September 9, 2011

Vacations in the years before hurricanes booked themselves to arrive the same week as me (last year it was Earl; this year it was Irene) were so simple. I would pack, drive and enjoy. But where is the excitement and drama in that? Instead, Hurricane Irene meant:

1) Don’t pack since you have no idea where we are going. Instead, tune into the Weather Channel and watch people who get paid to stand in waves and get knocked over by wind. Chart whether the storm will hit --- or not --- with minute-by-minute projections. Alternate this with reading updates on StormPulse.com.

2) Once the storm hit and then passed on Sunday, I foolishly thought, “Whew, we are so lucky we did not lose power.” And then we did.

In our case, this happened when a tree down the block started to topple, but did not fall. It was not on a power line, but nearby. So the power company hired someone to take the tree down “before it did damage.” And suddenly, as the tree came down the wrong way at 11:20 (I know this since every clock in the house said 11:20 for days), it hit the power line. Thus we were in the same boat as “hundreds of thousands” of other folks we had been watching all morning on television in the club you did not want to belong to. The club with folks who no longer are watching projections of the storm on their televisions but rather are a storm statistic. The ones humming “Hello darkness, my old friend.”

3) As we had a vacation to the Outer Banks planned where tourists have been evacuated, I had to figure how to get my best intel on when we would be allowed back. The answer: Facebook, where I monitored amazing updates from our realtor, Village Realty, and the Duck’s Cottage Coffee & Bookshop (who proved that bookstores do a lot more in a community than just sell books), both of whom gave me coverage that was far better than the weathermen trying to stand in wind and water. The Weather Channel chases the storm, and by the time you are wondering about what happened down south, they are in Vermont catching new visuals. As my husband said, “They want the most dramatic photo ops.” Facebook pages like Jersey Shore Hurricane sprung up, and more than 20,000 people hit “like” on that page in two days. It was social networking at its best.

4) We lucked into tapping into a generator that a neighbor borrowed, and thus, besides the sump pumps getting plugged in, so did my laptop with my trusty Verizon air card. So we played a modern-age version of “pioneer people” with Internet along with the candles. I also remembered that most of what I own that needs to be charged can be charged from the car.

5) Sunday night I learned that the value of an iPad is being able to read when the lights are out, giving me a new appreciation of a fully charged eReader.

6) We learned we could enter the northern section of the Outer Banks by Tuesday at 10AM, which made me think of the people who get up at dawn for the after-Thanksgiving sales, which I never do. And I also learned there is no traffic at 2:30 AM on the NJ Turnpike!

7) When we were “too early” to get onto the island (they meant that 10AM deadline), I rousted Jeanne at Knitting Addiction to open the store a few minutes early so I can get my knitting addiction taken care of before we were allowed to heard north.

8) When our vacation in one spot is abbreviated, I just pick another. We perfected this technique last year, and thus on Saturday we headed again to a lovely resort in the VA mountains that we have dubbed “Our Hurricane Evacuation Hotel” when we needed to leave our beach house rental. But while we were there, Hurricane Lee’s rains come in, making me wonder about marketing arks as vacation vehicles.

9) Along the way to VA, we stopped in Charlottesville for more yarn shopping at The Needle Lady, because I was able to convince everyone it’s “on the way.”

10) Power at our house at home stayed out for SIX days, which meant once I got home I got to explore the depths of the refrigerator with a couple of large garbage bags. Note that this is a great opportunity to purge the fridge of the fajita marinade that’s been there for years, the salad dressings that have been sampled, but never finished, and the endless other delights that have taken cover and not been inspected, since, when the refrigerator is cold, you do not spend a whole lot of time exploring it.

But through it all, I read. I confess the first days I was not on the book-a-day vacation pace that I like. For more about what I read….all six books…click here. There were some real gems!

By the way, my husband enjoyed the hand-selected book choices I made for him --- LOST IN SHANGRI-LA: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff, THE ACCIDENT by Linwood Barclay (that he stayed up til 3AM finishing one night; thank you Linwood!), and he was up reading IRON HOUSE by John Hart til 2:30 the other night; thank you John!). Since he also played 36 holes of golf most days til the rain came in, not a bad reading lineup.

My younger son and his friend, Josh, AKA Son 2A, were on the trip with us charged with finishing up their summer reading --- OUTLIERS: The Story of Success and THE FOUNTAINHEAD were still on the agenda for both of them. It kills me as these two are great readers, but EVERY summer since they have been in high school, they read less and less as they are daunted by the concept of taking NOTES with summer reading. The three books that Cory did not need to expound upon with pages of notes he flew through. The others were fixtures on this trip. I wish I had a picture of them both poolside with THE FOUNTAINHEAD. And yes, I was the nag asking again and again, "What page are you on?" ONE more summer of this!

