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May 21, 2004

Bookreporter.com Newsletter May 21, 2004
This Week on Bookreporter.com
The Notebook Goes to Hollywood
THE DA VINCI CODE Author Roundtable: 11 Authors Crack the Code
Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight: Edna Buchanan, Author of COLD CASE SQUAD; and We Introduce Our New Author, Tami Hoag. Author of KILL THE MESSENGER
Debut Suspense/Thriller Authors to Watch: Linwood Barclay, Author of BAD MOVE; Christopher Fowler, Author of FULL DARK HOUSE; and We Introduce Jack Kerley, Author of THE HUNDREDTH MAN
ReadingGroupGuides.com - 24 New Guides and The Book Club Cookbook Contest
Mario Vargas Llosa is Rolex's Latest Literature Mentor in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative
This Week's Book Reviews and Features
Poll: Are you in a book club?
Question of the Week: What book would you most like to discuss with a group?
Word of Mouth: Tell Us What You're Reading -- TWO Prizes!
On The Book Report Network
 
Bookreporter.com
Past Reviews
Can't See the Graphics? Read This Newsletter Online
Past Poll: How much does the price of a book influence your decision to buy it?
Past Question of the Week: What book are you planning to buy next?
The Notebook Goes to Hollywood
 
Many of you read THE NOTEBOOK when it came out in 1996 (coincidentally the same year Bookreporter.com was founded). Over the years you have asked about when the movie of the book is coming out. The answer: June 25th. I went to a screening a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. There were moments I was trying to swallow the lump in my throat and yes, I wiped away some tears; there were others when I was laughing --- a lot. It's very nicely done and I do not think fans of the book will be disappointed. For those of you who have read the book, you may want to do a quick re-read in anticipation of the movie. If you are in a book club, you may want to schedule a book/movie meeting! Early next week we will be sharing news with you about advance screening opportunities in some major cities --- and a contest. Watch your mailboxes for details.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Tami Hoag on more than one occasion. She's always been gracious --- and interesting to talk to. That is why it gives me great pleasure to announce her as our next Suspense/Thriller author. Her next book is KILL THE MESSENGER and it will be in stores on July 6th. The story is about a bike messenger whose last drop of the day is a run for L.A.'s sleaziest law firm. He is chased and shot at, but manages to escape with the package that someone wants to kill him for. He finds he's a murder suspect --- and he's on the run. The key to saving himself and his ten-year-old brother may be --- the truth. We have 20 galleys of this book to give away. Interested in reading, then send your name and mailing address to SuspenseThriller@bookreporter.com by Friday, June 4th.

A couple of months ago I read a book called THE HUNDREDTH MAN by Jack Kerley. It lived up to everything the publisher told me about it and we selected Kerley to be our newest Debut Suspense/Thriller Author. Here's the skinny on the plot. Carson Ryder is a former psychology graduate student who finds his calling in the Mobile, Alabama, police department. While a young patrolman, he appears to single-handedly solve the "Adrian Killings." His success brings him a detective's shield, as well as political enemies. When a killer is again loose in Mobile, leaving behind headless corpses with cryptic messages inked into their flesh, Carson gets plunged into a past he'd tried to forget. Want to be one of our 10 advance readers? Then please send us mail at DebutSuspenseThriller@bookreporter.com with your name AND your mailing address by Friday, May 28th.

I am very proud of our roundtable discussion where 11 authors weigh in on the books that they have written in response to THE DA VINCI CODE and we also have a roundup report on the books that have been written. See our feature below.

There is a book that is getting a ton of buzz these days --- THE RULE OF FOUR. As it's on my "to read" list, I am going to rely on flap copy here to tell you what it's about. "A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance price collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, madness and genius in THE RULE OF FOUR." This is one of our Word of Mouth giveaway books so be sure to enter your Word of Mouth picks to be eligible to win. If you have read the book or are intrigued to learn more, see the link below and play the Webquest game.

