May 27, 2011

Three-Day Weekend Means...Hammock Reading Time

What a wild week of book adventures this was! Last weekend in DC, I had a wonderful time at the Compleat Biographer Conference. The weekend kicked off with a lovely cocktail party at Kitty Kelley’s home where both the company and the setting were fabulous. The depth and breadth of the biographical subject matter that has been researched and written about by the authors made for lively conversation.

Robert Caro’s speech on Saturday was both memorable and quotable as he delved into the importance of place when writing a biography. To thoroughly research Lyndon Johnson for THE PATH TO POWER, MEANS OF ASCENT and MASTER OF THE SENATE, he moved to Austin, Texas, for three years to learn more about Johnson’s early years and then also spent extensive time in Washington to get a sense of what his life was like there. His vivid descriptions of both the loneliness of Texas and the glint of the early sunlight on the Capitol building in the early hours of the morning dropped the audience right into the story and made us see and feel it. Hearing stories like this has made me a more appreciative reader.

Then this week was a complete whirlwind as I spent the week in the city at the BookExpo America (BEA) convention. This annual trade show always has special meaning for me as I remember the first year that I attended it back in 1996 in Chicago. I walked the convention floor and collected catalogs and put them in a box to ship to our new offices. I knew no one at the show, but as a reader I was in heaven seeing the upcoming books displayed. Flash forward 15 years, and this time I approached the show with just as much excitement, in fact, maybe more as I knew more about the potential of sharing the books I was looking at.

Six staffers were on hand as well looking for ideas, trends and things that excited us --- and I knew a lot more people as I walked around. My son walked with me for a while and joked that he wanted to get more than 10 feet without my stopping to chat with someone. And this time, instead of plotting the launch of our first site, I was looking forward to the re-launch of Bookreporter.com, which is slated for sometime in June. We’re very excited and think you are going to enjoy the new way we will be presenting the content. In the next couple of weeks we are going to be looking for some folks to beta-test the site, so if you would be interested in doing this, drop Erin Quinn a note at Redesigns@bookreporter.com by this Monday, May 30th, and we will get back to you with details sometime in the next week or two.

At BEA I moderated the Hot Book Club Titles for Fall 2011 panel again this year. Ten publishers joined me to present a select list of their “book club perfect” books coming out this fall. If you’re in a book group, you’ll want to see what they shared. Of course, even if you’re not in a book club, these are still some titles that will hold a lot of interest. Click here for a PDF version of the presentation. It was a lot of fun, and we had a wonderful turnout! Also at BEA our GraphicNovelReporter.com Editorial Director, John Hogan, participated in and moderated a panel that spotlighted upcoming graphic novel books. You can see this presentation here.

We made lists and lists of books we would like to review, and I was excited to hear the buzz building for some summer and fall titles that I already have explored. When the show is over, I am always curious as to what people pull first from the stack of books that they have brought home that they HAVE to read. For me Monday night I went to a dinner with a group of librarians where there were a number of excellent speakers. Among them was Meghan O’Rourke, who talked about THE LONG GOODBYE (order from Amazon or IndieBound), her book about the anguish of grief that she felt after the death of her mom. It came out in April and somehow I missed it, but though I was really tired Monday night, I found myself picking it up when I got back to my hotel. I love when a writer can draw me to a book like that.

Then yesterday I was handed a slim book called HALF A LIFE (order from Amazon or IndieBound), a memoir by Darin Strauss, who many of you may remember as the author of CHANG AND ENG. In the last year of high school, Strauss was driving with friends in his dad’s car when the car collided with a girl on a bicycle who was a classmate of his. He explores what this tragedy meant to his life and how it affected him. I started it last night, and again I was tugged quickly into the story. I look forward to finishing both books this weekend as well as exploring the huge pile of late summer and fall galleys that I picked up at the show. There is a lot of great reading on the horizon!

We have two special features launching today. The first is our Summer Reading Daily Contest Feature. Many of you may remember our Summer Beach Bag of Books contests of the past, but this year we’re doing something different. We adapted the book-a-day contest format that was so popular with Holiday Cheer and are using it here.

