Books to Look Forward To?

I've been slogging through the January 24th issue of Publisher's Weekly lately (yes, I know it's February 22nd, so I'm a little slow) because it has new releases as far out as August. So I thought I'd spend a few posts telling you about some books to look forward to and some books that might cause you to run screaming from the room. Today I'll start with some of the big releases. March

• A Changed Man, Francine Prose (HarperCollins, 75,000 first printing)
• Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott (Riverhead, 200,000 first printing)
• March, Geraldine Brooks (Viking, 100,000 first printing)
• Shadow of the Giant, Orson Scott Card (Tor, 250,000 first printing)
• Junior, Macaulay Culkin (Miramax, 50,000 first printing) Yes, that Macaulay Culkin
• Ya-Yas in Bloom, Rebecca Wells (HarperCollins, 500,000 first printing) This is one of those run screaming from the room books. Sorry if you are a fan, but I read the first Ya-Ya book and that was more than enough Ya-Ya for me.

April

• Being Perfect, Anna Quindlen (Random House, 350,000 first printing)
• Lighthousekeeping, Jeanette Winterson (Harcourt/Harvest, 60,000 first printing)
• Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man: Speaking My Mind on Race, Celebrity, Sports, and American Life, Charles Barkley (Penguin, 175,000 first printing) Something is really wrong with this country if Jeanette Winterson gets only 60,000 for her first printing but Charles Barkley gets 175,000.
• The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom from My Father on How to Live, Love, and See, Naomi Wolf (S&S, 75,000 first printing) Is it just me or has she just really been on a downward spiral since The Beauty Myth?

May

• A Lotus Grows in the Mud, Goldie Hawn (Putnam, no first printing numbers). Ugh.
• Elvis by the Presleys, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley (Crown, 400,000 first printing) Can you say, we need to raise money for some new face lifts?
• Zorro, Isabel Allende (HarperCollins, 250,000 first printing)
• Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, Brooke Shields (Hyperion, 200,000 first printing) Yikes!

June

• A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby (Riverhead, no first printing numbers)
• The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Umberto Eco (Harcourt, 250,000 first printing)
• Specimen Days, Michael Cunningham (FSG, 400,000 first printing)

July

• Freddy and Fredericka, Mark Helprin (Penguin, 125,000 first printing)
• Until I Find You, John Irving (Random House, no first printing numbers) Yeah!
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling (Scholastic, no first printing numbers but you can assume it will be a lot) Rumor has it someone is going to die

August

• Star Struck, Pamela Anderson (Atria, 200,000) Nooooooooooo!
• No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, 250,000 first printing)

These are some of the books publishers consider their big releases, scary isn't it? There are some good ones coming out that aren't among the big releases. I'll let you know about those in the next day or two. Stay tuned.