In the Thick of Awards Season
There’s no doubt that a lot of things have been happening in the past few weeks. Social media’s been pretty loud, and for those of us opting to forgo a new year digital detox, we’ve been turning to our favorite kind of media --- entertainment. The Golden Globes gave us a little taste of awards season, and what with the Oscar nominations coming out yesterday morning, our awards fever is at an all-time high. So bust out some Tylenol; we’ve got our minds on movies and movies on our minds.
The Academy Awards, by all accounts the cream of the crop of awards shows, is just around the corner --- Sunday, February 26th at 8:30pm ET --- and we’re gearing up for a glamorous night with returning host Jimmy Kimmel. In case you’re slightly confused about which is which, this is the show where no dinner is served so expect a rogue call to the Girl Scouts for a mass cookie delivery, a couple dozen pizzas and homemade PB + Js à la Kimmel’s dearest mother. In other words, just a casual Friday night in for some of us plebeians. But real talk, the noms pretty much met our expectations --- La La Land received the most at 14, Meryl Streep got her golden 20th, and some of our favorite movies of the past year are topping the list, including Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, Hidden Figures and Hell or High Water.
That’s not to say that TV hasn’t been of an utmost delight in recent weeks and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. “The Young Pope” made its debut on HBO to some mixed reviews. If you like Jude Law in Pharrell-level hats, it’s probably a good idea to tune in to this one. And if you like your prestige TV with a bit more...magic...there’s plenty to look forward to with the return of “The Magicians” --- based on the bestselling Lev Grossman series --- on Syfy tonight. Come for the hot, angsty wizards, stay for some truly compelling (and crazy dark) plotlines. Other things worth mentioning: the long-awaited "Planet Earth II" returns to BBC America on Saturday, February 18th (we’re envisioning David Attenborough’s soothing voice putting us to sleep on these cold winter nights), and the book-to-screen adaptation of "Big Little Lies" finally premieres on HBO on Sunday, February 19th with a totally all-star girl power cast.
Not to mention “The Bachelor” is back, baby, and we are here for it! This season’s main squeeze is franchise old-timer Nick Viall, a pretty polarizing pick from the evil geniuses at ABC. We’re relishing the shenanigans of the most freshest TV villain, Corinne Olympios, who has a knack for napping, cheese pasta (?) and telling it like it is. She’s simultaneously a hot mess and a pure joy to watch on the screen, and we can’t really blame a girl for doing things we love. Not to mention the theory that she’s really a preteen trapped in a grown-ish woman’s body. Whether she wins or not, we’re just hoping @colympios and @realchadjohnson will sit in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g in the next season of BIP. We’ve heard that good things come to those who wait, and we’re willing to wait all winter.
We’ll also have our eyes glued to the screen next weekend. Kristen Stewart will host SNL on February 4th to both Clouds of Sils Maria and Twilight fans’ delight (we’re sure there’s plenty of overlap? or is it just Emily?). Less than 24 hours later, it will be Super Bowl Sunday! With the Patriots taking on the Falcons and so many awesome TV snax, it’ll be a cheat day for everyone (we’ve got our eyes on you, Brady)!
While we really love TV and Kristen Stewart and Super Bowl...ads, we also love celebrating books we love. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, there's no better way to usher in the holiday than a special contest in which five super lucky winners will each receive three excellent titles. In case you haven't heard, we're talking about our annual Books to Fall in Love With contest that's live on the site now! Scroll down to see more details, or click here for direct access to enter.
If you can find a sliver of time between all these wonderful TV picks, here are some books we recommend you check out:
In LITTLE DEATHS, Emma Flint tells the story of single mother, Ruth Malone, who wakes to discover that her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing in 1965. Eventually both are found dead, and all fingers immediately point to Ruth. The lead detective leaps to the obvious conclusion: facing divorce and a custody battle, Ruth took her children's lives. Rookie tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke’s interest in the story develops into an obsession with Ruth, and he comes to believe there's something more to the woman whom prosecutors, the press and the public have painted as a promiscuous femme fatale. Did Ruth Malone violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance --- or is there something more sinister at play?
The wealthy enclaves north of San Francisco are not the paradise they appear to be, and nobody knows this better than the students of a local high school in THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH by Lindsey Lee Johnson. Despite being raised with all the opportunities money can buy, these vulnerable kids are navigating a treacherous adolescence in which every action, every rumor and every feeling is potentially postable, shareable and viral. Lindsey Lee Johnson’s kaleidoscopic narrative exposes at every turn the real human beings beneath the high school stereotypes.
