build capacity, to prepare its agents for their real fight, which is against international terror groups. We’re only their training ground.”
from Northern Spy
Oh, there are some good ones here! As always, there’s something for almost everybody. Each entry, whether from an established or a debut author, has a reasonably detailed introduction to the book followed by an excerpt of a chapter or so. The Goodreads blurbs probably come from the same publicity and will give you a brief idea, too.
This publication is divided into Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-fiction, and Young Adult. I have a quick look at each introduction (often a page or more long) and then read the selections that appeal to me. I tend to skim or skip what look like light romances or chick lit and avoid horror and dragon-wizard fantasy, but even then, I never say never.
I’ll just mention a few that I’d like to read myself. The first quote is from Northern Spy by Flynn Berry, about two sisters, one of whom is asked by police where the other is. They say her sister has joined the IRA - could she be held hostage? It reads well and the author's first book won an Edgar Award (mystery) for best first novel.
My next choice is Viet Thanh Nguyen's latest, The Committed a follow-up to The Sympathizer, which I haven’t read and wasn’t planing to. It won the Pulitzer Prize but had such mixed reviews, I figured I wouldn’t like it. Having read a chapter or two of this one, I can see I love the quirky style that I think irritated other readers. (Takes all kinds, eh?)
The protagonists are Vietnamese men, newly landed in Paris and offered hashish by one’s “aunt”. There's enough background for me to know they've come from prison and desperate circumstances, and this woman's elegant lifestyle is foreign to them (but enjoyed).
“Marijuana was what hippies and teenagers smoked, its symbol the terminally unfashionable band called the Grateful Dead, whom Yves Saint-Laurent would have lined up and shot for popularizing tie-dyed T-shirts. Hashish evoked the Levant and the souk, the strange and the exciting, the decadent and the aristocratic. One might try marijuana in Asia, but in the Orient, one smoked hashish.
. . .
Given their gastronomic peculiarities for eating brains, guts, snails, and the like, the French were honorary Asians in their heroic determination to eat every kind and part of an animal.”
from The Committed
The Lowering Days is a debut by Gregory Brown and looks like a winner to me. It’s told by one of the sons of an alternative (my term) couple who live on the Penobscot River in Maine, where father builds wooden boats but doesn’t charge customers enough (to mother's annoyance). There is description of the old ways and now talk of a push to reopen an old paper mill. Mother decides to publish a paper and call it The Lowering Days. When told this sounds ominous, she says “People don't pay for cheer.”
“Over the years she’d sometimes tell people the name came from her great-grandfather, who’d been a doctor up the Penobscot in Prospect and also routinely presided over funerals, gathering the townspeople in mourning on these lowering days, as he called them, when a body was sent into the earth. Other times she said the name came from the birthing day for a boat, the lowering day, when the finished hull was first slipped into the waiting sea.” from The Lowering Days
The references to death and birth remind me of the shorthand often used for the section of the newspaper referred to as Hatch, Match, and Dispatch, although there’s no matching included here.
Another appealing debut is The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, about a 17-year-old girl with terminal cancer, who tells us that the nurses keep correcting themselves and saying “life-limiting condition” instead. Of course, I immediately reminded myself of the black humour that says birth is a terminal disease.
But I digress. In this excerpt, Lenni has discovered she can visit a part of the hospital she’s never seen – the chapel. And they have to let her go there! An adventure, of sorts. At least it's somewhere new.
“I wheeled my drip behind me and as I reached the pew, I tied my dressing gown more tightly around my waist. ‘Can you tell God I’m sorry about my pajamas?’ I asked as I sat.
‘You just told him. He’s always listening,’ Father Arthur said as he sat beside me. I looked up at the cross.
‘So tell me, Lenni, what brings you to the chapel today?’
‘I’m thinking about buying a secondhand BMW.’”
from The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
I hope to meet Lenni and the 83-year-old Margot who between them have 100 years, hence the title.
