June book preview: Mars and mountain lions
Plus, exclusive conversations with Amy Brady and Keziah Weir.
The Frontlist is a little late this month, but I have a good excuse: after a year of research, the wonderful Natalie Edwards submitted my nonfiction book proposal to publishers in late May. I’ll have more to share in a future issue but needless to say, the process took a lot of my time over the last few weeks — as did three consecutive freelance deadlines I’ll share below!
In this issue, I spoke with the authors behind two of June’s most interesting books — Amy Brady and Keziah Weir — and recommended 15 new books hitting shelves.
June book picks
Ice by Amy Brady (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, June 6). A fascinating cultural history of ice from my former Chicago Review of Books partner, Amy Brady! We spoke about the book below.
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller (Tin House, June 6). I’ve sworn off pandemic novels for the foreseeable future, with a few exceptions, including this brilliant tale from the perspective of a marine biologist.
When I Waked, I Cried To Dream Again by A. Van Jordan (Norton, June 6). I don’t rec enough poetry, and this one uses Black characters from Shakespeare to grieve for modern Black children killed my police violence.
August Blue by Deborah Levy (FSG, June 6). Deborah Levy is a genius and this one’s about a celebrity pianist who chases her mysterious doppleganger across Europe.
The Say So by Julia Franks (Hub City Press, June 6). I loveddddddd Over the Plain Houses and Franks’s new novel is set in North Carolina again.
Open Throat by Henry Hoke (MCD, June 6). I don’t think you can get higher-concept than a novel told from the perspective of a queer mountain lion living under the Hollywood sign.
Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine (Flatiron, June 13). A dark fantasy set in 18th-century Venice, starring the all-female orchestra of Antonio Vivaldi! I profiled Julia for the Chicago Reader: “Olivia Rodrigo unlocked this book for me,” she says.
The Mythmakers by Keziah Weir (Marysue Rucci Books, June 13). A ripped-from-the-headlines novel about a writer who discovers she’s the subject of another writer’s novel. I spoke with Keziah below!
The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni (Random House, June 13). A propulsive thriller grounded in Jewish mysticism from the former horror fiction columnist at the New York Times. The Morgan Library is involved, so I was immediately sold.
Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis (Norton, June 13). A reality show featuring the first mission to Mars (something that is happening right now in real life, minus the actual Mars).
Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith (FSG, June 13). Sometimes I just want to read a novel set in a small Italian town, and this one sounds amazing.
The Forbidden Territory of a Terrifying Woman by Molly Lynch (Catapult, June 13). I love the cover of this novel about mothers who keep vanishing in the middle of the night.
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon (Tordotcom, June 27). A timely sci-fi thriller about an AI god who destroys a city and ressurects its favorite human.
Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano (Dutton, June 27). A creepy island on Lake Michigan where people seem to be stuck in 1994? Yes, please.
My Men by Victoria Kielland, translated by Damion Searls (Astra House, June 27). A novel about the first female American serial killer, Belle Gunnes.
Exclusive: Amy Brady on the miracle of ice
When I think of ice, the first thing that comes to mind is the opening sentence of One Hundred Years of Solitude. But Amy Brady’s new nonfiction book, Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks — A Cool History of a Hot Commodity, makes a case for it being one of the most revolutionary substances in history, plus a hotbed (sorry) of scientific research for the future. Brady is the executive director of Orion magazine, a contributing editor for Scientific American, and the former editor-in-chief of the Chicago Review of Books.
What's the most surprising thing you learned about ice in your research?
“To best understand how Americans became obsessed with ice, I had to first learn what life was like before ice was everywhere. Without ice, life was, in a word, terrible! Before ice boxes, methods for preserving food were poor, and food poisoning was prevalent — especially among children and the elderly. Before ice wraps, doctors had few options to reduce swelling or treat fevers. Before ice rinks, winter sports were played only a few weeks out of the year, when lakes and rivers froze deep enough to support the weight of the athletes. Before bartenders had access to ice, spirits were served at room temperature. I don't want to think of it.”
What was the hardest part of the book to write?
