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Latest Update on Our GoFundMe Campaign
Thank you to those of you who have donated to our GoFundMe campaign. So far, with online and snail mail donations, we have raised $37,915 of our $50,000 goal.
You can read about our plans and donate here. If you would prefer donating via check, please send to:
The Book Report, Inc.
16 Mt. Bethel Road, Suite 365
Warren, NJ 07059
Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.
Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 14th and December 21st that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for December, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, the Jenna Bush Hager "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.
Also, we are sharing Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Sue Miller, whose new book, MONOGAMY, is a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Set in a New England town, this is the story of Graham, a gregarious bookseller, and Annie, a shy photographer, who have been married for nearly 30 years. By all appearances, they are a golden couple. But when Graham suddenly dies, Annie is lost. What is the point of going on, she wonders, without him? Then, while she is still mourning Graham intensely, she discovers a ruinous secret, one that will spiral her into darkness and force her to question if she ever truly knew the man who loved her. In the interview, Sue talked about her path to writing the novel, which took six years, and how photography became a part of it, as well as her narration of the audiobook. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Tuesdays at 7:30pm ET: "Talking ETERNAL with Lisa Scottoline": Join Lisa Scottoline every Tuesday night at 7:30pm ET on Facebook as she premieres a new episode from her video series, "Behind the Book: Talking ETERNAL," which reveals behind-the-scenes looks at the inspirations of her upcoming historical fiction book, ETERNAL, releasing on March 23rd. And stay tuned because immediately following each video premiere, Lisa hosts a Facebook Live to talk about the video.
Wednesday, December 16th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe --- will talk to Lisa See, whose most recent novel is THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN.
Wednesday, December 16th at 7pm ET: Indigo Virtual Event: Join former New York Times editor and author KJ Dell'Antonia as she talks about her debut novel, THE CHICKEN SISTERS, a feel-good book about a cooking competition show, sister rivalries and the importance of finding joy in our families, live on Instagram @Indigo.
Thursday, December 17th at 7pm ET: Seven Libraries Virtual Event: Join Seven Libraries in welcoming Jeff Benedict to talk about his instant bestseller on the New England Patriots, THE DYNASTY.
Thursday, December 17th at 7pm ET: Warwick's Virtual Event: Warwick's will host Samantha Silva as she discusses the new paperback edition of her debut novel, MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL, in conversation with Warwick's Director of Events Julie Slavinsky.
Saturday, December 19th at 8pm ET: SongWriter Virtual Event: In this live reading and music event, author Jonathan Lethem will read from his new novel, THE ARREST, and songwriters Tift Merritt and Ben Arthur will play songs written in response. This will be recorded and will air as part of the "SongWriter" podcast.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for December
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Pennie's Pick for Costco. We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of December's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.
Indie Next
#1 Pick: WINTERING: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
A WEALTH OF PIGEONS: A Cartoon Collection by Harry Bliss and Steve Martin
THE BURNING GOD by R. F. Kuang
BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
THE STAR-CROSSED SISTERS OF TUSCANY by Lori Nelson Spielman
LibraryReads
LibraryReads Top Pick: HOW TO FAIL AT FLIRTING by Denise Williams
THE ARCTIC FURY by Greer Macallister
HOW TO CATCH A QUEEN: Runaway Royals, by Alyssa Cole
MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER by T.A. Willberg
PRETTY LITTLE WIFE by Darby Kane
Target Book Club
LONG BRIGHT RIVER by Liz Moore
Pennie's Pick (Costco)
THE NIGHT PORTRAIT: A Novel of World War II and da Vinci's Italy, by Laura Morelli
Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club
THE CHICKEN SISTERS by KJ Dell’Antonia
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
THE BLUEST EYE by Toni Morrison
"Good Morning America" Book Club
THIS TIME NEXT YEAR by Sophie Cousens
PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club
SEVERANCE by Ling Ma
On Sale the Week of December 14th in Hardcover
December 14th
REVOLUTIONS OF ALL COLORS by Dewaine Farria (Fiction)
Gabriel Mathis, a 23-year-old aspiring fantasy writer and reluctant Russophile, travels to Ukraine to teach English and meets the love of his life: an international arms dealer very much out of his league. Simon --- a former Special Forces medic, torn over a warped sense of duty and a child he did not want --- returns to the US to pursue his dream of becoming a mixed martial artist. After spending his adolescence defending his bisexuality, Michael makes his mark in New York’s fashion industry while nursing resentment for a community that never accepted him. Dewaine Farria traces the lives of brothers Michael and Gabriel and their friend Simon from adolescence to their mid-20s, through Oklahoma, Afghanistan, New York, Somalia, Ukraine and New Orleans.
