An Update As We Ask You to Help 20SomethingReads.com
and The Book Report Network Expand
The Book Report Network is looking to make some big changes to 20SomethingReads.com in 2019, including:
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A complete eye-catching site redesign; we have a new color palette in mind!
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New features and content that keep up with trends
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Easy-to-share functionality for all your social media needs
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Better mobile accessibility
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Links to add to your reading lists on Goodreads
Thanks to donations from our very supportive readers, between online and snail mail donations we have raised more than $20,000 of our $50,000 goal via our GoFundMe campaign!
Now, this is where YOU come in. If you enjoy 20SomethingReads.com, may we ask you to donate? Anything can help us reach our goal, even $5 or $10. You can read more about our plans and donate here. If you would rather donate via check, our address is:
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Thank you so much for your consideration and your donation.
Greetings from the Polar Vortex
Chances are, if you live in America, you’re dealing with the frigid temperatures. Consider yourself very lucky if you’re in the midst of warmth. In New York, we’re in the low, single digits, which is not nearly as bad as other parts of the country. I’m doing the best I can to get through this, which means a lot of indoor activities and entertaining at home. Summer seems like an unattainable dream at this point.
Some exciting publishing news came in this morning for this final day of January! Margaret Atwood just revealed the cover of her forthcoming book, THE TESTAMENTS, the sequel to THE HANDMAID'S TALE. The book will hit shelves on September 10th. Read more and see the cover here!
Obviously, I’m watching a multitude of shows since I'm in full hibernation mode. I just finished up Netflix’s "You." In my previous newsletter, I was in the middle of it and really loving it. The ending was a bit predictable, and I have a few issues with some of the logistics of the show, but I’m forgiving. It’s been renewed for a second season, and of course I’ll be tuning in because I’m a real sucker for a good binge and a stalker story. It was just announced that Victoria Pedretti will star as the female lead in season two (you might recognize her from Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House”). Honestly, I tried to watch the first episode of “The Haunting of Hill House,” but it was too scary. Maybe it deserves a second chance.
In true form, I’ve also been watching “The Bachelor” every Monday because reality TV is life. I’m not a Colton fan...there I said it...which seems to go against popular opinion, but it’s been fun to watch with a group of friends who have the same level of casual interest. This past week’s episode was one of the better ones I’ve seen in recent years, only because it touched upon a real issue that speaks to so many women and men across the world. One of the contestants shared how she was sexually assaulted in college. She tells her incredibly disturbing story and how it has affected nearly all of her relationships in her life, both with her family and with all the men she’s dated since. It was a real eye-opener, and I’m pleased to see ABC using their platform for this. Sure sure, I can guarantee it looked so good for the viewership numbers and yada yada...but I’ll take it. I’ll take this over a lot of the other hoopla they throw in week after week. It was a commendable moment of bravery and strength that did not go unnoticed.
If you’re looking for some higher-brow entertainment, then be sure to check out Black Panther. Chances are you’ve already seen it, but if not (or you want a second peek), AMC movie theaters across the country are re-releasing the movie for free from February 1st to the 7th in honor of Black History Month. Keep in mind: the movie just picked up two major SAG awards last weekend, including a coveted Cast in a Motion Picture award, and received many Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Music Score and Best Costume Design. Now is the perfect time to rewatch, support and gear up for the Oscars, which will be on Sunday, February 24th at 8pm ET. Learn more here about how to score some free tickets.
Be sure to check out the latest special contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com for MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land. Land’s eye-opening memoir exposes the reality of pursuing the American dream from below the poverty line. She found herself pregnant at 19 and scraping by with her young daughter when she was in her early 20s --- a far cry from how many twentysomethings are living their lives. Five groups will win 12 copies of the book, plus the opportunity to chat with the author. Ten additional readers will also be awarded a copy. Click here to enter the contest and learn more about the book.
By the way, we just learned that MAID debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at #3 behind BECOMING and EDUCATED. Three memoirs, by women, each with a single word in their title.
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and giving a book (or two or three or four!) is always a solid choice. Bookreporter.com is celebrating with their annual Books To Fall in Love With contest. Five readers will win a prize package, which includes one copy of each of the featured titles. Click here to enter between now and Monday, February 11th at noon ET for your opportunity to be a lucky (and beloved!) winner. By the way, these contest prizes also work for those of you celebrating Galentine's Day.
