The 25 big books of fall

1. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown, $35, on sale Spet. 27) What it’s about: An empty seat on the Pagford town council leads to a heated election marked by what Rowling’s publisher calls “passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations.” Why it’s hot: Hold on to your Quidditch broom. The book is under tight wraps, but everyone is wondering: Can the creator of Harry Potter, the world’s most popular young-adult series, write just as compellingly for adults?   AP Photo/Joel Ryan

2. Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe (Little, Brown, $30, on sale: Oct. 23) What it’s about: A novel set in Miami about Anglos vs. Cuban immigrants, with a wild cast of characters that includes local cops, the Cuban mayor, a billionaire porn addict and shady Russians. Why it’s hot: A new Tom Wolfe book is always an event. This is just the fourth novel from the 81-year-old writer, and his first since 2004’s I Am Charlotte Simmons.  Mark Seliger

3. The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster, $30, on sale Sept. 11 What it’s about: A behind-the-scenes account of how President Obama and congressional leaders struggled to restore the U.S. economy after the 2008 meltdown. Why it’s hot: Woodward, who became famous for his reporting on the Watergate scandal, has written 16 best sellers.   AFP Photo/Jim Watson

4. Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (Henry Holt, $28, on sale Oct. 2)What it's about: As they did last fall in Killing Lincoln, O'Reilly, the Fox News anchor and former high school history teacher, and Dugard recount a presidential assassination, this time JFK's in 1963, writing in the style of a you-are-there thriller.Why it's hot: O'Reilly has a lock on the best-seller list. Killing Lincoln landed on USA TODAY's list at No. 3 last fall and stayed in the top 10 for 10 weeks.  Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

5. Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Simon & Schuster, $35, on sale Oct. 1)What it's about: The businessman, movie star and former governor tells all in this embargoed autobiography about his journey from his childhood in Austria to living the American dream.Why it's hot: Many will be curious how honest the Governator is about his regrets, including the collapse of his marriage to Maria Shriver after it was revealed that he had a child with his housekeeper.  AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky

6. Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket, illustrations by Seth (Little, Brown, $15.99, for ages 9 and up, on sale Oct. 23)What it's about: The complex mystery, first in the four-book All the Wrong Questions series, stars a detective who is almost 13 and is written the way Raymond Chandler (The Long Goodbye) might have written for kids with a sense of humor.Why it's hot: Lemony Snicket is the pen name of Daniel Handler, whose previous series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, was a huge best seller.  Meredith Heuer

7. A Wanted Man: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Delacorte, $28, on sale Sept. 11)What it's about: Former military cop Jack Reacher hitches a ride back to Virginia, but he soon discovers that the people who picked him up may be cold-blooded killers.Why it's hot: The indomitable Reacher burns up the pages of every book in Child's series, so fans are wondering whether the diminutive Tom Cruise can pull off the role in the film Jack Reacher, due Dec. 21.  Sigrid Estrada

8. Winter of the World: Book Two of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett (Dutton, $36, on sale Sept. 18)What it's about: Part 2 of the trilogy picks up where the first book left off. Five interrelated families — American, German, Russian, English, Welsh — witness the Third Reich, the Spanish Civil War, World War II and the era of nuclear proliferation.Why it's hot: Readers of the first book, Fall of Giants, which reached No. 2 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list in 2010, will be eager to follow the characters further along into the 20th century.  Barbara Follett

9. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz (Riverhead, $26.95, on sale Sept. 11)What it's about: Diaz returns to the short-story form in his latest book, which again features his alter ego, Yunior, a Dominican-born protagonist who grew up in New Jersey.Why it's hot: Readers and critics have been saying "wow" about Diaz since his story collection Drown, and the clamor only grew when he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  Nina Subin

10. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon (Harper, $27.99, on sale Sept. 11)What it's about: Friends who run a vintage vinyl record store in the Berkeley, Calif., area bump heads with an entrepreneur who plans to build a megastore nearby.Why it's hot: Kirkus Reviews calls this novel, by the Pulitzer-winning writer of Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, "a Joyce-an remix," while The Atlantic has proclaimed it one of "the bigger literary events of the year."  Jennifer Chaney

11. Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young (Blue Rider, $30, on sale Sept. 25)What it's about: A memoir of Young's life and times, including his years performing with the bands Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; and Crazy Horse.Why it's hot: Young, 66, is widely considered one of the most influential singer/songwriters of his generation.  AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette

12. Phantom by Jo Nesbo (Knopf, $25.95, on sale Oct. 2)What it's about: Former Oslo cop Harry Hole takes on police corruption and the city's drug dealers as he fights to prove that the boy he considers his son is not a murderer.Why it's hot: Some say Nesbo, not Stieg Larsson, is the best crime writer Scandinavia has ever produced. Fuel for the literary fire: Martin Scorsese is set to direct the film adaptation of Nesbo's global blockbuster Hole novel, The Snowman.  Arvid Stridh

13. My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall (New Harvest, $26, on sale Oct. 18)What it's about: A backstage pass to the comedian's life in the limelight, starting with tap dancing as a kid back in the Bronx to her star status on Laverne & Shirley to directing Big and A League of Their Own.Why it's hot: She knows everyone and drops names without shame, from her best friend Carrie Fisher to Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert De Niro and the late Whitney Houston.  Eugene Pinkowsi

