March 7, 2014

When I was in Seattle a couple of months ago, I drank a fabulous cucumber soda made by DRY Soda, which prides itself on being a less sweet soda with just four all-natural ingredients and a minimal amount of pure cane sugar. I called Wegmans, a store near me that is supposed to stock it (they said they did not have it) --- and even drove out there last weekend to look for it in the artisanal soda area (I picked up a grapefruit soda from another manufacturer instead). Back home I looked up a recipe for how to make it and thus made simple syrup with agave and grated cucumbers that I steeped before putting a few tablespoons of that mixture into a glass of seltzer. It tasted fine, but was still too sweet.

After noting my quest for the cucumber DRY Soda on my Facebook page, Karen, one of our former producers, told me that the store I had gone to DID carry it, albeit in the natural foods section. This is so annoying, but despite the bad customer service both on the phone and in the store, off I will trek back to Wegmans this weekend to pick it up. By the way, I had tried to order it directly from DRY, but they are not shipping to this part of the country right now as it’s too cold! This wicked winter has derailed so many plans.

Luckily, reading is not weather-sensitive. It just causes sleep deprivation. In the midst of a hideously busy week of meetings, I escaped in early mornings and late evenings with DESPERATE by Daniel Palmer, which will be in stores on April 29th. In it, Gage Dekker has met his wife Anna at a grief counseling group. They both had suffered the loss of a child; Gage also lost his wife. They marry and want to become parents again. After a miscarriage derails their plan, they are embarking on the adoption process when they meet Lily, a young woman who is pregnant and homeless. They bring her into their lives with a plan that her child will be adopted by them. From the start, Gage has misgivings about Lily as first small things and then larger ones start to upset the balance of their lives. Anna is blind to what is going on with Lily and what Gage sees. Daniel has a way of taking everyday people and life, and putting them in extraordinary circumstances, much the same as Linwood Barclay and Gregg Hurwitz. Oh, and I did not see the end coming. Make a note of this one!

I do not read audiobooks, mainly because I am a better visual learner than an auditory one, but I enjoyed SHOTGUN LOVESONGS so much when I read it last year in an early manuscript that I decided to give the audiobook a whirl during my drive to and from the city. I figured it would be a nice way to not only experience the audio, but also refresh my memory about the details of this wonderful book, which is coming out this upcoming Tuesday. It’s a GREAT listen with a multiple cast of narrators who are doing great justice to Nickolas Butler’s beautiful prose. Hearing his phrasing being spoken reminded me why I loved this book so much. We’re making it a bonus Word of Mouth prize so you too could experience it with your own ears. We’ll be posting our review of the book and an interview with Nickolas next week. And I will share my Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary in the weeks to come; it’s one of those books that I can remember exactly where I was sitting (a condo in Crested Butte, Colorado) when I read it.

Daylight Saving Time creeps in this weekend, stealing an hour from our Sunday but bringing back light in the early evening. I greet this with mixed emotions. After this winter, I will take any harbinger of spring, which the time change signals. But I already am lamenting the lost hour!

With one less hour for people to discover our site this weekend, we wanted to alert you to our new “Share Bar,” which appears on the lefthand side of every page on the site. This allows you to easily share our reviews and features with friends, family and fellow readers. For those of you on Goodreads, the icon to share books there will appear on any page where a book appears, though you will not see this on the homepage. So share, share away. You are our best ambassadors for bringing new readers to the site. This newsletter now goes out to 24,500 people. May we also ask that you forward it to a friend? It’s very easy to do via the link found on the top right of this newsletter if you are reading it from email received in your mailbox. With your help, we know our audience can grow even bigger, so thank you in advance for passing us along! One more note on this. For Facebook, we are working on managing the art associated with each feature/article/interview, etc. It needs a bunch of tech tweaks since what happens changes with each content type, but know that we are on this!