Thanks to all of you who wrote with congratulations on the 15th anniversary and with comments on Greg’s blog. There were numerous requests for my Olive Tapenade recipe. It’s actually adapted from a recipe in THE NEW BASICS COOKBOOK by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, which is one of my favorite go-to cookbooks. Easy! ¾ c of pitted kalamata olives, 2 cloves of garlic, ¼ c Italian olive oil and 1 Tbsp of parsley. Combine in a food processor; combine til smooth. Keeps 2-3 days in the fridge. Voila!

On our way out of town on the Outer Banks the other day, we stopped by the aforementioned Duck’s Cottage for coffee, hot chocolate and a copy of ONE DAY. While the movie did not get raves, the book had piqued my interest. I also wanted to support the store, which had lost a ton of business due to the storm. While there, I saw Jamie Layton, who is one of the managers. Throughout the store, she had the signs that you can see above that talk about what a storm like Irene means to a small business. They were so poignant, I wanted to share them with you.

I came back this week and went to an event for a book edited by Wade Rouse called I’M NOT THE BIGGEST BITCH IN THIS RELATIONSHIP: Hilarious, Heartwarming Tales About Man's Best Friend from America’s Favorite Humorists, which was held at Trixie + Peanut, a pet accessory store that had divine pooch accessories. Jane Green and other contributors were there. Please note that Wade is donating 50% of his royalties from sales of this book to the Humane Society of the United States (he just upped his contribution from the 10% shown on the back of the book). If you love dogs, or have friends who love dogs, this is a wonderful collection of humorous stories about them. I read Wade’s piece as soon as I got home, and he did not disappoint. It was classic Wade Rouse humor. You can see a photo of the two of us above.

This week we have our interview with William Kent Krueger about NORTHWEST ANGLE, the 11th book in his Cork O’Connor series. NORTHWEST ANGLE was our latest Mystery Mayhem Author Spotlight, and Kent is a writer I’ve been following for a long time. It’s been great seeing his readership expand beyond his native Minnesota with each book. Reviewer Joe Hartlaub says, “For those who have yet to sample Krueger’s literary wares, NORTHWEST ANGLE is the place to start. ” Joe also interviewed Kent, which you can read here. I look forward to seeing Kent next week in St. Louis as I attend Bouchercon, the annual mystery convention. And I just learned that NORTHWEST ANGLE came in on the New York Times list at number 18!

We also have our interview with Vanessa Diffenbaugh, whose debut novel THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS was our latest One to Watch Author Spotlight --- and we just learned it will debut on the New York Times list at number 13! Vanessa’s passion is not only for flowers, but also for the rights and plight of young people in the foster care system and those who age out of it. Read this interview for some very interesting information about that, along with her story on why she wrote the story she did.

Patricia Bosworth’s JANE FONDA: The Private Life of a Public Woman is a page-turner of a biography of an American screen icon. While I knew pieces of her life, I never pulled them all together. Bosworth looks at what makes Jane tick with a sharp eye and writes page-turning prose. Our reviewer Jana Siciliano says, "For a compelling read about a truly modern woman, a complicated public figure and a trendsetter like no other, this is a book that you won’t be able to put down."

A few weeks ago, I shared my thoughts on DAMAGE CONTROL by Denise Hamilton; I loved it. Now Sarah Rachel Egelman weighs in and says, “DAMAGE CONTROL is a fun and fast-paced thriller, a taut and twisty tale of betrayal and loyalty, friendship and lust for power."

A SECRET KEPT by Tatiana de Rosnay is the latest title to be featured in our Paperback Spotlight. We featured this one in our One to Watch Author Spotlight upon its release last September, and thus are pleased to share information about the paperback release. Many of you probably know Tatiana from her bestselling title SARAH’S KEY, which has been a book group staple since its U.S. debut. A SECRET KEPT follows a brother and sister on a family retreat that comes apart when one sibling reveals a grave secret that leads to a car crash and an agonizing aftermath. Those of you in book clubs will want to stay tuned on ReadingGroupGuides.com for a special announcement about this one coming very soon!

I returned from vacation and finally had time to write up my latest Bets On pick, RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles, which I finished before I left. It’s about a 25-year-old secretary on Wall Street whose sharp wit and intelligence carry her up New York City’s social and professional ladders during the twilight of the Jazz Age in 1938. You can read more about why I loved it here. It’s a book I can see myself wanting to re-read at some point, and I do not say that about many books.

