USA Today‘s Bob Minzesheimer reports on booksellers’ picks for the fall, based on the opinions of three of them — Amazon’s Sara Nelson, Barnes & Noble’s Patricia Bostelman and, representing the indies, Matt Norcross of the charming McLean & Eakin bookstore in Petoskey, Mich. (someday, Bob, we hope you’ll check in with a librarian or two).

Leading up to the major gift-giving holidays, the fall is filled with household names, so the selections won’t be surprising to anyone who follows the book business. Included are Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; Sept. 24), Stephen King’s long-awaited sequel to The Shining, Jumpa Lahiri’s Lowland, (RH/Knopf; Sept. 24), and Ann Patchett’s This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, (Harper; Oct. 16).

Indie bookseller Norcross picks a slightly lesser known title, Jennifer Dubois’ Cartwheel, (Random House, Sept. 24), a novel that echoes the true crime story of Amanda Knox, but set in Buenos Aires. He says it “will keep you guessing as well as up past your bedtime” (available as digital ARC from Edelweiss and NetGalley). It is also on PW‘s Top Ten Literary Novels of the Fall and is a Millions Most Anticipated pick.  Dubois’ debut, last year’s A Partial History of Lost Causes, was a PEN/Hemingway award finalist.

The so-called “sleeper” picks have also been heralded elsewhere. Hannah Kent’s debut novel, Burial Rites (Little, Brown, Sept. 10), is both a LibraryReads and Indie Next pick (where it is #1) and Help for the Haunted (Morrow, Sept. 17), was a hit at BEA and is on the LibraryReads list.

Also featured in the USA Today section are interviews with three of the seasons “coolest” authors, (curiously, none of them are among the booksellers’ choices)  — Tom Perrotta, for his story collection, Nine Inches, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s, Sept. 10), Veronica Roth for the final book in her YA trilogy, Allegiant, (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen), and Billy Crystal, for the actor/comedian’s memoir, Still Foolin’ ‘Em, (Macmillan/Holt).

And, finally, the section includes a look at the “Season’s 30 Coolest Books.”

For all the Fall book picks to date, see our links at the right, under “Season Previews.”

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