The Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II were officially inaugurated in the UK last month.   It’s the centennial of Charles Dickens birth.  Plus, the 2012 Orange Prize Longlist will be announced on Thursday.

I’m feeling a bout of Anglophilia coming on!

And it just so happens that three books – all with connections back to the Isle of Albion – are coming out this Spring/Summer that I can’t wait to tell you about.  Too soon for the full reviews…so you’ll have to make do with teasers and the release dates (though I’m sure number 2 on my list will shock no one).

   The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen (available April, 2012).  This is a first novel for Grace McCleen – an author and singer/songwriter who lives in London, England.  It’s getting quite a bit of attention on both sides of the Atlantic. A 10-year-old narrator with a bully problem, a miniature town built from scraps and a mystical initiation of the End of Days: The Land of Decoration could be the Book Club read of the Summer.

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (available May, 2012).  The sequel to Wolf Hall focuses on the downfall of Anne Boleyn and what it cost Thomas Cromwell to bring that about.    I love Mantel’s prose and have a bit of a crush on Cromwell, so I’m counting the days until I clasp those 432 pages in my grubby little hands.

City of Ravens: The Extraordinary History  of London, the Tower and its Famous Birds by Boria Sax (available July, 2012).  Legend has it that London will fall if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London.  Sax delves into the foundation of that story and a host of others about these enormous (and scary looking) black birds.

Have a book to add to the list?  A new release you’re looking forward to or an old favorite everyone should read?  Tell us about it in the comments below.