Gregg Hurwitz continues his Orphan X series with THE NOWHERE MAN. Taken from a group home at 12, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as part of the Orphan program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets --- i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man. But the new head of the Orphan program hasn’t forgotten about him and is using all of his assets --- including the remaining Orphans --- to track down and eliminate him. This time, though, the attack comes from a different angle, and Evan is caught unaware.
Until next time, keep it classy!
5 Things We’re Obsessed With at This Very Moment, in no particular order:
1. Salt Bae
2. Ben Affleck responding to his own Sad Affleck meme
3. The nearing end of Dry January
4. Celebrating Virginia Woolf's birthday today
5. Stephen Colbert hosting the 2017 Emmys
Nicole Sherman + Emily Hoenig
Feature + Contest: Books to Fall in Love With 2017
The countdown to "V Day" is on! And we're spreading the love with our Valentine's Day contest and feature. From now through Tuesday, February 14th at noon ET, readers will have the chance to win one of our five 20SomethingReads.com Valentine's Day prize packages, which includes one copy of each of our featured books and some divine chocolate. If you're feeling frisky, share with us your all-time book character crush. Don't be shy, we all got 'em! We'll post your top ten literary loves and lusts...and the five winners on Valentine's Day, so be on the lookout!
Our featured Valentine’s Day titles include:
• I LOVE YOU SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS: A Contract Killers Novel by Erin Lyon
• ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes
• AFTER YOU by Jojo Moyes
Click here to enter the contest.
Simon & Schuster Presents: A Book Club Matinee
Ed Sullivan Theater | Saturday, March 11 | New York City
Here's a chance to hear from six amazing authors at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City (the place where Letterman once reigned and Colbert now shines). The lineup features celebrated authors Anthony Doerr, Isabel Allende, Lisa See, Lisa Genova, Ruth Ware and Megan Miranda. And note, attendees will receive great gift bags! Ticket sales have been brisk, so if you are interested click below NOW!
Reserve your tickets now.
ALWAYS HAPPY HOUR: Stories by Mary Miller (Fiction/Short Stories)
ALWAYS HAPPY HOUR weaves tales of young women --- deeply flawed and intensely real --- who struggle to get out of their own way. They love to drink and have sex; they make bad decisions with men who either love them too much or too little; and they haunt a Southern terrain of gas stations, public pools and dive bars. Though each character shoulders the weight of her own baggage --- whether it’s a string of horrible exes, a boyfriend with an annoying child, or an inability to be genuinely happy for a best friend --- they are united in their unrelenting suspicion that they deserve better. Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden (Historical Fantasy)
Audiobook available, read by Kathleen Gati
In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift --- a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, Pytor hides the gift away and Vasya grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that, armed only with the necklace, she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay. Reviewed by Carly Silver.
BIG LAW by Ron Liebman (Legal Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by L. J. Ganser
As a young partner at Dunn & Sullivan, one of New York’s most prestigious law firms, Carney Blake has represented dozens of high-profile clients. But being a pawn of Big Law often means defending the corporate dirt bags of the world --- the spillers, the drillers and the killers. When Carney is suddenly asked by his firm’s chairman to represent the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit --- and not, as usual, the corporate bad guys --- he warily accepts. As Carney digs deeper into the case, he uncovers corruption and maliciously orchestrated schemes that go straight to the top of Dunn & Sullivan --- along with the true motives behind his placement on the case. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.
THE DARK ROOM by Jonathan Moore (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by David Colacci
Gavin Cain, an SFPD homicide inspector, is in the middle of an exhumation when his phone rings. San Francisco’s mayor is being blackmailed and has ordered Cain back to the city; a helicopter is on its way. The casket, and Cain’s cold-case investigation, must wait. At City Hall, the mayor shows Cain four photographs he’s received: the first, an unforgettable blonde; the second, pills and handcuffs on a nightstand; the third, the woman drinking from a flask; and last, the woman naked, unconscious and shackled to a bed. The accompanying letter is straightforward: worse revelations are on the way unless the mayor takes his own life first. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
FEVER DREAM written by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Literary Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Hillary Huber
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He's not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. FEVER DREAM is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale. Reviewed by Megan Elliott.
THE FUTURES by Anna Pitoniak (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen and Michael Crouch
Julia and Evan fall in love as undergraduates at Yale. After graduation, and on the eve of the great financial meltdown of 2008, they move together to New York City, where Evan lands a job at a hedge fund. But Julia, whose privileged upbringing grants her an easy but wholly unsatisfying job with a nonprofit, feels increasingly shut out of Evan's secretive world. With the market crashing and banks failing, Evan becomes involved in a high-stakes deal at work --- a deal that, despite the assurances of his Machiavellian boss, begins to seem more than slightly suspicious. Meanwhile, Julia reconnects with someone from her past who offers a glimpse of a different kind of life. Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.
HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, performed by Eva Kaminsky
Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full-blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life. But soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
IN THE GREAT GREEN ROOM: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary (Biography)
Audiobook available, read by Bernadette Dunne
The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children’s classics GOODNIGHT MOON and THE RUNAWAY BUNNY comes alive in Amy Gary’s biography of Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret’s books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children’s book publishing revolution. Her whimsy and imagination fueled a steady stream of stories, book ideas, songs and poems, and she was renowned for her prolific writing and business savvy, as well as her stunning beauty and endless thirst for adventure. Reviewed by Melanie Reynolds.
INDELIBLE by Adelia Saunders (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Aaron Abano and Charlotte Wright
Magdalena has an unsettling gift. She sees the truth about people written on their skin --- names, dates, details both banal and profound --- and her only relief from the onslaught of information is to take off her glasses and let the world recede. Mercifully, her own skin is blank. In Adelia Saunders' debut, secrets are revealed among forgotten texts in the old archives of Paris, on a dusty cattle ranch in the American West, along ancient pilgrim paths, and in a run-down apartment in post-Soviet Lithuania. By chance, or perhaps by fate, the novel's characters converge, and Magdalena's uncanny ability may be the key to their happiness. Reviewed by Carole Turner.
LITTLE DEATHS by Emma Flint (Historical Mystery)
Audiobook available, read by Lauren Fortgang and Graham Halstead
In 1965, single mother Ruth Malone wakes to discover that her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Eventually both are found dead, and all fingers immediately point to Ruth. The lead detective leaps to the obvious conclusion: facing divorce and a custody battle, Ruth took her children's lives. Rookie tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke’s interest in the story develops into an obsession with Ruth, and he comes to believe there's something more to the woman whom prosecutors, the press and the public have painted as a promiscuous femme fatale. Did Ruth Malone violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance --- or is there something more sinister at play? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
LITTLE HEAVEN by Nick Cutter (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Audiobook available, read by Corey Brill
A trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous. Stirrings in the woods and over the treetops --- the brooding shape of a monolith known as the Black Rock casts its terrible pall. Paranoia and distrust grip the settlement. The escape routes are gradually cut off as events spiral towards madness. The remaining occupants are forced to take a stand and fight back, but whatever has cast its dark eye on Little Heaven is now marshaling its powers...and it wants them all. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
LUCKY BOY by Shanthi Sekaran (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Soneela Nankani and Roxana Ortega
Eighteen-year-old Solimar Castro-Valdez embarks on a perilous journey across the Mexican border. She arrives in Berkeley, California weeks later, dazed by a lost first love and pregnant, but discovers that her son, Ignacio, can become her touchstone. Meanwhile, Kavya Reddy has created a beautiful life in Berkeley, but can’t get pregnant. When Soli is placed in immigrant detention and Ignacio comes under Kavya’s care, Kavya finally gets to be the singing, storytelling kind of mother she dreamed of being. But she builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else’s child. Ignacio is steeped in love, but his destiny and that of his two mothers teeters between two worlds as Soli fights to get back to him. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH by Lindsey Lee Johnson (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Cassandra Campbell
The wealthy enclaves north of San Francisco are not the paradise they appear to be, and nobody knows this better than the students of a local high school. Despite being raised with all the opportunities money can buy, these vulnerable kids are navigating a treacherous adolescence in which every action, every rumor and every feeling is potentially postable, shareable and viral. Lindsey Lee Johnson’s kaleidoscopic narrative exposes at every turn the real human beings beneath the high school stereotypes. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
NEVER NEVER by James Patterson and Candice Fox (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Federay Holmes
Harry Blue is the top Sex Crimes investigator in her department, but even she didn't see this coming: her own brother arrested for the grisly murders of three beautiful young women. Looking into a seemingly simple missing persons case, Harry has been assigned to a new "partner." But is he actually meant to be a watchdog? Still reeling from the accusations against her brother, Harry can't even trust her own instincts. Far from the world she knows and desperate to clear her brother's name, Harry has to mine the dark secrets of her strange new home for answers to a deepening mystery --- before she vanishes in a place where no one would ever think to look for her. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
NIGHT OF FIRE by Colin Thubron (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Michael Page
A house is burning, threatening the existence of its six tenants --- including a failed priest; a naturalist; a neurosurgeon; an invalid dreaming of his anxious boyhood; and their landlord, whose relationship to the tenants is both intimate and shadowy. In NIGHT OF FIRE, the passions and obsessions in a dying house loom and shift, from those of the hallucinating drug addict in the basement to the landlord training his rooftop telescope on the night skies. As the novel progresses, the tenants’ diverse stories take us through an African refugee camp, Greek Orthodox monasteries, and the cremation grounds of India. Haunting the edges of their lives are memories. Will these remembrances be consumed forever by the flames? Or can they survive in some form? Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
THE NOWHERE MAN: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Scott Brick
Taken from a group home at 12, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as part of the Orphan program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets --- i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man. But the new head of the Orphan program hasn’t forgotten about him and is using all of his assets --- including the remaining Orphans --- to track down and eliminate him. This time, though, the attack comes from a different angle, and Evan is caught unaware. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
OUT OF BOUNDS: A Karen Pirie Novel by Val McDermid (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Kathleen McCarron
When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from 22 years before. Finding the answer to the cold case should be straightforward, but it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, decetive Karen Pirie finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating, a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
THE RISING by Heather Graham and Jon Land (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Luke Daniels
A football hero and homecoming king with plenty of scholarship offers, Alex Chin’s future looks bright. His tutor, Samantha Dixon, is preparing to graduate high school at the top of her class. When a football accident lands Alex in the hospital, his world is turned upside down. His doctor is murdered, followed by his parents. Death seems to follow him wherever he goes, and now it's after him. The two race desperately to stay ahead of Alex's attackers long enough to figure out why they are hunting him in the first place. The answer lies with a secret buried deep in his past, a secret his parents died to protect. Reviewed by Melanie Reynolds.
