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November is destined to be an exciting month for readers, as many of the industry’s best are returning to bookstores with new literature. Barbara Kingsolver, John Grisham and Philip Roth started the month off strong with their Nov. 3 releases, The Lacuna, Ford Country and The Humbling. Stephen King’s latest novel, Under the Dome (Nov. 10), promises to be as engrossing as his previous 1,000-page epic, The Stand. But hiding behind the press of these famous authors are the stories of a former politician (no, not Sarah Palin), two famous men writing from the grave, and an award-winning short story writer that might just sneak up on us and become this month’s bestsellers.
Our Choice by Al Gore – Nov. 3
It is surprising that this book has not received more attention. After the success of An Inconvenient Truth (the book, the documentary and the album) led to a Nobel Peace Prize, an Academy Award and a Grammy Award, expectations are high for this environmental activism follow-up.
Gore was never one to skirt around the issue. Although the American government often tries to disregard its role in combating global warming, in An Inconvenient Truth Gore laid out the evidence to prove that this glacier-melting threat is one we cannot ignore. After giving us three years to discuss it, Gore has decided that it is time to act. Our Choice encourages readers to band together, bypass political reluctance and use the best of our world’s green artillery to counter the climate crisis.
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton – Nov. 24
With Crichton’s sudden death only a year ago, it is bittersweet to see his name gracing the cover of this posthumous novel. Pirate Latitudes takes us to Port Royal, Jamaica, a wealthy city infamous for privateering (government-sponsored piracy) by 16th-century European rulers. Not much of the plot has been revealed, but it appears that the story centers around characters involved in England and Spain’s political battle for control of Jamaica.
The book is a departure from the science fiction, medical and technology-based thrillers that Crichton is known for, but initial reviews for the book have been positive. In fact, if all goes well, we shall soon see Crichton’s name on the silver screen. DreamWorks Studios has already brought the film rights to Pirate Latitudes, and Steven Spielberg and David Koepp, the duo that brought us the first two Jurassic Park movies, will be teaming up again to create the film adaptation.
The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov – Nov. 17
Readers who pick up a copy of The Original of Laura can know one thing for certain — Nabokov never wanted anyone to read his last work. The Lolita author, who died in 1977, had left explicit instructions for his wife to destroy the note cards containing the rough draft of the story. But the note cards were left intact and Nabokov’s son, Dmitri, ultimately decided to release this final and unfinished novel. It is hard to say whether Dmitri was right in defying his father’s final wishes (Nabokov was a perfectionist and supposedly tried to burn drafts of Lolita as well), but The Original of Laura will undoubtedly give us a glimpse into this Russian genius’s writing process and final thoughts.
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro – Nov. 17
Munro, who is this year’s Man Booker International Prize winner, reminds us why she is Canada’s premier short story writer with Too Much Happiness. The collection contains 10 stories that take readers from Canada to Europe and deal with topics ranging from love, marriage and childhood. These subjects may sound like happy ones, but in Munro’s hands, they are anything but. She infuses a dark undercurrent of despair into all stories and creates a mood of nonchalance that is intoxicating. It is as if her characters watch their actions from an outsider’s perspective, talking about their lives exactly as they perceive them, without control over their destined paths. Readers cannot help but join her characters for the ride.
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