Waiting on Wednesday (1)

Waiting On' Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill from Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave your comment below!

Megan's First Pick - 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

I almost ordered the Japanese version since I minored in Japanese Language in college. That probably would have been my dumbest idea ever, but hey, that is how excited I am about this book. Almost 1000 pages of what is sure to be Haruki Murakami excellence. The first printing in Japan sold out on less than a day and it sold over a million copies in Japan. If you haven't read some of his other works, do it now. The man is a master storyteller and the type of author I can only aspire to be. And since there is not a short plot write up available (look on Wikipedia and prepare for spoilers possibly), here is a blurb about it from a magazine.

“1Q84” -- the letter Q and the number 9 have the same pronunciation in Japanese -- is Murakami’s first novel in more than four years. It opens with a woman named Aomame, which means “blue bean,” listening to Czech composer Leos Janacek’s “Sinfonietta” in a Toyota Crown Royal Saloon cab. The chapters alternate between Aomame and a male character named Tengo.

1Q84 is described as a "complex and surreal narrative" which "shifts back and forth between tales of two characters, a man and a woman, who are searching for each other." The themes consist of murder, history, cult religion, violence, family ties and love.

1Q84 will be available October 25th from Knopf, but you can preorder it now on Amazon or any other site. Needless to say, I'm psyched.