Have a great week.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
Click here to play THE RULE OF FOUR game.
 
THE DA VINCI CODE Author Roundtable: 11 Authors Crack the Code
 
FaithfulReader.com has brought together 11 authors who have all written books in response to Dan Brown's controversial 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code. Richard Abanes, Darrell L. Bock, Dan Burstein, James L. Garlow, Peter Jones, Steve Kellmeyer, Erwin W. Lutzer, Sandra Miesel, Carl E. Olson, Amy Welborn and Ben Witherington III discuss why they believe so many people have accepted this fictional thriller as fact. They also address some of the claims Brown makes in the book about Christianity and explain the potential damage that his conclusions could inflict on a person's faith.

THE DA VINCI CODE roundup on FaithfulReader.com is another don't miss feature on the book. FaithfulReader.com's contributing writer Marcia Ford takes a look at 11 books either on the market or in the works that respond to Dan Brown's bestselling and controversial novel THE DA VINCI CODE. She focuses on the varying perspectives of the authors, differences in the structure of the books and significant distinctions in content --- and then reveals her choice for the best Da Vinci-related work.
Read our author roundtable about THE DA VINCI CODE here.
 
Read more about Edna Buchanan and COLD CASE SQUAD here. Read more about Tami Hoag and KILL THE MESSENGER here.
Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight: Edna Buchanan, Author of COLD CASE SQUAD; and We Introduce Our New Author, Tami Hoag. Author of KILL THE MESSENGER
 
Edna Buchanan, author of COLD CASE SQUAD, which is on sale on June 1st is our May Suspense/Thriller Author.

New this week for Edna Buchanan:
-Read the third chapter of COLD CASE SQUAD
-Read about Buchanan's true-crime classic THE CORPSE HAD A FAMILIAR FACE

Previous Weeks:
-Read the prologue and first two chapters of COLD CASE SQUAD
-Read Fast Facts
-See our ARC Winners
-Browse through Buchanan's backlist
-Read critical praise for Buchanan's work

COLD CASE SQUAD
Edna Buchanan's latest novel launches a new series with members of Miami Police Department's "cold case squad" as her protagonists. Two separate cases occupy the team's minds. Sergeant Craig Burch and Detective Pete Nazario are investigating the supposed accidental death of a father who may very well be alive --- while Detective Sam Stone is hot on the trail of a serial killer.

Tami Hoag, author of KILL THE MESSENGER, is our new Suspense/Thriller Author. KILL THE MESSENGER hits bookstores July 6th.

New This Week for Tami Hoag:
-Enter to win one of 20 advance copies of KILL THE MESSENGER by sending your name AND mailing address to SuspenseThriller@bookreporter.com by June 4th.
-Read about KILL THE MESSENGER
-Read about DARK HORSE (mass market paperback, on sale 6/1)
-Read more about Tami Hoag
-Browse through Hoag's bibliography

KILL THE MESSENGER
At the end of a long day, bike messenger Jace Damon has one last drop to make. But en route to delivering a package for one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, he's run down by a car, chased through back alleys and shot at. He narrowly manages to escape with his life --- and a package someone would kill for. Now he finds himself suspected of murder, and he's on the run from both the cops and a brutal killer. The key to saving himself and his ten-year-old brother may be the envelope with a message no one wants delivered: the truth.
Read our Suspense/Thriller feature here.
 
Read more about Jack Kerley and THE HUNDREDTH MAN here.
Debut Suspense/Thriller Authors to Watch: Linwood Barclay, Author of BAD MOVE; Christopher Fowler, Author of FULL DARK HOUSE; and We Introduce Jack Kerley, Author of THE HUNDREDTH MAN
 
We are spotlighting three very different debut suspense/thriller authors --- Christopher Fowler, author of FULL DARK HOUSE, Linwood Barclay, author of BAD MOVE and our latest author, Jack Kerley, author of THE HUNDREDTH MAN.

