Thursday, May 07, 2009

A visual preview of the fall season, part one

There are a lot of forthcoming titles to preview, so I'll be posting about them in multiple installments. The common element within this grouping should be obvious; let's call them the Daughters of Autumn...


The struggle between traditional values and modernity, as seen from the viewpoint of a young woman in occupied Korea in the early 20th century; inspired by the life of the author's mother. Henry Holt, Aug.


It's been ages since anyone's written a novel about Cleopatra Selene (and the version I'd read wasn't all that good), so I'm looking forward to this one. Nice cover, too; the red makes a statement! Crown, September.


Li X’ia, daughter of an elderly spice farmer and his teenage concubine in early 20th-century China, evades her father's plans for her and flees, vowing to fulfill her mother's dreams of becoming a scholar. St. Martin's Griffin, Sept.


Mary Tudor's life story, as seen through her own eyes. Lee has previously written other novels set in 16th-c England (A Question of Guilt, plus The Spanish Bride as Laurien Gardner). NAL, Dec.


I'm not a big fan of prehistoric fiction; Auel's novels never did it for me, though I enjoyed Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's Reindeer Moon and The Animal Wife. This one looks to be different, plus I love the cover. It's set amid a matriarchal culture in southeast Africa half a million years ago. S&S, Aug.


A YA historical about Albia, the (imagined) daughter of Macbeth and his lady, who is raised in the woods by three strange sisters; from the author of Ophelia. Do YAs prefer more modern-looking covers? This doesn't say "historical" to me at all. Bloomsbury Children's, Oct.


An interpretation of Jane Austen's Lady Susan which transforms the short epistolary novella into a full-fledged novel about two aristocratic women, Susan and her daughter Frederica, who navigate their place in Regency society. Co-written by a mother-daughter team, with letters reproduced from the original. Crown, Oct.


Abigail Adams turns detective in the first volume of a new historical mystery series set in Revolutionary-era Boston. Berkley, Sept.


The imagined story of Harriet, daughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, who leaves Monticello at age twenty-one and, with her red hair and light skin, easily passes for white. This reissue is the sequel to Chase-Riboud's classic Sally Hemings (reissued by Chicago Review Press in April), the novel which brought renewed attention to this enigmatic woman. Chicago Review, Sept.


Third in a trilogy about the intelligent, talented daughters of medieval Talmudic scholar Rashi. Rachel, her father's favorite, finds her life torn apart during the First Crusade. Plume, August.


The Crusades as seen from the viewpoint of Khalidah, a young Bedouin woman; this is an engrossing literary novel set in 12th-century Arabia, a time and place many Western readers know little about. I read it from the UK edition last year. Berkley, Oct.

17 comments:

  1. I am very excited about Cleopatra's Daughter and Her Mother's Daughter!

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  2. Posts like this and the ones that Amy does really explode my wishlist!

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  3. Hey thanks so much for this list! I love books and I love reading historical fiction where the protagonist is a female. I've added most of these books to my Amazon cart (and wishlist for reference).

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  4. I am really looking forward to Michelle Moran's new book! She hasn't disappointed yet. :)

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  5. The visual previews are great! Keep up the good work.

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  6. Can't wait for Cleopatra's Daughter, the Presidents daughter and the Sand one.

    And yes sometimes teens need to be tricked in order to read HF. Its a hard sell in my library.

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  7. Very excited about the Sand Daughter and Cleopatra's daughter. Tales I haven't come across before. Thanks!

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  8. Did you purposely choose to highlight books with "Daughter" in the title, or did the majority of the books coming out actually have a variation on the daughter title? Talk about a trend!

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  9. Julianne - about a third of the books I'd intended to preview had "daughter" in the title. I found this rather striking and thought I'd highlight them as a group!

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  10. The President's Daughter cover is a detail of a gorgeous picture by one of my favorite 19th century Romantic painters, Caspar David Friedrich. In case anyone is wondering. ;-)

    "Sunflowers" only just had its cover art finalized last week, after some last-minute discussion and a switcheroo. I'll be posting an image on my blog once I am sent a good highres jpeg. I'm hoping it'll be up soon on Amazon et al. I like it a lot. No headless woman. Nor earless man for that matter!!!! ;-)

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  11. Sheramy, I'm looking forward to seeing your new cover! HarperCollins had what must have been an earlier version in their online catalog.
    I've never seen the image from President's Daughter before and agree that it's gorgeous!

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  12. When I was working at Borders I remember having a conversation with a fellow employee about the number of books that have "The _______'s daughter" as a title! Funny how popular it is.

    I'm really excited about the Lisa Klein book, as I loved Ophelia! That book has a similar cover... a young girl's face that looks kind of modern.

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  13. On Vine today they had Calligrapher's Daughter as one of the choices. I snagged myself a copy :)

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  14. Cool! Be interested to hear what you think.

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  15. Right, that's it. Both 'Queen' and 'Daughter' are out of my next book title. Talk about an overstuffed wardrobe. One third is rather horrifying.
    Looking forward to reading many of them - if I can remember which is which!

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  16. Hi Sarah, Yes, that is one of the early versions in the online Avon catalog. Everyone liked that one, but then apparently a new boss on the scene wanted something that looked more contemporary with new art (not a VvG painting). I got something new to see. Discussion ensued. End result: the new cover has a different detail from the same Sunflower painting in the version you saw, but they changed the typeface and it does have a different tone. Last I heard 2 weeks ago, that one was the final, but it's still not up anyplace.

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  17. I'm not sure how I missed your blog before but you are a girl after my own heart! I want to read ALL of these great upcoming books! Thanks for posting them.

    Carey

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