Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Top Ten 2013 Debuts I'm Looking Forward To

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at Broke and Bookish.

You would think as a book blogger I would be in the know about all the latest upcoming books.  Sadly, I sometimes feel like the last to know, especially when it comes to debut books.  Occasionally though, I come across word of a book that sounds too good to pass up. Here, in no particular order, are ten 2013 debuts that sound irresistible and have top spots on my wish list:



1. The Midwife's Tale by Samuel Thomas ~ This one comes recommended by Heather of Raging Bibliomania.  
From the publisher:  
It is 1644, and Parliament’s armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels’ hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget’s friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer.


2. Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill 
From the Publisher:  
A brilliantly crafted modern tale from acclaimed film critic and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill—part Neil Gaiman, part Guillermo Del Toro, part William S. Burroughs—that charts the lives of two boys from their star-crossed childhood in the realm of magic and mystery to their anguished adulthoods. 

There is another world than our own—one no closer than a kiss and one no further than our nightmares—where all the stuff of which dreams are made is real and magic is just a step away. But once you see that world, you will never be the same. 

Dreams and Shadows takes us beyond this veil. Once bold explorers and youthful denizens of this magical realm, Ewan is now an Austin musician who just met his dream girl, and Colby, meanwhile, cannot escape the consequences of an innocent wish. But while Ewan and Colby left the Limestone Kingdom as children, it has never forgotten them. And in a world where angels relax on rooftops, whiskey-swilling genies argue metaphysics with foul-mouthed wizards, and monsters in the shadows feed on fear, you can never outrun your fate.

3. Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason
From the Publisher:
“There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard.” 
With this memorable first line, we meet Jason Getty, a regular guy in every mild sense of the word. But extraordinary circumstances push this ordinary man to do something he can’t undo...and now he must live with the undeniable reality of his actions. And just as Jason does finally learn to live with it, a landscaper discovers a body on his property—only it’s not the body Jason buried . . . 
With the tense pacing of a thriller and the language and beauty of a fine literary novel, Three Graves Full heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in fiction.

4. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri 
From the Publisher:
Growing up in a small rice-farming village in 1980s Iran, eleven-year-old Saba Hafezi and her twin sister, Mahtab, are captivated by America. They keep lists of English words and collect illegal Life magazines, television shows, and rock music. So when her mother and sister disappear, leaving Saba and her father alone in Iran, Saba is certain that they have moved to America without her. But her parents have taught her that “all fate is written in the blood,” and that twins will live the same life, even if separated by land and sea. As she grows up in the warmth and community of her local village, falls in and out of love, and struggles with the limited possibilities in post-revolutionary Iran, Saba envisions that there is another way for her story to unfold. Somewhere, it must be that her sister is living the Western version of this life. And where Saba’s world has all the grit and brutality of real life under the new Islamic regime, her sister’s experience gives her a freedom and control that Saba can only dream of.
Filled with a colorful cast of characters and presented in a bewitching voice that mingles the rhythms of Eastern storytelling with modern Western prose, A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea is a tale about memory and the importance of controlling one’s own fate.

5. Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins 
From the Publisher: 
In Susanna Calkins's atmospheric debut novel, a chambermaid must uncover a murderer in seventeenth-century plague-ridden London.
For Lucy Campion, a seventeenth-century English chambermaid serving in the household of the local magistrate, life is an endless repetition of polishing pewter, emptying chamber pots, and dealing with other household chores until a fellow servant is ruthlessly killed, and someone she loves is wrongly arrested for the crime. In a time where the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent, lawyers aren't permitted to defend their clients, and--if the plague doesn't kill them first--public executions draw a large crowd of spectators, Lucy knows she may never see this person alive again. Unless, that is, she can identify the true murderer.  

