March 12, 2015

We were so happy to see Daylight Savings Time roll around this past Sunday. With the time change, we also got some warmer temps (which is not always the case). It was even a high of 63 yesterday, and that got everyone storing away their winter boots and breaking out their casual shoes and jackets. While we’re celebrating the sunnier side of things, the lost hour definitely took a toll on our daily routines --- we’ve spotted more people than usual catching a few ZZZ's on the morning commute.

Even with the lost hour, we seem to find more time in our busy schedules for social activities, like going to the movies and reading. Emily plowed through Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven series, and is practically losing it in anticipation of the fourth and final book, THE RAVEN KING (Blue+Gansey 4eva). Nikki’s knee-deep in Paula Hawkins’ mega hit, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, and she’s absolutely loving it. It’s currently uber (no pun intended) trendy...even Reese Witherspoon is throwing some Insta love its way. Our very own Carol Fitzgerald gave it a shoutout in USA Today as sales hit one million copies this week (it came out on January 13th!). Read it now before you miss the train!

If you think all this reading and losing sleep leaves us with no time to see movies, think again! We’re heavily looking forward to seeing Kenneth Branagh’s live-action Cinderella remake this Friday (some of us more than others…). It stars Lily James as the new-and-improved heroine; “Downton Abbey” fans will recognize her as the Crawleys’ feisty cousin, Lady Rose. Her Prince Charming is played by Richard Madden, who you’ll recognize as Robb Stark from “Game of (Ever Heard of It?) Thrones.” The supporting cast also has us swooning and includes Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skarsgård and Cate Blanchett (who you’ll recognize from being a glowing angel who fell from heaven). Although the original will always hold a special place in our hearts, we have to admit that we’re really excited about this stunning technicolor reboot.

From Friday to Monday, we’re bookending our weekend with another eagerly anticipated adaptation, Insurgent. We’re attending a special press prescreening on Monday night and we cannot wait. Speaking of minor “Downton Abbey” characters, Theo James returns as YA heartthrob Four, and word on the street is that things are heating up between him and Shai Shai. It may not be Fifty Shades of Grey, but we’re confident that their chemistry will be off the charts, with or without a Red Room.

With zero time to spare, Nikki is also squeezing in a casual Broadway visit to see the new Larry David show, “Fish in the Dark.” The reviews have slowly trickled in during the past two weeks, and it appears that it’s pretty, pretty, pretty good. If it’s even nearly as good as “Phantom,” she’ll have trouble curbing her enthusiasm.

That’s right, dear readers...we’ve taken media consumption by air, land and sea. (We’ve upped our Cadbury egg consumption game, too...’tis the season. Milk or dark chocolate is the current office debate.)

No surprise that we’re big Mindy Kaling fans over here, and we were floored by the news that she and B.J. Novak will be headlining this year’s BookCon on May 30th. Mindy’s latest book, WHY NOT ME?, will be available at the end of September, but we’re sure she’ll have plenty to say about it. The duo are brilliant and also best friends IRL, and we know better than to ‘ship their love (but we still secretly ‘ship their love). Let’s just say it’s going to be bananas.

While we all hold our breath for WHY NOT ME?, check out some great titles worthy of your time.

Jonathan Lethem’s third collection of stories, LUCKY ALAN AND OTHER STORIES, uncovers a father’s nervous breakdown at SeaWorld; a foundling child rescued from the woods during a blizzard; a political prisoner in a hole in a Brooklyn street; and a crumbling, haunted “blog” on a seaside cliff. As in his novels, Lethem finds the uncanny lurking in the mundane, the irrational self-defeat seeping through our upstanding pursuits, and the tragic undertow of the absurd world(s) in which we live.

Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the best novelists working today, is also one of the most surprising. He has written drawing-room novels, dystopian fiction, surrealist works, and now a post-Arthurian tale of knights and ogres, of elderly villagers searching for their long-lost son, and of a she-dragon rumored to be the cause of a mist of forgetfulness that has plagued the land in THE BURIED GIANT. As in past books, Ishiguro uses his story to meditate on memory and loss.

