5★
“2014
No one in Durban remembers a Christmas as hot as this.

The heat is a living-breathing thing that climbs through windows and creeps into kitchens. It follows people to work and at queues in the bank and on trains home. It crouches in bedrooms growing restless until at night in fury it throttles those sleeping leaving them gasping for breath. It sweeps through the streets and bursts open pipes, smashes open green guavas and splits apart driveways. It burns off fingerprints and scorches hair and makes people forget what they are doing and where they are going so that they wander around beating their heads.”

Whew! I’m reading this on a chilly autumn day and I feel hot! (I live in the same hemisphere as Durban, where Christmas is mid-summer). This is the beginning of one of the books that interest me in the latest Buzz Books selection, "The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel" by Shubnum Khan. Ruined mansion by the sea, a djinn, and what seems to be an interesting girl.

“Her quietness unnerves people; they speak more when they are around her to make up for her silence, eventually avoid her altogether, making circles around her at family functions, pretending that she does not exist. Eventually she begins to disappear into furniture, against walls; her bare ends blending into things like the end of a brush stroke.
. . .
She holds a particular roughness; a looseness to her gait and clumsiness to her manners that comes from being an unmothered daughter.”

Each excerpt is several pages long, so you get a good sense of what the story will sound like and how some of the characters will seem. Sometimes a page or two is enough that I know it’s not for me, but sometimes I find myself racing through and startled (and disappointed!) when I get to the notice:
“You’ve just read an excerpt from THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS.

If I’ve counted correctly, there are 32 samples in Part One: Fiction; 12 in Part Two: Debut; 8 in Part Three: Nonfiction; 9 in Part Four: Young Adult. That’s a lot of reading if you read it all, plus there are several lists in the front of the book with many more upcoming books. Read the publisher’s blurb for this Buzz Book which mentions many of the authors. I’ll mention a few samples here that I liked.

"Brooklyn Crime Novel"
“Chapter 2
Nobody Knows
(forever)

This is a story about what nobody knows.

It’s set in a place nobody doesn’t think they know. Yet nobody knows anything about this place, and they never did.

Maybe I exaggerate.

Still, not many can be bothered to know. Not, for instance that Malcolm X’s family was hidden, in the hours and days immediately following his assassination, in a safe house on the corner of Dean and Nevins streets. Nobody knows this. Or they forgot.

Equally, they forgot that Willie Sutton was apprehended on the corner of Pacific and Third. He’s the one who when asked ‘Why do you rob banks?’ replied ‘Because that’s where the money is.’

Nobody knows this anymore if they ever did.

Nobody knows that Isaac Asimov lived in 213 Dean Street for a year in the 1940’s. To care, you’d have to be a nerd. Even then, how would you find this out? Guy wrote four hundred books; you read fifty of them. You’d walk right past.”

My next choice is from well-known author, Sigrid Nunez. The Buzz Books intro says:

“Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today, says a character in Sigrid Nunez’s ninth novel. "The Vulnerables: A Novel" offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past.”

Excerpts from "The Vulnerables: A Novel":

“Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeling that the story evokes, the questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described.
. . .
I like the novelist who confessed that the only thing to have stayed with him after reading Anna Karenina was the detail of a picnic basket holding a jar of honey.
. . .
I like this true story, about a writer who wanted to base a fictional character on someone he knew. He disguised her, for example giving his character close-cropped hair instead of the pageboy the real-life model had worn since high school, and a pair of eyeglasses with striking cat-eye tortoiseshell frames. Though in real life the woman was childless, in the book she has a twenty-something-year-old son.

Some weeks before the book came out, the woman developed a bad case of dry eye and could no longer tolerate wearing her contact lenses. For her new glasses, needless to say, she chose cat-eye tortoiseshell frames. Now that she was no longer young and her hair was thinning and fading, at her stylist’s suggestion she got a pixie cut. Neither the writer nor anyone else in the woman’s life at the time knew that, as a teenager, she’d had a baby that she’d given up for adoption. It was just now, having reached his twenties, that her son chose to seek out his birth mother.”

Another that appeals is "Flipping Boxcars: A Novel", a debut by Cedric the Entertainer. Buzz Books says:

“Comedian and TV star Cedric the Entertainer’s novel is about close-knit black families and tightly woven communities during the Depression and World War II.”

July 1948, a midnight meet to negotiate the sale of a boxcar full of thirty pallets of whiskey – 3000 cases. Karter is driving Babe’s 1948 Studebaker Commander. At the meet, Babe gets out to discuss the matter with Tommy Wojak.

“Babe tilted his head and took a long look at this guy, this Tommy Wojak, this up and comer, assessing him. Babe knew how to read cards, dice, and especially people. Babe saw gravity in Wojak. Presence. Something about Tommy Wojak’s posture in the moonlight told Babe that Tommy was a person to take seriously.
. . .
‘Let’s cut the bullsh*t. You want this shipment or not?’