Syracuse University Press | 9780815611264
December 15th
THE GARDEN OF PROMISES AND LIES by Paula Brackston (Historical Fantasy)
As the bustle of the winter holidays in the Little Shop of Found Things gives way to spring, Xanthe is left to reflect on the strange events of the past year. While she has tried to keep her time-traveling talents a secret from those close to her, she is forced to take responsibility for having inadvertently transported the dangerous Benedict Fairfax to her own time. It is then that a beautiful antique wedding dress sings to her. Realizing the dress and her adversary are connected in some way, she answers the call and finds herself in Bradford-on-Avon in 1815. Fairfax is threatening Xanthe into helping him with his evil doings, and demonstrates all too clearly how much damage he is capable of causing.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250072450
I CAME AS A SHADOW: An Autobiography by John Thompson with Jesse Washington (Autobiography)
After three decades at the center of race and sports in America, the first Black head coach to win an NCAA championship makes the private public at last. Chockful of stories and moving beyond mere stats, John Thompson’s book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. We experience riding shotgun with Celtics icon Red Auerbach, and coaching NBA Hall of Famers like Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson. And thawing his historically glacial stare, Thompson brings us into his negotiation with a DC drug kingpin in his players’ orbit in the 1980s, as well as behind the scenes of his years on the Nike board.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250619358
On Sale the Week of December 14th in Paperback
December 15th
THE ANCIENT HOURS by Michael Bible (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Harmony, North Carolina is a typical town --- full of saints and sinners you can’t tell apart. Its history echoes with lynchings and shootings, mob violence and vigilante justice. But those are just whispers of a past lost to time. The summer of 2000 was different. Iggy in the Baptist church. Gasoline and a match. Twenty-five people dead. Told in a kaleidoscope of timelines and voices, Michael Bible examines every dimension of a tragic but all-too-American story in THE ANCIENT HOURS. The victims, witnesses, perpetrators and condemned comingle and evolve as the passage of time works its way through their lives. What emerges is a fable of the American South in the highest tradition: soaring, tragic and eternally striving for redemption.
Melville House | 9781612198644
BOMBSHELL: A Teddy Fay Novel Featuring Stone Barrington by Stuart Woods and Parnell Hall (Thriller/Adventure)
Teddy Fay is back in Hollywood and caught in two tricky situations. First, a rising star at Centurion becomes the target of malicious gossip, and Teddy must find and neutralize the source before the situation gets out of hand --- or becomes violent. At the same time, Teddy finds himself targeted by a criminal thug bearing a grudge. It's a lot of knives to juggle, even for a former-CIA-operative-turned-movie-producer accustomed to hazardous working conditions. This time Teddy will need to leverage every bit of his undercover skills and fearless daring to stay one step ahead of his foes…or he will find himself one foot in the grave.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593083260
THE LAST TO SEE HER by Courtney Evan Tate (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Gen is on the verge of a divorce from her cheating husband. When her sister, Meg, has a convention to attend in the Big Apple, she invites Gen along to celebrate her newly found freedom. But the perfect sisters’ getaway quickly goes awry when a tipsy Gen defiantly throws her wedding ring off the hotel room’s balcony. Then, wanting some fresh air, she decides to take a late-evening walk alone and vanishes without a trace. The investigation that follows uncovers secrets --- and betrayals --- between sisters and spouses that will twist the truth in on itself until nothing is clear. What really happened to Gen, and who, besides Meg, was the last to see her?