Included in Richard Lange’s latest short story collection, SWEET NOTHING, are edge-of-your-seat tales: A prison guard must protect an inmate being tried for heinous crimes. A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire. An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot. A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built.

If you happen to be an amateur at-home chef, you should check out our latest Bookreporter.com bookshelf "Spring Cookbooks 2015." Many of the chefs --- whose new work we feature --- highlight innovative ways to use Spring's plentiful bounty. April Bloomfield's A GIRL AND HER GREENS and Steven Satterfield's ROOT TO LEAF contain a plethora of recipes for both omnivore and herbivores alike, looking to spice up their typical vegetable routine. Those with undeniable sweet teeth looking to making healthier choices can find inspiration and unique tips in Erin McKenna's BREAD & BUTTER: Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes to Fill Your Bread Basket and Joanne Chang's BAKING WITH LESS SUGAR. Of course, because we all like to overindulge sometimes, we also have PURE PORK AWESOMENESS, MADE IN AMERICA and COOKIE LOVE, for all your entertainment needs and "cheat days."

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Now, if only Disney could write the story of our spring flings...gender politics aside, of course.

5 Things We’re Obsessed With at This Very Moment, in no particular order:
1. The Apple Watch. IT. LOOKS. AWESOME.
2. Getting our spring allergies under control.
3. Tina Fey's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" on Netflix
4. Dressing up as two llamas on the loose. One in black + blue dress. The other in white + gold. You'll decide for yourself which is which. Halloween 2015, here we come.
5. #Zoolander2

Nicole Sherman (Nicole@bookreporter.com) + Emily Hoenig (Emily@bookreporter.com)

Tired of freezing your fingers every time you take off your glove to turn that page? We are too. That's why GraphicNovelReporter.com has put together 20 titles they're most looking forward to reading this spring --- out on a park bench under warm streaming sunlight. The best way to take in a graphic novel, right?

This spring brings a little bit of something new mixed with old favorites --- retrospectives of the work of Jules Feiffer, Bill Watterson and a slew of Drawn and Quarterly creators sit on our shelf next to Wonder Woman's first digital excursion and the collected short graphic fiction of rising star illustrator Nate Powell. You'll find bugs that talk, cats that talk and... well, honestly, there are a lot of animals that talk on this list. But that's not all. Philosophy and computer history mix with adaptations of Greek myth and weird fiction and cosmic horror. Take a look, and enjoy some of the best of what this season has to offer.

THE AUTUMN BALLOON by Kenny Porpora (Memoir)
Kenny Porpora's memoir is the story of a deeply dysfunctional but loving family, and follows his life from the chaos of his youth to his triumphs in the Ivy League. At times darkly comic, at times elegiac, THE AUTUMN BALLOON is a beautifully written testament to the irreplaceable bonds of family, even under the most trying circumstances. Reviewed by Rebecca Kilberg.

THE BLACK WIDOW by Wendy Corsi Staub (Thriller)
Newly divorced Gaby Duran isn't really expecting to find her soul mate on a dating site like InTune. She just needs a distraction from pining over her ex-husband, Ben, and the happy marriage they once had. And she's wise enough to know that online, the truth doesn't always match the profile. But Gaby quickly discovers there is much more at stake than her lonely heart. Local singles are going missing after making online connections. And a predator is searching again for the perfect match. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE BURIED GIANT by Kazuo Ishiguro (Historical Fantasy/Adventure)
Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the best novelists working today, is also one of the most surprising. He has written drawing-room novels, dystopian fiction, surrealist works, and now a post-Arthurian tale of knights and ogres, of elderly villagers searching for their long-lost son, and of a she-dragon rumored to be the cause of a mist of forgetfulness that has plagued the land. As in past books, Ishiguro uses his story to meditate on memory and loss. Reviewed by Michael Magras.

