EBOf course, the fall book I’m most excited about is our very own Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman. But if I venture outside the Harper bubble, this is the book that thrills me:
My Tom Perrotta fandom goes all the way back to high school, when my awesome Fiction Writing teacher (go Ms. Fletcher!) suggested we read his short story collection Bad Haircut. Though I hear them talked about far less often than Little Children and Election, those stories still stand out for me. Before Bad Haircut, most of the short stories I had read were classics. BH was the first book of stories I read about normal people in normal situations, and it was the first to make me cry.
And though I did not tell all this to Tom Perrotta when he signed my galley at BEA, I did tell him I’ve been a fan since then, and he seemed to appreciate it. One result (not sure if it’s a downside or an upside) of working in publishing and working closely with so many authors is that it’s very hard for me to put any author, even one from another house, on a pedestal. But when I waited on that line, I got a fluttery feeling in my stomach. I’m really looking forward to reading this new book and seeing how he brings his sensibility to a dystopian situation.
What fall book are you most excited about? Something you grabbed at BEA, or something else?