Mira | 9780778309413
NYPD RED 6 by James Patterson and Marshall Karp (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Reality star Erin Easton's "Wedding of the Century" may have a cable crew documenting every extravagant bridal detail, but when "Airhead Easton" disappears from the reception, it's no diva turn. Her dressing room is empty but for a blood-spattered wedding gown and signs of a struggle. Detective Kylie MacDonald of NYPD Red, already on-scene as a plus-one, loops in her partner, Detective Zach Jordan, to activate Level One mobilization for this PR nightmare. But when Erin's "proof of life" video makes it to air --- rather than to evidence --- every A-lister on the guest list becomes a target of suspicion...or just a target.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538713884
A SMALL TOWN by Thomas Perry (Thriller)
Twelve conspirators meticulously plan to throw open all the gates to the prison that contains them, so that more than a thousand convicts may escape and pour into the nearby small town. The newly freed prisoners rape, murder and destroy the town. An immense search ensues, but the 12 who plotted it all get away. After two years, all efforts by the local and federal police agencies have been in vain. Leah Hawkins, a former star basketball player and resident good cop, is placed on sabbatical so that she can tour the country learning advanced police procedures. The sabbatical is merely a ruse, however, as her real job is to track the infamous 12 and kill them. Soon, the surviving fugitives realize what she is up to, and a race to kill or be killed ensues.
Mysterious Press | 9780802148445
On Sale the Week of December 21st in Hardcover
December 23rd
THE MIDLIFE MIND: Literature and the Art of Aging by Ben Hutchinson (Developmental Psychology)
The meaning of life is a common concern, but what is the meaning of midlife? With the help of illustrious writers such as Dante, Montaigne, Beauvoir, Goethe and Beckett, THE MIDLIFE MIND sets out to answer this question. Erudite but engaging, it takes a personal approach to that most impersonal of processes: aging. From the ancients to the moderns, from poets to playwrights, writers have long meditated on how we can remain creative as we move through our middle years. There are no better guides, then, to how we have regarded middle age in the past, how we understand it in the present, and how we might make it as rewarding as possible in the future.
Reaktion Books | 9781789143508
RUSSIA AS EMPIRE: Past and Present by Kees Boterbloem (History)
Covering more than 1,000 years of tumultuous history, RUSSIA AS EMPIRE shows how the medieval empire of Kyivan Rus’ metamorphosed into today’s Russian Federation. Kees Boterbloem vividly and lucidly describes Russia’s various incarnations and considers how the concept of empire evolved from tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union, and how and why it survives today. He discusses the ideological architects of these empires and the ideas of their political leaders --- the tsars, Lenin, Stalin, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. The book considers the role of the various empires’ inhabitants, revealing how and why they adhered to, or believed in, their country’s imperial mission. What emerges is a highly original overview that illuminates the continuities and discontinuities in Russian history.
Reaktion Books | 9781789142914
On Sale the Week of December 21st in Paperback
December 22nd
REVOLUTION: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo by Peter Ackroyd (History)
In REVOLUTION, Peter Ackroyd takes readers from William of Orange's accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was --- again --- at war with France, a war that would end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250765970
WE, THE SURVIVORS by Tash Aw (Fiction)
Born and raised in a Malaysian fishing village, Ah Hock favors stability above all, a preference at odds with his rapidly modernizing surroundings. So what brings him to kill a man? This question leads a young, privileged journalist to Ah Hock’s door. While the victim has been mourned and the killer has served time for the crime, Ah Hock's motive remains unclear, even to himself. His vivid confession unfurls over extensive interviews with the journalist, herself a local whose life has taken a very different course. The process forces both the speaker and his listener to reckon with systems of power, race and class in a place where success is promised to all yet delivered only to its lucky heirs.
Picador | 9781250757920
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