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NEW TITLES: NON-FICTION SEPTEMBER
Caroline Sanderson
NON- FICTION
September sees a shake-up this year with the seasonal favourites counterbalanced by publishing of a more serious kind
Y
ou expected this month to be all celebrity memoirs, cheffy cookbooks, and humour titles about cats chonged
on catnip, right? Well, it does have all those things, but September is also surprisingly serious, with several smart and searching examinations of the state we’re in, from Alan Rusbridger’s stirring defence of quality journalism in Breaking News, and Man Booker chair of judges Kwame Anthony Appiah’s fresh perspective on identity in The Lies That Bind, to Oliver Bullough’s searing exposé of the offshore money-laundering tricks that are contributing to growing inequality in our world.
And even my Book of the Month Help Me! by Marianne Power—an often laugh-out-loud account of road-testing some of the most totemic books in the self-help canon—has its serious side.
In a packed month, there can only be so many highlights, so my Editor’s Choices and Ones to Watch major on new authors, or changes of direction for existing authors. I know you don’t need my help to spot the potential of new books by the likes of Joe Wicks, Lucy Worsley, Tom Marcus and Stephen Westaby for example.
And fear not, for those searching for more traditional September fare, there are new editions of perennials, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not 2019 (9781847948335) and Guinness World Records 2019 (9781912286461).
EDITOR’S CHOICE/BOOK OF THE MONTH Personal favourites TOP SELLER
Likely to be the biggest selling titles of the month based on an author’s sales history ONES TO WATCH
Titles with strong sales potential and publisher support, regardless of sales history of the author
08.06.18
www.thebookseller.com
BOOK OF TH E MONTH E DITOR’ S C HOIC E
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIRS
MARIANNE POWER HELP ME! ONE WOMAN’S QUEST TO FIND OUT IF SELF-HELP REALLY CAN CHANGE HER LIFE PICADOR, 6TH, HB,
£14.99, 9781509888559 This sparkling début—“this year’s Adam Kay”—has already sold rights in over 20 countries and triggered a big eight-way Hollywood auction for screen rights. Power is 36 years old and stuck in a rut; living in a rented room in London, single, in debt, and thoroughly miserable. While prostrate with a hangover one day, she resolves to follow the guidance of a different classic self-help book
each month for a year to see if any of them will deliver her elusive perfect life. From The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and You Can Heal Your Life to The Secret and The Power of Now, she systematically tackles her flaws one by one, whether it be her disastrous attitude to money, or her inability to say “f**k it”. The result is an often laugh-out-loud odyssey, with embarrassing incidents and downright disasters aplenty. But the real triumph of this book is the way it transcends its “Bridget Jones gazes at her navel” premise to ask searching questions both about the purported effectiveness of self-help in the light of a multi-million-dollar personal development industry; and about how we can really best find contentment. If you’ve ever worried that self-help might be a euphemism for self-obsession, then this is a book for you.
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIRS
TOMMY BARNES A BEER IN THE LOIRE MUSWELL PRESS, 13TH, HB, £9.99, 9780956003805
Frustrated with their
jobs and minuscule flat in London, Barnes and his girlfriend Rose move to a large, dilapidated house in a tiny village in France’s Loire Valley. The house is freezing, they have a Satanic dog and no money. Then Rose falls pregnant and, in desperation, Barnes has the brainwave of brewing beer and selling it to the inhabitants of one of the world’s finest wine-producing regions. Hoppy mayhem predictably ensues. There is already TV interest in this very funny tale of a hapless Englishman abroad, the lead autumn title for recently rebooted indie publisher Muswell Press.
CURRENT AFFAIRS & POLITICS
JASON COWLEY REACHING FOR UTOPIA SALT, 1ST, HB, £12.99,
9781784631529
Cowley—formerly of this parish—is
credited with transforming the fortunes of the New Statesman which, under his editorship, recently recorded its highest print circulation for nearly 40 years. Opening with an illuminating personal essay centred on Harlow, the Essex new town where he grew up, this collection of Cowley’s journalism chronicles the remarkable political and cultural transformations that have taken place over the decade of his editorship. As well as across the spectrum profiles of politicians, including Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, there are essays on writers including George Orwell, John le Carré and Ian McEwan.
© David O’Driscoll
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