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Maria Semple's Exuberant and Life-Affirming New Novel is Oprah's Latest Book Club Pick

GO GENTLE is the story of one woman’s cheerful determination to live a life of the mind only to have the heart force its way in.

Walter Nash Began a Journey Down a Dark Path of Seemingly No Return

Now, he finds himself questioning everything that got him there in David Baldacci’s thrilling sequel to NASH FALLS.

Jane Harper's New Novel is a Captivating Thriller Set in a Modern Ghost Town

LAST ONE OUT explores what lingers after tragedy when a mother revisits her son's missing person case five years later.

A Reporter Chases the Biggest Story of Her Career in MIDNIGHT, AT THE WAR

Rita Das contends with a tense newsroom, a dangerous global conflict, and all the problems she’s running away from at home.

THE LOST SUMMER is the Second Installment in Wendy Corsi Staub's Haven Cliff Series

A girl’s vanishing draws a detective into the crimes and mysteries of her own past in a shocking novel of psychological suspense.

Enter to Win a Mother's Day Prize Package for You or the Special Lady in Your Life

Each package includes five wonderful titles that we think moms will love. The deadline for your entries is Monday, May 11th at noon ET.

Latest Features and Contests


Bookreporter.com's 21st Annual Mother's Day Contest

Mother’s Day is a time to recognize the woman who raised and nurtured us. To celebrate, we're giving you the opportunity to win books for yourself or the special lady in your life in Bookreporter.com's 21st annual “Books Mom Will Love” contest.

From now through Monday, May 11th at noon ET, readers can enter to win one of our five prize packages, which includes five great titles that we think moms will love: THE CALAMITY CLUB by Kathryn Stockett, HARBOR POINTE: A Hope Harbor Novel by Irene Hannon, LITTLE WONDER by Sophie Chen Keller, THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB by Susan Patterson and James Patterson, and THE MOUNTAINS WE CALL HOME: The Book Woman's Legacy by Kim Michele Richardson.

» Click here to enter the contest.


Bookreporter.com Bets On: YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke

We have been hearing a lot of buzz about YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke, and I see why. I loved it from page one.

Let me start my thoughts about this book by saying that I am amused by online influencers who create content for Instagram (and TikTok, though I am not on there), hawking how they cook, bake, decorate, make cocktails, clean, fold, and whatever else comes into their imaginations. As a child, I remember pretending I had a cooking show as I made mix cakes, but we never filmed this and it was not shared. Now, it seems like there are tens of millions of content makers, and I am sure there is a kid out there with a cooking video series.

On top of that, there are people who make fun of Instagrammers, and they have their own followings. There are times when I feel like life online is some parallel universe, but then I see it’s very real. Almost too real.

» Click here to read more of Carol's Bets On commentary.
» Click here to read our review.


Bookreporter.com's Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What You've Read --- and You Can Win Two Books!

Let us know by Friday, May 1st at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win GO GENTLE by Maria Semple and MAD MABEL by Sally Hepworth in our Word of Mouth contest.

GO GENTLE, which is Oprah's Book Club pick for April, tells the story of one woman’s cheerful determination to live a life of the mind only to have the heart force its way in. MAD MABEL is a twisty tale of justice, redemption, and one irrepressible woman who’s not done breaking the rules just yet.

» Click here to enter the contest.

Bookreporter Talks To...

As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors and posting them on our YouTube channel. We also have been making them available as podcasts. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.

Devi S. Laskar discusses her third novel, MIDNIGHT, AT THE WAR, which is set primarily in the years after 9/11. The protagonist, Rita Das, is a journalist inspired by Christiane Amanpour and Sylvia Poggioli, who planted themselves in conflict zones for their reporting. The book explores both personal and professional challenges faced by Rita, who is running from conflicts in her own life into parts of the world where she finds herself in unknown political circumstances as she works. She has complicated relationships, including a rocky marriage, a lover, a sick mother, and difficulties with her father. The unnamed location where Rita is stationed allows readers to focus on universal themes rather than specific geopolitical details. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

IT GIRL by Allison Pataki is a USA Today bestseller and a Bets On selection. Allison shares that her inspiration for the book was Evelyn Nesbit, one of the Gibson Girls of the early 20th century, who became America's first self-made female celebrity and “It Girl,” rising from poverty in Pittsburgh to Broadway stardom. The story takes place during a transformative period following the Gilded Age with new technology like electricity, automobiles and cameras, and the birth of Broadway as the “Great White Way.” It examines the exploitation of young women in early celebrity culture while exploring themes of survival, agency and female empowerment. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

Carol talks to Patricia Finn about her novel, THE GOLDEN BOY, a complex, non-linear narrative about marriage, friendship and redemption that spans multiple timelines. The book explores themes of memory, identity, exile and atonement through the lives of Stafford and Agnes, a wealthy couple who are living on Maui when readers meet them. This is Patricia’s first novel at the age of 71, and she explains how her background — which includes television writing, ghostwriting, corporate communications and crisis management — informs her literary approach. She notes that she used the real-life trial of Steven Truscott from 1959 to explore themes of justice and moral choices. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

» Click here for a complete list of our "Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts, along with upcoming interviews.

