November 15, 2019

November 15, 2019

Quick Links to Features on Bookreporter.com

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Contests  |  Word of Mouth  |  Sounding Off on Audio
Coming Soon  |  New in Paperback  |  On Sale This Week  |  Books on Screen
  Book Festivals  |  Carol's Event Schedule  |  Read This Newsletter Online
"Bookreporter Talks To" Podcast  |  "Bookreporter Talks To" Videos

Carol moderated the latest Book Club Girl "Night Out" event this week. Above, you can see her with Susan Wiggs (author of THE OYSTERVILLE SEWING CIRCLE) on the left and Alena Dillon (author of MERCY HOUSE) on the far right, both of whom she interviewed that evening. Standing next to Carol is the "Book Club Girl" herself, Jennifer Hart. Click on the photo to watch their conversation.

    Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview and podcast is with Sheila Weller,
author of CARRIE FISHER: A Life on the Edge, which is now in stores.
Click on the photo above for the video and here for the podcast.

Carol talks about this week's Bookreporter update in her latest promo video.

Carol also talks about the contests and some of the books featured
in this month's ReadingGroupGuides update.

Nothing with Episodes

Last night, I moderated a really fun Book Club Girl "Night Out" event with Susan Wiggs, whose latest novel is THE OYSTERVILLE SEWING CIRCLE, and Alena Dillon, whose debut novel, MERCY HOUSE, will be in stores on February 11th. Both books deal with the subject of domestic violence in very thought-provoking ways. Susan and Alena were brilliant fun to chat with, and I enjoyed seeing so many of our readers there. I loved the opportunity to catch up with so many people. If you would like to see the conversation, you can watch it on the Book Club Girl Facebook page here. You can view this even if you are not on Facebook.

Paging our Carrie Fisher fans: My latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Sheila Weller, the author of CARRIE FISHER: A Life on the Edge, which was just published this week. You can listen to the podcast of this interview wherever you listen to podcasts, or here.

And to complete the troika of all things Carrie, we’re featuring a review of the book this week from Jesse Kornbluth (who was a friend of Carrie’s in the mid-’70s) that originally ran on his site, HeadButler.com. Here’s a preview: “Weller casts Carrie in heroic terms, and she has a point. Her openness about her bipolarity cut some of the stigma from the disease. And although she once told me that we were ‘too sensitive to live,’ she tried damn hard to stick around. And better, to make life brighter for others.” One more note: I love that Jesse mentions that Carrie wanted to take his screenwriting class!

This week, I had another round of media lunches where various publishers shared their upcoming titles for 2020. From hearing these authors talk, I am really jazzed about so many upcoming books, and I can see there will be lots of reading going on in these next few weeks so I can line up what we want to bring your way. At these lunches, we often talk about the books that we are reading, the ones that we want to read and the ones that we wish we had read. We all spend a lot of time “reading ahead” and lament the 2019 books that we “missed,” and wonder if we can “go back.” At one lunch, we were talking about what we are currently reading. I said, "The latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, WRECKING BALL." Everyone laughed. I said, "I have had one very crazy busy week, and I wanted complete levity before heading to sleep." Hey, I am gut honest!

Now to our update, where we have another big lineup...

First up: A quick reminder that if you are in a book club, our ReadingGroupGuides.com contest for you and your group to win up to 10 advance copies of AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins ends on Monday at noon ET. Click here for all the details.

Among this week’s other reviews are sequels to two worldwide bestsellers --- THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION, the long-awaited follow-up to the late Michael Crichton’s 1969 technothriller, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, written by Daniel H. Wilson; and FIND ME by André Aciman, which revisits the characters of Elio and Oliver decades after their first meeting in 2007’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME --- along with LITTLE WEIRDS, actress and stand-up comedian Jenny Slate’s quirky collection about love, heartbreak and being alive; FINAL OPTION, the 14th installment in Clive Cussler’s Oregon Files series (written with Boyd Morrison), in which Juan Cabrillo fights the worst enemy from his past; and IN THE DREAM HOUSE, Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir about domestic abuse.

