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Bookreporter.com Bets On...

With thousands of books published each year and much attention paid to the works of bestselling and well-known authors, it is inevitable that some titles worthy of praise and discussion may not get the attention we think they deserve. Thus throughout the year, we will continue this feature that we started in 2009, to spotlight books that immediately struck a chord with us and made us say “just read this.” We will alert our readers about these titles as soon as they’re released so you can discover them for yourselves and recommend them to your family and friends.

Below are all of our selections thus far. For future "Bets On" titles that we will announce shortly after their release dates, please visit this page.

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

August 2015

I love dark psychological thrillers; I’m not sure what that says about me. Thus, when IN A DARK, DARK WOOD by Ruth Ware came across my desk, I looked at the cover and thought this was my kind of book.

Bachelorette parties were not in vogue when I was married, but I know enough about them from our staffers to recognize that they have enough components to set up a good story. Plunk together women who know each other from various points of their lives, and, well, the opportunity for tension is there. But what if you are asked to join this weekend soiree by someone you had fallen out of touch with? Why are you there? What does this gathering mean for you?

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Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade

August 2015

Last year, I read THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters and enjoyed it. When I saw that ORPHAN #8 by Kim van Alkemade was being compared to it, as a historical fiction title, it immediately caught my attention. The book opens in the early 1900s with Rachel Rabinowitz becoming orphaned at the age of four, separated from her brother and placed in the Hebrew Infant Home in Manhattan. While her family home was a crowded tenement, the orphanage she moves to lacks much beyond the basics, the victim of poor funding and overcrowding. There are moments of hope for adoption and a better life that are quickly dashed, and Rachel realizes that life for her will be within the orphanage walls.

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Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

August 2015

I loved THE PARIS WIFE and thus eagerly anticipated Paula McLain’s new novel. I am happy to share that I feel the same way about CIRCLING THE SUN, which has Paula’s signature writing style --- it informs, engages and entertains. I received an early edition back in February, which had no flap description copy to orient me. I did no research about the book in advance and instead just started reading. I settled into the story of Beryl Markham, who grew up in Britain but moved to Africa as a young child. She is an accomplished horsewoman, aviator and adventurer.

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Broken Promise: Book One of the Promise Falls Trilogy by Linwood Barclay

August 2015

Linwood Barclay writes books that are fast-paced, full of drama and memorable characters. BROKEN PROMISE lives up to all of those expectations.

David Harwood is back in Promise Falls, NY, with his nine-year-old son. His wife has died, and his newspaper job has gone away; his life is unraveling. He’s way down on his luck. But life on the home front in Promise Falls has its own set of challenges as this sleepy town has its own problems.

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When the Moon Is Low by Nadia Hashimi

July 2015

I approached WHEN THE MOON IS LOW by Nadia Hashimi with the typical trepidation I feel when an author whose previous work I loved delivers her second novel. Her debut, THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL, was brilliant and one that I saw as on par with Khaled Hosseini’s three works. But oh, does Nadia deliver! This book is just as brilliant. I loved the characters, the pacing, the story, and the way I empathized for all those who struggle each day to find new homes and lands when the worlds that they know have been forsaken by violence. The fear and sadness that is part of these people's lives is quite overwhelming.

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Those Girls by Chevy Stevens

July 2015

I can depend on Chevy Stevens to deliver me a page-turning thriller, one that I usually read in one sitting. And she does just that in THOSE GIRLS. The book opens in a small town in western Canada where the Campbell sisters --- Jess, Courtney and Dani --- live pretty much on their own. Their mom has died, and they have bonded together to survive life with their alcoholic father, whose appearances at home are sporadic and volatile. Fear surrounds them; it defines their world.

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The Silver Swan by Elena Delbanco

June 2015

I love when I pick up a book, and it takes me on a journey beyond its pages. That happened as I was reading THE SILVER SWAN by Elena Delbanco. It got on my radar as I heard that during Elena’s event at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, they sold out of books! I had to see what people were excited about. It’s the story of a young woman, Mariana Feldmann, who is coping with the passing of her father, a famous cellist, when she learns a number of secrets about his life --- and the surprising plan for his Stradivarius cello. Elena writes about this subject with authority as her own father, Bernard Greenhouse, was a famous cellist from the Beaux Arts Trio. When he died, she sold his Stradivarius cello, specifically the Countess of Stainlein ex-Paganini Stradivarius violoncello of 1707.

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Disclaimer by Renée Knight

June 2015

I relish a good psychological thriller, and this is precisely what I got with DISCLAIMER, Renée Knight’s debut novel. In it, Catherine Ravenscroft has received a book in the mail. As she opens and reads it, she realizes that she is reading pages about a story from her own life. Detailed is a precise portrait of a very difficult time --- a time that unraveled her world and spun it around. She cannot figure out where it came from, as the only person who could tell this story is dead.

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The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

May 2015

Elizabeth Alexander --- the celebrated poet invited to speak at President Obama’s 2009 inauguration --- has released her first memoir, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. In 2012, Elizabeth found herself at a crossroads after the sudden loss of her husband, Ficre, who was an artist, a chef, and a loving husband and father. Here, she combines her beautiful use of language into rich prose to convey the story of her love and loss. As she reflects on the beauty of her married life, the sudden trauma of losing her husband and the strength she found in caring for her sons, she realizes it is possible to find meaning in loss.

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A Fine Romance - Audiobook by Candice Bergen

April 2015

I am not one who flocks to celebrity memoirs, but I loved A FINE ROMANCE by Candice Bergen, which I listened to on audio. The book is about the male loves of her life --- her husbands, Louis Malle and Marshall Rose --- and the person who lives in her heart: her daughter, Chloe. The book is wickedly honest. She admits her flaws, noting that she is not an easy woman to live with. She was married to her first husband, Louis, for 15 years, but they were apart for about one-third of that time. She talks about why that worked and why it didn’t. In this telling, there are lessons for all of us. She handwrote 400 thank-you notes after Louis’ death; if anything from this book, I learned that she is polite and definitely schooled on doing “the right thing.”

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