2012 promises to be a good year for books. A few established writers -Joyce Carol Oates and Anne Tyler- will be releasing new works this year, but we also recommend you seek out new authors and see what their debuts have to offer. Of course, new books also mean more upcoming readings and signings. Check back here for events around the city or follow up with independent bookstores, which often host writers.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

Though we’re not such fans of this title (are too many authors borrowing from Raymond Carver?), Nathan Englander’s latest work seems promising. The eponymous piece in this book of short stories first appeared in The New Yorker earlier this winter. Englander is releasing another book this year with co-editor Jonathan Safran Foer: a new translation of the Haggdah, titled, appropriately, the New American Haggadah.

Even though Franzen has been established in the book world for a long time, he remains an evasive writer. We’ll jump at any chance to sit inside his head for a few hours, and to hear his thoughts about the changing literary scene and the author’s role in it. It’s always interesting to watch someone examine his own sensibility.

I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

We’ll admit it: We’ve read all the Sophie Kinsella books. (And Confessions of a Shopaholic is not the best. Not even the second-best. That would be Can You Keep a Secret?, followed by Undomestic Goddess.) We’re hoping that this Kinsella latest will live up to her high standards, but we’re a little scared that she might fall into the trappings of generic chick-lit. Still, we’re loyal, and we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt in hoping that she can achieve the levels of hilariousness that made Secret great.

John Irving’s latest book focuses on the life of a bisexual, and it is his first time writing in the first-person perspective since A Prayer For Owen Meany, which you might know from your sophomore year reading list in high school. The story of a man grappling with his sexual identity reminds us of God Says No, a powerful book from 2009 that chronicled the journey of a God-fearing and gay man living in the South. We hope that this will be as inspiring.

Varamo by Cesar Aira

We’re a little wary of “life in a day” book, but Aira’s might be different from those that have disappointed us over the years. Varamo is a work-within-a-work, and its main character is a poet who has just set down to write his magnum opus, a “celebrated” Central American book that comes out of his experiences dodging the government. The New York Review of Books even gave it a nod.