Welcome back to The Edit, our monthly column about what people in publishing are actually reading. With everyone finally returning to their desks next week, we’re looking forward to to the fall/winter season. This month, we asked Kristen Arnett, the author of NYT bestselling Mostly Dead Things and most recently Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One which forthcoming books she’s excited about.
In October, Arnett recommends Elena Dudum’s memoir They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful (Atria/One Signal, 10/27). She writes, “This is a book about Palestinian history and father-daughter relationships, but I would also say it’s about a lot more than that. Elena Dudum is thinking and writing a lot about the idea of the burden of proof, especially when it comes to what people are allowed to ‘know’ about home and their own personal experiences. The work telescopes out to show this family’s place in the world, and also effectively turns, zooming inward, allowing the reader to sit and examine the small parts that mean so much to the larger whole. A memoir to capture your attention and your heart.”
For November, Arnett loved Shut Up, I Love You, I’ll Call You Tomorrow (Littlepuss Press, 11/10) “which reads like a fun stranger sitting next to you at a dive bar and unloading all their most fascinating personal history.” She tells PL, “Chicago based, led by a cast of trans women, these are stories about community and care, sure, but they’re also about the myriad ways that people can really mess each other up. After all, what friend group doesn’t have drama? Terrifically funny, witty, acid-drenched writing. It’s like being privy to the wildest you-didn’t-hear-it-from-me gossip. If you’re looking for a book with real party vibes, this is it.”
Finally, in December, she’s looking forward to To Grieve Is To Carry Another Time (Little, Brown, 12/1). “I’ve long been a fan of Matt’s work,” she says. “This memoir isn’t necessarily a departure from his usual fare (which includes a bevy of great fiction along with a very good craft book), but I will say that it is deeply personal. It’s a tender, thoughtful examination of how grief can sit inside a body long after a beloved is lost to us. The formatting here imagines how a person might mentally process – and choose not to process – painful memories and pleasurable attachments. This work could have skewed clinical in its assessment of bereavement, but instead Matt chooses to unpack it all with a great deal of care. This is a loving tribute to the complete attitude of love. It made me cry, but it also made me pause, reconsider, and remember.”
And here at Publishers Lunch, we recently enjoyed John Green’s Hollywood, Ending (Dutton, 9/22), which one staffer calls, “An immersive novel about how it feels to suddenly become famous and the transactions that make it possible, from an author who himself lives a public life.” Another staffer recently read the new Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, 10/6): “I always love a new Barbara Kingsolver and Partita delivers—a resonant love story, for life and music and and the meaning of home.”