I’m interested in Her Here, the debut of Amanda Dennis* about a young woman who accepts the task of tracking down someone’s missing daughter. I gather her own memory issues get mixed up with the journals she’s reading to find the missing person.
“Her is Ella. She is so alive in her journals, the way I want to be. Looking for her feels urgent, a task with clear edges, purpose. She is someone I might love.”
. . .
“In the coldness of her face, I wanted to find that smile again. It was my mother’s.”
from Her Here
*Note, this is not the Amanda Dennis that the Goodreads entry links to. This is her first book and here is her website. https://www.amandadennis.net/home
My last selection sounds like my kind of historical mystery, An Unlikely Spy, although I bet I wouldn't have picked it up because of the cover. Shouldn't judge.
England. Evelyn and Stephen have met for their weekly drink and are chatting, not quite as a couple, but not quite as not a couple. We don't know. He has actually said he must go to Italy for a month and will miss her. Would she consider going with him?
As she seems to stall a bit, he says quickly that she doesn’t have to answer now, and he thinks he’d like another whisky. He leaves the table to go to the bar, and Evelyn looks out the window, seeing a little girl and a woman, browsing at a picture card stand.
“Evelyn watched the graceful swoop of her gloved hand until, almost as if she sensed she was being watched, the woman turned. Her eyes met Evelyn’s and what followed was a moment of perfect calm, just as the air had felt before a shell dropped.”
from An Unlikely Spy
The woman comes in, “the past” is spoken of, the War Office is mentioned, and Stephen is confused. Evelyn worked in a hospital during the war . . . didn’t she?
Plenty to choose from! Thanks to NetGalley and PublishersLunch for my copy, but if you’d like to read their Buzz Books without using NetGalley, they are all available for download on their own website. Lots of genres, too. You’ve got nothing to lose but more sleep, right?
http://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/
Please note that all of these quotations are from preview copies and may well have changed by the time the books are in print. I just hope to give some idea of what appealed to me.
These covers may change, too, of course.
January 27, 2021
You would think that given the surfeit of books being published, it would be a relatively simple matter of choosing what to read next. Actually, this is probably one of the most daunting tasks facing any committed reader.
I often experience ‘reader anxiety’ when I approach the end of one book, as the question is already at the back of my mind: What am I going to read next? (This could explain why I always juggle several books at once, as it resolves the problem through continuous reading. But that is another story).
‘Buzz Books’ originally introduced me to Netgalley, another fantastic resource for readers, as is PublishersMarketplace for back-end insight into the industry. What I love about these samplers is that they represent a comprehensive overview of upcoming books, from fiction (literary and commercial) to debuts and non-fiction.
My only caveat is that there is no SF/Horror/Fantasy section. There is a full listing at the beginning, followed by extracts from select books. I also appreciate the fact that the actual covers and synopses are given, as this allows for a quick overview and assists with visual identification when a particular book pops up on one’s radar further down the line.
Purists might raise their eyebrows at the merest hint of an ‘extract’, with its hint of Reader’s Digest abbreviation, but I for one consider the beginning of any book crucial to determine if I am going to commit time to it. And ‘Buzz Books’ is just that, a collection that allows the reader to effortlessly sample a range of different beginnings, in that elusive search for the next happy ending.
I often experience ‘reader anxiety’ when I approach the end of one book, as the question is already at the back of my mind: What am I going to read next? (This could explain why I always juggle several books at once, as it resolves the problem through continuous reading. But that is another story).
‘Buzz Books’ originally introduced me to Netgalley, another fantastic resource for readers, as is PublishersMarketplace for back-end insight into the industry. What I love about these samplers is that they represent a comprehensive overview of upcoming books, from fiction (literary and commercial) to debuts and non-fiction.
My only caveat is that there is no SF/Horror/Fantasy section. There is a full listing at the beginning, followed by extracts from select books. I also appreciate the fact that the actual covers and synopses are given, as this allows for a quick overview and assists with visual identification when a particular book pops up on one’s radar further down the line.