New This Week for Linwood Barclay:
-Read a second excerpt from BAD MOVE

Previous Weeks:
-Read the first excerpt from BAD MOVE
-See Our ARC Winners

BAD MOVE (in stores June 1st)
Anyone who thinks that the burbs are boring will think again after reading Linwood Barclay's hilarious debut mystery, BAD MOVE. Zack Walker is a safety obsessed dad who quickly finds that his suburban neighborhood is not a crime-free paradise. Zack's paranoid tendencies get him implicated in a crime. What does he do? He heads off to track down the killer himself.

New This Week for Christopher Fowler:
-Read a second excerpt from FULL DARK HOUSE

Previous Weeks:
-Read the first excerpt from FULL DARK HOUSE
-See Our ARC Winners

FULL DARK HOUSE (in stores June 1st)
FULL DARK HOUSE is a perfect read for those who love classic British crime mysteries. It's the first book in a riveting new series featuring Arthur Bryant and John May, two of Britain's oldest detectives, who have been partnered in the London Police Department's Peculiar Crimes Unit for over sixty years. Here Fowler tells the story of both their first and last case --- and how this crime-fighting odd couple changed the face of detection.

New This Week for Jack Kerley
-Enter to win one of 10 advance copies of THE HUNDREDTH MAN by sending your name AND mailing address to debutsuspensethriller@bookreporter.com by May 28th.
-Read more about THE HUNDREDTH MAN
-Read more about Jack Kerley

THE HUNDREDTH MAN (in stores June 7th)
Carson Ryder is a former psychology graduate student who finds his calling in the Mobile, Alabama, police department. While a young patrolman, he appears to single-handedly solve the "Adrian Killings." His success brings him a detective's shield, as well as political enemies. When a killer is again loose in Mobile, leaving behind headless corpses with cryptic messages inked into their flesh, Carson gets plunged into a past he'd tried to forget.
Read more about our Debut Suspense/Thriller authors here.
 
Read the guide for HUNTING MIDNIGHT here. Read the guide for A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS here. Read a guide for PLANT LIFE here.
ReadingGroupGuides.com - 24 New Guides and The Book Club Cookbook Contest
 
This month we add discussion guides for 24 books to ReadingGroupGuides.com including A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS by Elizabeth McGregor, PLANT LIFE by Pamela Duncan and HUNTING MIDNIGHT by Richard Zimler.

Are you in a club where food play as big a part in your book club meetings as the book discussion? Or have you ever thought about creating a menu inspired by a favorite book? If so, you'll love The Book Club Cookbook, which shares recipes and menu ideas for 100 books. For more about this book, including details on our special book club contest, see our link below. More information about this book is available at TheBookClubCookbook.com.
Click here to go to ReadingGroupGuides.com.
 
Mario Vargas Llosa is Rolex's Latest Literature Mentor in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative
 
Leading Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa - the Literature Mentor for the Second Cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative - has selected Antonio García Ángel as his protégé. Aged 31, García Ángel has a best-selling novel to his credit, and he is already considered one of Colombia's best young writers. Launched in 2002, this programme pairs extraordinarily gifted young artists with renowned artists in their fields for a year of one-on-one mentoring.
Read more about the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative here.
 
This Week's Book Reviews and Features
 
NOTHING LOST by John Gregory Dunne (Fiction)
Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
John Gregory Dunne's NOTHING LOST, which has been published posthumously, tells the story of a barbaric murder and how that event affects the lives of a small rural town. The novel strikes at the heart of the vivid violence, truculent taciturnity, arcane attitudes, hardly hidden hypocrisy and redundant racism as it resides in the heartland of the United States.

LIARS & THIEVES by Stephen Coonts (Thriller)
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Tommy Carmellini, an ex-burglar and CIA operative, uncovers a dark conspiracy that leads to the highest levels of the American government --- and to a ruthless manipulator who will stop at nothing to keep a decades-old secret.