You can see me talking about some of this week’s titles in our latest promo video here.

Our Holiday Cheer contests kicked off this week with our first two giveaways: THE PATH MADE CLEAR: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey and 5 Ingredients: Quick & Easy Food by Jamie Oliver. Next week’s prizes will be ROYAL HOLIDAY by Jasmine Guillory and THE TENANT by Katrine Engberg. The first contest of the week will go live on Wednesday, November 20th at noon ET.

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, many of you may be thinking about what to give your family and friends for the holidays. Simon & Schuster is here to help! Their “Books I Love to Give” gift guide has plenty of options for your bookish loved ones, with categories such as “Best in Fiction,” “Home, Heart, and Health,” “For the History Buff,” “Thrillers, Mysteries and Suspense” and many more. Click here to take a look at their varied selections.

On ReadingGroupGuides.com, we have another BIG contest for the audiobook edition of A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, which releases on February 4th and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. We’re giving 50(!) book groups the chance to win up to 12 advance digital copies of the audiobook, read by Adenrele Ojo. All of the contest details can be found here, and the deadline for your entries is Monday, December 2nd at noon ET. Click here for the discussion guide and here to listen to an audio excerpt.

Here’s more about the book: Professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son in Oak Knoll, a tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door --- an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter. With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Interested in finding out what else is happening over at ReadingGroupGuides.com this month? Then check out this video where I talk about the books that we are featuring!

For our latest poll, we've listed 25 titles releasing this month and next, and we’re asking you which, if any, you’re planning to read. Click here to let us know.

Our previous poll asked what social media platforms you use on a regular basis. Here are the results: Goodreads (67%), Facebook (62%), Instagram (33%), Pinterest (28%), YouTube (24%), and Twitter (22%). 11% don't use any of these platforms.

We also wanted to know what services you use to listen to podcasts. Here’s the breakdown: Apple Podcasts (19%), YouTube (11%), Google Podcasts (4%), Stitcher (3%), Spotify (3%), and Soundcloud (1%). While 63% of you don’t listen to podcasts, 17% would be interested in doing so. A great way to get started listening is to check out our podcasts here.

For those of you who do enjoy podcasts, we have another suggestion for you. Many of you may know Will Schwalbe as the author of THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB, which was a Bets On pick way back in 2012 when it first released. In this profoundly moving memoir, Will reflected on the countless hours he spent in waiting rooms with his mother, Mary Ann, during her cancer treatment. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Will now has a wonderful podcast, “But That’s Another Story”, where he talks to authors and notable guests about the books read at moments of their lives that have shaped their perspectives. Learn more about how to listen to "But That’s Another Story" here or listen now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We have a new Word of Mouth contest to tell you about. Submit your comments about the books you’ve read, and you’ll have the opportunity to win THE CONFESSION CLUB by Elizabeth Berg and A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: An Atlee Pine Thriller by David Baldacci, the latter of which we’ll review next week. The deadline for your submissions is Friday, December 6th at noon ET.

There’s still plenty of time to enter this month’s Sounding Off on Audio contest. Let us know by Monday, December 2nd at noon ET what audiobooks you’ve listened to, and you’ll be in the running to win the audio versions of Mary Higgins Clark’s KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM CRY, read by January LaVoy, and Martin Cruz Smith’s THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA: An Arkady Renko Novel, read by Jeremy Bobb (we’ll be featuring a review of the print edition of the latter in next week’s newsletter).

Annmarie Puleio, one of our longtime readers, attended Random House's Holiday House event last night. Chefs Bobby Flay and Michael Symon, inspirational guru Jordan Lee Dooley and many others were on hand to share their tips on how to prepare for the holiday season. Annmarie wrote a piece for us about this fun, festive event, which you can take a look at here.

