Five books we can’t wait to read in November

Bookstores and libraries will undergo big changes next month.

There are always new books hitting shelves, of course, but the first couple weeks of November are unusually jammed with big-name authors such as Patti Smith (the “Just Kids” writer has another memoir, “Bread of Angels”), Nate Berkus (the designer, who grew up in Hopkins, wrote “Foundations,” about making a home) and, inevitably, Taylor Swift (she’s not the author of “Swifterature,” actually, but Elly McCausland’s book is about the relationship between Swift’s lyrics and literature).

You can look for reviews of the latest from Stewart O’Nan (“Evensong”), Simon Winchester (“The Breath of the Gods”) and many others in the Minnesota Star Tribune next month. But here are five more November books we have our eye on:

Becoming the Twin Cities, Drew M. Ross

It’s the subtitle that makes this one tantalizing: “Swindles, Schemes and Enduring Rivalries.” And, no, it’s not set in the present day. St. Paul writer Ross takes readers back to the 1800s, when decisions were being made about, for instance, where to put the Capitol and State Fairgrounds. Bold-faced names such as Zebulon Pike and Archbishop John Ireland figure into the wheeling and dealing, which Ross argues gets at one of the most fundamental aspects of Minneapolis and St. Paul: why they’re not all one city. (Nov. 11)

Declaring Independence, Edward J. Larson

Get ready for a million books about 1776, in anticipation of our country’s 250th birthday next year. This one, from a Pulitzer Prize winner (for his brilliant book about the Scopes monkey trial, “Summer for the Gods”), focuses narrowly on that pivotal year. Larson traces the events that took the Founding Fathers from barely thinking about the idea of independence in January to declaring it just a few months later. Subtitled “Why 1776 Matters,” the book also argues that July wasn’t an open-and-shut declaration, with the following months producing lots of colonial handwringing. (Nov. 11)

As in his bestselling novel “Memorial,” mothers, sons and Japan preoccupy Washington in his latest, which is about how sometimes you have to leave home to get a handle on what it is. A gay man and his estranged mom, originally from Texas, both end up in Tokyo and both fall in love there (with different men, fortunately). The fourth book from the 32-year-old Washington, who also has written about food for the New York Times, “Palaver” already has been longlisted for the National Book Award. (Nov. 4)

Queen Esther, John Irving

There was a time when a new title from the author of the National Book Award-winning “The World According to Garp” would have been huge news but a few wan titles in a row may have lowered his stock. (Remember “The Last Chairlift” from 2022? Exactly.) Perhaps a sequel can restore some of his luster? “Queen Esther” brings back Dr. Wilbur Larch and St. Cloud’s Orphanage, both featured in “The Cider House Rules,” which was not only a bestseller but also won Irving an Oscar for writing the 1999 movie adaptation. “Queen Esther” refers to a Jewish girl, fleeing antisemitism, who grows up at the orphanage; the novel traces her life into her eighth decade. (Nov. 4)

Wild Instinct, T. Jefferson Parker