In January, I picked the 25 new releases I was most looking forward to in the first half (or so) of the year. I’m going to add another 12 tomorrow, but first, a quick look back at the first batch and how I’ve fared with them – links are to my reviews:
Read and enjoyed: 9
- Frog: And Other Essays by Anne Fadiman
- Brawler: Stories by Lauren Groff
- Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave [review upcoming for Paris in July!]
- Kin by Tayari Jones
- Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
- Black Bear by Trina Moyles
- It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories by Sigrid Nunez
- Whistler by Ann Patchett
- John of John by Douglas Stuart
Read and found disappointing (i.e., 3 stars or below): 2
- Departure(s) by Julian Barnes
- The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders (Shelf Awareness review pending)
Currently reading / have read part of: 3
- Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller
- Moveable Feasts: A Story of Paris in Twenty Meals by Chris Newens [I’ll return to it and finish for Paris in July]
- The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
DNF: 1
- Our Better Natures by Sophie Ward
I’m really proud of myself for getting to 3/5 of my selections already!! Some of them have been real corkers. I feel like I’m on track for a strong reading year.
On my e-reader but haven’t gotten to yet: 9
- Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel* (I’m reading The Singer’s Gun now and will read this after – it’s supposed to be a sequel of sorts)
- Country People by Daniel Mason (I’ll read it from the library instead)
- Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
- Land by Maggie O’Farrell (I’ll read it from the library instead)
- Patient, Female: Stories by Julie Schumacher
- The Beginning Comes after the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit
- The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain*
- Jan Morris: A Life by Sara Wheeler
- Returns and Exchanges by Kayla Rae Whitaker
*These two are still pre-release.
Haven’t managed to get hold of yet: 1
- Little Vanities by Sarah Gilmartin
Do you choose Most Anticipated books each year? (Or do you prefer to be surprised?) And if you do, do they generally meet your expectations?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Hi Rebecca
We read a lot of reviews. As we run a famous book stall for our community, we get hundreds of books every week, and we visit other free libraries and bookshelves as well. We more or less always find the books we are looking for. It’s only a matter of time. We buy new books in our favourite bookshop as well.
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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It was more a question of whether the books one is most looking forward to reading tend to live up to expectations, or be disappointments.
I can usually access any book I’m interested in through NetGalley or Edelweiss, with a subset also available from the library.
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If go for the reviews in The Guardian, New York Times oder Dagens Nyheter I am rarely disappointed.
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I agree the Guardian previews are very helpful. I also get good ideas from Kirkus.
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I loved Almost Life, The Things We Never Say and Whistler, and I’m looking forward to John of John, Kin and Brawler. Slightly mixed re Hunger and Thirst. I’m hoping this is as far as Fuller will go with horror. And you’ve saved me from The Great Wherever and Our Better Natures.
A few of my favourites so far: Frida Slattery, as Herself, Palaver, Minor Black Figures, The Red Mouth and Venus Vanishing, all of which I had high hopes for.
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I keep thinking of Palaver and Minor Black Figures as 2025 releases because that’s when they came out in the US and I reviewed the former early (and still haven’t gotten through the latter).
I have another 70 pages to go and would agree with you on the Fuller. Her flirtation with genre with her last two books hasn’t panned out.
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I plan to read Land, Exit Party, Little Vanities, Said the Dead and Hunger and Thirst. You are doing really well with your list!
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Thanks! At this point in a year I have usually read a lot fewer. I think it helps that I signed up to read a number of these for paid reviews.
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I have Land, Country People, Whistler, and The Great Wherever on my TBR and on hold at our local library. Glad to hear you enjoyed Whistler. What didn’t work for you for The Great Wherever? I’d love to know!
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Sanders’ previous book, Company, felt more original. This is something of a sequel and, while I enjoyed the witty commentary by the dead relatives, I was always more interested in the present-day storyline than the family’s history.
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Thanks for sharing! I didn’t realize this was a sequel. I’ll have to look up Company. Thanks!
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You don’t have to know the previous book, but the main character and her sister were introduced in it.
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Almost Life and John of John certainly didn’t disappoint, and nor did my most recent read: Castaway by Francesca de Tores. Of all your other choices, it’s the Groff I’m most keen to get hold of. My library’s hanging in there and continuing to buy many new releases. Is yours managing also to keep its head above water?
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I’ve not read de Tores yet, but her swashbuckling tales do appeal.
Yes, my library is holding strong! We’re the flagship branch in the county. Something would be really wrong if it was struggling.
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Hooray for libraries. And for swashbuckling stories too!
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[…] I reported back on how I’ve done with the 25 Most Anticipated books I chose at the beginning of the year. I have […]
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Argh, I just got approved for Exit Party on Netgalley but forgot I wanted to read The Singer’s Gun first. Will need to get that sorted.
I wasn’t bowled over by Land.
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I don’t always love her historical stories, so I’ve been lax about reading this one early (I was approved on Edelweiss ages ago but never started it on my Kindle, which tells you something).
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Good news, The Singer’s Gun is a really quick read, much more so than her others. In other news, if you discovered her via her later books, it might seem a little… slight? And I’m super curious about the new one too… y’all will get to it before me, I’m sure.
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Yeah, I’m a bit hesitant as I was disappointed by Last Night in Montreal – slight is the word.
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They are very similar IMO. Reading chronologically, we can see how her interest in interconnection has existed from the start, and how certain relationships echo one another… but once you see how it coallesces in something like The Glass Hotel, you can’t un-want that complexity, eh? Thank goodness for indie presses who support talented authors for so many years before their Glass-Hotel-novel lands on the scene…
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I don’t, because I’m so bad at spotting them (even with the Guardian and New Statesman who often do previews of the upcoming year). For example, a bio of Larry McMurtry and a memoir by Michael Cunningham have taken me by surprise this month! You have done well, though, yourself!
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It seems pretty random whether I find out about books or not. There are always some that escape my notice until their release month or later.
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Only anticipate when I have a favorite author with a book out – like Patchett and Mandel. Expectations met with Patchett! Highly anticipate the Mandel!
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That’s a clever way of ensuring you’re not let down! All but two of these authors were ones whose work I’d enjoyed before. (And yet I’ve found myself disappointed with four of them so far.) With the other two I went by the subject matter and they ended up working out well for me.
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Still have to pick up John of John. Shuggie Bain is one of my favorite novels of all time and one I return to again and again, almost yearly (on audiobook).
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I DNFed Shuggie Bain when it first came out, but I should try it again now. Sounds like audiobook would be the way to go.
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The audiobook is excellent, but it is a doorstopper!
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