We have 16 reviews to share with you this week, three of which I am especially excited to see in stores as I read them over the holiday break. First up is GEMINI, which I think is Carol Cassella’s best book to date (which is saying a lot considering how much I loved her first two books, OXYGEN and HEALER). Carol once again brings her medical experience to the page (she is a practicing anesthesiologist) in this story about Dr. Charlotte Reese’s growing involvement with a mysterious patient --- the unidentifiable victim of a hit-and-run. When Charlotte’s search for answers reveals links between herself and her patient, the repercussions will forever change her life. Eileen Zimmerman Nicol has our review and says, "It would be a shame to reveal too much of the intriguing plot of this fine novel. I think the alternating-points-of-view-chapters device has been overdone in some recent works of fiction, but Cassella gets it right. We read along, anticipating the solution of juicy mysteries and dilemmas, suspecting from the tone that not everyone can live happily ever after." We also have an in-depth Q&A with Carol, and we just posted a guide for the book on ReadingGroupGuides.com. It will be a Bets On selection next week.

Next is ABOVE, Isla Morley’s second novel that is drawing favorable comparisons to ROOM and THE LOVELY BONES. In it, 16-year-old Blythe Hallowell is abducted and locked away in an abandoned missile silo by a survivalist who believes he is saving her from the impending destruction of the world. Blythe focuses on finding a way to escape until she discovers that she also has to deal with crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of her captor, and the persistent temptation to give up. Nothing, however, prepares her for the burden of having to raise a child in confinement. Reviewer Amy Gwiazdowski says, “Isla Morley delivers a book that will drive you through every possible emotion before you get to the end --- and once you get there, your heart will be sore from the beating.”

We’re running a contest right now that will give 50 readers the opportunity to win a copy of ABOVE. To enter, please fill out this form by Tuesday, March 25th at noon ET.

Alice LaPlante, whose debut novel TURN OF MIND I was crazy about when it released in 2011, is back with her second psychological thriller, A CIRCLE OF WIVES --- and it’s another winner. When Dr. John Taylor is found dead, the police find enough incriminating evidence to suspect foul play. Detective Samantha Adams is innocently thrown into this high-profile murder case, which is more intricately intertwined than she ever could imagine. It turns out that Dr. Taylor was married to three very different women in three separate cities. And when these three unsuspecting ladies show up at his funeral, suspicions run high. Norah Piehl has our review and calls the book "a scandalous and spellbinding story of marital deception, revenge and murder." This, too, will be a Bets On selection.

We’re also reviewing THE PERFECT SCORE PROJECT: One Mom's Quest to Ace the SAT, which is all about Debbie Stier’s mission to determine the best way to prepare for the SAT and ace it. As part of her quest, Debbie took the SAT seven times, sampled test-prep methods, and bonded with her teenage son, who was also studying for the test. Reviewer Barbara Bamberger Scott calls the book “upbeat, amusing and highly informative” and asserts, “What Stier discovered in her test year about preparing for the SAT can be of great benefit to any teen, or parent of a teen, heading to college.” I have known Debbie since the days when she worked in publishing and love her spunk and energy. I still shudder at memories of taking the SAT back in high school --- and never would have sat at a desk again to re-experience this test. I had sympathy for both of my boys when they took it. But seeing the test through Debbie’s eyes gives it a new perspective. Just this week, the College Board, which administers the SAT, announced significant changes to the test for 2016. Gone will be the trick questions! I read that and thought, “Hey Debbie, there’s your next book!”

Our Women’s Fiction Author Spotlight contest for YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN by Jean Hanff Korelitz, a book that I am just crazy about, continues for another week. Grace Reinhart Sachs is the author of You Should Have Known, a book that cautions women to really hear what men are trying to tell them. But weeks before the book is published, her own life starts to crumble amidst an ongoing chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and herself. We have 35 advance copies of the book to give away to readers who would like to read and comment on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, March 13th at noon ET. I have raved about this book before, so it should come as no surprise that it will be a Bets On selection when it releases on March 18th.

We’re also continuing our special contest for WHERE EARTH MEETS WATER by debut novelist Pia Padukone. Karom Seth should have been in the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11, and on the Indian shores in 2004, when the tsunami swept his entire family into the ocean. His absence from these disasters has left him with crushing guilt --- and a belief that fate has singled him out for invincibility. Will he ever be able to achieve the clarity he’s been looking for all these years? The book doesn’t release until April 29th, but we’re giving 25 readers the opportunity to win an advance copy and submit their comments on it. All you have to do is fill out this form by Thursday, March 13th at noon ET.