Beloved author Candace Bushnell (creator of the Sex and the City series) recently announced she’s coming out with a new book, IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY?, which will hit stores August 6th. This time the setting is the Hamptons, which is relatively Manhattan adjacent and a summer playground for the city’s elite. I’m sure all the usual Bushnell business will ensue. Coincidentally (or not), Sarah Jessica Parker (aka Carrie Bradshaw) is also making the airwaves again in a Superbowl ad that made its way to the internet ahead of Sunday’s big game. She stars alongside “The Dude” (aka Jeff Bridges from The Big Lebowski) as the two slip back into their iconic characters. It’s a Stella Artois ad, which I’m not sure Carrie would have ever drank (except maybe that episode when she dates a twentysomething...lol), but alas.
Here are some books to check out now:
In THE DREAMERS by Karen Thompson Walker, a first-year student, in an isolated college town, stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep --- and doesn’t wake up. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams --- but of what?
In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love is a book about secrets --- secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than 50 years. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in --- a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
An unraveling woman, unhappily childless and recently separated, becomes fixated on her neighbor --- the actress in LOOKER by Laura Sims. The unnamed narrator can’t help noticing with wry irony that, though she and the actress live just a few doors apart, a chasm of professional success and personal fulfillment lies between them. The actress shares a gleaming brownstone with her husband and their three children, while the narrator, working in a dead-end job, lives in a run-down, three-story walk-up with her ex-husband’s cat. When an interaction with the actress at the annual block party takes a disastrous turn, what began as an innocent preoccupation spirals quickly, and lethally, into a frightening and irretrievable madness.
5 Things To Obsess About This Very Moment, in no particular order:
1. The Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase trailer
2. E L James (Fifty Shades of Grey series) has a new book
3. The trailer for "The Spanish Princess," a new Starz show based on the books by Philippa Gregory
4. Young women across the country are swooning for author Eve Babitz
5. Dr. Ruth is reissuing SEX FOR DUMMIES, with a focus on millennials
Happy reading,
Nicole Sherman
AS LONG AS WE BOTH SHALL LIVE by JoAnn Chaney (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Christina Delaine
Matt frantically tells park rangers that he and his wife, Marie, were hiking when she fell off a cliff into the raging river below. They start a search, but they aren’t hopeful: no one could have survived that fall. It was a tragic accident. But Matt’s first wife also died under suspicious circumstances. And when the police pull a body out of the river, they have a lot more questions for Matt. Detectives Loren and Spengler want to know if Matt is a grieving, twice-unlucky husband or a cold-blooded murderer. They dig into the couple’s lives to see what they can unearth. And they find that love’s got teeth, it’s got claws, and once it hitches you to a person, it’s tough to rip yourself free. So what happens when you’re done making it work? Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
THE CURRENT by Tim Johnston (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen
In the dead of winter, state troopers pull two young women and their car from an icy river. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene --- half frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them. Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river. The deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
THE DREAMERS by Karen Thompson Walker (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Cassandra Campbell
One night in an isolated college town, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep --- and doesn’t wake up. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams --- but of what? Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America by Tommy Tomlinson (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Tommy Tomlinson
When he was almost 50 years old, Tommy Tomlinson weighed 460 pounds, at risk for heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Raised in a family that loved food, he had been aware of the problem for years, seeing doctors and trying diets from the time he was a preteen. But nothing worked, and every time he tried to make a change, it didn’t go the way he planned --- in fact, he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to change. He was only one of millions of Americans struggling with weight, body image and a relationship with food that puts them at major risk. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM is Tomlinson’s chronicle of meeting those people, taking the first steps towards health, and trying to understand how, as a nation, we got to this point. Reviewed by Dunja Bonacci Skenderović.
FREEDOM ROAD by William Lashner (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by James Daniels
Oliver Cross is fresh out of jail. When he finds out that his granddaughter, a wild child who reminds him of his late wife, has vanished, Oliver jumps parole. With a sketchy teen and an abandoned dog, he hits the blacktop to find her. On the road and on the run from a vengeful Russian drug dealer, Oliver finds himself on a trip across America and into his own past, fueled by fumes from a Ford F-250 and a reason to live. But from an exclusive club in Chicago to a seedy commune in the Rockies, a series of disastrous choices sends Oliver spiraling further from his goal and deeper into danger. It’s a journey that could all end in redemption or a hail of bullets. And either is okay by him. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Dani Shapiro
In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. INHERITANCE is a book about secrets --- secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than 50 years. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in --- a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover. Reviewed by Amie Taylor.