Purists might raise their eyebrows at the merest hint of an ‘extract’, with its hint of Reader’s Digest abbreviation, but I for one consider the beginning of any book crucial to determine if I am going to commit time to it. And ‘Buzz Books’ is just that, a collection that allows the reader to effortlessly sample a range of different beginnings, in that elusive search for the next happy ending.
January 28, 2021
This is an invaluable reference book for readers looking for fiction and non-fiction books they may want to read this spring and summer and might otherwise miss when published. There is a great selection of upcoming books, and you can read excerpts of any you think might interest you. I have found the previous books most useful in adding future additions to my TBR list. I received this free from Amazon over a week ago and have been checking it out in my spare time ever since.
January 27, 2021
Buzz Books is a guide to all of the hot fresh releases coming out next season. I used to faithfully request it but my TBR grew way out of control. Now that I have gotten my feedback ratio over 80% I feel like I can test my shelf control.
As usual, there were lots of great books highlighted here (some of which I had already requested.)
Here is my wishlist:
Fiction
Arnett: With Teeth
Greenridge: Libertie
Jackson-Brown: When Stars Rain Down
Jerkins: Caul Baby
Korelitz: The Plot
Nguyen: The Committed
Vlautin: The Night Always Comes
Williams: The Perfect Ruin
Worthington: A Time For Monsters
Debuts
Brown: The Lowering Days: A Novel
Cronin: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Dennis: Her Here
Ferrell: Dear Miss Metropolitan
Garcia: Of Women and Salt
Gnuse: Girl in the Walls
Jeffers: The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois
Penner: The Lost Apothecary
Sathian: Gold Diggers
Young Adult
Elhillo: Home Is Not a Country
Weis: Have You Seen Me?
Nonfiction
Henderson: The Ugly Cry
Unfortunately, I was not able to request all of them. (Adulting over here. Trying desperately not to fall down into that TBR hole.) But the little girl in me who loves books could not help but to mark some down for pre-order and library requests.
As usual, there were lots of great books highlighted here (some of which I had already requested.)
Here is my wishlist:
Fiction
Arnett: With Teeth
Greenridge: Libertie
Jackson-Brown: When Stars Rain Down
Jerkins: Caul Baby
Korelitz: The Plot
Nguyen: The Committed
Vlautin: The Night Always Comes
Williams: The Perfect Ruin
Worthington: A Time For Monsters
Debuts
Brown: The Lowering Days: A Novel
Cronin: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Dennis: Her Here
Ferrell: Dear Miss Metropolitan
Garcia: Of Women and Salt
Gnuse: Girl in the Walls
Jeffers: The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois
Penner: The Lost Apothecary
Sathian: Gold Diggers
Young Adult
Elhillo: Home Is Not a Country
Weis: Have You Seen Me?
Nonfiction
Henderson: The Ugly Cry
Unfortunately, I was not able to request all of them. (Adulting over here. Trying desperately not to fall down into that TBR hole.) But the little girl in me who loves books could not help but to mark some down for pre-order and library requests.
January 30, 2021
The first among this collection of books to be released in the Spring and Summer of 2021 that caught my eye was the only one I noticed was Highly Anticipated in the category of Fiction: John Edgar Wideman’s You Made Me Love you to be released 4/6/2021, I don’t think I noticed that additional note on any of the others, despite some well known authors. Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts (5/14), Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (3/2), Rachel Cusk’s Second Place (5/4), Haruki Murakami’s First Person Singular (4/6), Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed (3/2), Helen Oyeyemi’s Peaces (4/6), Lionel Shriver’s Should We Stay or Should We Go (6/8), Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie (3/30), Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were. (3/9)
In the category of Emerging Voices is Charles Martin’s The Letter Keeper (6/1), Charlotte McConaghy’s Once There Were Wolves - one which I am highly anticipating (8/3), Steven Rowley’s The Guncle which I am looking forward to reading, (5/25), Willy Vlautin’s The Night Always Comes. (4/6)
In Debut books, which is “packed” with “promising new voices,” among those is Gabriele Garcia’s Of Women and Salt (4/6), Marianne Cronin’s The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot (6/1), Amanda Dennis’ Her Here (3/9), Eileen Garvin’s The Music of Bees (4/27), Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (7/27), A.J. Gnuse’s Girl in the Walls (5/11) and many, many more.
