from a volume by a beloved entertainer to a book about a beloved fat, the end of 2016 promises new literary takes on treasured subjects. here, a late-fall reading list: by johnny cash (nov. 15) in a year when bob dylan won the nobel prize in literature , it seems fitting that another american music legend, johnny cash , also steps into the literary spotlight. this collection, edited and presented by paul muldoon, dips into a trove of poems by cash, newly discovered in the family archives. the volume includes photographs of the musician<u+2019>s hand-scrawled work on folded pages with ink smears and coffee stains. <u+201c>if you think you <u+2018>know<u+2019> johnny cash,<u+201d> his son, john carter cash, writes in the foreword, <u+201c>think again.<u+201d> by megyn kelly (nov. 15) when the fox news star<u+2019>s hotly awaited memoir hits shelves today, readers can finally see for themselves what ms. kelly has to say about former fox news boss roger ailes , who resigned this summer in the wake of sexual harassment allegations. also in the offing: ms. kelly<u+2019>s take on the aftermath of the first republican presidential primary debate<u+2014>and donald trump <u+2019>s <u+201c>blood coming out of her wherever<u+201d> comment . according to a recent new york times review, the book indicates that mr. trump may have been tipped off about ms. kelly<u+2019>s hard-hitting first question at the debate and recounts a story suggesting that she may have been poisoned just before the event. on twitter , ms. kelly disputed both accounts. by elaine khosrova (nov. 15) ms. khosrova digs through ancient texts, explains 18th-century dairymaid culture and interviews an expert who can detect 20 different flavor defects in a single butter pat. the author<u+2019>s first book, which includes recipes, discusses butter<u+2019>s role in areas such as religion, medicine, politics and art. readers learn how dogs helped churn butter at preindustrial dairy farms by walking on treadmills, and how the iowa state fair<u+2019>s butter cow is made almost entirely from the same stash of rancid butter year after year. by wesley lowery (nov. 15) as the obama administration reaches its close , the washington post<u+2019>s lead reporter covering police shootings and the black lives matter protest movement examines life inside heavily policed communities and asks: <u+201c>why had the promise and potential of such a transformative presidency not yet reached down to the lives of those who elected him?<u+201d> with this book, mr. lowery builds on his on-the-ground reporting during the civil unrest after police violence in ferguson, mo., cleveland, charleston, s.c., and baltimore. by trevor noah (nov. 15) the host of <u+201c> the daily show with trevor noah <u+201d> chronicles his childhood as the son of a white swiss father and a black xhosa mother in south africa during apartheid . the memoir opens with his mother<u+2014>the book<u+2019>s undisputed heroine<u+2014>throwing him out the window of a minibus to save him from an attempted kidnapping on the way home from church. poverty and violence punctuate the author<u+2019>s early life, from meager meals that included caterpillars (and their exploding yellow-green excrement) to a stepfather<u+2019>s brutality against his family. by j.k. rowling (nov. 18) the sale of the bound screenplay, which marks the <u+201c> harry potter <u+201d> author<u+2019>s screenwriting debut, is timed to the opening of the <u+201c>fantastic beasts<u+201d> movie , starring eddie redmayne. it is inspired by ms. rowling<u+2019>s 2001 textbook for the hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, written by the fictional character newt scamander. earlier this year, the rehearsal script for the stage play <u+201c> harry potter and the cursed child <u+2013> parts one and two ,<u+201d> a british production of a new story by ms. rowling, topped charts . by michael chabon (nov. 22) <u+201c>did i tell you,<u+201d> the grandfather says, <u+201c>about the time i dropped a kitten out of the window?<u+201d> mr. chabon offers up this story and many others in his new novel, a work inspired by the real deathbed conversations he had with his grandfather nearly three decades ago. the pulitzer prize-winning author dives into the facts and fictions of family legend through the confessions of a terminally ill man, writing: <u+201c>out flowed a record of his misadventures, his ambiguous luck, his feats and failures of timing and nerve.<u+201d> by thomas l. friedman (nov. 22) conversations with a washington, d.c., parking attendant who also writes a blog on ethiopian affairs gets mr. friedman thinking about what he calls <u+201c>the dizzying pace of change.<u+201d> we are living through one of the greatest turning points in history since perhaps the 15th-century arrival of johannes gutenberg <u+2019>s printing press, mr. friedman argues in the book, which looks at how technology, globalization and climate change are interacting with each other and rapidly reshaping society. by michael lewis (dec. 6) mr. lewis, whose best sellers like <u+201c> moneyball <u+201d> turned statistics into dramatic storytelling , revisits the world of numbers in his latest nonfiction book. the author investigates the irrational forces at work shaping human decision-making, and why many people today trust data over intuition. it is anchored in the story of the odd-couple relationship between israeli psychologists daniel kahneman and amos tversky, whose landmark studies from the late 1960s into the <u+2019>90s altered the way people view their own minds . by dava sobel (dec. 6) women shattering the glass ceiling of space is a theme of late 2016. margot lee shetterly <u+2019>s recent book on the subject, <u+201c> hidden figures: the american dream and the untold story of the black women mathematicians who helped win the space race ,<u+201d> arrives in movie theaters soon , co-starring taraji p. henson and octavia spencer. now ms. sobel, author of <u+201c> galileo<u+2019>s daughter <u+201d> and <u+201c> the planets ,<u+201d> trains her lens on women in astronomy around the turn of the 20th century, chronicling the female team that made meaningful discoveries about stars and the universe. write to ellen gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com
from megyn kelly to j.k. rowling, 10 books to read now - wsj
ellen gamerman