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The free digital Publishers Lunch Buzz Books have proven themselves accurate predictors of bestseller and best-of-the-year titles, before they are published. This season Publishers Lunch has gathered substantial excerpts from 54 of the most buzzed-about books scheduled for publication this fall and winter in two exclusive, free new ebooks, BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Fall/Winter and BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter, offered in consumer and trade editions.

Book lovers get an early first look at new books from New York Times bestselling authors Mitch Albom, Geraldine Brooks, Alice Hoffman, and Adriana Trigiani, and popular and critically acclaimed writers Lauren Groff, Janice Y.K. Lee, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Belinda McKeon; columnist and television host Jason Gay’s first book, the \"whip-smart\" fiction debut of Academy Award-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg; an unprecedented look at feminist and legal pioneer Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik’s Notorious RBG; Dick Van Dyke’s memoir Keep Moving; Jesse Itzler on living with a Navy SEAL; and the first novels from essayist Sloane Crosley and award-winning short story writer Claire Vaye Watkins.

Following its highly successful introduction last year, Publishers Lunch again is presenting a stand-alone volume previewing exciting and outstanding material from publishing’s powerhouse sector, young adult and middle-grade novels, in BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter. This edition holds a taste of eagerly awaited books like new work from bestselling and award-winning leaders in the field including James Dashner (The Maze Runner series), Jennifer Donnelly (A Northern Light and Revolution), Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking trilogy), and Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall, Panic); authors best-known for their adult books (Eleanor Herman and Cammie McGovern); and a good number of exciting debuts (Tessa Elwood’s Inherit the Stars, Moïra Fowley-Doyle’s The Accident Season, and Estelle Laure’s This Raging Light, among others). Aaron Hartzler, author of the critically acclaimed YA memoir Rapture Practice, makes his fiction debut with What We Saw. In what appears to becoming a YA trend, four Buzz Books entries are highly graphic or archival-looking in form via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations and more. These include Hannah Moskowitz’s History of Glitter and Blood, a lyrical fantasy with an unusual graphic format.

Of the 24 adult books previewed and published to date in the 2015 Spring/Summer edition, 19 have made \"best of the month/year\" lists and five are New York Times bestsellers.

BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Fall/Winter and BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter are available for free download now on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple’s iBookstore, the Google Play Books store, and Kobo.

I didn’t post on Saturday because the weather was gorgeous and the Ren Faire was packed. In my 7-year-old nephew’s words, it was his best day ever–in his entire life. I wish that I could say E got his flair for the dramatic from me. But it was a really fun day, and E was hilarious as usual.

He’s also a big reader. He read every sign at the faire, and when we turned on to Castle Rd he said “Oh this must be where the castle is–no, wait that’s cas-T-le, never mind.” When we told him he was right and the T is silent he said, “Oh! Like Django!” Yep. Just like that.

When I was a kid we would spend lots of time at the library each summer, and we would read books off a list our teachers sent home. But E’s 1st grade teacher is pretty great–she set the class a challenge to read 100 books over the summer, and he fully intends to (when he’s not in the pool or hacking apart worms). It got me thinking about how I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, even though I still love it.

Here are my top 4 favorites so far this year (in no particular order):

• The River of No Return – Bee Ridgway: chosen purely because the time period interested me, echoes of Downton Abbey but earlier, more Austen, with time travel and bad guys and intrigue and love. It was brilliant and exciting–impossible to put down.
• Invincible Summer – Hannah Moskowitz: Contemporary YA from a boy’s perspective, which is a rare find, and the writing itself is so achingly beautiful I couldn’t look away. I read the whole thing in one day.
• Quintana of Charyn – Melina Marchetta: hands down my favorite author these days, Melina Marchetta gives life to the most wonderful characters that I adore for their flaws and yearnings as much as their strengths. She’s a master of depicting social groups that you get drawn into and become a part of, and I am only sad that this trilogy has drawn to a close.
• Letters from Skye: a novel – Jessica Brockmole: I picked this up for 2 reasons. It is about an author living on the Isle of Skye, which we visited on our honeymoon and I have since fantasized about having a writer’s retreat there. And it is partially set during WWI, which is a time of particular interest to me at the moment. The narrative unfolds through a series of letters across 2 World Wars, making the story feel both grand and intimately nostalgic at the same time.

Of course I have a massive to-read list to keep me busy for the rest of the year. Who are some of your favorite authors, and what are some of the best books you’ve read this year? I always love suggestions!