An autumn basket of ARCs

This fall season is certainly getting off to a soggy start, weather wise, but one thing that is keeping crisp during these damp days are new book releases.

On my ever growing TBR, I have at least three advance readers copies (aka ARCs) that are due out in stores soon and hopefully my actual reading pace will catch up with them soon .In the meanwhile. let’s take a look at this set of promising new reads to see if any of you out there want to add a couple of them to your own bookish piles.

Two of these ARCs are from Simon & Schuster’s Simon Book Buddies program that I learned about on Instagram (yes, I am on there with my biblio photo shoots!) and the first one up is The Future by Naomi Alderman, set in a not too distant time period where corporate executives are planning to hide out from an impeding apocalypse without bothering to warn regular folks.

To possibly prevent this doomsday scenario from becoming reality, a trio of women that range from an escapee from her father’s cult who is now the executive assistant to a  tech billionaire to one who deems herself a “survivalist influencer’ and the wife of that billionaire that happens to have plenty of coding skills herself.

Can these three save the day or just manage to save themselves? Alderman’s previous novel, The Power, was an amazing look at gender politics and this book should be quite the black mirror for our current state of social class warfare indeed(November):

Arriving even sooner to a bookstore near you is a debut mystery by Ritu Mukerju, Murder by Degrees, set in Philadelphia of 1875 where a teaching doctor finds herself seeking more than a medical solution to a patient’s case.

Dr. Lydia Weston teaches by day at the women’s medical college and by night, works at a clinic for the less financially able residents of the city. 

One of her clinic patients is Anna Ward, maid to the influential wealthy couple of Edward and Beatrice Curtis. When Anna mysteriously disappears and is later found dead in a nearby river, Dr. Weston teams up with Dr. Harlan Stanley, the medical consultant to the police as well as her mentor, to find out what truly happened to Anna and who is behind her untimely demise.

This sounds engaging and I do enjoy historical mysteries there. Murder by Degrees is said to be the first in a series and getting a head start on the adventures of a smart and savvy lady sleuth who is well ahead of her time is a page turning journey worth exploring to be sure(October): 

The last yet far from least arc of this bunch is a NetGalley novel that takes some very different dance moves from the renowned holiday tale of The Nutcracker.

Erika Johansen’s The Kingdom of Sweets has two leading ladies, young Clara and her twin sister Natasha with the latter being cursed upon birth by the wizard Drosselmeyer to have all of the misfortune while her sister receives nothing but the best in life.

That fateful Christmas as Clara begins her journey to the title kingdom, Natasha takes a trip of her own and finds a most unexpected ally, one willing to make a magical bargain that will earn them both the revenge on their enemies. 

As her vengeance becomes bittersweet, Natasha must decide if she truly wants to take this vendetta all the way or try to pull back before it’s too late for all involved.

Johansen’s Tearling trilogy was a wildly creative ride and seeing this familiar fantasy come to fresh life on the page is a sinister sweet treat(November):

Taking more time for reading right now is a good idea as even though the writer’s strike is close to ending (and hopefully the actors/animators/video game developers are next!), it will be awhile before new movies and shows are ready to be engaged with.

Not to mention that Fall is prime literary time with the colder weather bringing on the need for sweaters and warm drinks, plus curling up like a cat to read by a window as the colorful leaves decorate the outside world. Yeah, I really need to rewatch You’ve Got Mail sometime soon: