October 2019 in Books: What We'll Be Reading Next

2019 in books: what you'll be reading this year
The Guardian, January 5, 2019

In October there are also new books that any reader who keeps up with the scene can hardly avoid hearing about. Zadie Smith is presenting fresh and perennial short stories in a volume called Grand Union, John Le Carré is publishing the spy novel Agent Running in the Field as mentioned in September, and Philip Pullman is adding The Secret Commonwealth to his Golden Compass books.

In the US, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey have written the book She Said about researching and publishing their news articles about film producer Harvey Weinstein's harassment and abuse.

(A Washington Post article about the rough interview with Bob Woodward at the book launch in Washington, D.C. is here.)

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Meanwhile, I am planning to finish listening to With the Fire on High (the young adult book about a Philadelphia high school student who dreams of becoming a professional chef) by Elizabeth Acevedo, and finish reading Regards from the Dead Princess by Kenizé Mourad.

After that, to read more of Another Country by James Baldwin and Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson in the new English-language translation, and a Larousse paperback volume of Pages choisies by Arthur Rimbaud.

In Berlin's Dussmann Kulturkaufhaus, I've spotted Ayesha At Last, which I've been curious about for a while. It is a romance novel inspired by Pride and Prejudice. It was written in the setting of present-day Toronto, by Uzma Jalaluddin. Its Austenite and Canadian elements draw me, and I'm interested in Muslim life in modern North American and European cities. But I haven't bought it yet.

At the Kulturkaufhaus, I bought Ronja Rövardottar by Astrid Lindgren, to reward my efforts in learning Swedish on Duolingo. But I suspect that a competent dictionary is needed.

Then I've begun regularly reading O megalos peripatos tou Petrou, by Alki Zei. (It's a classic Greek children's story, written in the 1970s and set in 1940s Greece during the Second World War. Despite its subject matter, it is also rather funny.) My Greek colleague is helping by reading it together with me on Thursday afternoons. She has been explaining, for example, the historical context and vocabulary.

Lastly, I want to read more of Ta-Nehisi Coates's essay backlist.

In short, there will be no lack of books to read in October.