Negroland: A Memoir By Margo Jefferson (September 8) The former Newsweek/New York Times critic’s account of growing up in black upper-class Chicago might be incendiary, as it looks at a social stratum historically trapped between much of white and black America.
M Train By Patti Smith (October 6) Following up on the success of 2010’s Just Kids, a memoir of the rock poet’s early days with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Smith rambles through her travels, real and fanciful, with her own photographs serving as illustrations.
Sinatra: The Chairman By James Kaplan (October 27) Set for release in time for the entertainer’s centenary, this volume completes the biography Kaplan started in Frank: The Voice in 2010, covering Sinatra’s life after winning an Academy Award in 1954, including, of course, the Rat Pack/Vegas years.
Avenue of Mysteries By John Irving (November 3) The acclaimed author of The World According to Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire returns with a book about a boy whose younger sister can somewhat predict the future, including his. A meditation on aging and childhood, and memory’s linking of the two.
Hunting Season: James Foley, ISIS and the Kidnapping Campaign That Started a War By James Harkin (November 10) Harkin looks back on the horrifying first glimpse of the radical group’s rise amid the disorder of post-Saddam Iraq and Assad’s crumbling Syria—the murder of journalist James Foley.
