Here’s a glimpse from the news this week about upcoming and newly published books!

Calico Joe by John Grisham will arrive April 10th, and it will be a novel on Major League Baseball!

Summary: In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen. The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records. Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever.

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The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey will be published January 24th, a modern Jane Eyre!

Summary: Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned by the age of ten, neglected by a bitter and cruel aunt, sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student, young Gemma seems destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman with dreams of the future, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands. But Gemma’s biggest trial is about to begin . . . a journey of passion and betrayal, secrets and lies, redemption and discovery that will lead her to a life she’s never dreamed.

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Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith published January 10th.

Summary: In Elizabeth the Queen, we meet the young girl who suddenly becomes “heiress presumptive” when her uncle abdicates the throne. We meet the thirteen-year-old Lilibet as she falls in love with a young navy cadet named Philip and becomes determined to marry him, even though her parents prefer wealthier English aristocrats. We see the teenage Lilibet repairing army trucks during World War II and standing with Winston Churchill on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on V-E Day. We see the young Queen struggling to balance the demands of her job with her role as the mother of two young children. Sally Bedell Smith brings us inside the palace doors and into the Queen’s daily routines—the “red boxes” of documents she reviews each day, the weekly meetings she has had with twelve prime ministers, her physically demanding tours abroad, and the constant scrutiny of the press—as well as her personal relationships: with Prince Philip, her husband of sixty-four years and the love of her life; her children and their often-disastrous marriages; her grandchildren and friends.

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From Publisher’s Lunch, be on the lookout for these upcoming books!

• Page Morgan’s “Grotesque” – a new gothic thriller series set in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, about two sisters on a search for their missing brother and the deadly and otherworldly truths that they discover.
• Bob Knight’s “The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results” – a leadership book by the coaching legend that reexamines the time-held wisdom of positive thinking, asserting that preparation based on planning for potential negative outcomes is a better formula for success.
• Pierce Brown’s “Red Rising” – the first book in his debut trilogy, set on a dystopian Mars and pitched as in the vein of ENDER’S GAME, in which a low-caste boy, remade as a spy among the ruling class, must fight a deadly war game against privileged, elite students.