Fall Releases 2017

There are always plenty of book goodness that is released during the fall season. So many that it is hard to keep up with all of them. Fall and winter are my favorite seasons and new book releases just makes it better. I love the colder weather, the longer nights, and the holidays that generally make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Snuggly blankets, warm sweaters, burning candles, a comfy place to read, and a stack of good books waiting to be read are the aesthetics that makes my heart sing. I can't wait! 

If you are ready to get a fall TBR list going, check out these releases to get yourself ready for the upcoming reading season!

Sweet Stallion by Deborah Fletcher Mello (9/1): They're not as different as she thinks After scoring phenomenal success in Phoenix with her organic food co-op, Naomi Stallion is ready to introduce Vitally Vegan to her Utah town. But meeting her half siblings and the extended family she never knew isn't the homecoming she'd hoped for. And now a nasty bidding war over the property Naomi wants to buy pits the unconventional lifestyle coach against sexy, uberconservative corporate attorney Patrick O'Brien. Behind the power suit, ruggedly handsome looks and dazzling legal maneuvers, Patrick's a country guy at heart. His attraction to the beautiful farmer who marches to the beat of her own unique drum makes him question his loyalty to the investment conglomerate he represents. The stakes rise when someone close to them both threatens Naomi's business, forcing Patrick to choose between his career...and the woman he yearns to make his lifelong partner.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (9/5): A searing and profound Southern odyssey by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi's past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. Ward is a major American writer, multiply awarded and universally lauded, and in Sing, Unburied, Sing she is at the height of her powers.

Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.by Danielle S. Allen (9/5): Michael Alexander Allen, the baby cousin of an extended family, was first arrested at fifteen for an attempted carjacking. Tried as an adult and sentenced to thirteen years, Michael served eleven. Three years after his release, he was shot and killed. Why? Why did this gifted young man, who dreamed of being a firefighter and a writer, end up dead? Why did he languish in prison? And why at fifteen was he in an alley in South Central LA, holding a gun while trying to steal someone’s car? Cuz means both “cousin” and “because.” Danielle Allen grew up with Michael and, in 2006 when Michael got out of prison, was cousin-on-duty, shouldering the responsibility to support his fresh start while juggling the demands of her own promising academic career. In this Ellisonian story of a young African-American man’s coming-of-age in late twentieth-century America, and of the family who will always love Michael, we learn how we lost a generation.

The Truth of Things by Tasha L. Harrison (9/5):  You can read a excerpt from The Truth of Things on Harrison's website!

“Where I come from, cops aren't super heroes.”

Photojournalist and wedding photographer, Ava Marie Greene, doesn’t ever want to fall in love and not in the I-just-haven’t-met-right-man kinda way either. Ava is a hopeless romantic, but too much hurt and disappointment keep her hiding behind the camera. Through her lens, she sees the truth of things, the difference between real and fantasy, and she thinks she has a good handle on it until she has a run-in with her friendly neighborhood policeman, Levi Raymond.

“Not all cops…”

A tad arrogant, and a bit of a cornball, Ava knows that this Levi could make her second-guess every thought she ever had about cops. She tries to make it clear to Officer Friendly that she doesn't need saving, but he when Ava finds herself on the wrong side of the law, will he be the hero she needs or toe the "thin blue line?"

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (9/12): When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.
When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. A rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas, Bluebird, Bluebird is an exhilarating, timely novel about the collision of race and justice in America. 

Justice Leah Ward Sears: Seizing Serendipity by Rebecca Shriver Davis (9/15): This is the first full biography of Justice Leah Ward Sears. In 1992 Sears became the first woman and youngest justice to sit on the Supreme Court of Georgia. In 2005 she became the first African American woman to serve as chief justice of any state supreme court in the country. This book explores her childhood in a career military family; her education; her early work as an attorney; her rise through Georgia’s city, county, and state court systems; and her various pursuits after leaving the supreme court in 2009, when she transitioned into a life that was no less active or public.

As the biography recounts Sears’s life and career, it is filled with instances of how Sears made her own luck by demonstrating a sharpness of mind and sagacious insight, a capacity for grueling hard work, and a relentless drive to succeed. Sears also maintained a strict devotion to judicial independence and the rule of law, which led to decisions that would surprise conservatives and liberals alike, earned the friendship of figures as diverse as Ambassador Andrew Young and Justice Clarence Thomas, and solidified a reputation that would land her on the short list of replacements for two retiring U.S. Supreme Court justices.