Babe paused, for effect, pretending to consider the proposition.

‘I’ll have to consult with my business manager. He’s in the car.’

The Commander’s swung open. Karter unfolded himself from behind the steering wheel, and with surprising speed and athleticism, stepped out of the car. At his first step, the entire road seemed to tremor and sag. Karter kept his guns hidden as he walked toward the three men. Karter stopped suddenly, standing military straight, announcing himself without a word, all six feet ten inches and three hundred fifty pounds of him.

Wojak and his two bodyguards froze at the sight of him.

‘This is your business manager? ’ Wojak said.

‘You heard of J.P. Morgan? ’

‘Yeah. ’

‘This is F.U. Morgan. ’”

I would love to read Patty Lin’s nonfiction book ""End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood. She’s a comedy script writer who’s worked with the best (of whom I’m sure she is one). Check the GR blurb.

Another debut I think looks good is "First Lie Wins" by Ashley Elston.

My last couple of choices are Young Adult novels.

I really like the tone and style of "My Father, The Panda Killer" by Jamie Hoang. The GR blurb will give you a good idea about it.

"Last Girl Breathing", by Court Stevens is a thriller that I want to find the rest of so I can see what happens! Again, check the publisher’s blurb on the book’s GR page

These Buzz Books Samplers are the right price – free! – and good value to spend some time with. It’s easy to skip around, since the Table of Contents links to each story.

NetGalley always has them (thanks for my copy), or you can download them from the Publishers Lunch website.
https://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/

Happy browsing and adding to your library!

Always a must-read when deciding what to request! I've already filled my "caught my eye" folder for fall + winter 2023 reads.

I am so looking forward to a whole bunch of these books! I genuinely cannot wait for the new Kiley Reid!

Not only is this a great resource to find interesting new and upcoming books, you can read a sample of each title so you can get a sense of the style of writing and request books that you're really excited to read. It's such a valuable resource!

This is... definitely overwhelming. I wanted to get a glimpse of new releases and (fortunately?) I don't know many of the authors, so my TBR has not grown as much as I expected when I started reading this 😂 I appreciate the opportunity to get an advanced view of what's coming, though ♥️

summer is not the best season, but Fall is coming and great books with it :) personally, on top of my TBR list, there's Death Valley by the one and only Melissa Broder

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a copy of Buzz Books 2023 for Fall/Winter season. I appreciate the ability to find new and upcoming releases from authors and/or books I have yet to hear about. The two I'm very excited to read and added to my list are: Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead & First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston.

Super helpful! Has a long list of notable upcoming releases including an sample for each of them. I added a lot of titles to my netgalley request list.

Thank you netgalley for this list of fall and winter books! Having a view of upcoming books helps me to plan my summer and fall reading.

'Buzz Books 2023: Fall/Winter' by Publishers Lunch helpful book about end of year 2023 (fall/winter) availability.

I eagerly await each Buzz Books edition and am never disappointed! Not only do I get a heads up about what books are coming from my favorite authors, I'm introduced to new ones. Of particular interest in this edition were The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan, The Favorites by Rosemary Hennigan, Familia, by Lauren Rico, and End Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood by Patty Lin.

There are some interesting looking books coming out this year. I look forward to reading them! The book about the Rothschilds intrigues me.

As I embark on my first exploration of Buzz Book samplers, I'm enthralled by the chance to dive into extracts from a vast selection of books. This venture offers a wealth of possibilities, not only broadening my reading list but also introducing me to emerging talent in the literary sphere. A treasure trove of new authors awaits, some of whom I may have overlooked before. As I'm absorbed in this dynamic tapestry of stories, I'm eager to discover literary treasures that might soon become personal favorites.

I have never seen this publication before however it was pretty helpful with identifying a few upcoming books I was interested in.

I’ll be looking for these every season from here on out! I always love an opportunity to add more to my TBR! Thank you!

I’ve never seen this publication before, but it was a delight to work my way through it this weekend. It helped me identify 3-5 books that I’m really looking forward to reading this fall and winter. I love the way that it is organized according to type of new book,, the excerpt from.each book, and especially the details of each book. This is a five-star resource that I look forward to reviewing again in six months!

I found several books for my TBR list and to request on NetGalley! Thanks for publishing this list. I always look forward to the opportunity to review it.

Thank you for the Buzz Books of Fall/Winter 2023. So great to see so many great books coming up!
I will definitely be reading and reviewing many of these books.

I appreciate the opportunity to read excerpts of new books coming out in order to decide if I’d like to read them!! A smart way to do this!

What a great way to see what’s coming up this fall and winter! I’m so excited for a lot of my fav authors - C Pam Zhang and Lauren Geoff, especially.