Commercial Fiction has many new books, one of the first ones listed was Stacy Abrams’ While Justice Sleeps - a “thriller set within the Supreme Court” (5/11), Chris Bohjalian’s Hour of the Witch (4/20), Alafair Burke’s Find Me (8/3)Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot (5/11) Lisa Scottoline’s Eternal (3/23) and Gareth Worthington’s A Time for Monsters (5/18)
Nonfiction books include numerous political and celebrity memoirs along with others.
Buzz Books are available for free on Amazon for Kindle, and Barnes & Noble for Nook.
Published: 19 January 2021
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Publisher’s Lunch
February 4, 2021
I love this guide to new and highly anticipated books for Spring and Summer. As a fan of historical fiction, this allows me to look forward and plan for my Spring and Summer reads in that genre and others.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley. My opinions are my own.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley. My opinions are my own.
January 24, 2021
This was very useful for helping me decide what to add, and what not to add, to my wish list. I’ve never bothered to download these preview compilations before, but I will in the future. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
March 23, 2021
This is like a reader’s bible, you’re never really finished reading it, it’s more like a reference book you keep by your side.
There are literally, lists and lists and lists of books that will be published in 2021 by author,
Title,
Publisher,and
Publish Date.
By Genre, and by Big Authors and Debut authors.
It also contains excerpts from certain books with links to request galleys.
There are 19 excerpts for Fiction, 15 for Debuts, 9 for Nonfiction, and 3 for YoungAdult.
You really can’t beat that!
I found 4-5 books in that group, including, The Lost Apothecary!’
Go get it now, on Netgalley!
There are literally, lists and lists and lists of books that will be published in 2021 by author,
Title,
Publisher,and
Publish Date.
By Genre, and by Big Authors and Debut authors.
It also contains excerpts from certain books with links to request galleys.
There are 19 excerpts for Fiction, 15 for Debuts, 9 for Nonfiction, and 3 for YoungAdult.
You really can’t beat that!
I found 4-5 books in that group, including, The Lost Apothecary!’
Go get it now, on Netgalley!
January 20, 2021
I look forward to every Buzz Books’ edition and this one is a treasure trove, filled with enticing new releases. My TBR pile is groaning in anticipation!
5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 19 Jan 2021
#BuzzBooks2021SpringSummer #NetGalley
Thanks to the author, Publishers Lunch BUZZ BOOKS, and NetGalley for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.
5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 19 Jan 2021
#BuzzBooks2021SpringSummer #NetGalley
Thanks to the author, Publishers Lunch BUZZ BOOKS, and NetGalley for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.
January 30, 2021
This is a comprehensive listing of books being published spring/summer 2021, with excerpts from some of them. It provides a great opportunity to construct a “to read” list for the coming months.
January 31, 2021
Buzz Books always reveals the upcoming books to look out for. I’m particularly intrigued by what looks to a very funny Seven Years in June by Tia Williams. (Who doesn’t need funny in COVID times?) I also want to read After Francesco by Brian Malloy and When the Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown. And I’m having to admit publicly that I’ve never read anything by the queen of the legal thriller, Lisa Scottoline, but I’m going to fix that with her upcoming Eternal.
Three debuts look very promising: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex, and especially The Very Nice Box by Eva Gleichman and Laura Blackett. And while I don’t read much YA, I will be reading The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim.
Thank you, Buzz Books, for keeping us sane in the time of a pandemic.
Three debuts look very promising: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex, and especially The Very Nice Box by Eva Gleichman and Laura Blackett. And while I don’t read much YA, I will be reading The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim.