THE SLEEPWALKER by Chris Bohjalian (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Audiobook available, read by Cady McClain and Grace Experience
When Annalee Ahlberg goes missing, her children fear the worst. Annalee is a sleepwalker whose affliction manifests in ways both bizarre and devastating. When the police discover a small swatch of fabric, a nightshirt, ripped and hanging from a tree branch, it seems certain Annalee is dead, but Detective Gavin Rikert continues to call and stop by the Ahlbergs' Victorian home. As daughter Lianna peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Annalee's disappearance, she finds herself drawn to Gavin, but she must ask herself: Why does the detective know so much about her mother? Why did Annalee leave her bed only when her father was away? And if she really died while sleepwalking, where was the body? Reviewed by Kate Ayers.
THIS IS NOT OVER by Holly Brown (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Madeleine Maby and Donna Postel
You’ll have your deposit within seven business days, just like it says on Getaway.com. I’ve put through a refund to your credit card for the full amount, minus 200 dollars to replace the stained sheets. When 30-year-old Dawn reads Miranda’s email, she sees red. People have always told Dawn she’s beautiful, and she just hopes they don’t see beneath --- to how she grew up, to what she’s always tried to outrun. The email strikes a nerve, with its lying intimation that Dawn is so dirty you need to throw out her sheets. Fifty-seven-year-old Miranda thought she’d seen it all, but she can’t believe her eyes when she reads Dawn’s review. People might think that her life is privileged, but they don’t know what’s really going on. They don’t know about her son. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE WINTER IN ANNA by Reed Karaim (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Will Damron
A young man, Eric, drops out of college and lucks into a job with a small-town newspaper where he meets Anna --- a woman whose story will both haunt and inspire him for the rest of his life. Set in a remote North Dakota community in the last days before the Internet, THE WINTER IN ANNA unfolds around a romance that almost was, and a meditation on what constitutes a life well lived. In wistful, moving reflections, Eric looks back on his days with Anna and struggles to reconcile his memories with what he has since learned of her. Reviewed by Sarah Jackman.
CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber (Fiction, Paranormal, Young Adult 14+)
Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over. But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation finally arrives. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. Reviewed by Wren L., Teen Board Member.
CARVE THE MARK by Veronica Roth (Dystopian, Dystopian Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult 14+)
On a planet where violence and vengeance rule, in a galaxy where some are favored by fate, everyone develops a currentgift, a unique power meant to shape the future. While most benefit from their currentgifts, Akos and Cyra do not --- their gifts make them vulnerable to others’ control. Can they reclaim their gifts, their fates, and their lives, and reset the balance of power in this world? Reviewed by Hannah C., Teen Board Member.
CITY OF SAINTS & THIEVES by Natalie C. Anderson (Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Young Adult 14+)
In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city’s most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who’s behind it. With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. Reviewed by Bryn D., Teen Board Member.
THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING by Jeff Giles (Romance, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, Young Adult 14+)
It's been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who's still reeling from her father's shocking death in a caving accident and her neighbors' mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying subzero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in the woods --- only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X. Reviewed by Makayla H., Teen Board Member.
THE RADIUS OF US: A Novel by Marie Marquardt (Family, Romance, Young Adult 14+)
What happens when you fall in love with someone everyone seems determined to fear? Ninety seconds can change a life --- so how will the ninety seconds of Gretchen and Phoenix’s first encounter change theirs? Reviewed by Grace P., Teen Board Member.
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