Voting is currently underway for the 11th Annual Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book awards decided by readers. The second round of voting ends this Sunday, November 17th, and the final round will take place from November 19th through December 2nd. Click here to cast your votes. The winners will be announced on December 10th.

News & Pop Culture

Reader Mail:

Brenda wrote, “I love the newsletter! I also love when Carol talks about food she’s making. Could you please give the recipe for the chili and the bread mentioned in the latest newsletter? Thanks for this wonderful review of books and the podcast.” I will write up my adaptation of the chili recipe for next week. For the No-Knead Bread, it’s the famous New York Times recipe, which you can find here. Note: I make one change here. Instead of putting the third step down on a dishcloth, I use parchment paper, in which case it does not stick.

Margaret wrote, “I was thrilled to learn I had won a copy of BLUE MOON by Lee Child and THE DESERTER by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille in your Word of Mouth contest. Thanks so much.”

Lana won a copy of THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes and OLIVE, AGAIN by Elizabeth Strout in last month's Sounding Off on Audio contest. She said, “Thank you so much. I am so excited to receive both books. I drive about seven hours each weekend, so I will definitely be listening to each as soon as I receive them.”

"The Crown" Season 3: This kicks off Sunday on Netflix. Who else will be watching? 

The NEW Updated JOY OF COOKING: I am wildly excited about this latest version of one great “go-to” cookbook. I have a copy on the way and will be cooking from it and reporting back. I am going to explore it for Thanksgiving ideas! To learn some of what is new in this edition, take a look at this story from "CBS Sunday Morning."

"Echo in the Canyon": This is a terrific documentary on Netflix that “celebrates the explosion of popular music that came out of LA's Laurel Canyon in the mid-'60s as folk went electric and The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas and the Papas gave birth to the California Sound.”

American Son: I watched this on Netflix as well, starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale. In it, “an estranged couple reunite in a Florida police station to help find their missing teenage son.” I finally figured out that this is set up more like a play than a film vis-à-vis the stage-like setting. The message here is powerful, but I confess that I found Kerry’s performance to be so over-the-top intense that it was off-putting. I feel like the tension in her performance was on max speed the entire time, with little time for breaths. However, the last few minutes are so, so strong that they took my breath away, and I am not going to say any more lest I spoil it for you.

Quick housekeeping thing to be sure that our newsletters are making their way into your mailboxes during this busy holiday season. Sometimes, email spam filters can toss our newsletter into spam, especially when there is a lot of mail coming your way. To make sure we hit your inbox, here are some quick tips that I saw in another newsletter. Move us to your primary inbox if you use Gmail. Add us to your VIP list if you use Apple Mail. Add us to your favorites if you use Outlook. If you use an internet service provider like Cox or Roadrunner, and miss an email from us, call them and alert them that mail is not getting through. We have learned that both of those providers often keep legitimate emails like ours from hitting your box, and our email company has told us that since you pay for their services, it’s best if you complain!

I joke that my husband and I require very little to entertain us. Last weekend, we went to the new Trader Joe’s store near our house where I was happy to get pumpkin muffin mix. I know, how exciting are we? Then Sunday, he played golf, and after yoga, I did a really fun walk (three laps around) at a nature preserve with my friend, Karen. What I really loved? Karen was just as happy as I was to do the level-ground walk instead of the hill trek that Tom and I had explored the week before. You know that feeling of mutual relief when you realize, “We do not need to go there.”

While I am a complete pop culture junkie, I am not married to a man who embraces this with the same passion. Last Friday night, I was clicking through Netflix looking for something to watch. His goal: “nothing with episodes.” He likes to watch a show or movie and be done with it. He also can watch one show or movie and be done, while I continue down the rabbit hole for hours. That said, he can chase a golf ball through 18 holes, and I cannot bear to hit one. We all have our passions. Oh, there are two shows he will watch besides "Game of Thrones": "The Crown" and "Grace and Frankie." I marvel at his restraint with everything else.