Thank you, Buzz Books, for keeping us sane in the time of a pandemic.
January 27, 2021
Great guidebook to learn about upcoming releases in Spring and Summer of 2021. A lot of times I hear about a book, read reviews, but I'd love to get a taste for the writing style and technique. Buzz Books allows me to do that by including excerpts to new popular releases. I am looking forward to a lot of these books based on the excerpts. I also enjoyed how the book was organized, making it easy for me to find books based on my interests.
June 16, 2021
This was my first time reading a compilation like this, as a relatively new book “influencer.” So much fun! Only problem is, I found even more wonderful books I want to read than I had before. Basically I need to become a full-time reader. This whole job thing is getting in the way of my passion. Thanks for putting this great resource together!
February 1, 2021
I was not aware of Buzz Books until I came across it on one of my facebook feeds. This is lime holy grail..
I was excited to see so many new books cominv out from my favorite authors! I have marked many to be added to my tbr pile of request!
Thank you Netgalley!
I was excited to see so many new books cominv out from my favorite authors! I have marked many to be added to my tbr pile of request!
Thank you Netgalley!
April 11, 2021
Overall I think this book has way too many historical fiction and Romance genre dominated story's. And that's why I can't give it a higher rating it just didn't feel that diverse.
1- Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (the writing is not difficult to read but the story is difficult to understand. Time feels like it skips very quickly) I could somewhat see myself buying it.
2- When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson - Brown (The author's note at the beginning was heart felt and it helps to showcase their intent with the book which makes it feel real though it's not non fiction. I can total feel the characters exhaustion when it comes to heat of an early summer. It's described very well. It probably wasn't a good idea to be hungry while reading this. So much delicious foods).
3- The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (the concept is intriguing but the writing is difficult to get into)
4- After Francesco by Brian Malloy (the opening excerpt quote by Vito Russo was a great note to start on. I immediately felt swelling in my heart while reading it. The tone was understandably very angry but it was also very rapid. Some things were hard to understand. Was Live Eddy being used to refer to him when he was alive because they also use dead Eddy?)
5- If The Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy (First I can't believe she has another new book coming out already. Based off the synopsis it makes the story seem like it's going to be more about feeling confident and empowered rather than have a heavy focus on a romance, but the cover showcase two figures and although it could always be platonic It's causing confusion right off the bat. Though I love the concept I don't really like the overly sarcastic dialogue. It feels wrong considering the Cinderella stories are all very serious and dark.)
6- A Time For Monsters by Gareth Worthington (The writing is extremely simplistic. It feels weird. Even small details are made out to be simple like complex design of a chair.)
7- The First Day Of Spring by Nancy Tucker (the concept is actually somewhat interesting. I love the writing. It's flowery but not too confusing. "His face was the color of milk Jelly." It's a very beautiful way of saying the boy was white, his skin dull. And mushy since his muscles are relaxing.) This is the one book I am definitely buying.
1- Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (the writing is not difficult to read but the story is difficult to understand. Time feels like it skips very quickly) I could somewhat see myself buying it.
2- When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson - Brown (The author's note at the beginning was heart felt and it helps to showcase their intent with the book which makes it feel real though it's not non fiction. I can total feel the characters exhaustion when it comes to heat of an early summer. It's described very well. It probably wasn't a good idea to be hungry while reading this. So much delicious foods).
3- The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (the concept is intriguing but the writing is difficult to get into)
4- After Francesco by Brian Malloy (the opening excerpt quote by Vito Russo was a great note to start on. I immediately felt swelling in my heart while reading it. The tone was understandably very angry but it was also very rapid. Some things were hard to understand. Was Live Eddy being used to refer to him when he was alive because they also use dead Eddy?)
5- If The Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy (First I can't believe she has another new book coming out already. Based off the synopsis it makes the story seem like it's going to be more about feeling confident and empowered rather than have a heavy focus on a romance, but the cover showcase two figures and although it could always be platonic It's causing confusion right off the bat. Though I love the concept I don't really like the overly sarcastic dialogue. It feels wrong considering the Cinderella stories are all very serious and dark.)
