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Brianna Wolfson, whose debut novel ROSIE COLORED GLASSES released earlier this year and was a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick, owes a great deal to her mother. It was her mother who “made me endlessly curious about books and movies and games and drives and objects and people. She showed me how much of the world opens up with the simple instinct to explore.” As a writer, Brianna is constantly exploring. And although her mother passed away 18 years ago, Brianna knows she wouldn’t be where she is today without the love, support and guidance of her mother, who “infused me with the instinct and spirit to write.”

We’re excited to kick off this year’s Mother’s Day Author Blog series with Lisa Genova, whose latest novel EVERY NOTE PLAYED is a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Although Lisa doesn't remember her mother reading to her as a child, the same cannot be said of her own three children, all of whom have fond memories of their mom reading to them. While the likes of Harry Potter and Mabel Jones were reliable go-tos, it was the “made-up” stories --- the ones in which they were the main characters embarking on adventures to fantastical new lands --- that they cherish the most.

Mary Anna Evans is the author of the Faye Longchamp archaeological mystery series, the 11th installment of which, UNDERCURRENTS, is now available. Her protagonist is an archaeologist who “goes where the history is,” traveling all over the country and solving mysteries along the way. In this blog piece written exclusively for Bookreporter.com, Mary Anna explains why she chose Memphis, Tennessee, as the setting for her latest novel, and talks about the wonderful time she had there as she conducted research with the help of two of her oldest friends.

We have had a number of requests for great nonfiction titles for discussion, so we asked our readers to share their recommendations with us --- specifically, nonfiction books they read in the last year that sparked a good discussion. We received a number of wonderful suggestions, all of which you can see in our special blog post.

The second annual Montclair Literary Festival took place from March 15-18 at Montclair Public Library, First Congregational Church, Montclair State University and Montclair Art Museum. Nancy, one of our readers, was at the Festival for a day and attended four lively panel discussions featuring such authors as Jonathan Santlofer, Christina Baker Kline, Min Jin Lee and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. In this blog post, Nancy talks extensively about her two favorite sessions.

For the first time, Bookreporter.com reader Muriel Logan and her husband attended the Tucson Festival of Books, which took place on the University of Arizona campus on March 10th and 11th. Muriel had such a wonderful time that she decided to share some of her experiences at the festival with us, along with a couple of photos from two of the panels she attended.

A friend of Carol Fitzgerald's wants to start a book group for working mothers and is looking for titles that would be perfect for them. She says, “We are a group of working moms of young kids (mostly). We have a love of reading, but not a lot of time to do it (and we’re tired most of the time!). So it needs to be something that isn’t too heavy, but has some depth to it for discussion.” We asked our readers for their feedback, which garnered a HUGE response, and you can see their suggestions in our special blog post. Many thanks to all who took the time to share their recommendations and give Carol's friend the guidance she was looking for!

Last fall, I was lucky enough to do an author talk and signing for the Club RED book club (short for “Read, Eat, Drink”) located just south of Boston. The minute I walked in, the leader of the group, Christine Powers, who exudes the relaxed authority and wicked wit of Tina Fey, gave me a huge bear hug. I knew right off that these were my people.

The 11th Annual Savannah Book Festival took place this year from February 15-18 in Savannah, Georgia. According to their website, the Festival celebrates “nationally recognized and local authors through their contributions to literacy, ideas and imagination. Festival Saturday is a free and open to the public event that features solo author presentations in seven venues around Telfair, Chippewa and Wright Squares in historic downtown Savannah.” In this blog post, four Bookreporter.com readers report on their experiences at this year’s Festival and share their thoughts on the author presentations they attended.  

Lee, one of our readers, wrote to us that “a friend of mine is going into the hospital next week for some testing that may lead to heart surgery. Yesterday, when I saw her at our monthly Book Club meeting, she asked me if I could gather a list of great historical fiction titles, which is her favorite genre.” Our readers weighed in with their own suggestions, all of which you can see in our special blog post. We hope Lee's friend finds at least a few titles here that appeals to her!