For those who did not participate in Holiday Cheer, here’s the skinny on what is going on. Beginning next Tuesday at noon ET, each day from Monday through Thursday, a different book will be featured and there will be a daily contest for you to enter to win a copy. You can also learn the day’s prize by subscribing here for our special daily alert emails. These emails are separate from the Bookreporter.com newsletter, so you will need to sign up specifically for this “Summer Reading Daily Feature and Contest” newsletter. Each day you will get background on the book and a link to enter the contest. On some days there will be extra prizes, but you won’t know until you enter if it is a "bonus prize day." Subscribe to the special newsletter here and check out all the books that we’re featuring this summer here --- all 34 of them --- so you can make your summer reading list. See below for next week’s featured contest titles, and check in with us Tuesday afternoon for the first contest.

We’re also launching our sixth annual Father’s Day Contest today with seven great titles for dad. We have a really diverse lineup of books, including a legal thriller, an international thriller, a touching memoir, and a prize-winning historical novel. You can check out all our featured titles here. Five lucky winners will win a copy of each book packed inside an oversized backpack. Also inside the backpack is a red-striped beach towel and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Enter here by Monday, June 13th at noon ET. Father’s Day is June 19th, and we want to get our book-filled backpacks to winners in time to celebrate. We’ll also be launching our second annual Father’s Day Blog Series in June, where we will spotlight pieces in which authors talk about their dads and dads talk about their children who are authors.

One final contest note! Our very special contest for a family to win a phone/Skype chat with Garth Stein, author of the bestseller THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN and recently-released young reader version RACING IN THE RAIN: My Life as a Dog, ends Friday, June 3rd. Not only will the lucky family get to chat with Garth, they also will receive signed copies of the books and some hats and T-shirts from the Enzo Store. Five runners-up will win books, hats and shirts. Check out our special tribute site to the books here and enter the contest here.

This week we have our review of SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones, which is a No. 1 IndieBound selection for June and will also be one of my Bookreporter.com Bets On selections (due to time constraints, I will have my rave write-up about it next week instead of this). I have spoken about this book in a couple of newsletters. It’s a coming-of-age story about two half-sisters in 1980s Atlanta who share the same father, though this fact is unknown to one of the daughters. Reviewer Melanie Smith says, “SILVER SPARROW is a touching story that will leave audiences identifying with all the lost children of the world. Though the subject seems heavy, Tayari Jones’s third novel (following LEAVING ATLANTA and THE UNTELLING) really does read quickly and easily. The characters are all amazingly relatable and lifelike, and readers will definitely love the two daughters. The book will also satisfy any curiosities you might have about the psychology of bigamy.”

A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF, the latest Matthew Scudder detective novel from Lawrence Block, came out earlier this month. It follows the hard-drinking detective through some soul-searching times after he’s forced out of the police department. Just when it seems he’s straightened himself out, an old friend from the rough-and-tumble Bronx neighborhood arrives on the scene. Reviewer Tom Callahan says, “Noir writing does not get better than this. In Matthew Scudder, Block has created a noir character who is constantly battling not only the darkness in the outer world but the darkness inside him that will always threaten to overwhelm him. And in that regard, whether the killer gets caught or not is really not the point. People get away with a lot of things in life, including the self-deception that ultimately brings them down.” Tom had a chance to talk to Block recently, and you can read his interview here.

Fans of Joseph Finder should circle June 21st on their calendars, as his long-awaited novel BURIED SECRETS (pre-order from Amazon or IndieBound) goes on sale that day. It’s his second book that features “private spy” Nick Heller. I have read it --- and loved it. It’s definitely his best book to date. We’ll be featuring it here on Bookreporter.com very soon, but in the meantime you can download PLAN B: A Nick Heller Story for free at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the Sony eBookstore for a limited time. This is a special 8,000-word short story that will get old fans excited and new readers intrigued. You can visit www.JosephFinder.com for more details about PLAN B, BURIED SECRETS and more.