LATE IN THE DAY by Tessa Hadley (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Abigail Thaw
Alexandr, Christine, Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: she is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of loss bringing them closer, the three of them find over the following months that it warps their relationships, as old entanglements and grievances rise from the past, and love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.
LIAR LIAR by James Patterson and Candice Fox (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Federay Holmes
Detective Harriet Blue is a very good cop…gone very bad. In the space of a week, she has committed theft and fraud, resisted arrest, assaulted a police officer, and is considered a dangerous fugitive from the law. It's all because of one man, Regan Banks. He viciously killed the only person in the world who matters to Harriet --- and he plans to kill her next. As she recklessly speeds toward the dark side --- and finally crosses it --- Harriet won't stop until Regan pays for the many lives he has taken. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE LIAR’S ROOM by Simon Lelic (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Audiobook available, read by Laura Aikman and Nancy Carroll
Susanna Fenton has a secret. Fourteen years ago she left her identity behind, reinventing herself as a therapist and starting a new life. It was the only way to keep her daughter safe. But when a young man, Adam Geraghty, walks into her office, claiming he needs Susanna's help but asking unsettling questions, she begins to fear that her secret has been discovered. Who is Adam, really? What does he intend to do to Susanna? And what has he done to her daughter? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
LOOKER by Laura Sims (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Katherine Fenton
An unraveling woman, unhappily childless and recently separated, becomes fixated on her neighbor --- the actress. The unnamed narrator can’t help noticing with wry irony that, though she and the actress live just a few doors apart, a chasm of professional success and personal fulfillment lies between them. The actress shares a gleaming brownstone with her husband and their three children, while the narrator, working in a dead-end job, lives in a run-down, three-story walk-up with her ex-husband’s cat. When an interaction with the actress at the annual block party takes a disastrous turn, what began as an innocent preoccupation spirals quickly, and lethally, into a frightening and irretrievable madness. Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.
MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Stephanie Land
At 28, Stephanie Land turned to housekeeping to make ends meet. With a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. MAID explores the underbelly of upper-middle-class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. Reviewed by Bianca Ambrosio.
MOUTHFUL OF BIRDS: Stories written by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Fiction/Short Stories)
Audiobook available, read by a full cast
Samanta Schweblin haunts and mesmerizes in this extraordinary collection featuring women on the edge, men turned upside down, the natural world at odds with reality. We think life is one way, but often it’s not --- our expectations for how people act, love and fear can all be upended. Each character in MOUTHFUL OF BIRDS must contend with the unexpected, whether a family coming apart at the seams or a child transforming or a ghostly hellscape or a murder. Schweblin’s stories have the feel of a sleepless night, where every shadow and bump in the dark take on huge implications, leaving your pulse racing, and the line between the real and the strange blurs. Reviewed by Maya Gittelman.
NO EXIT by Taylor Adams (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Sarah Naughton
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker and four complete strangers. Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate. Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her? There is no cell phone reception, no telephone and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
NO SUNSCREEN FOR THE DEAD by Tim Dorsey (Mystery/Humor)
Audiobook available, read by Oliver Wyman
Serge and Coleman are back on the road, ready to hit the next stop on their list of obscure and wacky points of interest in the Sunshine State. This time, Serge’s interest is drawn to one of the largest retirement villages in the world --- also known as the site of an infamous sex scandal between a retiree and her younger beau that rocked the community. What starts out as an innocent quest to observe elders in their natural habitats, sample the local cuisine, and scope out a condo to live out the rest of their golden years, soon becomes a Robin Hood-like crusade to recover the funds of swindled residents. But as the residents rally for Serge to seek justice on their behalves, two detectives are hot on the heels of Serge and Coleman’s murderous trail. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE RULE OF LAW: A Dismas Hardy Novel by John Lescroart (Legal Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Jacques Roy
Dismas Hardy knows something is amiss with his trusted secretary, Phyllis. Her out-of-character behavior and sudden disappearances concern Hardy, especially when he learns that her convict brother --- a man who had served 25 years in prison for armed robbery and attempted murder --- has just been released. Things take a shocking turn when Phyllis is suddenly arrested at work for allegedly being an accessory to the murder of Hector Valdez, a coyote who’d been smuggling women into this country from El Salvador and Mexico. That is, until recently, when he was shot to death --- on the very same day that Phyllis first disappeared from work. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE SUSPECT by Fiona Barton (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available; read by Susan Duerden, Fiona Hardingham, Nicholas Guy Smith and Katharine McEwan
When two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth --- and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, whom she hasn’t seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they all will find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think. Reviewed by Cindy Burnett.
