Sweaters, Cider, and Books

Here in Ohio, it’s the beginning of autumn, though you wouldn’t know it yet from the temperatures. Nearly every other sign is here, though. School buses punctuate the drive to work, high school football games can be heard on Friday evenings (if the wind is right, I can hear the percussion section of the local high school band from our backyard deck), and thoughts turn to the fall book releases, and the stories that will occupy me through the cool nights and into the winter.

Here are the books that I’m most looking forward to between now and the end of the year:

• Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime, by Robert J. Randisi. The first of a new series featuring the Rat Pack of the 1960s. Someone is sending threatening mail to Dean Martin, throwing the filming of Ocean’s 11 into turmoil. In the course of the investigation, bodies begin to pile up. Normally, I view fiction involving actual historical figures with a jaundiced eye, but I really like the concept, and Randisi is one of the most dependable writers working today.

• Kate Atkinson’s One Good Turn. Atkinson’s previous novel, Case Histories, was one of the most widely praised works of 2004 (which I also need to read). In this latest book, Atkinson brings back P.I. Jackson Brodie. Brodie witnesses a case of violent road rage in Edinburgh, bringing him out a lucrative though aimless retirement.

• Jason Starr and Maggie Estep edit a new horse-racing anthology, Blood Lines, newly released and now available. Among the contributors in their stable are Ken Bruen, Scott Phillips (who is overdue for a new novel, in my humble opinion), Wallace Stroby, and Daniel Woodrell.

• Lastly, I’m very excited about Alain de Botton’s The Architecture of Happiness, which will also be the subject of a series on PBS. The thesis is right up my alley: our happiness is profoundly affected by the quality of our environment--walls, chairs, buildings, and streets. Perfect reading as the leaves change and the air turns brisk on the deck, with the fading high-school band in the background.

I’ll be pulling the sweaters out of the guest room closet, pouring some hot cider, and enjoying these books, and certainly a few others.

Anthony and Linda …?