RELEASE DAY RECOMMENDS : 8.26.2020
Every week the publishing industry opens the gates of brand spanking new books and out comes a deluge of new and possibly amazing releases. And every week our Founder and sometimes reviewer, Noah Sanders, will act as your donut-shaped floatation device to keep you and your brainy little head above the waters of what you should read.
This week: one man looks at the suburbs, one man goes from the suburbs to the revolution, two women go on a treasure hunt for family secrets and much, much more.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26TH
The Last Great Road Bum
Hector Tobar
MCD
There was a man, a man named Joe. Joe Sanderson. He was, well, a lot of things. A suburban kid. A die-hard road-tripper. A hero of a revolution, somewhere. He’s also dead and never had the opportunity to write any of this fascinating shit down. So, Hector Tobar (author of Deep Down Dark) came across a bunch of Mr. Sanderson’s personal papers (rude) and decided to craft a sneaky fiction-non-fiction hybrid in which Mr. Joe Sanderson - consummate road-trip turned revolutionary - is the main character. He travels the man adventure. His general awesomeness, the reader’s glimmering delight. Very, very curious about this one.
The Sprawl
Jason Diamond
Coffee House Press
I grew up in the suburbs. That’s right, a happy little nuclear family all tucked away with smiles and quality public schools and a golden retriever (I see you gagging) behind what could of (should of?) been a white picket fence. Jason Diamond, to my great surprise, is arguing in The Sprawl that besides all of the homogenous living, the ‘burbs are actually a fecund breeding ground for - gasp! - art. In this series of essays Diamond picks apart the prevailing myth of that tract house spiraled atop each other is more than just bland, pasty faces staring into the evenly trimmed and identical yards of their neighbors.
The Great Offshore Grounds
Vanessa Veselka
Knopf
Is summer a particularly popular time to publish road-trip books? Or are road-trip books just popular publications the whole year round? Or does it matter and can I keep shoving my word mouth full of road-trip books without all of this judgement? Anyways, Vanessa Veselka’s The Great Offshore Grounds is both road-trip novel and treasure hunt novel where two disparate half-sisters inherit a map from their dead father. What will they find when they stumble across spot marked “X”? Secrets! Down-and-dirty, good-old-fashion, life-changing family secrets. Just the way I like it.
El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzman
Alan Feuer
Flatiron Books
Remember El Chapo? The prison-breaking drug lord who kept evading the police? And remember when Sean Penn for some reason got a secret interview with El Chapo and everyone was like, “What the fuck Sean Penn? Are you an FBI agent now? And if not, can we get another season of The First?” I remember that too! And so does journalist Alan Feuer, who’s newest book uses a stunning array of primary sources - interviews, emails, letters, everything - to dig deep into the enormous manhunt that lead to the eventual capture and life-long imprisonment in the United States of Chapo Guzman. It sounds like an action-adventure-rolled-in-a-political-thriller-dipped-in-a-mystery where everything is one-hundred percent real. I’m trying to will the book into my hands right now but I think all the smoke is f’ing up my powers.
Sisters
Daisy Johnson
Riverhead Books
I guess this is the sisters and road-trips edition of The Racket Release Day Recommends as Daisy Johnson’s newest book Sisters focuses on a “thick as thieves” pair of siblings who are moved to a remote coastal town after things go sideways. In their new home, the startling bond between the two becomes just a little too startling and then “shocking encounters” and life outside their tight bubble intervene and everything gets righteously out-of-control. Johnson’s first novel - Everything Under - was nominated for the Booker Prize, the youngest author to ever do so, no less. We are fully committed to a seat on the Daisy Train, just to see where she goes next.
Noah Sanders went on a road-trip with his sibling once. It involved hanging crystals from the rearview mirror and not drinking. He still wonders if he can even refer to it as a road-trip.
