New books in 2011 (part 2)

So back in February, I wrote a blog post about 10 books I was looking forward to in 2011. So far, I’ve bought 4 of the 10 and read 1 of them – not all that impressive. I did however like the one I read – Gail Carriger Heartless.

But of course, a list of 10 books could not contain all the exciting books of the year so I’ve decided to write about some other books coming out this year that are very exciting.

First of, Tom Perrotta has a new novel out – and it got a cover review on New York Times Book Review. And as if this wasn’t impressive enough, the review was written by none other than Stephen King! (See the review here). I read Little Children last summer and I enjoyed it a lot and I have The Abstinence Teacher waiting on the shelf where The Leftovers will join it. Hopefully I’ll get around to reading them both soon!

And the man himself, Stephen King, also has a new novel out. 11/22/63 will hit stores November 8th 2011 and is about a man traveling back in time to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. I think King is an excellent story teller so I’m looking forward to this one – hopefully it will be better than Under the Dome!

I’m a huge fan of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and even though I’m not a crime novel reader, I’m really looking forward to reading his take on crime novels – especially since it seems to be inspired more by crime novels like then one by Agatha Christie than the modern novels by Swedish, Danish and Norwegian crime writers… Snuff is out in October 2011.

This year’s Man Booker award also has a lot of interesting books on the longlist. I listen to the Guardian’s Book podcast a lot and they cover this award so this is my favorite book award – besides the Nobel Prize which is always fun (and being announced in just a few days now).

One of these is Stephen Kelman Pigeon English which also has made it onto the shortlist. This is a book about a boy from Ghana and how he tries to find his way in England – as well as investigate a murder.

Another is Sebastian Barry On Canaan’s Side about a woman who looses her grandson. Since it spans seven decades, it also tells the story of her entire life from when she fled Dublin at the end of WW1 and how she came to America.

There’s also The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness about the last days of the Romanian revolution of 1989.

So again – more books to check out if anybody need any suggestions … sighs … I know I have plenty of books waiting already but hopefully I’ll get around to reading all of these as well. At some point. Probably not this year …