This Thursday is known, in the publishing industry, as Super Thursday, the day that the book world’s all-important autumn season begins. On Thursday, a whopping 426 hardbacks are released, including a significant chunk of celebrity memoir and blockbuster novelists. This year titles include novels from Philip Pullman, Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham, as well as memoirs from Lenny Henry, Andrew Ridgelely and Debbie Harry. While these massive sellers can be great as a last-minute gift for, say, your boyfriend’s parents, which are the titles worth getting actually excited about? Which should you buy on publication Thursday and which are the ones arriving a little later, once the bookshop fanfare has passed? Might holding on reveal some less showy gems with just as much sparkle?
Super Thursday Big Hitters:
The New Books That You Need
1 of 4Truth to Power - Jess Philipps (Octopus)
Rather than chewy political autobiography or exhausting polemic, this is a practical guide to how we can all organise ourselves to speak out and be heard. Taking its cue from Westminster but applying lessons to the office and the home, it's an invaluable slice of straight talking.
2 of 4The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes (Jonathan Cape)
The author of Me Before You is back, and with her best book yet. Based on a true story, it is set in Depression era America among a group of pack-horse librarians delivering books across the prairies and mountains of Kentucky. It's a romance - but about female friends, the outdoors and the magic of reading. And it's already on its way to becoming a film.
3 of 4Grand Union: Stories - Zadie Smith ( Hamish Hamilton)
A collection of new work as well as some of her New Yorker stories, this is another breath of fresh air from Zadie Smith. What is most impressive here is the variety - historic to futuristic, there is a huge range of voices and styles.
4 of 4Homecoming - Colin Grant (Jonathan Cape)
Hundreds of first hand interviews, archive footage and memoir extracts of the Windrush Generation, beautifully edited into a patchwork quilt of experience and heritage. It's so powerful hearing these voices direct, making for a hopeful and angry, joyful and tear-jerking read. Should be on the syllabus.
And some later gems...
The New Books That You Need...
1 of 4Spirited: the Joy of Drinks - Signe Johansen (Bluebird)
Author of the gorgeous Scandilicious and How to Hygge is back, this time sharing her wealth of drinks knowledge. The aim is to take cocktails beyond the gentleman's club or the hen night, creating recipes to sit alongside mid week meals an evening in alone. This will keep you off the grimmest of the festive cliché booze, as well as enlightening you on smoothies and juices for all occasions and the very best in non alcoholic tipples too.
2 of 4Little Library Year - Kate Young (Head of Zeus)
Recipes to suit the seasons are not a novel idea, but here Kate Young has suggested fiction extracts about food to go alongside food. From Adrian Mole's dad making pancakes to Sunday lunch as told by Elizabeth Jane Howard, these seasonal suggestions could be irritatingly whimsical but instead adds depth to both the reading and the eating. A real treat.
3 of 4Little Weirds - Jenny Slate (Fleet)
This debut collection of essays from the actress and stand up comedian is part-memoir, part-vignette, all her. Quirky enough to make you see the world a little differently, yet not so much as to leave you feeling sickly.
4 of 4Self Care Cookbook - Gemma Ogston (Vermillion)
If Christmas eating can leave you feeling panicky, here is your refuge: plant based meals to nourish you, should you feel down. From miso pasta to help your gut to a chocolate pudding to cheer you up, it's a very calming read - and one with food styling so beautiful you'll feel better just looking at the images.