I am looking forward to new novels, May/June.

Looking through the advance publicity, I see some novels scheduled for publication this spring and summer that sound interesting. I know from experience that you cannot tell a book by the cover- and it is also true that you cannot tell a book by the advance publicity.

Anyway, here is my current thinking as I leaf through "Publishers Weekly"-

• "So Brave, Young, and Handsome" by Leif Enger. I enjoyed "Peace like a River", so I will try this tale of an aging train robber on a quest to reconcile the elements of his life. May 2008.
• "The Other" by David Guterson. I enjoyed Guterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars" a lot. This novel involves two outdoorsmen, long time friends, one of whom decides to live off the grid. June 2008.
• "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer. Meyer is the author of the immensely popular "Twilight" series for young adults, involving the love between a human girl and a hundred year old male vampire. This new book is an adult novel which involves a future in which the human race faces a deadly threat from aliens- the lead character being a human female who is infected with an alien presence that shares her mind. May 2008.
• "The Garden of Last Days" by Andre Dubus III. Remember "the house of sand and fog"? Dubus' new novel centers around a stripper who brings her 3 year old daughter to work. June 2008.
• "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith. A first novel by a former screenwriter, features a Russian cop during the dark days of Stalinism who struggles to identify a man who is killing children along a train line despite the indifference of the government and the unwillingness of anyone to trust anyone in a land of informers. (Reminds me a bit of "Gorky Park") May 2008
• "The Sugar Queen" by Sarah Addison Allen. May 2008. I enjoyed Allen's debut novel this year- "Garden Spells". No, it's not that deep, but she is an imaginative writer not afraid to cross a few lines. This second effort from her features a shy young woman in North Carolina who falls in love with her mailman. I need one more book to decide how much I lke this author- which is also true of
• "Belong to me" by Marisa de los Santos. Marisa's debut novel, "Love Walked In", was discussed here on Gather. It had an appealing originality and unpredictability in exploring the idea of Love from several angles. Her second novel will explore the role of accidents in the choices of friend, lover, and spouse. I'm in, Marisa. May 2008.

and FYI, I plan to follow this with a short list of the most interesting sounding Nonfiction for the next few months.