A Thanksgiving menu planning weekend is on tap. And our friend, Cathy, is coming for dinner on Saturday night. Maybe we finally will get around to making the ravioli that I bought the mold for last year!

Read on, and have a great week.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

P.S. 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!

Featured Review: THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION
by Michael Crichton and Daniel H. Wilson

THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION by Michael Crichton and Daniel H. Wilson (Science Fiction/Technothriller)
Audiobook available, read by Julia Whelan
Deep inside Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has continued to watch and wait for the Andromeda Strain to reappear. On the verge of being shut down, the project has registered no activity --- until now. A Brazilian terrain-mapping drone has detected a bizarre anomaly of otherworldly matter in the middle of the jungle and, worse yet, the tell-tale chemical signature of the deadly microparticle. With this shocking discovery, the next-generation Project Wildfire is activated, and a diverse team of experts hailing from all over the world is dispatched to investigate the potentially apocalyptic threat. If they can’t reach the quarantine zone, enter the anomaly and figure out how to stop it, this new Andromeda Evolution will annihilate all life as we know it. Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: FIND ME by André Aciman

FIND ME by André Aciman (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Michael Stuhlbarg
André Aciman’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME has sold nearly three quarters of a million copies, and the book became an Academy Award–winning film starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, the graduate student with whom he falls in love. In FIND ME, Elio’s father, Samuel, is on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Reviewed by Alex Bowditch.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: CARRIE FISHER by Sheila Weller

CARRIE FISHER: A Life on the Edge by Sheila Weller (Biography)
Audiobook available, read by Saskia Maarleveld
Sheila Weller traces Carrie Fisher’s life from her Hollywood royalty roots to her untimely and shattering death after Christmas 2016. Her mother was the spunky and adorable Debbie Reynolds; her father, the heartthrob crooner Eddie Fisher. When Eddie ran off with Elizabeth Taylor, the scandal thrust little Carrie Frances into a bizarre spotlight, gifting her with an irony and an aplomb that would resonate throughout her life. Weller sympathetically reveals the conditions that Fisher lived with: serious bipolar disorder and an inherited drug addiction. Still, despite crises and overdoses, her life’s work --- as an actor, a novelist and memoirist, a script doctor, a hostess and a friend --- was prodigious and unique. Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth for HeadButler.com.

- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Sheila Weller.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.

Click here to read our review.

New Special Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com:
Enter to Win Up to 12 Advance Digital Copies of the Audiobook Edition of Therese Anne Fowler’s
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD for Your Group

ReadingGroupGuides.com is proud to host a very special audiobook contest for A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that examines the American dream through the lens of two families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood, and the one summer that changes their lives irrevocably. Fifty book groups will win up to 12 advance digital copies of the audiobook, which is read by Adenrele Ojo and releases on February 4th. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, December 2nd at noon ET.

We strongly encourage all winners to share their listening experiences on social media, including reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookreporter.com’s “Sounding Off on Audio” feature.

A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD Audiobook written by Therese Anne Fowler, read by Adenrele Ojo (Fiction)
In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door --- an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.

Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll?

But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Told in multiple points of view, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD asks big questions about life in America today --- What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? --- as it explores the effects of class, race and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.

- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to listen to an excerpt.

Click here to enter the contest.

Bookreporter.com's Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature

At Bookreporter.com, we kick off the holiday season in style with our Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature. As our gift to you, on select days in November and December, we are spotlighting a book and giving five lucky readers the chance to win it. You have to visit the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter the 24-hour contest. As always, we are sending our special Holiday Cheer newsletter on the days when there are contests. Click here to sign up for these email alerts.

Our next prize book will be announced on Wednesday, November 20th at noon ET.

