Crown Archetype

A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred​

George F. Will

March 25

“Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs,” legendary shortstop and MLB manager (and one-season Cubs player) Alvin Dark once said. “That’s baseball as it should be played—in God’s own sunshine.” Lifelong Cubs fans, like syndicated columnist George Will, would probably say the Cubs’ storied home stadium offers baseball as it should be watched, too. On the eve of Wrigley Field’s centennial anniversary, Will applies his trademark wit and warmth to the history—the real, folklore-free version—of the Chicago Cubs franchise and their home field.

Knopf

Astonish Me

Maggie Shipstead

April 8

Shipstead's impressive debut novel, Seating Arrangements, captured the family turmoil of WASPy New Englanders with such precision and elegance that it was hard to believe Shipstead, a Southern California native, didn't hail from that world herself. In Astonish Me, she's crafted another tale of family secrets and tough decisions that centers on ballerina Joan, who has a passionate affair with Soviet Union defector Arslan in the 1970s. As Arslan becomes the darling of New York’s ballet scene, Joan’s career fizzles, and she departs to the West Coast with a new husband and kid. But when their son grows up to be a prodigious dancer in his on right, Joan must once again face the world—and the man—she left behind.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The Snow Queen

Michael Cunningham

May 6

While walking through Central Park one day in 2004, a heartbroken, newly single Barrett Meeks sees a godly light shining down from the sky. Over in Brooklyn, his musician brother, Tyler, struggles to write a wedding song for his sick fiancée. As atheist Barrett welcomes religion into his life, Tyler turns to drugs to fuel his creativity, and Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, spins dueling tales of unlocking our higher selves and confronting mortality.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Lost for Words

Edward St. Aubyn

May 20

The newest novel from the author of the acclaimed Patrick Melrose series offers a searing satire on the convoluted, underhanded behind-the-scenes politics of literary prizes like the Man Booker (for which St. Aubyn’s novel Mother’s Milk was shortlisted in 2006). By chronicling the lives of the calculating authors nominated for the prize and the grumbling, bargaining judges tasked with agreeing on a single work of literature worthy of the prize, Lost for Words questions the roles of celebrity, ambition, and true talent in literary competitions.

Simon & Schuster

Untitled memoir

Hillary Rodham Clinton

June 1

Will she or won't she? Talk of potential presidential run dominates the Clinton conversation right now, but while pundits look ahead to 2016, Clinton's latest book, expected in June, takes a look back at the defining moments of her term as Secretary of State. Those willing to read the tea leaves, however, may not be too disappointed in the as-yet untitled memoir, Clinton's second, as its official description teases some of "her thoughts about how to navigate the challenges of the 21st century."