There are so many books coming out right now that I'm interested in that I'm having trouble keeping up. And it seems like each of them leads to another book I want to read. My TBR shelves are groaning. But if you hear a hint of complaining in that, you don't know me very well!
Nonfiction
I love all things White House, so you can bet I bought All the Presidents' Gardens just the minute it left the presses. And I've been dithering on Inside the White House for awhile now, so I finally bought a copy. Then there's In Julia's Kitchen, because I seem to share the book industry's fascination with all things Julia Child. This won't be released until Nov. 1.
I happened upon Good Dog on a blog recently, and you can bet I added it to my wish list. This is a collection of essays about dogs written by writers I've actually heard of. Tied Up in Knots: How Getting What We Wanted Made Women Miserable was something I ordered for the library recently, and I decided I'd like to read it, too. I like Tantaros' intelligence and tough-girl fierceness.
History
Bill O'Reilly finally announced the next in the Killing... series, Killing the Rising Sun, about the United States and Japan at the end of World War II. I also added The Day Kennedy Was Shot and The Day Lincoln Was Shot to my list when Brady Carlson recommended one of them. I expect them to be very similar to O'Reilly's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln.
And because I can't get enough of World War II stories, I've added So Close To Home about an American family's fight for survival after a U-boat attack.
I also added Juan Williams' We the People. I am quite familiar with Juan from Fox News, and I enjoy his moderate liberal stance, even if I don't always agree with it. This tome deals with the American heroes since the founding fathers, folks like Eleanor Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Billy Graham.
Fiction
(Color-coordinating optional.) I finally, and enthusiastically, added The Nightingale to my list after Swapna gave it a glowing review on her blog. I've also added the war story Everyone Brave Is Forgiven to my list hoping to relive a little of the feeling I had when I read The Summer before the War (though they are about different World Wars).
I also added the first Maisie Dobbs mystery to my list, just to see if it's a series I'd like to explore.
The Sport of Kings is another novel I was asked to order for the library that intrigued me. Ever since Seabiscuit I've had a soft spot for horse racing, and here's 550 pages of it.
Memoirs and Biographies
I was on IMBD the other day when I stumbled across the next Meryl Streep movie (if Meryl's in a movie, I'll watch it, no questions asked), Florence Foster Jenkins, also staring Howard from The Big Band Theory. The book is out in July, and the movie is out in August, I believe. It's the true story of a woman who couldn't sing but did anyway and developed a following and boosted morale during WWII.
While reading Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends, I was inspired to look into a Cary Grant biography (Lowe dated Grant's daughter, Jennifer, and Grant was very kind to the young actor), and I found one written by his wife, Dyan Cannon (Dear Cary), and one written by his daughter Jennifer (Good Stuff). I plan to read both.
Books on the Table, a very thoughtful book blog, posted an author interview with Betsy Lerner, author of The Bridge Ladies recently, and it sold me on the book. It's sort of a true-life Joy Luck Club with Jewish ladies instead of Chinese ladies and bridge instead of mahjong. (There's nothing about that sentence I don't love.)
I also finally looked into Only in Naples, because I've been hankering for a foodie memoir, and I think this one will be very satisfying (though I'm not sure how foodie it is).
And because I read most any Kennedy biography that comes out, I was excited to see Jean Kennedy Smith will be releasing a memoir about growing up Kennedy called The Nine of Us in October.
Ever since watching the magnificent movie 42 about Jackie Robinson, I've wanted to read his autobiography, I Never Had it Made. The man fascinates me. I'm also dying to see the Ken Burn's biography of him recently released.
When my father was in the Navy in the 1960s, my grandmother enrolled him a book-of-the-month club. One of those books he brought home and parked on a shelf was Papa Hemingway. I remember looking at it when I was a kid and just loving the photo of Ernest Hemingway. I always thought I'd like to know what was in that book. Well, all these years later, I think it's time to find out. The book is written by a biographer friend of Hemingway's, so presumably the stories are first-hand and intimate.
Poetry
At the rate I'm reading poetry, I'll have no problem reaching my goal to read 1,000 poems in 2016. I'm adding new titles to my list of poetry books all the time. Recently I added Roger Housden's Dancing with Joy; I've enjoyed many of his other collections, and I'm kind of a sucker for joy books.
I've eagerly awaited the new collection of lost Pablo Neruda poems, and I bought a copy right away. He's known for his love poems and his odes to ordinary things like onions and socks.
I've added Billy Collins' Nine Horses, The Apple That Astonished Paris, The Art of Drowning, and Questions about Angels to my list to finish out my goal of buying and reading all of Collins' work.
Lastly, the last volume of Philip Levine's poems, The Last Shift, is due out in November. I've long enjoyed Levine's work.
Children's
I've wanted to read something by Kate DiCamillo for awhile now, and I think I may start with her newest book, Raymie Nightingale, as I read in a recent interview that it's partly autobiographical.
I've read that Wolf Hollow is the new To Kill a Mockingbird, and I've definitely got to check out that assertion.
Ever since The 50 States came into the library, I've wanted to read it. When I was little, my brother had a book called Fabulous Facts about the 50 States that he read (and quizzed me from) until it fell apart. I was the only kid going into my fourth grade class knowing her state capitals. Though The 50 States is for younger kids, maybe I can find something to quiz my brother on.
I'm also eagerly awaiting Ken Burns' Grover Cleveland, Again! due out in July.
And because I'm loving How to Build a Car, I've added How to Build a Plane and How to Build a Motorcycle to my list of books to read. I love kid's book where I learn something.
Whew! That was quite the list.
What books are YOU looking forward to this spring and summer?
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