HIDDEN PREY by John Sandford (Suspense)
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
On the shore of Lake Superior, a man named Vladimir Orslov, who had very high government connections, is found shot to death. Shortly thereafter, a supposed witness to the murder also meets a violent end. Detective Lucas Davenport faces a number of tough questions: Who exactly is Nadya Kalin, a Russian policewoman who comes to the U.S. to investigate Orslov's murder? What is she hiding from him? And why was the Russian man shot with fifty-year-old bullets?

EVENTIDE by Kent Haruf (Fiction)
Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
Kent Haruf, author of the award-winning novel and National Book Award finalist PLAINSONG, returns to the High Plains community of Holt, Colorado, bringing its residents to life in this engrossing and profoundly moving work.

BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME by Timothy B. Tyson (Autobiography/History)
Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
In this riveting narrative Timothy Tyson, a professor of African-American studies, examines the civil rights struggle in the South, focusing specifically on the murder of a young black man, Henry Marrow, in 1970 --- a tragedy that dramatically widened the racial gap in the author's hometown of Oxford, North Carolina.

THE DEAD DON'T DANCE: A Novel of Awakening by Charles Martin (Fiction)
Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Dylan and Maggie Stiles have a perfect life --- they have a terrific marriage and are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child. The day their son is born the world abruptly changes when Maggie lapses into a coma. Instead of Dylan celebrating, he is now looking for himself --- and his faith --- a world without Maggie. This is the story of his finding his way back to life.

WITH by Donald Harington (Fiction)
Reviewed by Stephen M. Deusner
In his new novel, Donald Harington creates an Eden high in the Arkansas Ozarks, with an Eve abducted by a child molester, an Adam who is not quite a ghost and a menagerie of animals who narrate many of the chapters.

DEFENDING BALTIMORE AGAINST ENEMY ATTACK: A Boyhood Year During World War II by Charles Osgood (Memoir)
Reviewed by Robert Finn
Charles Osgood, whose face and voice are familiar to many through his career in radio and television, looks back affectionately at one critical year of growing up in wartime Baltimore.

THE MASTER by Colm Tóibín (Fiction)
Reviewed by Colleen Quinn
Colm Tóibín provides a detailed study of novelist Henry James --- a man born into one of America's first intellectual families two decades before the Civil War --- and through him, a rare insight into the creative process.

HONDO by Louis L'Amour (Western)
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Originally published in 1953, this classic novel by Louis L'Amour features Hondo Lane, a big, broad-shouldered mystery man; Angie Lowe, who is raising her young son on a remote Arizona ranch; and the warrior Vittoro, whose people are preparing to rise against the white men. All three are caught in a drama of love, war and honor.
Read the reviews and features here.
 
Read Author Bibliographies here. Search Bookreporter.com here Read about the Light Wedge reading light here.
Poll: Are you in a book club?
 
Are you in a book club?

Yes, I am.
No, but I would like to be.
No, I am not interested in this.
Answer the Poll here.
 
Browse through forthcoming books here. Read about books that have won awards here. Read our Books Into Movies feature here.
Question of the Week: What book would you most like to discuss with a group?
 
What book would you most like to discuss with a group?

Our next question update will be on May 27th.
Answer the Question of the Week.
 
Read more about THE RULE OF FOUR here. Read more about DOUBLE PLAY here.
Word of Mouth: Tell Us What You're Reading -- TWO Prizes!
 
Tell us what books YOU are reading and loving --- or even those you don't.

This week we have some great prizes: FIVE readers each will win a copy of THE RULE OF FOUR by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason; DOUBLE PLAY by Robert B. Parker.

Please note that our next Word of Mouth update will be on May 27th.
Need more details about Word of Mouth? Click here.
 

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Happy reading! Don't forget to forward this newsletter to a friend or to visit our other websites from TheBookReportNetwork.com: ReadingGroupGuides.com, AuthorsOnTheWeb.com, FaithfulReader.com, AuthorYellowPages.com, Teenreads.com, and Kidsreads.com.

--- Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

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