As a woman, an African American, a lawyer, and a judge, Sears has known successes as well as setbacks. Justice Leah Ward Sears shows that despite political targeting, the death of her beloved father, a painful divorce, and a brother’s suicide, she has persevered and prevailed.

His True Strength: Queens of Kings: Book 5: (9/19) Their enemies will learn…they’re unstoppable together.

Dr. True Amare, Captain in the United States Navy, sacrificed everything for her country. One op gone wrong took her hope, her freedom, and the love of her life, Teague Maher. Twelve years later, as she struggles to put that terrible night behind her by bringing those responsible to justice, her country has one more request, “Do it all again.”

Teague Maher, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, was forced by his government to give up his life, leave the woman he loves, and protect a queen. Twelve years later, they’re sending him home to his enemies, to the one woman he could never forget, and the scorching memories of the two of them together.

In a last-ditch effort to bring the Azurian conflict to a close, Teague and True are forced to put their differences aside and work together. Unfortunately for them, their teams, and likely the world, that proves difficult when Teague sees only the young woman he used to command in and out of the bedroom, and not the unshakable leader she’s become.

Can she trust him with her heart? Can he lay his life, pride, and ego at her feet, and understand that then and now, their love is his true strength?

The Perfect Present by Rochelle Alers, Cheris Hodges and Pamela Yaye (9/26): 

A CHRISTMAS LAYOVER Rochelle Alers 

When Navy SEAL Captain Noah Crawford and elementary school teacher Sierra Nelson meet on a plane headed east from San Diego, they're glad to pass the time in friendly conversation. But when a freak storm grounds them, Sierra offers Noah a place to spend the night--with her extended family, all of whom assume they're a couple. And as the holiday spirit infuses every moment they spend together, they both begin to wonder if a relationship is a special gift they didn't expect . . . 

THE CHRISTMAS LESSON Cheris Hodges 

Kayla Matthews isn't looking forward to heading home this Christmas. Divorced and struggling, nothing has turned out the way she expected--including her childhood friend, DeShawn Carter. Now the high school principal, he's also the kind of man she's always dreamed about. But before the holidays are over, Kayla has a chance to reclaim everything she once thought she wanted--or prove to DeShawn that they have a second chance worth celebrating . . . 

CHRISTMAS WITH YOU Pamela Yaye

Celebrity stylist Maya Malone can't find anything joyous about the season, not since her ex-fiance left her on Christmas Eve. But one look at suave, sexy sports agent Marc Cunningham is almost enough to change her mind. Their instant attraction feels like the best sort of present, except for one very large obstacle--Maya's NFL star big brother, Marc's new client. It will take more than holiday spirit to convince everyone involved that Marc and Maya's connection will make the angels sing . . .

Never Christmas Without You by Nana Malone and Reese Ryan (10/1): 

Just for the Holidays by Nana Malone 

Justin Morrison would do anything to make his ailing grandmother happy. Even if that means inventing a fake girlfriend to take home for the holidays. His best friend, Alex Winters, reluctantly agrees, but it's not easy to keep her long-buried feelings for Justin under wraps when they're sharing a room…a bed…a kiss. Christmas in Catalina is turning out to be hotter than anyone expected, but is theirs a love for all seasons? 

His Holiday Gift by Reese Ryan 

Pleasure Cove's prodigal son just got the ultimate Christmas surprise—Madison, his five-year-old daughter he knew nothing about. Maddie's aunt, Mikayla Mitchell, was once one of Dash Williams's best friends…and his secret admirer. Now, seeing the sexy, ambitious lawyer with his little girl, Mikayla's more smitten than ever. And Dash is starting to realize Mikayla's the only one who could make his days merry and bright, and fill his nights with bliss…

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (10/3):  We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.

We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (10/3 for paperback): Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.

Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

We're Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True by Gabrielle Union (10/17): In the spirit of Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl, and Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, a powerful collection of essays about gender, sexuality, race, beauty, Hollywood, and what it means to be a modern woman.