6- A Time For Monsters by Gareth Worthington (The writing is extremely simplistic. It feels weird. Even small details are made out to be simple like complex design of a chair.)
7- The First Day Of Spring by Nancy Tucker (the concept is actually somewhat interesting. I love the writing. It's flowery but not too confusing. "His face was the color of milk Jelly." It's a very beautiful way of saying the boy was white, his skin dull. And mushy since his muscles are relaxing.) This is the one book I am definitely buying.
January 21, 2021
A preview of the best of the new books for the season and it's FREE!
Fiction is broken down into categories such as Notables (Kazuo Ishiguro's KLARA AND THE SUN, Jhumpa Lahiri's WHEREABOUTS, and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeny's GOOD COMPANY); Highly Anticipated (Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray's THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, Joshua Henkin's MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, and Imbolo Mbue's HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE); Emerging Voices; (Will Dean's THE LAST THING TO BURN, Charles Martin's THE LETTER KEEPER, and Flynn Berry's NORTHERN SPY); a very long list of Debut authors; and Commercial Fiction including Linwood Barclay, David Baldacci, Alafair Burke, Harlan Coben, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Nora Roberts. A whole range of non-fiction categories are included as well as several Young Adult titles.
There are so many enticing new titles and authors in the Spring/Summer edition, that although I tried to be selective, it remains to be seen whether I was successful. I've requested a number of titles already!
First introduced for the 2012 Book Expo America, the FREE digital Publishers Lunch Buzz Books has become the place for both industry professionals and book lovers in general to discover and read about the books expected to spark high demand BEFORE they are published!
What's really great is that after many selections, you have the option to follow a link and request the complete galley copy from Net Galley if you qualify as a 'professional' reader.
Check out Buzz Books on Amazon. Did I mention it's FREE!
Fiction is broken down into categories such as Notables (Kazuo Ishiguro's KLARA AND THE SUN, Jhumpa Lahiri's WHEREABOUTS, and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeny's GOOD COMPANY); Highly Anticipated (Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray's THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, Joshua Henkin's MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, and Imbolo Mbue's HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE); Emerging Voices; (Will Dean's THE LAST THING TO BURN, Charles Martin's THE LETTER KEEPER, and Flynn Berry's NORTHERN SPY); a very long list of Debut authors; and Commercial Fiction including Linwood Barclay, David Baldacci, Alafair Burke, Harlan Coben, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Nora Roberts. A whole range of non-fiction categories are included as well as several Young Adult titles.
There are so many enticing new titles and authors in the Spring/Summer edition, that although I tried to be selective, it remains to be seen whether I was successful. I've requested a number of titles already!
First introduced for the 2012 Book Expo America, the FREE digital Publishers Lunch Buzz Books has become the place for both industry professionals and book lovers in general to discover and read about the books expected to spark high demand BEFORE they are published!
What's really great is that after many selections, you have the option to follow a link and request the complete galley copy from Net Galley if you qualify as a 'professional' reader.
Check out Buzz Books on Amazon. Did I mention it's FREE!
January 25, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers Lunch for allowing me to read Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer.
This is the first book sampler that I have taken the time to read and I will definitely be on the lookout for the next edition. This baby is filled with summaries and excerpts of some of the most anticipated reads of the upcoming months, It even comes with a handy link at the end of each excerpt that leads you right to the spot to read or request the full book version of each sample. One of my favorite things to do is read all the lists of books that will be coming out soon so this was one of the best things to happen to me in awhile. I just wish that I hadn't just learned about it now! Enjoy, reader friends!
This is the first book sampler that I have taken the time to read and I will definitely be on the lookout for the next edition. This baby is filled with summaries and excerpts of some of the most anticipated reads of the upcoming months, It even comes with a handy link at the end of each excerpt that leads you right to the spot to read or request the full book version of each sample. One of my favorite things to do is read all the lists of books that will be coming out soon so this was one of the best things to happen to me in awhile. I just wish that I hadn't just learned about it now! Enjoy, reader friends!
