Amazon and Barnes & Noble both posted their February “books of the month”–and both booksellers agree with the Indie Next list in selecting Herman Koch’s THE DINNER and Karen Russell’s VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE (as long as you have read her splendid SWAMPLANDIA! first). The WSJ also echoes the positioning of Koch’s book as “the European GONE GIRL” today.
Additionally, Amazon picks:
Wise Men, Stuart Nadler (their “spotlight” selection)
Schroder, Amity Gaige
After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, Michael Hainey
A History of Future Cities, Daniel Brook
Autobiography of Us, Aria Beth Sloss
How Literature Saved My Life, David Shields
Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, Jenna Miscavige Hill, Lisa Pulitzer
A Week in Winter, Maeve Binchy
Middle Men: Stories, Jim Gavin
Separately, Barnes & Noble recommends:
See Now Then, Jamaica Kincaid
Exploding the Phone, Phil Lapsley
The Rainbow Troops, Andrea Hirata
Detroit, Charlie LeDuff
The Queen’s Agent, John Cooper
Harvest, Jim Crace
Top Dog, Po Bronson
The Age of Edison, Ernest Freeberg
After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, Michael Hainey
Eighty Days, Matthew Goodman
Looking further ahead, the ABA has posted their March Indie Next List (which echoes a couple of the February BN picks):
#1. Benediction, by Kent Haruf
After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, by Michael Hainey
With or Without You: A Memoir, by Domenica Ruta
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel, by Mohsin Hamid
A Thousand Pardons: A Novel, by Jonathan Dee
Rage Against the Dying: A Novel, by Becky Masterman
The Obituary Writer: A Novel, by Ann Hood
The Beggar’s Opera: An Inspector Ramirez Novel, by Peggy Blair
A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki
Fever: A Novel, by Mary Beth Keane
Ghana Must Go: A Novel, by Taiye Selasi
The Demonologist: A Novel, by Andrew Pyper
The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow: A Novel, by Rita Leganski
Mary Coin: A Novel, by Marisa Silver
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, by Matthew Goodman
Frances and Bernard: A Novel, by Carlene Bauer
We Live in Water: Stories, by Jess Walter
Her: A Memoir, by Christa Parravani
I Want to Show You More: Stories, by Jamie Quatro
The Sound of Broken Glass: A Novel, by Deborah Crombie
Full List, with comments