March 13, 2020
 March 13, 2020Quick Links to Features on Bookreporter.com Reviews | Features | Bookreporter.com Bets On | Upcoming Bets On   Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Marie Benedict,  Rebecca Serle stopped by the office this week for a "Bookreporter Talks To" interview.  Carol is reading HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD: Inside the Mind of an American Family, by Robert Kolker,  On Friday, May 29th from 1:00pm to 2:50pm at BookExpo in New York,  Carol talks about this week's Bookreporter update in our latest promo video. Not in Tucson; Read On and Stay Calm Yes, I was supposed to be in Tucson this weekend for the Tucson Festival of Books, but alas, that --- like a number of other book and author events --- has been canceled. Yesterday, I realized that if an author handed an editor a manuscript for a novel with everything that is going on right now written into it, I am betting they would redline about 1/4 of it and say, "Over the top; there is no way all of this would happen." This is a time when real life is absolutely crazier than fiction. To err on the side of caution, we all are trying to minimize our time in our New York office. I am so lucky to have an amazing team that is very adept at working from anywhere --- and we have done that in the past. Yesterday, Tom Donadio was working alone in the office; Greg, Austin and I had been there on Thursday. At one point, I sent Tom a video of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy in New York”, which references a guy named “Tom” being “the only living boy in New York”; he got a kick out of it. In times like this, you do need some levity. The plan is to continue our "Bookreporter Talks To" series, though we may have to do some of these conversations via audio only (no video) as authors are not coming through the city. We are planning to interview both Lisa See and Therese Anne Fowler for “Bookreporter Talks To” segments next week. If you have a question that you would like us to ask either of them, send me an email at Carol@bookreporter.com by Tuesday, March 17th at noon with the subject line “Question for Lisa” or “Question for Therese.” With so many author events being canceled, I would like to ramp up the number of these that we are doing. And I bought a new microphone to work with my laptop. And yes, it’s teal. I mean, you did not expect black, did you? My friend, Luisa Smith from Book Passage in CA, shared this note on Facebook, and I want to iterate it: “During this crazy time when we are all trying to stay healthy and safe (as you should!), please remember if you loved a local business before the virus outbreak, please consider ways to support them during the outbreak so they will still be here when you feel comfortable to venture outside again! It’s going to be a tough time over the next few months for local businesses. Most bookstores have online stores, and many are offering free shipping at this time. All have staff that would be thrilled to help you over the phone if you have questions.” In that spirit, here's a piece from Publishers Weekly, "10 Ways to Support Your Indie Bookstore Through Coronavirus and Beyond." Also, we are seeing library closures in some areas, but I have been reminded that both e-books and digital audio can be borrowed even if a library is closed. And if you have favorite restaurants, even if you are not comfortable dining out at this time, consider buying gift cards to support them now, with a plan to enjoy them later. In the spirit of optimism for the future, one of the big events that we do each year is our Book Group Speed Dating Event at BookExpo in New York. This year, the plan is for it to be held on Friday, May 29th from 1pm - 2:50pm. More than a dozen publishers will be on hand to talk about their fall/winter titles that are perfect for book groups to an audience of book group leaders, librarians and booksellers. A number of advance copies will be available to give away, and ideas for enhancing book group discussions will be shared. To register, all you have to do is fill out this form by Friday, May 15th at noon ET, but please note that you have to be registered for BookExpo in order to attend this event and have a badge. If you are not, click here to register. I am reading HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker, which releases on April 7th. I heard Robert speak at a Penguin Random House library event a couple of months ago. This is a fascinating book about the Galvin family in Colorado; they had 12 children, 10 of them boys, and six of those boys were schizophrenic. Their genetics were studied to give a path to understanding this disease --- information that is still applicable today. It is so well done; I am about halfway through, and it is a really compulsive read. I am hoping to interview Robert! And very coincidentally, he is the same author who wrote LOST GIRLS: An Unsolved American Mystery, which was adapted into Lost Girls, which is airing on Netflix starting tonight. I want to both read the book and watch the movie. Here’s a quick synopsis: "When Mari Gilbert’s daughter disappears, police inaction drives her own investigation into the gated Long Island community where Shannan was last seen. Her search brings attention to over a dozen murdered sex workers.” One of this year’s most anticipated books, which was a BookExpo buzz book last year, is now in stores: MY DARK VANESSA, a debut novel by Kate Elizabeth Russell, which is a #1 Indie Next pick and a LibraryReads Top Pick for this month. In 2000, 15-year-old Vanessa becomes entangled in an affair with her 42-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane. Seventeen years later, Strane has been accused of sexually abusing a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa. Is it possible that the man Vanessa loved as a teenager --- and who professed to worship only her --- may be far different from what she has always believed? Our reviewer Sarah Rachel Egelman has this to say about the book: “MY DARK VANESSA addresses a horrific topic with an emotional honesty, an intellectual complexity and beautifully rendered prose…. [It] surely will be described as timely, but truthfully this is the kind