January 29, 2021
I look forward to these editions every year. There are always so many books that my book radar failed to discover. By the time I finished reading this edition, I added twenty more to my want to read list.
If you aren't familiar with Buzz Books, each edition gives you a glimpse or excerpt of the books that will be publishing that have generated a lot of advanced buzz. There is fiction from notable authors, highly anticipated books, emerging voices, debuts, and commercial fiction. Also nonfiction with biography & memoir, essays, criticism, & more, history & crime, science & technology, and social issues. Pages and pages of authors, titles, publishing houses, and publication dates. All of this before forty-three excerpts and almost all of them have links to request the titles from NetGalley.
My version of being a kid in a candy store! A few highlights for me were:
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
After Francesco by Brian Malloy
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
A Time For Monsters by Gareth Worthington
Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell
and Girl in the Walls by A. J. Gnuse
A great resource and even though I know some readers who don't enjoy excerpts, it is still a fantastic and comprehensive list of books!
If you aren't familiar with Buzz Books, each edition gives you a glimpse or excerpt of the books that will be publishing that have generated a lot of advanced buzz. There is fiction from notable authors, highly anticipated books, emerging voices, debuts, and commercial fiction. Also nonfiction with biography & memoir, essays, criticism, & more, history & crime, science & technology, and social issues. Pages and pages of authors, titles, publishing houses, and publication dates. All of this before forty-three excerpts and almost all of them have links to request the titles from NetGalley.
My version of being a kid in a candy store! A few highlights for me were:
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
After Francesco by Brian Malloy
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
A Time For Monsters by Gareth Worthington
Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell
and Girl in the Walls by A. J. Gnuse
A great resource and even though I know some readers who don't enjoy excerpts, it is still a fantastic and comprehensive list of books!
February 28, 2021
The anthology collecting a massive surfeit of books being published this Spring/Summer is also massively helpful to choose what new books to look for. I myself am looking forward to After Francesco by Brian Malloy and Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage.
March 30, 2021
I always look forward to these collections of new releases. There are books I am already anticipating as well as many new titles. I especially enjoy the excerpts that are from unexpected authors or topics. It seems that these collections always broaden my scope of choices in a positive way. This maybe a debut author or a new premise for a story. Sometimes it is a nonfiction book that I didn’t know I was interested in reading until reading the excerpt. It seems that this list is well curated and brings a diverse selection. Well done.
#BuzzBooks2021SpringSummer #Netgalley
#BuzzBooks2021SpringSummer #Netgalley
February 15, 2021
I absolutely love getting the advance of Buzz Books. It’s like I am a kid in a candy store. Never mind that my TBR list is 1000 books, this shows me all the new and upcoming books. IMO, this is the best guide to use for getting ideas for new books to read!
Absolutely, fantastic.
Thank you, Net Galley and Publisher’s Lunch/Buzz Books for the ARC. I was up all night checking out these books.
Absolutely, fantastic.
Thank you, Net Galley and Publisher’s Lunch/Buzz Books for the ARC. I was up all night checking out these books.
January 23, 2021
Just start reading this edition, but I already know that I will be pre-ordering THE PLOT by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Hits uncomfortably close to home for adjunct instructors of creative writing (e.g., yours truly), which is why I must read it. The opening excerpt is beautifully written. Can't wait!
March 14, 2021
Buzz books provides an overview of upcoming publications and includes some extracts.
I love having a list of books being published, so I can plan my reading for the next few months. It's also useful to make sure I don't miss any upcoming books by my favourite authors and it's a great way to discover new authors.
Many thanks to Publishers Lunch and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I love having a list of books being published, so I can plan my reading for the next few months. It's also useful to make sure I don't miss any upcoming books by my favourite authors and it's a great way to discover new authors.
Many thanks to Publishers Lunch and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 6, 2021
I am very excited for the upcoming months!
