Based on yesterday’s GalleyChat, below are  the titles I’ll be moving to the top of my To-Be-Read pile:

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs, Quirk Books, 6/7

I was intrigued to hear about this one, particularly when I learned it’s from Quirk Books, home of the literary mashup. A YA mystery didn’t seem like their kind of thing. Looking further, I discovered that it is actually the kind of quirky title you might expect from a house with that name. The author collects vintage photos and has combined them with text. John Green (Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska) blurbs it; “A tense, moving, and wondrously strange first novel. The photographs and text work brilliantly together to create an unforgettable story.”

Yes, yes, I know, you need to be suspicious of blurbs, but I don’t think John Green wouldn’t lie to us, especially since he once wrote a heartfelt blog post about the perils of blurbing. Of course, that was five years ago and he may have become less principled since. He does have backup from PW which calls it “an enjoyable, eccentric read, distinguished by well-developed characters, a believable Welsh setting, and some very creepy monsters.”

The Lantern, Deborah Lawrenson, Harper, 8/9

This ARE comes in a beautiful package (Robin B. said she thought she was getting chocolates, but found what’s inside is even better). I’m hooked by the Prologue, which begins, “Some scents sparkle and then quickly disappear like the effervescence of citrus zest…” and ends with a hint of darkness to come, “How can I be frightened by a scent?” It’s described as a modern-day gothic, set in Provence, along the lines of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern, Doubleday, 9/13

Curiosity about this one has been growing on GalleyChat. Yesterday, one library said their entire staff is now behind it. Also an inhouse favorite with the Random House library marketing team, they warn that you “won’t be able to miss it” at both BEA and ALA. It’s available on NetGalley, so your whole staff can read it, too.

The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan, Knopf, 7/12

We highlighted this title earlier this week because it moved up on the Edelweiss list of titles most-ordered by indie booksellers. It’s described as “pretty racy; not for your average Twilight reader” and we got the news that, fittingly, the pages of the finished book will have blood-red edges.

The American Heiress, Daisy Goodwin, St. Martin’s, 6/21

This one caught my eye and is a hit with many on GalleyCat, who describe it as “like a delicious piece of cake” and  “ritzy, scandalous fun”

Someone also pointed out that there’s a new source for forthcoming books chat; the Events Coordinator for the McNally Jackson bookstore has begun a Twitter hashtag for fall books, #fall11books, “to share most anticipated titles.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 at 10:14 am and is filed under 2011 -- Summer, Fiction, GalleyChat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.