October 21, 2004

We're 1,100,000 Readers Strong

The BIG news this week is that in September, The Book Report Network (the parent company of Bookreporter.com) had more than 1,100,000 unique visitors. This has real significance to me since before I started Bookreporter.com I was at Mademoiselle magazine where our circulation was 1,100,000 readers. Pretty cool to see how this happened in just nine years. Actually we more than doubled our circulation in the past year! So to all of you, thank you for reading and telling your friends about us. My new goal is....2,000,000 readers.
 
Fridays I never go into the office in New York. I hate the traffic commuting home on a Friday night when everyone in the city heads to their "country house" and vowed when I started this company I never would do this again. The three times in the last nine years that I broke this promise to myself, I was miserable. Instead, Fridays today find me writing in my home office since this is the place where I write best. I wear jeans and a white T-shirt in spring, fall and winter with something synchilla as the temps drop; jean cutoffs and a white T-shirt in summer. I stay barefoot til it gets too cold for me to stand not wearing socks.
 
If there is one habit that I have, this is it. Fridays, I write. My office has a huge window that overlooks the street. It's great for waving at the boys as they come off the school bus. I never thought about people looking "in." It amused me a few years ago when we had a party for neighbors and they all asked to see the room upstairs with the window where the computer is. Clearly they were watching me when I was not watching them!
 
Today as part of my writing, I wrote a new blog, as my older son told me I needed to be more au courant with this writing. It's all about my being a book concierge for my friends. I think you'll get a kick out of it.
 
I spend a lot of time when I am writing thinking about our readers. I try to wrap myself around the kind of stories and features that you would enjoy. A book came across our desks recently that amused me called THE AVERAGE AMERICAN. It looks at what's average through a number of scenarios like whether you prefer smooth or chunky peanut butter. We have a link to a quiz where you can see how average you are. Read on for details.
 
It's supposed to rain here this weekend. One weatherman last night said that we are seeing the effects of Wilma. I was wondering if he was confusing this with just plain rain since anyone with any familiarity with a weather map knows that New Jersey/New York are pretty far from Cancun! For the record, I am waiting for some headline or news caption that links Wilma to the old familiar line of Fred Flinstone --- Yabba Dabba Doo. I figure we are just 24 hours of cable broadcasting away from hearing this. Rain means no baseball for my little one and maybe time to start organizing my bookshelves.
 
This weekend the Quill Book Award show will be airing in the following markets on NBC: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Jose/San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, Miami, San Diego, Hartford, Raleigh, Columbus, Birmingham and Providence. We'll be watching Saturday night at 7 in our neck of the woods. Consult your local listings in yours.
 
Have a great week....

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
 

List of titles reviewed and featured on October 21st

List of titles reviewed and featured on October 14th
 

Bookreporter.com Talks to Morag Joss, Author of HALF BROKEN THINGS

Bookreporter.com's Carol Fitzgerald and Joni Rendon interviewed Morag Joss, author of the acclaimed Sara Selkirk mystery series, about her first stand-alone work of fiction, HALF BROKEN THINGS. Joss discusses elements of the human condition conveyed through the novel's protagonists, such as the unrelenting search for and the perpetual absence of love, the role of fate, and the effects of desperation. She also examines the stylistic techniques of fiction-writing that she employs and reveals details of her upcoming project.   

Click here to read our interview with Morag Joss and a review of HALF BROKEN THINGS.

Author Talk: Bruce Feiler, Author of WHERE GOD WAS BORN

In this interview, Bruce Feiler --- author of WALKING THE BIBLE and ABRAHAM --- discusses his latest book, WHERE GOD WAS BORN, and how it arose from his need to explore the fluctuating role of religion in society. He recalls how his family's attitudes toward their spirituality impacted his own, reflects on the importance of words in mending cultural and faith-based rifts, and even shares an amusing anecdote about a religiously symbolic dessert to be served at book club discussions.

WHERE GOD WAS BORN: A Journey by Land to the Roots of Religion by Bruce Feiler (Religion/Current Events)
Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers WALKING THE BIBLE and ABRAHAM, travels ten thousand miles through the heart of the Middle East --- Israel, Iraq and Iran --- and examines the question: Is religion tearing us apart...or can it bring us together?

Click here to read an interview with Bruce Feiler and a review of WHERE GOD WAS BORN.

Now in Stores: 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL by Jane Smiley

13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL by Jane Smiley (Books & Reading)
Reviewed by Colleen Quinn
Charm and enthusiasm mark Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley's study of the novel, which includes her thoughts on 100 novels she has read, her own habits and the secrets of her craft, her experiences in publishing a recent novel, and priceless advice to aspiring novelists.

-Click here to read an excerpt from 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL.
-Click here to read the guide for 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL.

Don't Miss: BOOK SENSE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS

BOOK SENSE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS: 240 Favorites for All Ages Recommended by Independent Booksellers compiled by Book Sense (Reference)
With today's ever-growing publishing industry, the number of children's books on the market grows exponentially as each year passes. The dizzying volume of new titles on bookstore shelves can quickly transform the usually enjoyable task of finding the perfect book for your child into an overwhelming, at times even bewildering, ordeal. Book Sense, the trade organization and advocate of the independent bookseller that brought us the reading group resource favorite BOOK SENSE BEST BOOKS, lends another helping hand with BOOK SENSE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

Click here to read more about BOOK SENSE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight: David Morrell, Author of CREEPERS

Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight: Greg Rucka, Author of PRIVATE WARS

Greg Rucka, author of A GENTLEMAN'S GAME, A FISTFUL OF RAIN and the QUEEN & COUNTRY graphic novel series, has been making a name for himself in both the suspense and graphic novel genres for several years. His newest title PRIVATE WARS hits bookshelves October 25th, reuniting readers with the edgy, explosive and sexy spy Tara Chace.