Great books coming out this spring and summer. I requested at least have of them from Netgalley.
Great books coming out this spring and summer. I requested at least have of them from Netgalley.
March 6, 2021
What a perfect intro to upcoming books for the Spring and Summer of 2021! With both known and unknown authors the summaries and excerpts of the books give the reader a lead-in to the book and characters that is tantalizing! I myself found several that immediately had me requesting a full galley of the book while still making a list of the others that I needed to keep my eyes open for future reading. I encourage this sneak-peak for readers who like to know what to look forward to! I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers Lunch for the opportunity. #NetGalley #BuzzBooks2021SpringSummer
April 12, 2021
This is my first opportunity to read through a buzz books sampler and I absolutely loved it! I read all of the book summaries that were included and many of the book excerpts and even requested a couple of ARC from NetGalley.
Thoroughly recommend this and I wish there were more of these types of book summaries compiled for specific genres!
Thoroughly recommend this and I wish there were more of these types of book summaries compiled for specific genres!
April 25, 2021
Thank you to Publishers Lunch and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Excellent for learning of upcoming books and excerpts of them! Great way to review upcoming books!
Excellent for learning of upcoming books and excerpts of them! Great way to review upcoming books!
February 11, 2021
Buzz Books 2021 Spring/Summer gives the reader an inside look at the “buzziest books” of spring and summer 2021. The first few chapters are a tantalizing taste of what is to come in buzz worthy books soon available at your library and bookstores.
This literary preview has sections with the reader in mind. First and foremost is fiction, which is broken down to these categories: The Notables, Highly Anticipated, Emerging Voices, Debut and Commercial Fiction. Then we move on to Nonfiction, categorized as follows: Biography & Memoir, Business, Politics, and Current Events, Essays, Criticism & More, History and Crime, Science & Technology and finishes with Social Issues. As you can see there is something for everyone.
Each book has a few chapters available to read. It is like having a bookstore and/or a library with all of the latest books just waiting for you to crack the spine and dive in. Like most bibliophiles, I began reading immediately, keeping a careful list of the books I want to read. My list is lengthy, and full of authors both bestselling and novices.
A few on my list include:
A Perfect Ruin by Shanora Williams – publish date 6/29/21
Eternal by Lisa Scottoline – publish date 3/23/21
The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin – publish date 6/8/21
Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin – publish date 6/15/21
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – publish date 5/4/21
Finding Freedom – by Erin French – publish date 4/6/21
Last Call by Elon Green publish date 3/9/11
The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim – publish date 5/4/21
I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves to read. There is something from everyone’s favorite genre all packaged up neatly together. This smorgasbord of delights is a must read.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley and the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. Copyright © 2021 Laura Hartman
This literary preview has sections with the reader in mind. First and foremost is fiction, which is broken down to these categories: The Notables, Highly Anticipated, Emerging Voices, Debut and Commercial Fiction. Then we move on to Nonfiction, categorized as follows: Biography & Memoir, Business, Politics, and Current Events, Essays, Criticism & More, History and Crime, Science & Technology and finishes with Social Issues. As you can see there is something for everyone.
Each book has a few chapters available to read. It is like having a bookstore and/or a library with all of the latest books just waiting for you to crack the spine and dive in. Like most bibliophiles, I began reading immediately, keeping a careful list of the books I want to read. My list is lengthy, and full of authors both bestselling and novices.
A few on my list include:
A Perfect Ruin by Shanora Williams – publish date 6/29/21
Eternal by Lisa Scottoline – publish date 3/23/21
The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin – publish date 6/8/21
Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin – publish date 6/15/21
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – publish date 5/4/21
Finding Freedom – by Erin French – publish date 4/6/21
Last Call by Elon Green publish date 3/9/11
The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim – publish date 5/4/21
I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves to read. There is something from everyone’s favorite genre all packaged up neatly together. This smorgasbord of delights is a must read.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley and the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. Copyright © 2021 Laura Hartman
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