DOCTOR DEATH: A Madeleine Karno Mystery by Lene Kaaberbol (Historical Mystery)
When 17-year-old Cecile Montaine is found dead, her family will not permit a full post-mortem autopsy. Madeleine Karno and her pathologist father are left with a single mysterious clue: in the dead girl’s nostrils is a type of parasite normally seen only in dogs. Soon after, the priest who held vigil by the dead girl’s corpse is brutally murdered. The thread that connects these two events is a tangled one, and as the death toll mounts, Madeleine must seek knowledge in odd places. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE DOOMSDAY EQUATION by Matt Richtel (Technological Thriller)
Computer genius Jeremy Stillwater has designed a machine that can predict global conflicts and ultimately head them off. There’s nowhere for him to turn when his computer beeps with a warning that the outbreak of World War III is imminent. Alone, armed with nothing but his own ingenuity, he embarks on a quest to find the mysterious and powerful nemesis determined to destroy mankind. But before he can save billions of lives, Jeremy has to figure out how to save his own. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

EMPIRE: The Chronicles of the Invaders, Book 2 by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard (Science Fiction/Adventure)
In EMPIRE, John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard continue the journey of Syl and Paul as they fight to regain planet Earth from a ruthless alien species. Light years from Earth and millions of miles apart, the two must find a way to reveal the horrifying truth behind the Empire and save all that they hold dear from the hunger of the Others. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE FIRST WIFE by Erica Spindler (Thriller)
Despite the 10-year difference in their ages, her working class upbringing and his of privilege, Logan Abbott and Bailey Browne fall deeply in love. Marriage quickly follows. But when Logan brings her home to his horse farm in Louisiana, her dreams of happily-ever-after begin to unravel. A tragic family history she knew nothing about surfaces, plus whisperings about the disappearance of his first wife and rumors about the women from the area who have gone missing. Reviewed by Kate Ayers.

HUSH HUSH: A Tess Monaghan Novel by Laura Lippman (Mystery/Thriller)
Tess Monaghan wants nothing to do with a woman crazy enough to have killed her own child. But when her mentor asks her to keep an eye on Melisandre Harris Dawes, who --- by reason of criminal insanity --- was judged not guilty of her daughter’s death, she has to accept. However, things gets tricky after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a recent murder. While Tess scrutinizes her, a judgmental stalker has been watching her every move as well. Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.

THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE by Lou Berney (Mystery)
In the summer of 1986, six movie-theater employees were killed in an armed robbery, while one inexplicably survived. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through the survivors’ lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape. Similarly, Julianna struggles with the past --- with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared. When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

LUCKY ALAN AND OTHER STORIES by Jonathan Lethem (Fiction/Short Stories)
Jonathan Lethem’s third collection of stories uncovers a father’s nervous breakdown at SeaWorld; a foundling child rescued from the woods during a blizzard; a political prisoner in a hole in a Brooklyn street; and a crumbling, haunted “blog” on a seaside cliff. As in his novels, Lethem finds the uncanny lurking in the mundane, the irrational self-defeat seeping through our upstanding pursuits, and the tragic undertow of the absurd world(s) in which we live. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

MAKING NICE by Matt Sumell (Fiction)
Our hero Alby flails wildly against the world around him --- he punches his sister (she deserved it), "unprotectos" broads (they deserved it and liked it), gets drunk and picks fights (all deserved), defends defenseless creatures both large and small, and spews insults at children, slow drivers, old ladies, and every single surviving member of his family. In each of these stories, Alby distills the anguish, terror, humor and strange grace --- or lack of --- he experiences in the aftermath of his mother’s death. Reviewed by Jane Krebs.

A MEMORY OF VIOLETS: A Novel of London's Flower Sellers by Hazel Gaynor (Historical Fiction)
For years, Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls has cared for London’s flower girls --- orphaned and crippled children living on the streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive. Assistant housemother Tilly Harper discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie, who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. Reviewed by Christine M. Irvin.

A MURDER OF MAGPIES by Judith Flanders (Mystery)
It’s just another day at the office for London book editor Samantha “Sam” Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will dish the juicy dirt on a recent fashion industry scandal. Little does she know the trouble Kit’s book will cause before it even goes to print. Someone doesn't want Kit's manuscript published, and unless Sam can put the pieces together in time, they'll do anything to stop it. Reviewed by Kathy Weissman.

MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS: An Aimée Leduc Investigation Set in Paris by Cara Black (Mystery)
Aimée Leduc has her work cut out for her --- running her detective agency and fighting off sleep deprivation as she tries to be a good single mother to her new bébé. The last thing she has time for now is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche (Gypsy) boy. But he insists his dying mother has an important secret she needs to tell Aimée concerning Aimée’s father’s unsolved murder a decade ago. How can she say no? The dying woman’s secret is even more dangerous than her son realized. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

OUTLINE by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
OUTLINE is a novel in 10 conversations that follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing during one oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises, meets other visiting writers for dinner and discourse, and goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her neighbor from the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast --- a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.

SWEET NOTHING: Stories by Richard Lange (Fiction/Short Stories)
Included in Richard Lange’s latest short story collection, SWEET NOTHING, are edge-of-your-seat tales: A prison guard must protect an inmate being tried for heinous crimes. A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire. An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot. A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE by T. Geronimo Johnson (Fiction)
UC Berkley freshman D’aron Davenport is uncertain about his place until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends. But everything changes in the group’s alternative history class when D’aron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded “Patriot Days.” His announcement is met with righteous indignation and inspires one of his friends to suggest a “performative intervention” to protest the reenactment. Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum.

WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO by David Joy (Thriller)
Jacob McNeely’s father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. Having dropped out of high school and cut himself off from his peers, Jacob has been working for his father for years, all on the promise that his payday will come eventually. But when a fatal mistake changes everything, he’s faced with a choice: stay and appease his father, or leave the mountains with the girl he loves. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

PAINLESS by S.A. Harazin (Young Adult Fiction 14+, Romance )
Because of the disease that wracks his body, 17-year-old David is unable to feel pain. He has congenital insensitivity to pain with anhydrosis --- or CIPA for short. David lives with his elderly grandmother, who's now dying. All David wants to do is grow old, beat the odds, find love, travel the world, and see something spectacular. And he still wants to find his parents. While he still can. Reviewed by Mary M., Teen Board member.

RED QUEEN by Victoria Aveyard (Young Adult, Fantasy)
Mare's world is divided by blood --- those with Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own. To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his sons. As Mare is drawn into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her position to help the Scarlet Guard --- a Red rebellion --- even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal. Reviewed by Brianna Robinson.

SHADOW SCALE by Rachel Hartman (Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction 12+)
The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself --- for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways. But there's another half dragon who can creep into people's minds and take them over --- and he's determined to stop her. Reviewed by Lynn W., Teen Board member.

VANISHING GIRLS by Lauren Oliver (Young Adult Fiction 14+, Family, Romance, Thriller)
Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. Reviewed by Christi Sheehan.

GIRL IN DIOR by Annie Goetzinger (Comic Book, Graphic Novel)
In February of 1947, the crème de la crème of Paris haute couture have flocked to see Christian Dior’s debut fashion show. In a flurry of corolla shaped skirts, the parade of models file down the runway and the mesmerized audience declares the show a triumph. When Clara—a freshly hired chronicler and guide to the busy corridors of the brand-new fashion house—is hand-picked by Dior to be a model, she knows her life will never be the same. A biography docudrama that marries fiction with the story of one of the greatest couturiers in history, this work is a breathless and stunning presentation of Christian Dior’s greatest designs, beautifully rendered by bestselling artist Annie Goetzinger. Reviewed by Matthew Burbridge.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL by Simon Schwartz (Comic Book, Graphic Novel)
Simon Schwartz was born in 1982 in East Germany, at a time when the repressive Socialist Unity Party of Germany controlled the area. Shortly before Simon's birth, his parents decided to leave their home in search of greater freedoms on the other side of the Berlin Wall. But East German authorities did not allow the Schwartzes to leave for almost three years. In the meantime, Simon's parents struggled with the costs of their decision: the loss of work, the attention of the East German secret police, and the fragmentation of their family. In his debut graphic novel, Simon Schwartz tells the true story of his parents' coming of age in East Germany, their rejection of the communist way of life, and the challenges of leaving that world behind. Reviewed by L. Whitney Richardson.