6. The Missing File by D.A. Mishani 
From the Publisher:  
In The Missing File, Israeli detective Avraham Avraham must find a teenage boy gone missing from the suburbs of Tel Aviv in this first volume in a fresh new literary crime series by D. A. Mishani. Crimes in Avraham’s quiet suburb are generally not all that complex. But when a sixteen-year-old boy goes missing and a schoolteacher offers up a baffling complication, Avraham finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew about his life.

7. Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin
From the Publisher:
The Walker family is good at keeping secrets from the world.They are even better at keeping them from each other.
Max Walker is a golden boy. Attractive, intelligent, and athletic, he’s the perfect son, the perfect friend, and the perfect crush for the girls in his school. He’s even really nice to his little brother. Karen, Max’s mother, is a highly successful criminal lawyer, determined to maintain the facade of effortless excellence she has constructed through the years. Now that the boys are getting older, now that she won’t have as much control, she worries that the facade might soon begin to crumble. Adding to the tension, her husband Steve has chosen this moment to stand for election to Parliament. The spotlight of the media is about to encircle their lives.
The Walkers are hiding something, you see. Max is special. Max is different. Max is intersex. When an enigmatic childhood friend named Hunter steps out of his past and abuses his trust in the worst possible way, Max is forced to consider the nature of his well-kept secret. Why won’t his parents talk about it? Will his friends accept him if he is no longer the Golden Boy? Who is Max Walker really?

8. Good People by  Ewart Hutton  
From the Publisher:
Detective Sergeant Glyn Capaldi, fallen from grace and exiled from Cardiff to the Welsh countryside, does his best to serve as the catchall detective in the big bit in the middle that God gave to the sheep. It’s a place where nothing of any significance is meant to happen, a place where his superiors believe he can do little harm.
But trouble has a way of catching up with Capaldi. Six men and a young woman disappear after a night of rugby and drink. They don’t all reappear. The ones who do are “good people,” and they give a reasonable explanation for the absence of the woman and their friend. Only Capaldi remains unconvinced. In the face of opposition, Capaldi delves deeper and starts to uncover a network of conflicts, betrayals, and depravity that resonates below the outwardly calm surface of rural respectability.

9. The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Pragg  
From the Publisher:  
A magical debut about an enchanted house that offers refuge to women in their time of need . . .
Distraught that her academic career has stalled, Alba is walking through her hometown of Cambridge, England, when she finds herself in front of a house she’s never seen before, 11 Hope Street. A beautiful older woman named Peggy greets her and invites her to stay, on the house’s usual conditions: she has ninety-nine nights to turn her life around. With nothing left to lose, Alba takes a chance and moves in.
She soon discovers that this is no ordinary house. Past residents have included George Eliot and Beatrix Potter, who, after receiving the assistance they needed, hung around to help newcomers—literally, in talking portraits on the wall. As she escapes into this new world, Alba begins a journey that will heal her wounds—and maybe even save her life. 
Filled with a colorful and unforgettable cast of literary figures, The House at the End of Hope Street is a charming, whimsical novel of hope and feminine wisdom that is sure to appeal to fans of Jasper Fforde and especially Sarah Addison Allen.

10. Toms River by Dan Fagin 

From the Publisher: 

The riveting true story of a small town ravaged by industrial pollution, Toms River melds hard-hitting investigative reporting, a fascinating scientific detective story, and an unforgettable cast of characters into a sweeping narrative in the tradition of A Civil Action, The Emperor of All Maladiesand The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.


Do any of these sound good to you?

What debut novels are you looking forward to this year?


© 2013, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

36 comments:

  1. The House at the End of Hope Street looks so good! :)

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alice - I think so too! I'm really curious to know more about what goes on in that house. And I love the title. It kind of reminds me of The House on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet--the title, I mean, not the book.

      Delete
  2. Man they all sound good! And I had to laugh because I know exactly what you are saying. A new book has to come up and bite me on the nose, I am so clueless about what is coming out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sandy - Notice how most turned out to be mysteries? LOL I spent quite a bit of time researching today's meme since I was so in the dark about new releases. And now I am so very excited about all these books that are coming out, I don't want to wait!