I am oh so very, very, very ready for the long weekend. My older son Greg is off to California to spend a long weekend on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. He’s told me what special anniversary this is marking, but in the blur of the week, this info did not stick! Greg likes ships whether they are docked or sailing. He entertained the staff a couple of weeks ago with his boundless enthusiasm for the departure of the Queen Mary 2 from the New York harbor, which he watched from my office window. He even threw the window open to hear the departing whistle.

My husband won his golf tournament last weekend, which makes him the county champion in one of the d) All my dreams of a large cash purse so I can hire workers to do things around the hacienda here as he chases the white ball faded when he told me that a cash prize would make him ineligible for amateur status. I think he is winning a gift card to play more golf, which has my head spinning. The pool cover was taken off today, and the filters were cranked up.

Now I need to focus my energies on how to get a solar heater connected to warm the water. Ideally this goes on a pool storage house that I want to have built where the lower garden used to be. I actually suggested the other day that in the spirit of getting things done, we should just build the roof of the house now and put the solar panels there. In my theory we could then have a roof raising later. My idea was shot down for many engineering reasons. Imagine that. Hey, I never said I was the science girl. I just dream these things up. When I swing a hammer, I get handed a list of what beer and sandwiches to buy. I grabbed the pool vacuum earlier, and my husband ended a phone call with rapid haste fearing the havoc I might wreak.

Oh, also I watched "Downton Abbey" last weekend, and I see what all the fuss was about when it first aired on PBS. I LOVED it. Also, the aforementioned John Hogan, our GraphicNovelReporter.com Editorial Director, turned me on to a series on AMC called "The Killing" airing on Sunday nights. Thriller readers will love it. I am looking forward to "Too Big to Fail", an HBO movie chronicling the 2008 financial meltdown, which premiered this week. It’s based on the book TOO BIG TO FAIL: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System --- and Themselves, by Andrew Ross Sorkin (order from Amazon or IndieBound).

The hammock is calling….and I am ready to heed its cry. Swinging and reading are on the agenda, as well as planting all the flowers that I bought last weekend! Also, the peonies are in bloom...finally. And I am quite happy that they waited for my return before they popped. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. And please remember to take some time on Monday to honor our veterans.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

 

Bookreporter.com Talks to Lawrence Block, Author of A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF

In 1993, Lawrence Block was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Certainly his long-standing series about P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr helped earn him such a prestigious title. One of America’s most acclaimed crime writers, Block pleases his longtime fans with the release of A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF, a noir book that finds Scudder facing his demons against the backdrop of 1980s New York City. Bookreporter.com’s Tom Callahan, a longtime fan himself, speaks with Block in this interview about bringing back characters and filling in the gaps of Scudder’s interesting life. He also discusses re-releasing older works as eBooks, writing under various pen names, and pushing the envelope, in more ways than one.

A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF by Lawrence Block (Mystery)
Bestselling author Lawrence Block brings back his greatest character, alcoholic ex-cop Matthew Scudder, in this 17th book of the series. It’s the early 1980s, and Scudder is approaching his first year of sobriety when he has to find out if a fellow AA member was killed as he tried to make amends for his behavior while drinking. Reviewed by Tom Callahan.

-Click here to read a review of A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF.
 

Summer is upon us! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contest and Feature. We will be spotlighting a different title or two on select days from Tuesday, May 31st through Wednesday, July 27th, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book(s) and enter. Some days may even feature special bonus prizes, including beach items, a beach tote stocked with goodies, and additional books. We also will be sending a special daily newsletter to announce the day's title(s), which you can sign up for here.

Our first prize book will be announced on Tuesday, May 31st at noon ET.

-Click here to see this year's featured titles.
-Click here to receive our special newsletter announcing each day’s prize book.
 

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and inspired us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? From May 27th through June 13th, readers will have the chance to win one of our five Bookreporter.com Father’s Day Backpacks. Each hunter green backpack is filled with a copy of our seven featured titles, keeping dad busy through the rest of the year. Also included are a red-striped beach towel and a pack of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.

