What to Read Next? Some New and Upcoming Women’s Fiction Titles and Book Giveaway!

Now that all the weighty books of fall and winter have landed on the shelves, it’s time for the yearly crop of women’s fiction releases. Here are some new releases to consider.  What new release are you looking forward to reading? Leave a comment with email address for a chance to win A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Winner announced after 10 p.m. on Feb. 17 


The winner is Sharn3960!

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson 

What’s it about?

Short version: Baby bones found in the backyard. What the hell?  

 Long version: Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past--and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.

Sample prose:  “I never would have known about the other Mosey Slocumb if Tyler Baines hadn’t brought his mullet head and a chain saw over to murder my mom’s willow tree. I wouldn’t have bet someone else’s dollar that Tyler Baines, of all people, would be the one to discover her.”

Why you should read it: The cover’s so pretty you’ll want be tempted to lick it but besides that A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is like gumbo for the mind, simmering with Southern flavor and meaty characters. Also Joshilyn's a former girlfriend so, of course, we love her.

Julia’s Child by Sarah Pinneo

What’s it about:

Short Version:   Crunchy mom makes organic food for her kids.

Julia Bailey is a mompreneur with too many principles and too little time.  Her fledgling company, Julia's Child, makes organic toddler meals with names like Gentle Lentil and Give Peas a Chance. But before she can realize her dream of seeing them on the shelves of Whole Foods, she will have to make peace between her professional aspirations and her toughest food critics: the two little boys waiting at home.

Sample prose: “In Park Slope even the playdough is whole grain.”

Why you should read it: Cute title and Kirkus reviews calls it a foodie take on I Don't Know How She Does It.  Sounds fun.

Friends Like Us by Lauren Fox

What’s it about:

Short version:   A dude comes between two girlfriends.

Long version: Willa and Jane share an apartment, clothing, and groceries, eking out rent with part-time jobs. Willa writes advertising copy, dreaming up inspirational messages for tea bags (“The path to enlightenment is steep” and “Oolong! Farewell!”), while Jane cleans houses and writes poetry about it, rhyming “dust” with “lust,” and “clog of hair” with “fog of despair.” Together Willa and Jane are a fortress of private jokes and shared opinions, with a friendship so close there’s hardly room for anyone else. But when Ben, Willa’s oldest friend, reappears and falls in love with Jane, Willa wonders: Can she let her two best friends find happiness with each other if it means leaving her behind?

Sample prose:

“I’m plotting my escape (Is it 8:05 already?), when suddenly a cluster of women in little black dresses swoops down on us, arms waving, fabric flapping—­a colony of pretty bats. They emit a strong, collective odor of fruity perfumes with names, I imagine, like Delicious and Happy and Adorable. (Mine, if I were wearing any, would be called Wary or Irritable.)

Why you should read: Not only did  of the New York Times read Fox's  first effort the famously cranky reviewer Michiko Kakutani LOVED it and said “a delightful new voice in American fiction, a voice that instantly recalls the wry, knowing prose of Lorrie Moore”

Other releases:

Four of a Kind by Valerie Frankel (another former girlfriend) Four very different Brooklyn moms play poker. The stakes? Their most private secrets.

Bond Girl by Erin Duffy is Devil Wears Prada on Wall Street.

Spin by Catherine McKenzie is about a music writer who is offered a position at a popular music magazine if she follows a big star to rehab and gets the story.