      Delete
  3. I must be living in a cave as most of these are unfamiliar to me. I've remedied that by adding a few to my list.

    enjoy Wendy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Diane - I might not have heard of them had I not sought out debut novels for today's topic. :-) I am not sure when I will actually read them, much less purchase them, but when I do, I hope to enjoy them!

      Delete
  4. They do sound good! I'm especially interested in The Midwife's Tale and the Calkins, love learning about those time periods. So much to look forward to already this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charlie - I'm really curious about them too. It's been ages since I read a book set in that time period, but it really is an interesting time period to read about.

      I was worried I wouldn't be able to find ten titles to get excited about just yet, and to think the latest release I was able to find was in May! I still plan to concentrate on my TBR books this year, but I don't know that I'll be able to resist the newer books too.

      Delete
  5. These all sound good, but The MIdwife's Tale and Murder at Rosamund's Gate sound like books I would really enjoy. I am putting them on my TBR list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alex - I thought so too! I am trying hard not to buy the ones on the list that are available already but I am not sure how long I'll last.

      Delete
  6. Interesting list, never heard or any of these. Dreams and Shadows looks amazing.

    Happy reading!
    My TTT

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, you found some really great debuts! I haven't seen these on any of the other TTT lists I've read. :) I'm definitely going to be adding Toms River and A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea to my TBR!

    Thanks for sharing your choices! You can find my TTT list over at Bookwanderer!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bookwanderer - I'm really looking forward to reading both!

      Delete
  8. Last to know? I don't have a clue - NONE - what books might soon be published unless I read a review of a very early ARC and I don't seem to. Maybe most of the blogs I visit aren't accepting early advanced copies any more? Whatever, no way I could come up with even one book to list on this meme! especially debuts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Care - Knowing this topic was coming up, I started digging for titles I'd want to read, otherwise, I'd be exactly where you are. I seriously thought of skipping this week, but I liked the challenge. BookBrowse.com was my main source. I love that website.

      Delete
  9. A lot of these sound interesting, and I do really think you would love The Midwife's Tale. It was such an interesting mix of historical fiction and mystery. I love your other choices as well. They all look like books I would have no trouble getting lost in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather - I think I will too! I love both history and mysteries, so it sounds like a match made in heaven. :-)

      Delete
  10. They all sound good to me but if I had to pick just one I'd say A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kathy - That one sounds really good, doesn't it? And i really like the title.

      Delete
  11. there are a few that I've actually thought about reading too and one that I have on my kindle, Three Graves Full! Great list and I'm so looking forward to hearing about them!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Staci - You'll have to tell me how it is when you read it, Staci! I hope it's as good as it sounds.

      Delete
  12. I'm looking forward to A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea too!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I've not heard of any of these but I'm waiting for Kate Atkinson's new book!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jenners - I heard Kate Atkinson had a new book coming out! She didn't make my list because I tried to stick to new authors. There are quite a few by known authors I am looking forward to though.

      Delete
  14. I don't think I've heard of these books. Thanks so much for sharing with us, Wendy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Melody - I was really worried about coming up with ideas for this particular post. Once I started researching though, it was hard to stop at 10!

      Delete
  15. Good stuff! I'm especially looking forward to A Midwife's Tale!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andi - A Midwife's Tale is sitting on my wish list waiting for me to spend one of my Amazon gift cards on it! One of these days I actually will. LOL

      Delete
  16. Love your blog bg, by the way. I've wanted to use that image for a while. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andi - Thank you! I wasn't sure about the colors at first as they're not colors I'm particularly drawn to, but really like them here.

      Delete

Thank you for taking the time to visit Musings of a Bookish Kitty. Don't be shy! I would love to hear from you. Due to a recent increase in spam, I will be moderating all comments for the foreseeable future. Please be patient with me as it may take a few hours before I am able to approve your comment.