WYPR Arts

November Book-Ahead: What We're Excited To Read Next Month

By Meghan Collins Sullivan

Published October 28, 2021 at 8:11 AM EDT

November is looking crowded with some highly anticipated books — including the final in a trilogy, Jade Legacy, and a memoir by long-time Hillary Clinton confidant Huma Abedin. Here are a handful we are excited to read.

The Sentence

"Louise Erdrich's The Sentence is intimate, often sardonic in tone, following the life of a Native American woman in Minneapolis who is recently released from prison," says reviewer Keishel Williams. "The woman, Tookie, struggles to understand why she's being haunted by a former customer and learns that ghosts of the pasts, spiritually or metaphorically, can linger as an extended penance for our sins. In this somewhat offbeat and quirky novel, Erdrich shows us just how much people can remain haunted by their previous actions, or lack thereof."

Win Me Something

"In the past few years, it seems like the volume of everything has been turned up to 11, so it's a great thing to find a book that's comfortable in its own quietness," says reviewer Michael Schaub. "In Kyle Lucia Wu's debut novel, Win Me Something, a young woman in New York takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy family, and her relationship with the couple's precocious daughter causes her to consider her own childhood, as 'a remnant from a family that didn't exist.' It's a subtle reflection on unbelonging that's constructed beautifully and with great care."

Jade Legacy

Reviewer Jason Sheehan says: "Over the course of three books — Jade City, Jade War and now Jade Legacy, out at the end of the month — Fonda Lee has charted the entire history of one family over the course of 20 years of war, politics and murder. Those characters we met as young men and women in City have grown up now. Those who lived through War have husbands and wives, children who are growing into their own power. Lee's Green Bone Saga is The Godfather with an Asian cast, Game of Thrones in a suit, tie and sunglasses. It has all the earmarks of a modern, international gangster epic juiced with boardroom intrigue, economic theory and sword fights. Jade Legacy (which weighs in at over 700 pages) will serve as a fitting (and devastating) capstone to the trilogy."

Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA

"Misfire is a scathing critique of the NRA, but one based on history and facts instead of opinion," says reviewer Gabino Iglesias. "The NRA's corruption runs deep, but Tim Mak (an NPR correspondent) dug even deeper to expose its rotten core and why it's currently crumbling."

Both/And: A Life In Many Worlds

Reviewer Caitlyn Kim says she looks forward to reading Both/And: "Huma Abedin has never been far from Hillary Clinton. The gatekeeper and the knower of all things Hillary, Abedin's professional life followed Clinton's and Abedin's personal life also had unfortunate echos of Clinton's. Through it all she was often seen publicly, but rarely heard from. With this book, Abedin has a chance to step out of the shadow and talk about her life — the good and the bad — including her ill-fated marriage to former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his sexting scandals. I admit, I'm more than a little curious to find out what she thinks about 'Carlos Danger.'"

These Precious Days

The latest from Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House and Bel Canto, collects her writings on everything from home to friendship to work in a neat little package of very personal essays.