“Chapter two, which focuses on the American doctor who invented the first ice-maker, was difficult because so few of his personal papers still exist! They were lost in a fire. Adding to the trouble is the fact that the doctor was considered a ‘crank’ in his own time, a ‘blasphemous’ man who thought he could make ice ‘better than God almighty!’ Thus, there wasn't much desire among his peers or family, it seems, to preserve records of his work. So, I relied on scant archival materials and conversations with several experts to reconstruct his history.”
“It was a hard chapter to write, but in some ways, also the most fun? Because writing it felt a bit like solving a mystery as I worked to find answers to all my questions, only to come across ‘clues’ that sometimes panned out and sometimes didn't. Did I mention I'm a big nerd?”
Why ice?
“A few years ago, on an exceptionally hot day, I found myself seeking refuge in an air-conditioned convenience store, filling a cup with ice. As the cubes fell, the irony of the situation struck me: After years of reading climate reports, I knew that heat waves like that one were due to global warming. I had been driven to seek out ice by a phenomenon that's rapidly melting ice on our planetary poles.”
“I started to wonder about my own love of ice, how I knew that some would be available at any gas station, and how ice became so prevalent in America in the first place. Much to my surprise, I couldn't find an essay or book that fully answered my questions.”
“So, being the huge nerd that I am, I started researching the history of ice, and that research brought me to strange archives across the country and introduced me to some pretty remarkable people, including those who are reimagining what modern-day refrigeration and ice-making technology might look like in an era of climate change. Slowly, a history of ice began to present itself, and I knew it was a story that I wanted the world to read!”
What I’ve been writing
For Esquire, I went all the way to Irvine, California to speak with more than two dozen current and former Blizzard employees about the tumultuous making of Diablo IV, “a real-life mashup between the dysfunction of Mythic Quest and the intrigue of Succession.”
For Inverse, I leaned into my ‘90s obsession and wrote about a gorgeous new exploration game from the makers of Myst and Riven.
For the Chicago Reader, I profiled Julia Fine, the Chicago novelist and ghost enthusiast behind What Should Be Wild, The Upstairs House, and this month’s Maddalena and the Dark.
Exclusive: Keziah Weir on discovering you’re the subject of another writer’s novel
There’s an episode in the new season of Black Mirror where a woman starts watching a TV series and realizes she’s the main character. Keziah Weir’s addicting and propulsive debut novel, The Mythmakers, is an ink-and-paper analogue of that premise. A young journalist named Sal reads a short story excerpted from a forthcoming novel by a man she met years ago, and discovers the novel is about her. Weir is a senior editor at Vanity Fair.
Your opening lines ground us in a New York City spring. Why did you lead with place?
“There’s something magical about those first warm streaks in New York. Gray and brown go to green, people move more freely without their winter coats. There’s a collective feeling of possibility. Sal reads the short story that will become pivotal for her during one of those weeks, and then decides to go in search of the author’s widow as spring shifts to summer. If it had been the dead of winter, taking a bus upstate might have been somewhat less appealing.”
Were you inspired by any real-life incidents of autofiction?
“I’m interested in how people respond, in general, to being portrayed in writing. There’s a theory that Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola’s friendship ended because of Zola’s publishing The Masterpiece, in part inspired by that friendship. Some people, believing themselves to be the real life source of a fictional character, have sued the author. But I was curious about someone who would feel flattered and intrigued to see herself in someone else’s work—what would her life look like, in that moment, and what would she do with the information?”
What was the most difficult part about writing The Mythmakers for you, and why?
“Getting the first workable draft down took years; I wrote and rewrote the early chapters, as if only getting them ‘perfect’ would enable the rest of the book to flow. I think some people do well working that way, but I am certainly not one of them. I had accumulated all these other characters and images and storylines in scrambled notes, but once I finally forced myself to just get all of those down in a loose narrative, I had something tangible to work with. It’s at that stage that I feel most creative.”
Big books on the horizon
Ron Rash has a new novel out in late September, The Caretaker. I can’t believe he’s 70!
Sir Patrick Stewart has a memoir out in October, Making It So.
WaPo tech columnist Taylor Lorenz has an aptly titled nonfic out in October, Extremely Online.
New Jonathan Lethem coming this fall, Brooklyn Crime Novel.
What would you like to see in The Frontlist?
I’m still experimenting with the structure of this thing. Leave a comment or shoot me a note if there’s anything you’d like to see or know about forthcoming books I should add to future issues!