This year's featured titles are:

• 5 INGREDIENTS: Quick & Easy Food by Jamie Oliver
• 25 DAYS 'TIL CHRISTMAS by Poppy Alexander
• CHRISTMAS AT ROSIE HOPKINS' SWEETSHOP by Jenny Colgan
• FINDING CHRISTMAS by Karen Schaler
• THE GLITTERING HOUR by Iona Grey
• A MRS. MIRACLE CHRISTMAS by Debbie Macomber
• THE PATH MADE CLEAR: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey
• ROYAL HOLIDAY by Jasmine Guillory
• THE STATIONERY SHOP by Marjan Kamali
• THE TENANT by Katrine Engberg

Click here to read all the contest details
and learn more about our featured titles.

 Simon & Schuster’s “Books I Like to Give” Gift Guide

The holiday season is upon us, and that means it’s time to find a present for everyone on your list.

Whether you’re searching for a story that your friends can read at book club, a book for your brother who can’t stop bingeing the history channel, or your sister who loves a dark mystery, we’ve got you covered!

Visit Simon & Schuster’s #BooksILikeToGive gift guide
to find presents for all of your loved ones.

Featured Review: LITTLE WEIRDS by Jenny Slate

LITTLE WEIRDS by Jenny Slate (Essays)
Audiobook available, read by Jenny Slate
You may "know" Jenny Slate from her new Netflix special, "Stage Fright," or as the creator of Marcel the Shell, or as the star of Obvious Child. But you don't really know Jenny Slate until you get bonked on the head by her absolutely singular writing style. To see the world through Jenny's eyes is to see it as though for the first time, shimmering with strangeness and possibility. As she will remind you, we live on an ancient ball that rotates around a bigger ball made up of lights and gasses that are science gasses, not farts (don't be immature). Heartbreak, confusion and misogyny stalk this blue-green sphere, yes, but it is also a place of wild delight and unconstrained vitality, a place where we can start living as soon as we are born, and we can be born at any time. Reviewed by Jane Krebs.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: FINAL OPTION
by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison

FINAL OPTION: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison (Thriller/Adventure)
Audiobook available, read by Scott Brick
When the CIA realizes that the identities of three American spies in Brazil have been compromised, they turn to Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon to rescue the agents. What seems like a routine operation turns out to be a trap designed by Cabrillo's greatest enemy, a man driven by hate to seek the ultimate revenge. At the heart of the plot is a state-of-the-art ship that is identical to the Oregon: same weaponry, same technology, same ability to evade capture. The crew of the Oregon must piece together a series of disturbing events, including the mysterious sinking of a nuclear attack submarine and the possible discovery of a WWII-era weapon that was thought to be lost in the jungles of Brazil, in the ultimate game of cat and mouse. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: IN THE DREAM HOUSE
by Carmen Maria Machado

IN THE DREAM HOUSE: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado (Memoir)
Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Carmen Maria Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it’s that struggle that gives IN THE DREAM HOUSE its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope --- the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman --- through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. Reviewed by Maya Gittelman.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

More Reviews This Week

THE INNOCENTS by Michael Crummey (Historical Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Mary Lewis
A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family's boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them alive. Muddling through the severe round of the seasons, through years of meager catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested. Reviewed by Megan Elliott.

KILLING QUARRY by Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Audiobook available, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Quarry, star of 13 previous novels, a comic book and the acclaimed Cinemax TV series, returns in an all-new assignment that takes the hitman's hitman into uncharted territory, when he finds out that for the first time someone has taken out a hit on him. Is the mysterious killer assigned to hit the hitman someone from Quarry's past? Maybe even a past lover? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE DOG I LOVED by Susan Wilson (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Christina Delaine
After spending years in prison for a crime she didn’t intend to commit, Rose Collins is suddenly free. Someone who knows about the good work she has done --- training therapy dogs while serving time --- has arranged for her early release. This mysterious benefactor has even set her up with a job in the coastal Massachusetts community of Gloucester. There she works to rebuild her life with the help of Shadow, a stray dog who appears one rainy night. Meghan Custer is a wheelchair-bound war veteran who used to be hopeless, too. But ever since she was matched with a service dog named Shark, who was trained in a puppy-to-prisoner rehabilitation program, Meghan has a brand-new outlook. Finally, she can live on her own, go to work and maybe even find love again. Reviewed by Pamela Kramer.