TAKE-OUT: And Other Tales of Culinary Crime by Rob Hart (Crime Fiction/Short Stories)
In TAKE-OUT, Rob Hart has collected 16 stories of culinary crime and noir that will have you savoring every deadly bite. In the title story, a gambler falls into debt with the enigmatic owner of a Chinatown gambling parlor, and must run odd --- and sometimes dangerous --- deliveries to clear his ledger. In "How to Make the Perfect New York Bagel," the owner of one of New York City's last old-school bagel shops has to defend his storefront --- in the past, from the mob, and in the present, from a bank. In "Creampuff," a bakery with the hottest pastry in town has to hire a bouncer to control the unruly line, with tragic results. Reviewed by Pauline Finch.
THE WINTER OF THE WITCH by Katherine Arden (Historical Fantasy)
Audiobook available, read by Kathleen Gati
Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers --- and for someone to blame. Vasilisa Petrovna finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, the winter-king Morozko and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
YOU KNOW YOU WANT THIS: "Cat Person" and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian (Fiction/Short Stories)
Audiobook available; read by Aubrey Plaza, Jayme Mattler, Molly Pope, Will Damron, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Emily Tremaine, Finn Wittrock, Amy Ryan, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Corey Brill, Jacques Roy and Kristen Roupenian
Kristen Roupenian's highly anticipated debut short story collection explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sex…until they can’t have sex without him; a 10-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for “something mean”; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heart’s desire --- a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed “biter” who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
COME FIND ME by Megan Miranda (Mystery)
Audiobook available, narrated by Michael Crouch and Jorjeana Marie
Kennedy has made it her mission to keep her brother's search through the cosmos alive. Nolan is determined to find out what really happened to his brother, who disappeared the day after Nolan had an eerie premonition. Drawn together by strange signals --- and their family tragedies --- Kennedy and Nolan search for the origin of the mysterious frequency they both hear. It appears the signal is meant for them alone, sharing a message that only they can understand. Is something coming for them? Or is the frequency warning them about something that's already here? Reviewed by Lucia W., Teen Board Member.
DEATH PREFERS BLONDES by Caleb Roehrig (Thriller)
Teenage socialite Margo Manning leads a dangerous double life. By day, she dodges the paparazzi while soaking up California sunshine. By night, she pulls off high-stakes cat burglaries with a team of flamboyant young men. In and out of disguise, she’s in all the headlines. But then Margo’s personal life takes a sudden, dark turn, and a job to end all jobs lands her crew in deadly peril. Backs against the wall, the resourceful thieves must draw on their special skills to survive. But can one rebel heiress and four kickboxing drag queens withstand the slings and arrows of truly outrageous fortune? Reviewed by Gabby B., Teen Board Member.
PARKLAND SPEAKS: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories edited by Sarah Lerner (Nonfiction/Anthology)
The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School share their emotional journeys that began on February 14, 2018. This revealing and unfiltered look at teens living in the wake of tragedy is a poignant representation of grief, anger, determination, healing and hope. The intimate collection includes poetry, eyewitness accounts, letters, speeches, journal entries, drawings and photographs. Full of heartbreaking loss, a rally cry for change and hope for a safe future, these artistic pieces will inspire readers to reflect on their own lives and the importance of valuing and protecting the ones you love. Reviewed by Cat Barra.
STAIN by A.G. Howard (Fantasy)
Audiobook available, narrated by Tim Bruce
After Lyra --- a princess incapable of speech or sound --- is cast out of her kingdom of daylight by her aunt, a witch saves her life, steals her memories and raises her in an enchanted forest...disguised as a boy known as Stain. Meanwhile, in Lyra’s rival kingdom, the prince of night is dying, and the only way for him to break his curse is to wed the princess of daylight. To win back her kingdom, save the prince and make peace with the land of the night, Lyra must be loud enough to be heard without a voice, and strong enough to pass dangerous tests --- proving she’s everything a traditional princess is not. Reviewed by Grace P., Teen Board Member.
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