Latest Reviews

Russell Calloway’s best friend, Washington Lee, was the least likely monogamist of Russell’s acquaintances, but Washington somehow has become a model husband and father over the years. The celebration of Washington’s 35th wedding anniversary at the Odeon in the Spring of 2020 sparks an at once funny and moving autumnal reckoning with mortality as the specter of the COVID-19 virus spreads. In this moment of unprecedented upheaval --- frantic and fraught real-time response, piercing personal and political impact --- the Calloways find themselves and their marriage tested in ways they never could have anticipated as fatal consequences ensue.

Miss Kitty, a feline internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong. Miss Kitty belongs to Bitty, a sweet teenage girl who lives with her mom. Bitty and her mother are struggling financially, but the arrival of Miss Kitty and the chance discovery of her social media appeal has changed everything. Bitty now has sponsors and a high-powered agent, and real money is flowing in. With Miss Kitty gone, the family's income is on the line. The case presents a slew of challenges for Chet and Bernie. For one thing, a potential witness is a pig named Senor Piggy, who may be in possession of an important piece of evidence. For another, it seems like a possible perp has been killed twice --- and there's evidence implicating Bernie in the crime.

Eddie Wilkens is a workaholic house painter. His wife has left him to her regret, and his main employee, Houston, is a loafer and scoundrel who barely shows up for work. Eddie is a thoughtful man who rarely gets angry, but he is ruled by a guilt that he has carried for nearly 20 years. Next door, a woman and her two sons move in with her frail and aging mother. The youngest boy, eight-year-old Russell, is quiet and small for his age and lives in constant terror of his increasingly lost and troubled 15-year-old brother, Curtis. As their mother struggles to keep the family together and the grandmother’s health begins to falter, they find themselves unable to protect Russell and themselves from Curtis’ cruelty, which threatens to explode in frenetic violence. Though neither knows it, Russell and Eddie will become each other’s saving grace.

As a new resident of Golden Grove, an independent living community for active seniors, Sally wants to do everything in her power to start off on the right foot. But between navigating unspoken social rules of the community and leaving two struggling adult children back at home, fitting in becomes harder than she expected. So when she sees flyers advertising the Scrabble Club, she thinks she might as well give it a try. She quickly realizes her faux pas when she walks into the library to find just one man, Walter Kretzer. Walter has taken his Scrabble club a pinch too seriously in the past, but when he meets Sally and discovers she is something of a prodigy at the game, he can't help but feel that his fate is about to change. As he draws Sally into the world of high-stakes Scrabble tournaments, his feelings for her grow and inspire him to take a hard look at his life.

Murder Mindfully written by Karsten Dusse, translated by Florian Duijsens - Crime Fiction/Dark Humor

Criminal defense lawyer Björn Diemel has been given an ultimatum: repair his work-life balance, or his wife will leave him --- and take their daughter. He reluctantly starts a mindfulness course, and to his surprise, it’s a revelation. He becomes calmer, happier and more focused as he starts to understand what’s really important in life. When his worst client, brutal crime boss Dragan Sergowicz, tries to interfere with his precious family time, Björn discovers that even murder can be a mindfulness exercise to protect his peace.

Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman - Supernatural Thriller/Horror

At 66 years old, Winston Kemper has always been a nonentity. No one notices him. His simple existence barely registers for those who come into contact with him. Winston is a collector of voices, and his magnum opus --- The Butterfly Girls --- is a sprawling epic of untapped imagination. It has no single canvas, no particular frame. It is everywhere: scribbled on the walls, the floor and countless notebooks. Winston is creating a fantasia that exists in words, images and blood. As part of his “art,” he has been murdering forgotten women. Poor souls who slip through the cracks of society, who no one is looking for. Winston takes their lives, their voices. But now he can hear them. They whisper to him. They talk of revenge. Winston might not believe in ghosts, but he is about to learn they are very real. And they are very, very angry.

The Seventh Sister by Dawn Kurtagich - Psychological Thriller/Horror

After the tragic death of their parents, the seven Ward sisters are sent to live with their grandmother on the remote forest island of Beltane, a place suspended between time and shadow. What begins as an attempt to mend their fractured lives soon twists into a waking nightmare, where grief bleeds into childhood fantasy and ancient rites awaken a dark and eerie devotion to Daudir, the Forgotten God of the Wood. When another cruel tragedy strikes, the sisters are left to fend for themselves. The fragile world they’ve carved splinters beneath the weight of isolation, and the forest around them grows restless. Years later, a cryptic letter summons the surviving sisters home. Drawn back into the wild embrace of their dangerous faith, they confront a truth more terrible than memory, and the dreadful secret that waits in the depths of the all-seeing trees.