Fall Highlights: Books

Nonfiction
The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon. Vintage plucked Runyon's tale of his attempted suicide, through lighting himself on fire, from its young-adult division so it could publish it in the adult market. Luckly, Runyon is able to avoid cloying self-pity in this stark memoir. Viking, October.

The Assassins' Gate by George Packer. Packer's book has already generated buzz, thanks to Christopher Hitchens's praise back in May. Packer, a New Yorker reporter, combines reportage and analysis from the trenches of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. FSG, October.The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. The grand dame of literary journalism turns her eye on her family, recounting the surprise illness and checkered medical history of her only daughter. Knopf, October.

American Gunfight by Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge Jr. In 1950, two men fighting for an independent Puerto Rico showed up at Harry Truman's temporary residence with plans to assassinate him. Bainbridge and Hunter tell the story of the police officers and Secret Service agents who fought for Truman. Simon & Schuster, November.The Beatles by Bob Spitz. A musician's agent and biographer, Spitz takes a crack at the "Bigger than Jesus" band, cranking out nearly 1,000 pages of "new material." He claims his book rebuffs the standard account of the Beatles' lives, and any hard-core fan is likely to spend the fall, winter and spring determining if that's true. Little, Brown, November.

Fiction
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie. The author turns the fatwa that was declared against him into the story of a political assassination. Addressing the ongoing Kashmiri conflict, Rushdie's latest novel proves that fiction can be as relevant—and important—as nonfiction. Rushdie will be in town Nov 13 to talk about the book. Random House, September.

Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg. Goldberg's debut, Bee Season, has made her a big name. Her latest novel takes place in Boston during the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, when a woman marries a man attempting to sell a new cure-all of his own invention. Doubleday, October.

Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir by Joe Meno. Readers of local literary magazines like Bridge and THE2NDHAND will recognize a few of these stories. Our favorite remains "The Astronaut of the Year," the story of a shamed, over-the-hill astronaut told by his eerily serene chauffeur. TriQuarterly Books, November.

Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol. This is a strange little novel for sure, but it's already been translated into 15 languages, and now it finally gets published in English. In the years after World War I, a man is stationed as a weather official on a deserted island in the Antarctic Circle. Blending historical fiction with sci-fi, this thriller is some unsettling fun. FSG, November.