I’d also like to call attention to our contest for WAKING THE DEAD by bestselling author Heather Graham. Wherever the Ghosts in the Mind painting goes, death seems to follow. The people in the portrait might be dead, but something seems to wake them and free them to commit bloody crimes. Cafferty and Quinn must discover what that is, and will have to destroy it before it destroys them. We have 10 copies of the book, which releases on March 25th, to give away. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, March 27th at noon ET.

This week, in our Spring Preview feature, we gave away THE COTTAGE ON JUNIPER RIDGE by Sheila Roberts, FAR GONE by Laura Griffin, A HUNDRED SUMMERS by Beatriz Williams, and LOVERS AT THE CHAMELEON CLUB, PARIS 1932 by Francine Prose. Next week, we’ll be awarding copies of THE COLD SONG by Linn Ullmann, THE FORGOTTEN SEAMSTRESS by Liz Trenow, THE OTHER TYPIST by Suzanne Rindell and THE RENTAL SISTER by Jeff Backhaus. If you’d like to be notified when each of these 24-hour contests go live, all you have to do is sign up for our Spring Preview newsletter. Please note: If you signed up for the Spring Preview newsletter in the previous years we’ve done these contests, you don’t need to do so again…you already are signed up!

We’ve updated our New in Paperback roundups for March. Among this month’s releases are FLY AWAY by Kristin Hannah, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, SONGS OF WILLOW FROST by Jamie Ford, ORDINARY GRACE by William Kent Krueger, and UNTIL I SAY GOODBYE: My Year of Living with Joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel with Bret Witter (which includes a powerful new afterword from Susan).

Z and ORDINARY GRACE were selected as Bets On titles when they published in hardcover, and they both are wonderful books that I heartily recommend to friends! Krueger’s is a stand-alone, not part of his Cork O’Connor series, and it is one beautiful book. I just learned on Kent’s website that he is “working on a manuscript I’m calling This Tender Land. Like Ordinary Grace it’s set in southern Minnesota, and in an earlier time, in this case, the late 1950s. There’s murder and mystery in it; in my books, there’s always murder and mystery. But like Ordinary Grace, it’s a story about so much more.” Something to look forward to!

This week, I added UNTIL I SAY GOODBYE to my Bets On list. I read this book in hardcover a year ago, and I do not think a day has gone by that I have not thought about it. Susan’s journey to find joy in all parts of life during her ALS journey has been so inspiring. I follow her Until I Say Goodbye page on Facebook, and she has me seeing the little things in life in a whole new way. Her mom passed away last week from pancreatic cancer, and Susan wrote a very moving tribute to her in the Palm Beach Post. Susan’s writing of both that piece and the afterword to the book is all the more noteworthy as she wrote it with a device called HeadMouse, which enables her to type via a reflective dot on her nose as she has lost other muscle control. This woman does not understand the word can’t when it comes to sharing her thoughts with us. I really salute her.

We’ve also updated our Books on Screen feature. March’s theatrical releases include Enemy (March 14th, based on THE DOUBLE by Jose Saramago) and Divergent (March 21st, based on the bestselling YA novel by Veronica Roth). Also, don’t miss the series premiere of “Resurrection,” a small-screen adaptation of Jason Mott’s THE RETURNED, this Sunday the 9th on ABC. And among this month’s DVD releases are the Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave, along with The Wolf of Wall Street, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Book Thief.

For our latest poll, we have listed a number of fiction titles releasing this month and are curious which ones (if any) you’re planning to read. Click here to let us know!

In our previous poll, we wanted to know which sites in The Book Report Network that Bookreporter.com readers visit. ReadingGroupGuides.com was the most visited site (55%), followed by FaithfulReader.com (19%), Teenreads.com (13%) and 20SomethingReads.com (12%). Good info for us to know! Click here for all the results. Many thanks to all who voted!

We have a new Word of Mouth contest up right now. Let us know what books you’re reading, and you’ll be in the running to win FOUR books: MISSING YOU by Harlan Coben, RAISING STEAM: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett, THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD by Laura McHugh, and the aforementioned audiobook version of SHOTGUN LOVESONGS by Nickolas Butler.

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has selected their "Indies Introduce Debut Authors" spring 2014 titles, and we’re happy to be sharing their adult picks with you. All of the books were selected by booksellers and written by first-time authors. Among them are the aforementioned (again) SHOTGUN LOVESONGS, along with a few books we’ve recently reviewed, including PIGS CAN’T SWIM by Helen Peppe, THE UNAMERICANS by Molly Antopol and THE KEPT by James Scott. Click here to see all 10 of their choices and decide which ones you may want to add to your reading list.

