It's time to get really excited about books. In this video I'm gonna tell you
just some of the books that we are most excited to be publishing within the
next 12 months. But this was so hard to narrow down, because there are so many
good ones, so let us know in the comments if you enjoyed this video and then we
can definitely do another one and tell you about even more brilliant books.
So let's start with some summer releases. One of my highest anticipated books of
the summer is If I Can't Have You by Charlotte Levin. So I've got a proof copy
here and I can't wait to read it. This has been described as Eleanor
Oliphant meets You, and it's about a woman who slowly becomes obsessed with
this man that she meets. And as part of the promotion for this book I've got
this little checklist here which I absolutely love. So it goes through, you
tick off if you've done these things, and it starts with really relatable things
like 'felt lonely in a new place', 'had your heart broken', goes through to slightly
naughty things we've all done like 'stalk your ex on Instagram', possibly even
'stalk your partner's ex on social media', but as it goes on the list does get
worse, up to 'keying somebody's car', and the final one, 'had things end up going very
very wrong'. So I think this is gonna be a mix of really relatable but really
gripping as we watch this woman just make worse and worse decisions. It says
on the front here 'meet your new obsession', so I think as we watch the
main character get obsessed with her man, we are also going to become obsessed
with these characters. And then another book I'm really hyped for is Summerwater by Sarah Moss. So I was excited enough about this book just because it
is Sarah Moss, but then I read the synopsis and now I just can't wait. This
book is set all within 24 hours and I love stories like that, and I'm just
gonna read the synopsis for you because I think you'll be as excited as I am. On the
longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a
faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but
watch the other residents. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware
of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls. I mean wow, that has got so
many ingredients for a brilliant book with a fantastic author to boot. Okay now
moving on to the autumn. We have The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett.
So this book has been so highly anticipated. This is a prequel to his
Kingsbridge series, so this book ends right where the Pillars of the Earth
starts. So this book is going to take us all the way back to the end of
the Dark Ages, and we follow three very different people's lives and see how
they intertwine. So this is the definition of historical epic. And then
another highly anticipated return from a beloved author, we have a new book from
Christopher Paolini, the author of Eragon. But this time instead of fantasy he has
written a sci-fi book, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and it's going to be a long
book - and you know how much we love long books on Book Break! So again I'm
just going to read a quick synopsis for you because it sounds great. 'During a
routine survey mission on an uncolonised planet,
xenobiologist Kira Navarez finds an alien relic that thrusts her into the
wonders and nightmares of first contact. Epic space battles for the fate of
humanity take her to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, and in the process
transform not only her, but the entire course of history. How excited are you
for that?! Now a book that I've shown off a lot on Book Break because I loved it
so much is Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and it's
getting a sequel! The first book was set in a time-traveling cafe and the second
book, which is called Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe, is set
back in the same cafe. So we're gonna check back in with some of the same
characters from the first book, but also meet a bunch of new customers who've
come to the cafe for time-traveling reasons of their own. So I've got some
descriptions here of some of the characters we're going to meet: the man
who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago, the son who was unable
to attend his own mother's funeral, the man who went back to see the girl who he
could not marry, and the old detective who never gave his wife that gift. I
already know from that that this one is going to make me cry and smile just as
much as the first one. OK and finally onto some books coming out early next
year. People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd is a
book I've been so excited for ever since I read a little sneak peek of it last
year, so I cannot wait to read the rest. So this is about a really successful
mummy blogger called Emmy Jackson, who's built her whole brand on telling the
real honest truth about motherhood, bad bits
and all. So sounds really relatable, right? People are fed up of seeing other
people's perfect lives on Instagram, so now she's here to tell the honest truth
about how hard it all is. Except that her life isn't as hard as she makes it sound.
So she's built her whole brand on being relatable but her followers don't
know about her huge house and her cleaner. So that really captured my
imagination already, it's this kind of flipped version of what we're used to
seeing, of people trying to make their lives look better on Instagram, and she's
trying to make her look worse. But it's also a thriller, because somebody out there
knows the truth about a lie she once told, and is determined to make her pay
for it. And then another book that I got to read a little sneak peek of last year
and loved is Luster by Raven Leilani. So this is this really funny poignant
coming-of-age story about woman called Edie. So Edie's in this kind of dead-end
job she isn't enjoying. She's sleeping with all the wrong people, her life just
doesn't feel figured out, and the only thing that she ever did love, painting,
she hasn't been pursuing. And then she meets this white middle-aged man called
Eric, with a wife who has sort of agreed to an open marriage, and an adopted black
daughter who doesn't have anyone in her life to show her how to do her hair. And
Edie ends up getting really sucked into this family. And it says in the synopsis
'As if navigating the constantly shifting landscape of sexual and racial politics
as a young black woman wasn't already hard enough.' From what I read so far the
writing style is so brilliant, so sharply funny, and it's had amazing reviews.
So Ling Ma, the author of Severance, called it 'a beguiling fever dream of a
novel'. And the amazing Zadie Smith herself described it as 'brutal and
brilliant'. And then finally the last book I'm so excited about. We have The
Imposter by Anna Wharton. So this is a psychological thriller about a newspaper
archivist called Chloe who comes across a newspaper cutting of a little girl who
went missing 25 years ago. And she finds herself becoming obsessed with the story,
and really moved by the devotion of the little girl's parents, who have never
given up hope that she'll come back. And then she sees that those parents are
advertising for a lodger. So this is going to be a story of obsession and,
I'm sure, uncovering some secrets along the way. It kind of reminded me of that
documentary The Imposter which was also about a missing child case, which I
absolutely loved, so I'm getting those kind of vibes here. I already cannot wait
to uncover all of the twists and turns and I can't believe I have to wait
nearly a whole year. So those are some of my most anticipated books. If you want to
hear about some books you can get your hands on right now, we do have a whole
playlist of book hauls, where we unbox some of
the most exciting new releases. So do watch those and let me know in the
comments some of your most anticipated books for the next year, so I can check
them out as well. See you next time