Our featured Father’s Day titles are:

-THE COUNCIL OF DADS: A Story of Family, Friendship & Learning How to Live by Bruce Feiler
-THE DELTA SOLUTION: An International Thriller by Patrick Robinson
-FORCED TO KILL (Audible Audio Edition) written by Andrew Peterson, narrated by Dick Hill
-MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
-MURDER ONE by Robert Dugoni
-OPERATION MINCEMEAT: How a Dead Man and Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre
-TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST: One Man’s Year of Almost Living Truthfully Could Change Your Life. No Lie. by Phil Callaway
 

Now in Stores: FRANKENSTEIN: THE DEAD TOWN by Dean Koontz

FRANKENSTEIN: THE DEAD TOWN by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
The war against humanity is raging. As the small town of Rainbow Falls, Montana, comes under siege, scattered survivors band together to weather the onslaught of the creatures set loose upon the world. As they ready for battle against overwhelming odds, they will learn the full scope of Victor Frankenstein’s nihilistic plan to remake the future --- and the terrifying reach of his shadowy, powerful supporters. Reviewed by Judy Gigstad.

-Click here to read an excerpt from FRANKENSTEIN: THE DEAD TOWN.
 

Now in Stores: DOC by Mary Doria Russell

DOC by Mary Doria Russell (Historical Fiction)
The year is 1878: the peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas: a saloon-filled cow town where violence is routine. When the burned body of a mixed-blood boy is discovered, his death shocks a part-time policeman named Wyatt Earp, and is a matter of strangely personal importance to Doc Holliday, the frail 26-year-old dentist. Reviewed by Roz Shea.

-Click here to read an excerpt from DOC.
 

Now in Stores: SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones

SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones (Fiction)
Have you ever wondered what life would be like growing up in a family of bigamists? The situation seems unthinkable, but it happens. I’m not referring to a strange polygamist cult with unusual beliefs and an alternate lifestyle. I’m speaking of ordinary folks just like you and me, except that they live in secret and hide from the ones they love. Reviewed by Melanie Smith.


 

Bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews returns with SUMMER RENTAL, a story of three friends who rent a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, only to find love, trouble, friendship and understanding throughout one life-changing summer.

-Click here to read a second excerpt from SUMMER RENTAL.
-Click here to read critical praise for SUMMER RENTAL.
-Click here to read Mary Kay Andrews’s bio.
-Click here to see Mary Kay Andrews’s backlist.
-Visit Mary Kay Andrews’s official website, www.MaryKayAndrews.com.
-Click here to see the 20 winners selected to read and comment on SUMMER RENTAL.

More about SUMMER RENTAL:
Ellis, Julia and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-30s, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia --- whose caustic wit covers up her wounds --- has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life. And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what each of them needs.
 

Featured Romantic Suspense Authors: Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush, Authors of WICKED LIES

Sisters Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush team up once again to write WICKED LIES, the sequel to their 2009 supernatural thriller, WICKED GAME. Psychopath Justice Turnbull is on a mission fueled by a vicious murder two decades ago --- and Laura Adderley can sense that he’s coming, intent on destroying her.

-Click here to read a third excerpt from WICKED LIES.
-Click here to read critical praise for WICKED LIES.
-Click here to watch a special trailer for WICKED LIES.
-Read bios of Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush.
-See the backlists of Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush.
-Visit the official websites of Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush.
-Click here to see the 20 winners selected to read and comment on WICKED LIES.

More about WICKED LIES:
For two years, Justice Turnbull has paced his room at Halo Valley Security Hospital, planning to escape. Justice has a mission --- one that began with a vicious murder two decades ago. And there are so many others who must be sent back to the hell that spawned them…

Laura Adderley didn’t plan to get pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband, though she’ll do anything to protect her baby. But now reporter Harrison Frost is asking questions about the mysterious group of women who live at Siren Song lodge. Harrison hasn’t figured out Laura’s connection to the story yet. But Justice knows. And he is coming…

All her life, Laura has been able to sense approaching evil. But that won’t stop a psychopath bent on destroying her. Justice has been unleashed, and this time, there will be no place safe to hide...
 

Paperback Spotlight: FRAGILE by Lisa Unger

FRAGILE by Lisa Unger (Mystery)
Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows’s insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case --- and also dangerous.