New This Week:
-Read a new excerpt from PRIVATE WARS here.
-Read Advance Reader Comments about PRIVATE WARS here.

Previous Weeks:
-See our Advanced Copy Winners here.
-Read Fast Facts about Greg Rucka here.
-Read Greg Rucka's bibliography here.

Read more about PRIVATE WARS here:
Tara Chace was once the most dangerous woman alive. And now that the international spy network thinks she's as good as dead, she's even more dangerous than ever. Combine a thriller that defies every expectation with a heroine for whom nothing is out of bounds, and the result is PRIVATE WARS, a suspense novel so explosively realistic, it should be classified.

Just in Time for the World Series --- Our Annual Fall Baseball Roundup

Click here to read our 2005 Baseball Roundup.

Now in Stores: THE AVERAGE AMERICAN by Kevin O'Keefe -- Take a Quiz to See if YOU are The Average American

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen by Kevin O'Keefe

John Q Public. Plain Jane. The average Joe. We know the type but we've never met the person, until Kevin O'Keefe took matters into his own hands. Kevin hit the road on a a nationwide search from New Hampshire to Hawaii and every in between to find The Average American. He looked closely at what is often overlooked: the especially ordinary, the remarkably everyday, the extraordinarily average. 

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN is lively, fun, and thought-provoking, packed with interesting facts, and, as readers will discover, more moving than one could have any right to expect. With an ending --- a final destination and a final Average American --- that surprised even Kevin to no end, he found that sometimes average is not just okay; sometimes it's amazing.

And yes, there IS an Average American! He or she will be revealed both in the book and on Martha Stewart's morning show on Monday, October 24th.

-Take a quiz to see if YOU are the Average American and send an e-card to your friends to see if they are Average as well.
-Click here to read an excerpt from THE AVERAGE AMERICAN.
-Click here to read a note from the author.
-Click here to visit the official THE AVERAGE AMERICAN website.

Check It Out --- ReadingGroupGuides.com has Launched a Community Message Board

We have launched a message board on ReadingGroupGuides.com where book club members can post messages for other book club members.

-Looking for new members for your group? Then post a listing.
-Looking for a new group to join? Post a listing.
-Tell us what your group is reading.
-Share how you choose books
-Give us your tips for leading a discussion
-Share your book club story
-Tell us some fun and interesting ideas for book clubs
-Post recipes and serving ideas

Please Note: To post on the ReadingGroupGuides.com Message Board you will be asked to register a username and password. Simply follow the directions in the registration window that pops up the first time you post. After that you will be able to create new discussion topics and reply to others' discussions whenever you are logged in.

This Week's Reviews and Features

SCHOOL DAYS by Robert B. Parker (Mystery)
Reviewed by Tom Callahan
In Robert B. Parker's 33rd Spenser novel, a wealthy lady hires the Boston PI to investigate her grandson's alleged involvement in a school shooting. Although it appears to be an open-and-shut case, the grandmother is convinced of his innocence, while the young man himself doesn't seem to care if he goes to prison for a crime he might not have committed.

THE AMBLER WARNING by Robert Ludlum (Thriller)
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
With the help of a sympathetic nurse, former Consular Operations agent Hal Ambler manages to escape the clandestine psychiatric facility where he's been residing as a patient. His immediate goal is to determine who caused him to be hospitalized, and why. But he faces an identity crisis of epic proportions, as the world he returns to isn't the one he remembers.

ANGELS IN THE GLOOM by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
The third entry in Anne Perry's World War I series (NO GRAVES AS YET, SHOULDER THE SKY) continues the saga of the Reavley family, more specifically the Reavley siblings --- Joseph, Matthew, Judith and Hannah --- all of whom are involved in primary or secondary roles in the British military effort during the early days of the war.

VERONICA by Mary Gaitskill (Fiction)
Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
In her latest novel Mary Gaitskill, author of BAD BEHAVIOR and TWO GIRLS, FAT AND THIN, explores the gritty places in 1980s culture and finds, beneath the glamour, loneliness and sickness as well as the hope of salvation.

THE GRACE THAT KEEPS THIS WORLD by Tom Bailey (Fiction)
Reviewed by Jane Van Ingen
Tom Bailey has written a unique and engrossing first novel, infused with a deep sense of foreboding. Alternately narrated by members of the Hazen family (whose patriarch is a respected forester and hunter) and their neighbors in Lost Lake, this story perfectly captures the enduring rhythms of life in a rural town.

MARLEY & ME: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan (Memoir)
Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon
When John and Jenny Grogan decide to test their nurturing instincts before starting a family, they bring home a Labrador retriever pup. What they get is Marley, a whirling dervish of a dog who destroys their house, flunks out of obedience school --- and ultimately steals their hearts.

CREATING MAGIC IN MIDLIFE: 101 Questions and Answers to Reinvent Your Work, Relationships and Life! by Karla Freeman, MSW, LCSW (Self Help/Psychology)
Reviewed by Elinor Nuxoll
Written with a fresh and personal voice, this book gives Baby Boomers options, compassion, and concrete help. 101 questions and answers on vital areas including work, relationships, money, passion, health and well-being make this an essential guide to understanding and empowering men and women

Bookreporter.com Blog

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This week we have some great prizes: FIVE readers each will win a copy of THE CAMEL CLUB by David Baldacci and ORDINARY HEROES by Scott Turow.

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