Coming soon lists are some of the most exciting things to look forward to, especially at the beginning of a new year. People eagerly wait to see what’s on the horizon within industries like film and television, but there are also other sectors with their own predictions and fanbases. For bibliophiles, it’s all about the most anticipated books.
Books fall into two main categories: fiction and nonfiction. Within these two genres are subcategories, such as science fiction, thriller, romance, just to name a few. A spot on the best selling list is determined by the number of copies sold and it varies depending on the publication producing the list. The Wall Street Journal requires around 3,000 copies sold within the first week, while The New York Times demands upwards of 9,000. Usually, once an author has made the list, their next book is highly anticipated but there are also novice writers who generate enthusiastic buzz.
In the poetry sector, there is no shortage of collections to look forward to, both from debuting and published authors. The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed discusses the ways black bodies are imagined by their white brothers. In My Baby First Birthday by Jenny Zhang, she once again delivers a completely unique take on the world.
In the Young Adult (YA) genre, the Hunger Games was a huge hit, so it’s no surprise the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins is highly anticipated. It takes place 60 years before the well-known trilogy and has a cult-like following. Another title that takes center stage in the #MeToo era is My Dark Vanessa written by Kate Elizabeth Russell. It tells the story of a woman who must relive her past in order to face someone she thought was a beloved mentor who turned out to be a predator.
Within the nonfiction realm, Untitled, by Chelsea Manning gives insight into the mind of the former Army intelligence analyst jailed for sharing classified information with the nonprofit news source, WikiLeaks. And in this post-9/11 world, there is no shortage of tales of anti-muslim sentiment. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar, is a second novel that explores what the American dream now looks like for some people.
Empathetic, well-researched books about mental and physical illnesses are a genuine gift. Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, by Robert Kolker explores how six of 12 children in a single-family are all diagnosed with schizophrenia. Kolker also gave us The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an incredulous tale of the first-ever person to provide immortal human cells for scientific research that are still being used to this day.