14. Listening In: The Secret White House Tapes of John F. Kennedy edited by Ted Widmer, foreword by Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion, $40, on sale Sept. 25)What it's about: Annotated transcripts of White House conversations, previously available at the Kennedy Library, about the Cuban missile crisis and other key events of the Kennedy presidency. Includes two 75-minute, re-mastered CDs.Why it's hot: Interest in the Kennedys never seems to wane. Last year's Jacqueline Kennedy: Conversations on Life With John Kennedy, from post-assassination interviews, landed at No. 3 on USA TODAY's list.  Frank Mullin

15. Live by Night by Dennis Lehane(William Morrow, $27.99, on sale Oct. 2)What it's about: Like HBO's Boardwalk Empire, this epic novel, which centers on gangster Joe Coughlin, son of a Boston cop, is steeped in bootleg booze and the organized crime of Prohibition-era America.Why it's hot: Lehane's books are irresistible to readers, critics and filmmakers alike. Mystic River, Shutter Island and Gone Baby Gone have all had successful movie adaptations.  HarperCollins

16. Who I Am: A Memoir by Pete Townshend(Harper, $32.50, on sale Oct. 8)What it's about: Founder of the iconic rock 'n' roll band The Who talks about it all — from first meeting Roger Daltrey to hanging out with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to the creation of the rock opera Tommy to his arrest and acquittal on child pornography charges.Why it's hot: Fans know Who I Am is a play on words —Who Are You is the title of The Who's hit 1978 album. Who I Am taps into the rock 'n' roll tell-all fever that has hit many an aging rocker lately.  Ross Haflin

17. NW by Zadie Smith (The Penguin Press, $26.95)What it's about: NW stands for Northwest London, the setting of Smith's tragic-comic novel about the adult lives of four Londoners who grew up in the council estate of Caldwell.Why it's hot: Smith's career has been closely tracked since she burst onto the scene in 2000 with her novel White Teeth. Publishers Weekly calls NW "excellent and captivating."  Dominique Nabokob

18. Celebrate: A Year of Festivities for Families and Friends by Pippa Middleton(Viking Adult, $50, on sale Oct. 30)What it's about: In her first book, Pippa Middleton, sister to the "it" royal of the moment, shares her tips, recipes and secrets to throwing a memorable event, much of it based on her blog, Party Times, and her work in the family business, Party Pieces.Why it's hot: Because she's the sister of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the future queen!  Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

19. Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand by William Mann (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30, on sale Oct. 9)What it's about: A definitive look — 576 pages! — at the superstar's illustrious career, including newly uncovered tidbits about her early years in New York.Why it's hot: Streisand remains a superstar after all these years, proving it once again by her quickly sold-out performances in Brooklyn, N.Y., in October. And Mann can tell a juicy Hollywood tale (hello Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn).  Michael Childers

20. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, $28.99, on sale Nov. 6)What it's about: A young Tennessee mother who lives on a failing sheep farm gets caught up in controversy after she stumbles upon a field of misguided Monarch butterflies in Kingsolver's novel about climate change.Why it's hot: Global warming, anyone? The author of The Poisonwood Bible is winning early raves for her "powerful new novel … (which is) too lucid and vivid for even skeptics to ignore," according to Publishers Weekly.  David Wood

21. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, $22.99)What it's about: The celebrated essayist/reporter/atheist's thoughts on mortality, written during the last 18 months of his life after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He died in December at 62.Why it's hot: Hitchens "had few equals in the sphere of spirited commentary," as Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter writes in the foreword. In an afterword, Hitchens' widow, Carol Blue, a writer and filmmaker, notes that "Christopher has the last word."  Kraft Corbis

22. Astray by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown, $25.99, on sale Oct. 20)What it's about: Short stories spanning four centuries about characters who have gone "astray," from gold miners to counterfeiters to slaves.Why it's hot: The first book by the Dublin-born Donoghue since her breakthrough best seller Room, about a boy and his "Ma" who are held captive in one room.  Nina Subin

23. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwanNan A. Talese/Doubleday, $26.95, on sale Nov. 13What it's about: Cambridge student Serena Frome is recruited for England's intelligence agency MI5 in 1972 and promptly falls in love with a young writer she's spying on.Why it's hot: Doubleday's press materials note that Sweet Tooth features McEwan's first female protagonist since Atonement, perhaps his best-loved novel. Sweet!  Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

24. Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, An Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work by Jeanne Marie Laskas (Putnam, $26.95, on sale Sept. 13)What it's about: True tales of the people who make our life run every day, but whom we rarely think about — long-haul truckers, coal miners, even cheerleaders — by a longtime columnist for The Washington Post.Why it's hot: Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, calls Laskas "a reporting and writing powerhouse. She doesn't just interview the people who dig our coal and extract our oil, she goes deep into the mines and tundra with them."  Craig Corder

25. Both Flesh and Not by David Foster Wallace(Little, Brown, $26.99, on sale Nov. 6)What it's about: Provocative, previously published essays on topics ranging from tennis star Roger Federer to the future of fiction.Why it's hot: Wallace, best known for 1996 novel Infinite Jest, was celebrated as one of the most original minds of his generation. He committed suicide in 2008 at age 46. D.T. Max's biography of Wallace, Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, was released on Aug. 30.  Giovannetti Effigi