Visitors to the Bookreporter.com website will notice ads for SAINT’S GATE by Carla Neggers, UNSAID by Neil Abramson and DRY AS RAIN by Gina Holmes. Please explore these books either through the links provided here in the newsletter or via the ads on the site to learn more. We appreciate the support of our advertisers.

Two other big books to have on your radar that came out this week --- THE ART OF FIELDING by Chuck Harbach and THE TAKER by Alma Katsu. I read both and loved them. We will have more about them in the weeks to come.

Lots happening this first week back, like the first week of school! To those of you who have been affected by the horrific weather across the country --- hurricanes, wildfires, and rampant flooding and rain --- our thoughts are with you for a quick recovery. By the way, for Christmas I already know what I want --- a natural gas generator hard-wired to the house!

Happy reading…and don’t forget to share Bookreporter.com with your family and friends.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

William Kent Krueger’s bestselling series featuring detective Cork O’Connor has earned him not only various accolades, but also loyal readers who soak up his surprise endings and bold characters. The 12th and latest installment, NORTHWEST ANGLE, sees Cork’s family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, leading Cork to solve the murder of a young girl. Bookreporter.com’s Joe Hartlaub spoke with Krueger about the unique location for the novel, the evolution and aging of his characters, and his career trajectory and fool-proof creative process. He also reveals the primary reason for his current success, and thanks the librarian who turned him on to books and authors like THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and H.G Wells when he was just an adventure-seeking boy.

NORTHWEST ANGLE by William Kent Krueger (Mystery)
During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding detective Cork O’Connor and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl, along with a baby boy, who is very much alive. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

-Click here to read a review.
-Click here to read an excerpt.
-Click here to read critical praise.
-Click here to read William Kent Krueger’s bio.
-Visit William Kent Krueger’s official website, www.WilliamKentKrueger.com.
-Click here to see the 20 winners selected to read and comment on the book.
-Click here to read more in our Mystery Mayhem feature.

THE LEFTOVERS by Tom Perrotta (Fiction)
In his sixth novel (following THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER), Tom Perrotta returns to the familiar suburban territory he’s visited in novels like LITTLE CHILDREN with a thoughtful look at what the world might feel like to ordinary people left behind after a Rapture-like event. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.


 

Patricia Bosworth has written several impressive biographies of public figures like Marlon Brando, Diane Arbus, Montgomery Clift, and now Jane Fonda. This latest book, JANE FONDA: The Private Life of a Public Woman, delves deep into Jane’s past, revealing the seeds of both her inner turmoil and very public triumphs. In this interview, Bosworth discusses her relationship with the actress, and how the Jane she first met in 1961 differs from the Jane the world now knows. She also describes the themes and revelations present in her book, all of which shed light on Jane’s many transformations and the reasons why she has kept the world so enraptured after so many years.

JANE FONDA: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth (Biography)
In her compelling new book, renowned biographer Patricia Bosworth profiles one of America's most controversial celebrities. She brings readers into Jane Fonda's life: her family drama, her film career, her activism during the Vietnam War, the exercise videos that began a fitness craze, and much more. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.

-Click here to read a review.
-Click here to read an excerpt.

SECOND NATURE: A Love Story by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Psychological Suspense)
Sicily Coyne's face was destroyed by the same fire that killed her firefighter father when she was just 13. At age 25, she's given the opportunity to regain her beauty, but her decision will inevitably lead her to a fork in her future with unimaginable consequences either way. Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon.

-Click here to read an excerpt.

DAMAGE CONTROL by Denise Hamilton (Psychological Thriller)
Maggie Silver is solidly middle class, with a mortgage to pay and an ill mother to support. She is doing her best to scramble up the ladder at an elite PR firm in Southern California as she tackles her toughest client yet: Senator Henry Paxton, whose daughter is her estranged friend. As Maggie gets further embroiled in the lives of the Paxtons, she realizes that the ties of her old friendship are stronger than she thinks. Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.
 

A SECRET KEPT by Tatiana de Rosnay (Fiction)
Antoine Rey thought he had the perfect surprise for his sister Mélanie's birthday: a weekend by the sea at Noirmoutier Island, where the pair spent many happy childhood summers playing on the beach. It had been too long, Antoine thought, since they'd returned to the island --- over 30 years, since their mother died and the family holidays ceased. But the island's haunting beauty triggers more than happy memories; it reminds Mélanie of something unexpected and deeply disturbing about their last island summer. When, on the drive home to Paris, she finally summons the courage to reveal what she knows to Antoine, her emotions overcome her and she loses control of the car.