One month before the release of the highly anticipated film The Birth of a Nation, actress Gabrielle Union shook the world with a vulnerable and impassioned editorial in which she urged our society to have compassion for victims of sexual violence. In the wake of rape allegations made against director and actor Nate Parker, Union—a forty-four-year-old actress who launched her career with roles in iconic ’90s movies—instantly became the insightful, outspoken actress that Hollywood has been desperately awaiting. With honesty and heartbreaking wisdom, she revealed her own trauma as a victim of sexual assault: "It is for you that I am speaking. This is real. We are real."

In this moving collection of thought provoking essays infused with her unique wisdom and deep humor, Union uses that same fearlessness to tell astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards, and competition between women in Hollywood, growing up in white California suburbia and then spending summers with her black relatives in Nebraska, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents. Genuine and perceptive, Union bravely lays herself bare, uncovering a complex and courageous life of self-doubt and self-discovery with incredible poise and brutal honesty. Throughout, she compels us to be ethical and empathetic, and reminds us of the importance of confidence, self-awareness, and the power of sharing truth, laughter, and support.

A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter by Nikki Giovanni (10/24):   As energetic and relevant as ever, Nikki now offers us an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. In A Good Cry, she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents’ marriage and her early life. She pays homage to the people who have given her life meaning and joy: her grandparents, who took her in and saved her life; the poets and thinkers who have influenced her; and the students who have surrounded her. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared before Angelou’s death in 2014.

Deadly Rumors by Cheris Hodges (10/31): Elite investigator Zoe Harrington isn't about to be fooled twice. She knows all the tempting by-any-means-necessary games FBI agent Carver Banks will use to close a case. So when he needs her help with a missing person case, she's happy to charge him double the fee—and keep his sizzling moves at arm’s length. But when the search strikes too close to home, Zoe finds the passion between them reigniting past the danger point . . . 

Carver doesn't want to deceive Zoe again. He's never stopped wanting the sexy private detective who can match him play for passionate play. But she's at the top of a hit list. And he'll do whatever it takes to keep her out of harm’s way—until Zoe uncovers his true agenda. Now, how can he prove his love for her is real? And with time running out, will their one chance to survive mean losing each other forever?

If you are a YA fan, these are the upcoming releases that I am tempted by. I already have Akata Witch on my shelf to read this fall, so I'll be picking up Akata Warrior too. 

Shadowhouse Fall (Shadowshaper #2) by Daniel José Older (9/12): Sierra and her friends love their new lives as shadowshapers, making art and creating change with the spirits of Brooklyn. Then Sierra receives a strange card depicting a beast called the Hound of Light -- an image from the enigmatic, influential Deck of Worlds. The shadowshapers know their next battle has arrived.

Thrust into an ancient struggle with enemies old and new, Sierra and Shadowhouse are determined to win. Revolution is brewing in the real world as well, as the shadowshapers lead the fight against systems that oppress their community. To protect her family and friends in every sphere, Sierra must take down the Hound and master the Deck of Worlds . . . or risk losing them all.

Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor (10/3): A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book. 

Eventually, Sunny knows she must confront her destiny. With the support of her Leopard Society friends, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha, and of her spirit face, Anyanwu, she will travel through worlds both visible and invisible to the mysteries town of Osisi, where she will fight a climactic battle to save humanity.

Much-honored Nnedi Okorafor, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, merges today’s Nigeria with a unique world she creates. Akata Warrior blends mythology, fantasy, history and magic into a compelling tale that will keep readers spellbound.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone (10/17): Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.

Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.

Calling My Name by Liara Tamani (10/24): Calling My Name, by debut author Liara Tamani, is a striking, luminous, and literary exploration of family, spirituality, and self—ideal for readers of Jacqueline Woodson, Jandy Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sandra Cisneros.

This unforgettable novel tells a universal coming-of-age story about Taja Brown, a young African American girl growing up in Houston, Texas, and deftly and beautifully explores the universal struggles of growing up, battling family expectations, discovering a sense of self, and finding a unique voice and purpose.

Told in fifty-three short, episodic, moving, and iridescent chapters, Calling My Name follows Taja on her journey from middle school to high school. Literary and noteworthy, this is a beauty of a novel that deftly captures the multifaceted struggle of finding where you belong and why you matter.