2018 Preview: Audiobooks and Music

Written by Jon Williams

Last week we looked at some of the great movies coming our way in 2018, but that’s not all there is to look forward to. Here are some other great media titles the coming year has in store for us.

In publishing, the big question to start the year is the same as it has been for the past several years: will we finally see The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series? There’s no definitive word on that as of now (and we already know the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones isn’t coming until 2019), so all we can do is keep our fingers crossed. We do know, though, that Stephen King will follow up his packed 2017 with a new novel, The Outsider, coming in May. Other fiction titles for the year include Force of Nature by Jane Harper and Sunburn by Laura Lippman in February, Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion in April, and Lauren Groff’s Florida in June. Also, the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which sees popular contemporary authors update classic Bard tales, will have a new addition with Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth in April.

While her next novel isn’t coming until next year, a book of essays (including one on our collective love for public libraries) entitled Feel Free from Zadie Smith is part of a monumental year in non-fiction. A couple of social movements that gained steam as 2017 progressed will continue to demand attention and consideration. One is #MeToo and Time’s Up, highlighted at the recent Golden Globes ceremony. Rose McGowan’s Brave details her experience as an actress in Hollywood, while acclaimed author Roxane Gay compiles a series of essays by a number of women in Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture. A co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, brings her struggle to light next week in When They Call You a Terrorist. In a related vein, a previously unpublished work from the late Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon, looks at slavery’s effect on one man and the enduring legacy of the institution. But there are some books on less weighty topics as well, such as See What Can Be Done, a collection of cultural and media criticism from Lorrie Moore, and Creative Quest, a guide to creativity and inspiration from Questlove.

The world of music is already abuzz with the recent announcement of a new album forthcoming from Justin Timberlake. Man of the Woods comes out February 2, just two days before his performance at halftime of the Super Bowl. There’s plenty of other good music on tap, including a new album from platinum rockers Fall Out Boy, M A N I A, out a week from today. The anticipated Marvel movie Black Panther has an equally anticipated soundtrack that was curated and produced by Kendrick Lamar, who also performs on it, available February 9, a week before the movie debuts in theaters. An album featuring unheard recordings from the late Jimi Hendrix, Both Sides of the Sky, comes out March 9. Because of the nature of the music industry, nailing down future releases can be an inexact science, to say the least, but there’s a good chance of new album releases this year from such names as Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Tool, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Migos.

As we said on last week’s movie preview, this is just scratching the surface of all the great content we can expect to see in 2018. Is there anything in particular you and your patrons are looking forward to? Let us know, and stay tuned to Midwest Tape here on our blog as well as our Facebook and Twitter feeds for more information on exciting new releases as they become available.