New Year, New Books to Read

Now that 2012 is here, there is a whole new crop of books coming out, yet more books to be added to the “to read” list. 

I thought I might mention just a few books being published in February and March that have generated a lot of excitement.

Julianna Baggott’s Pure, the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogy, is already being compared to Justin Cronin’s The Passage and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games. 

Baggott’s teen/adult crossover dystopian novel takes place after the Detonations in a world where the survivors are divided into the Pures, those living in the Dome unmarked by the apocalypse, and the Wretches, those scarred and damaged by the nuclear blast.  

At age 16, all the Wretches must hand themselves over to the militia to become either soldiers or live targets, depending on how damaged they are.  The movie rights to Pure have already been sold to Fox.

Also being published in February is Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman.  Druckerman, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, moved to Paris (poor thing), had a baby, and observed that French women were more relaxed about raising children than Americans yet their children seemed very well-adjusted. 

She reveals the secrets of French childrearing here.  First the French showed us how to eat properly in French Women Don’t Get Fat, and now they teach us how to raise children.  What’s next?

Lauren Groff’s second novel, Arcadia, is being published in March.  Her first novel, The Monsters of Templeton, was a book club favorite, and Arcadia already shows signs of earning favorite status with book groups as well.

Arcadia is the tale of a 1970s back-to-the-land commune gone to seed in western New York, a commune centered on a crumbling mansion called Arcadia House, where a group of idealists try to live their dream of a perfect life.  If you haven’t read Groff, you’ll want to pick up this novel and enjoy her beautifully crafted sentences.

These are just a few of the new books to look forward to in the next few months.  So many books, so little time!