-Click here to read a review of FRAGILE.
-Click here to read an excerpt from FRAGILE.
-Click here to read critical praise for FRAGILE.
-Click here to read Lisa Unger’s bio.
-Click here to see Lisa Unger’s backlist.
-Visit Lisa Unger’s official website, www.LisaUnger.com.
 

"The race is long. It is better to drive within oneself and finish the race behind the other than it is to drive too hard and crash."

That's the wisdom of Enzo, a dog with a lot to say about cars and life. When THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN --- Garth Stein's novel about Enzo and his owners --- was published in 2008, readers immediately fell in love with Enzo, and the book has been a New York Times bestseller ever since. That's because, once people finish reading the novel, they want to tell everybody about it.

Now the whole family can read about Enzo together --- RACING IN THE RAIN: My Life as a Dog is now available in an edition for junior readers.

Consider this site your “Enzo pit stop” with information about the books as well as a special RACING IN THE RAIN contest, where your family can win a chat with Garth Stein, signed books and “I Heart Enzo” T-shirts and “Go Enzo” baseball caps from the Enzo Store.

The contest ends Friday, June 3rd at noon ET, so enter fast!
 

This Week’s Reviews

A SINGULAR WOMAN: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Janny Scott (Biography)
During the presidential campaign of 2008, Barack Obama introduced himself as "the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas." A SINGULAR WOMAN is the definitive biography of that white woman from Kansas, who has finally emerged from the shadows and taken her rightful place in history. Reviewed by Carole Turner.

IF YOU ASK ME (AND OF COURSE YOU WON’T) by Betty White (Memoir)
Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty's candid take on everything from her rumored crush on Robert Redford to her beauty regimen. Reviewed by Roz Shea.

A JANE AUSTEN EDUCATION: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz (Literary Criticism/Memoir)
Distinguished critic William Deresiewicz’s new book is both an informative introduction to the novels of Jane Austen and a lively exploration of how those novels helped him make the transition to full adulthood. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

THOSE IN PERIL by Wilbur Smith (Fiction/Action & Adventure)
While Hazel Bannock, heir to the Bannock Oil Corporation, is cruising the Indian Ocean, her yacht is hijacked by Somalian pirates and her daughter is kidnapped. The pirates demand a crippling ransom, and complicated political and diplomatic sensitivities render the major powers incapable of intervening. Hazel calls on Hector Cross, the man behind Cross Bow Security, to rescue her daughter. Reviewed by Judy Gigstad.

UNTIL TUESDAY: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him by Luis Carlos Montalvan with Bret Witter (Memoir)
A veteran returning from Iraq feels such despair that he begins to welcome death --- until he finds a miracle in a Golden Retriever who needs the man as much as the man needs him. In this stunning memoir, retired Army Capt. Luis Montalvan describes an incredible journey of healing and friendship. Reviewed by Kate Ayers.

KISS HER GOODBYE by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Mystery)
Private eye Mike Hammer’s old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide, but Hammer knows that Inspector Doolan would never have killed himself. When a woman is murdered practically on the funeral home’s doorstep, Hammer is drawn into the hunt for a cache of Nazi diamonds, and for the mysterious beauty who had been close to Doolan in his final days. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE ARRIVALS by Meg Mitchell Moore (Fiction)
The tranquil peace of a Vermont couple’s retirement is disrupted when their three grown-up children return home, each bringing with them their own set of troubles. Ginny and William find themselves consumed again by the chaos of parenthood --- only this time around, their son and daughters are facing adult problems. Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller.

A CONFLICT OF INTEREST by Adam Mitzner (Legal Thriller)
Michael Ohlig --- a mysterious and nearly mythic figure in Miller family history --- presents criminal defense attorney Alex Miller with a surprising request: to represent him in a high-profile criminal investigation. As the facts come out, shocking secrets are revealed that threaten everything Alex believes in --- about the law, his family and himself. Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy.
 

Young Adult Books You Won’t Want to Miss

Poll and Question of the Week: Commenting on Reviews