-Click here to read a review.
-Click here to read an excerpt.
-Click here to see the reading group guide.
-Click here to read critical praise.
-Click here to read an interview.
-Click here to read Tatiana de Rosnay’s bio.
 

RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles (Historical Fiction)
RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles is a smart escapist novel. It’s beautifully written, with great visual prose that will have you dropped right into 1938. It opens in a jazz bar on New Year’s Eve when Katey Kontent and her friend Eve meet Tinker Grey, a bon vivant banker. The book looks at what happens to these characters over the next year, as Katey drops into a world of wealth and status, including a job at Conde Nast (which the ex-magazine girl in me loved reading about). But what looks so rich and so shiny has an underside that is not what it seems. And Katey, who is quite plucky, navigates her way through this year becoming wiser and wiser.

If you enjoyed THE GREAT GATSBY or THE PARIS WIFE, RULES OF CIVILITY has that same kind of rich descriptive writing and “go-go” spirit that makes you feel like you are at the party. Heads up that there are LOTS of cocktails mentioned in the book, especially ones with gin in them. I am not much of a drinker, but found myself craving a gin and tonic as I read! This is the first book in a while that I can see myself wanting to re-read again at a later date. I enjoyed it that much.

-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read an excerpt.

These early days of fall will be full of action, drama, a dash of golf, and an expected source of temptation. That last bit comes into play in I Don’t Know How She Does It, based on the bestseller by Allison Pearson. With two kids, a husband and a job with a Boston-based financial management firm, every day is a non-stop balancing act for Kate (played by Sarah Jessica Parker). Complicating matters even more is her charming new business associate. Oh dear!

Another film with a female lead is What’s Your Number?, which is sure to generate buzz, as well as discourse about you-know-what. In this tale based on Karyn Bosnak’s 20 TIMES A LADY, a woman, having hit her sexual limit at 20 men, decides to track down the other 19 guys in hopes that she's overlooked one who could be "the one."

If you’re looking for some speedy action, be sure to catch Drive --- based on James Sallis’s novel --- which portrays a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman. Straw Dogs is wrought with even more tension, when a married couple returns to the wife’s hometown in the deep South, leading to a violent confrontation with her ex-boyfriend. And in Killer Elite --- adapted from the book THE FEATHER MEN by Ranulph Fiennes --- an ex-special ops agent is lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor, completing a near-impossible mission of killing in the process.

For that aforementioned dash of golf, there’s Seven Days in Utopia, lifted from GOLF’S SACRED JOURNEY by David L. Cook. Here, Luke Chisolm is a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour. But when his first big shot turns out to be a public disaster, Luke escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself stranded in Utopia, Texas. Also in the realm of sports, Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, tells the story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Turning our attention to the small screen, "Rizzoli & Isles" continues its second season on TNT. And four films available on DVD are ready to spend the night with you at home: Everything Must Go, Good Neighbors, The Tempest and Thor.

Our ReadingGroupGuides.com Blog continues to be a big hit among our readers. Throughout the month, we are sharing postings from regular contributors --- including authors, librarians, book club facilitators, booksellers and experts in the publishing industry --- as well as special guests. The latest blog can be found here, and here are quick links to some recent posts:

-Patti Callahan Henry: COMING UP FOR AIR
-Helen Schulman: THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE
-Emily Chenoweth: HELLO, GOODBYE
-Gail Caldwell: LET'S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME
-Matthew Norman: DOMESTIC VIOLETS
-Joyce Maynard: THE GOOD DAUGHTERS

For those of you who use RSS feeds to keep track of your favorite blogs, you can now add the ReadingGroupGuides.com Blog to your list by clicking this link. Also, receive updates by email here. The blog is also shared on the ReadingGroupGuides.com Facebook page.