Cory is coming home this weekend, and the next and the next. Spring Break for him and Son 2A and Son 2B falls over three consecutive weeks, thus meaning there’s no fabulous trip for all of them together. I miss Spring Break, but this year I am toooooo busy to get away. Instead there will be this weekend of catching up, and then he’s home for a week and two weekends over his actual break...unless he has some plan cooked up that I do not know about.

I finally got to the woodpile last week and tossed enough logs to my husband to build three-four fires. I will toss some more wood this weekend in between turning some pages. Also, I will be catching up on the last two weeks of "True Detective" on HBO. Someone said something interesting when Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar last week. For years he posed in his roles trading on his looks, but now in Dallas Buyers Club and "True Detectives," we are seeing the acting talent that has matured.

Here’s wishing you a great week. Read on and read faster with one hour less.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

Carol Cassella is a practicing anesthesiologist and the bestselling author of OXYGEN and HEALER. Her latest novel, GEMINI, is about ICU doctor Charlotte Reese, who finds her morals challenged when an unconscious Jane Doe is placed in her care. Charlotte’s search for the identity of the woman reveals links between herself and her patient, and the repercussions will forever change her life. In this interview, Cassella shares how her experience as a medical professional informs her writing, why the best part of medicine is the mystery, and some of the moral and ethical issues doctors face every day. She also outlines in generous detail her ideal writing life (versus the reality!) and explains why she hopes her own books will resonate with readers for longer than the time it takes to read them.

GEMINI by Carol Cassella (Mystery)
When an unidentified Jane Doe, the victim of a hit-and-run, arrives in Dr. Charlotte Reese’s intensive care unit, she brings with her mysteries --- both medical and personal. As Charlotte cares for Jane, she becomes increasingly caught up in the questions of her patient’s identity and what led to her accident. When Charlotte’s search for answers reveals links between Charlotte and her patient, the repercussions will forever change her life and her understanding of what love can make possible. Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol.

-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.
-Click here for the reading group guide.

Isla Morley is the author of the award-winning novel COME SUNDAY. Her latest book, ABOVE, is the haunting story of teenager Blythe Hallowell, who is abducted and locked away in an abandoned missile silo. Blythe has to deal with crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of her captor, and the persistent temptation to give up. Nothing, however, prepares her for the burden of having to raise a child in confinement. In this interview, Morley talks about her decision to add the challenge of raising a child in captivity to Blythe’s already harrowing situation, taking scenes out of her book that she felt were too disturbing, and why forgiveness is so important --- even in the face of the greatest wrong done. Post-apocalyptic fiction is all the rage these days, and she also offers up an explanation as to why readers seem to be so fascinated by it.

ABOVE by Isla Morley (Psychological Suspense/Dystopian)
Blythe Hallowell is 16 when she is abducted and locked away in a missile silo a few miles from her home and family. Wanting nothing more than to escape, Blythe will spend the next 17 years below looking for a way above and imagining what it will be like to go home again. When she finally does get above, the world she left is not the one in which she remerges. Reviewed by Amy Gwiazdowski.

-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.
-Click here to read an excerpt.
-Click here to enter our contest for a chance to win a copy of the book.

Our next prize book will be announced on Monday, March 10th at noon ET.

This year's featured titles include the following:

• THE COLD SONG by Linn Ullmann
• THE COTTAGE ON JUNIPER RIDGE: Life in Icicle Falls by Sheila Roberts
• FAR GONE by Laura Griffin
• THE FORGOTTEN SEAMSTRESS by Liz Trenow
• A HUNDRED SUMMERS by Beatriz Williams
• THE KRAKEN PROJECT by Douglas Preston
• LOVERS AT THE CHAMELEON CLUB, PARIS 1932 by Francine Prose
• THE OTHER TYPIST by Suzanne Rindell
• THE RENTAL SISTER by Jeff Backhaus
• THE SHELF: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading by Phyllis Rose
• THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS by Elizabeth Gilbert
• THE SNOW QUEEN by Michael Cunningham
• TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS by Jessica Soffer
• WHIRLWIND by Rick Mofina