ON THE PLAIN OF SNAKES: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux (Travel/Memoir)
Paul Theroux has spent his life crisscrossing the globe in search of the histories and peoples that give life to the places they call home. Now, as immigration debates boil around the world, Theroux has set out to explore a country key to understanding our current discourse: Mexico. Just south of the Arizona border, in the desert region of Sonora, he finds a place brimming with vitality, yet visibly marked by both the US Border Patrol looming to the north and mounting discord from within. Theroux stops to talk with residents, visits Zapotec mill workers in the highlands, and attends a Zapatista party meeting, communing with people of all stripes who remain south of the border even as their families brave the journey north. Reviewed by Roz Shea.

THIS IS PLEASURE: A Story by Mary Gaitskill (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Nan McNamara and Ralph Lister
The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Mary Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons --- hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

THE BROMANCE BOOK CLUB by Lyssa Kay Adams (Romantic Comedy)
Audiobook available, read by Andrew Eiden and Maxwell Caulfield
Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife, Thea, has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him. Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.

MIGHTY JUSTICE: My Life in Civil Rights by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Bahni Turpin
In MIGHTY JUSTICE, trailblazing African American civil rights attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree recounts her inspiring life story that speaks movingly and urgently to our racially troubled times. From the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, to the segregated courtrooms of the nation’s capital; from the male stronghold of the army where she broke gender and color barriers to the pulpits of churches where women had waited for years for the right to minister --- in all these places, Roundtree sought justice. Dovey Roundtree passed away in 2018 at the age of 104. Though her achievements were significant and influential, she remains largely unknown to the American public. This book corrects the historical record. Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott.

Next Week’s Notables:
Noteworthy Books Releasing on November 19th

Below are some notable titles releasing on November 19th that we would like to make you aware of. We will have more on many of these books in the weeks to come. For a list of additional hardcovers and paperbacks available the week of November 18th, see our “On Sale This Week” newsletter here.

THE CAPTAIN AND THE GLORY: An Entertainment by Dave Eggers (Fiction/Humor)
A savage satire of the United States in the throes of insanity, this blisteringly funny novel tells the story of a noble ship, the Glory, and the loud, clownish and foul Captain who steers it to the brink of disaster.

THE CONFESSION CLUB by Elizabeth Berg (Fiction)
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV comes an uplifting novel about friendship, surprising revelations and a second chance at love.

GUILTY NOT GUILTY: A Dick Francis Novel by Felix Francis (Thriller)
New York Times bestselling author Felix Francis returns with another nail-biting thriller in the Dick Francis tradition.

A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: An Atlee Pine Thriller by David Baldacci (Thriller)
FBI Agent Atlee Pine returns to her Georgia hometown to investigate her twin sister's abduction, only to encounter a serial killer, in this page-turning thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.

ROBERT B. PARKER'S ANGEL EYES: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
In this latest thriller featuring the legendary Boston PI, Spenser heads to the City of Angels to meet old friends and new enemies in a baffling missing person case that might shake Tinseltown to its core.

THE SECOND SLEEP by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
From the internationally bestselling author of FATHERLAND and the Cicero Trilogy comes a chilling and dark new thriller unlike anything Robert Harris has done before.

TOM CLANCY CODE OF HONOR: A Jack Ryan Novel by Marc Cameron (Thriller/Adventure)
As President of the United States, Jack Ryan has faced many challenges, but none have been as personal as this and never has he been this helpless in the face of evil.

Click here to see the latest "On Sale This Week" newsletter.

Our Latest Poll:
November and December Releases to Anticipate

Click here to vote in the poll by Friday, December 6th at noon ET.

Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What
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