The following guides are now available on ReadingGroupGuides.com:

-CALL ME IRRESISTIBLE by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
-THE EMPEROR OF LIES by Steve Sem-Sandberg
-FALLING FOR ME: How I Hung Curtains, Learned to Cook, Traveled to Seville, and Fell in Love by Anna David
-THE FIRST LOVE COOKIE CLUB: Twilight, Texas, Book 3 by Lori Wilde
-IRMA VOTH by Miriam Toews
-THE LEGACY by Katherine Webb
-LITTLE BLACK DRESS by Susan McBride
-MAN IN THE WOODS by Scott Spencer
-SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray
-THAT USED TO BE US: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum
-TRAIN DREAMS: A Novella by Denis Johnson
-YOU AGAINST ME by Jenny Downham

Please note that these titles, for which we already had the guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:

-BY NIGHTFALL by Michael Cunningham
-C by Tom McCarthy
-CLEOPATRA: A Life by Stacy Schiff
-FALL OF GIANTS: Book One of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett
-THE FALSE FRIEND by Myla Goldberg
-THE ORACLE OF STAMBOUL by Michael David Lukas
-A SECRET KEPT by Tatiana de Rosnay
-SNAKEWOMAN OF LITTLE EGYPT by Robert Hellenga

The following new guides are now available for Christian book groups:

-THE PROTECTOR: Families of Honor, Book Two by Shelley Shepard Gray
-THE SURVIVOR: Families of Honor, Book Three by Shelley Shepard Gray

KILL ME IF YOU CAN by James Patterson and Marshall Karp (Thriller)
Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend fill his thoughts --- until he realizes that he’s being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge. Trailing him is the Ghost, the world's greatest assassin. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny (Mystery)
“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.” But now Lillian herself is dead. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village. There, he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Reviewed by Roz Shea.

THE BURNING SOUL: A Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly (Thriller)
Randall Haight has a secret: He is a convicted murderer, a man with the blood of a young girl on his hands. He has built a new life for himself in the small Maine town of Pastor’s Bay, but someone has discovered the truth about him. In a town built on blood and shadowed by old ghosts, one detective must unravel a twisted history of violence and deceit involving the police and the FBI, a doomed mobster and his enemies, and Randall Haight himself. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

TRAIN DREAMS: A Novella by Denis Johnson (Fiction)
Denis Johnson’s TRAIN DREAMS, originally published in the Paris Review in 2002 and a PEN/O. Henry Prize winner, is the exquisitely told story of one man’s extraordinary, ordinary life, spanning a wide swath of the 20th century in the rugged forests of the Pacific Northwest. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

-Click here to see the reading group guide.

TRIPLE CROSSING by Sebastian Rotella (Thriller)
Valentine Pescatore, a volatile rookie Border Patrol agent, is trying to survive the trenches of The Line in San Diego. He gets in trouble and finds himself recruited as an informant by Isabel Puente, a beautiful U.S. agent investigating a powerful Mexican crime family. Politically charged violence escalates, plunging Pescatore into the lawless "triple border" region of South America and a showdown full of bloodshed and betrayal. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE GOOD MUSLIM by Tahmima Anam (Fiction)
In her compelling second novel (following A GOLDEN AGE), rising young Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam goes deep within the heart of a family torn between practical religion and ritualistic isolation by a brother and sister’s differing views on how best to live by the teachings of Islam. Reviewed by Pauline Finch.

THE GIRL WITH THE STURGEON TATTOO: A Parody by Lars Arffssen (Humor)
A reindeer strangler has struck again; the world’s leading authority on Baltic sturgeon has been filleted, and the head of Sweden’s only unpublished thriller writer has been discovered some meters from his body. Just a typical day in Stockholm’s crime log? Or are the murders the works of a single killer? Chief Inspector Svenjamin Bubbles has a suspect: Lizzy Salamander, Scandinavia’s most heavily tattooed girl-sociopath and hacker extraordinaire. Reviewed by Roz Shea.

BEAST OF BURDEN: A Cal Innes Novel by Ray Banks (Thriller)
In his career as Manchester’s most indestructible private eye, Callum Innes has been run over, beaten within an inch of his life, shot in the ear, left for dead on a desert roadside, and halfway blown up by a car bomb. Now, mourning his brother and walking with a cane following a massive drug-related stroke, Cal is a wreck. Enter the Manchester crime lord Morris Tiernan to make his life even worse. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

REQUIEM FOR A GYPSY: A Jana Matinova Investigation Set in Slovakia by Michael Genelin (Mystery)
When the wife of one of Slovakia's most prominent businessmen is killed in a very public assassination, it looks like the bullets were meant for her husband. But could the wife of Oto Bogan have actually been one of the primary targets? Both Bogan and his son have disappeared without a trace. Commander Jana Matinova was present when the shooting took place; she's being told to stay away from the case, but her Colonel knows that he needs his best investigator on the job. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

Tell us your current reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from September 9th - September 23rd, FIVE lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of THE AFFAIR: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child, THE KINGDOM OF CHILDHOOD by Rebecca Coleman, and LETHAL by Sandra Brown.