of story that should have been told long ago, and should keep being told until the culture that allows and even romanticizes such abuse changes radically and learns to protect and value girls and women.” I found this to be a very powerful read about a subject that often has been silenced. We’re giving away the audio version of MY DARK VANESSA, read by Grace Gummer, along with THE NIGHT WATCHMAN written and read by Louise Erdrich, in this month’s Sounding Off on Audio contest. Submit your comments about the audiobooks you’ve listened to by Wednesday, April 1st at noon ET, and you’ll have a chance to win both these audio titles. Eight years in the making, THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT is the highly anticipated conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy --- which began with WOLF HALL and continued in BRING UP THE BODIES, both Booker Prize winners. In this third installment, Mantel traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power --- completing his journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. According to our reviewer Ray Palen, "THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT is not the sort of novel you consume; more accurately, it consumes you. The language is, at times, almost melodic, and the music it makes comes from a master writer at the top of her craft fusing the words together so they reach beyond history and directly into your psyche." I found this article for those of you who would like a Wolf Hall recap. The aforementioned Therese Anne Fowler’s new novel, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, is this month’s Barnes & Noble Book Club pick and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. In it, we are introduced to single mother Valerie Alston-Holt, a professor of forestry and ecology whose biracial son, Xavier, will be going to college in the fall. All is well until the Whitmans --- a family with new money and a secretly troubled teenage daughter --- raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace. With little in common except a property line, these two 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. It is very thought-provoking and would provide for a great book group discussion. Rebecca Munro has our review and says, "What is most impressive about A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD is the sheer amount of research and sensitivity Fowler has taken on to carefully and properly develop her black and biracial characters.... But at the same time, Fowler is careful not to turn them into caricatures or tropes --- a near-impossible balance to strike and yet one that she does with such grace that it seems nearly easy (an illusion, of course, but one beautifully maintained)." Don’t miss my Bets On commentary in next week’s newsletter. B&N will be selling a special Exclusive Book Club Edition of A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, along with hosting a free Book Club Night to discuss it, in stores across the country on Tuesday, April 7th at 7pm local time. Click here to sign up for the event. In the meantime, click here for the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com. A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD is one of the books we’re giving away in our Word of Mouth contest; the other is THE BOY FROM THE WOODS by Harlan Coben, which we will review next week. Let us know by Friday, March 20th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll be in the running to win both these novels. Rebecca Serle follows up her adult debut, THE DINNER LIST (a Bets On title), with IN FIVE YEARS, which is this month’s “Good Morning America” Book Club pick and an upcoming Bets On selection. Where do you see yourself in five years? When lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at a job interview, she knows precisely how to answer it. She goes to sleep that night knowing she is on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment and beside a very different man. The date is December 15, 2025, five years in the future. An hour later, Dannie wakes up again; this time, though, she is back in 2020. She is determined to ignore this odd experience, but four-and-a-half years later, she meets the very same man from her long-ago vision. According to our reviewer Bronwyn Miller, “The story takes us in unexpected directions with twists and turns, but much like Dannie has to adapt, so do we as readers. In Serle’s capable hands, it’s worth the ride.” Find out why I’m betting you’ll love this book as much as Bronwyn did in next week’s newsletter. As I mentioned last week, I had a lovely time chatting with Rebecca for a “Bookreporter Talks To” interview. The video and podcast will go live next week, so please be on the lookout for that! Other books we’re reviewing this week include SEPARATION ANXIETY by Laura Zigman (which I am reading and enjoying), about a wife and mother whose life is unraveling and the well-intentioned but increasingly disastrous steps she takes to course-correct her relationships, her career and her belief in herself; Donna Leon’s TRACE ELEMENTS, in which a woman’s cryptic dying words in a Venetian hospice lead Commissario Guido Brunetti to uncover a threat to the entire region; and RUST, Eliese Colette Goldbach’s memoir of working in the backbreaking steel industry to rebuild her life --- but what she uncovers in the mill is much more than molten metal and grueling working conditions. My two new Bets On selections are THE JETSETTERS by Amanda Eyre Ward (this month’s Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club pick) and the audiobook of Diane Chamberlain’s BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN, read by Susan Bennett. Click on each of the titles for my Bets On commentary. And if you missed my “Bookreporter Talks To” interview with Amanda, you can watch it here and listen to the podcast here. The print edition of BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN will be one of next week’s Spring Preview contest books, in addition to SERENADE FOR NADIA by Zülfü Livaneli and THE WINEMAKER’S WIFE by Kristin Harmel (which releases in paperback on March 17th and is this month’s pick for Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites program). The first contest of the week will go live on Monday, March 16th at noon ET. Our Spring Preview giveaways kicked off this week with our first three prize books: EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson (which we reviewed last week), the aforementioned A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, and LOST ROSES by Martha Hall Kelly (a Bets On pick that is now in paperback). My latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Marie Benedict. We had a great discussion about her new novel, LADY CLEMENTINE, which focuses on Clementine Churchill, the woman beside Winston Churchill whose actions had a direct impact on World War I and World War II. Click here to watch the interview and here to listen to the podcast. Also, be sure to check out these links: our review, my Bets On commentary and the discussion guide. And when you finish watching, you too will be able to pronounce Clementine correctly! Our poll continues to ask which of 20 fiction titles releasing in March you are planning to read, if any. Let us know by clicking here. I eagerly look at what you select. The winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced yesterday. They include EVERYTHING INSIDE: Stories by Edwidge Danticat (Fiction) and SAY NOTHING: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (Nonfiction). Click here for the complete list of winners. News & Pop Culture Reader Mail: Betsy wrote this about our Spring Preview Dedicated Newsletter lineup: “This is the best one EVER!!! All of these are on my 'to read' list!" Carol wrote about winning THE JETSETTERS and YOU ARE NOT ALONE in our Word of Mouth contest: “How exciting! I was going to purchase THE JETSETTERS as it seems like an excellent story! Now I will buy another book in lieu of it! Also looking forward to reading YOU ARE NOT ALONE.” Interesting Piece by William Styron’s Daughter about Her Father, "The First Novelist Accused of Cultural Appropriation": Alexandra Styron reflects on her father’s novels THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER and SOPHIE’S CHOICE in the age of AMERICAN DIRT. “The Trade”: For those who read AMERICAN DIRT and would like to watch a documentary about the Mexican drug cartels and the effects on migrants, I highly recommend season two of "The Trade," which is currently airing on Showtime. It is very well done and provides some context about what is going on in Mexico and why people are fleeing. Season one has a different focus, but is equally well done. “The Undoing”: HBO has released a trailer for "The Undoing," based on Jean Hanff Korelitz's book, YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. Created by David E. Kelley and directed by Emmy, Oscar and Golden Globe winner Susanne Bier, this six-part limited series stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. It will premiere on May 10th. "The Plot Against America" on HBO: Based on the book by Philip Roth, this six-part limited series, created by David Simon and Ed Burns, kicks off on Monday, March 16th. This "alternate American history during World War II is told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey as they endure the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, who captures the presidency and turns the nation toward fascism.” "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez" on Netflix: This series was tough watching about a child who was abused --- and killed --- by his mother and her boyfriend. It’s a look at the many places this child was failed along the way. Morning Brew: This is one of my favorite newsletters, with news about everything from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. It’s my first read in the morning --- and I love the tone of it. They are celebrating their fifth anniversary. If five of you sign up for it, I get a pair of socks. I am not super stoked about socks, but of all the pairs of socks they give away, one will have $5,000 in it. If I win, it’s going to our Bookreporter fundraiser. So if you want to give it a whirl, here’s the signup. Last weekend, we made one of our favorite dishes, which is the Homesick Texan's King Ranch Chicken. We love it, and we always forget that it does take longer to make than we think, but it is so worth it. I am off to make homemade hand sanitizer. Until last week, I did not even know that this was a thing! See what one learns from a pandemic? Tom’s mom is coming for dinner Saturday night. We finally are celebrating her February birthday, so something good came out of Tucson being canceled. I wonder if she wants some hand sanitizer, as well as a book. Remember, reading is one of the things that you can do now. Grab a book, stay calm and escape. I am planning to do this...a lot. And it may be time to clean some of the closets that I have been avoiding. I just realized that it's Friday the 13th. Be well, stay safe and wash your hands. Read on, and have a great week. Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)    Featured Review: MY DARK VANESSA  MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell (Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review: THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT  THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT by Hilary Mantel (Historical Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review:  A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler (Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Featured Review: IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle  IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle (Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. IN FIVE YEARS will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Featured Review: SEPARATION ANXIETY by Laura Zigman  SEPARATION ANXIETY by Laura Zigman (Fiction/Humor) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review.  Bookreporter.com Bets On:  THE JETSETTERS by Amanda Eyre Ward (Fiction) So Charlotte’s daughter Lee, whose career in Hollywood has not exactly been stellar; her son Cord, a Manhattan venture capitalist who is hiding the fact that he is gay; and Regan, who is in a less-than-great marriage with children who keep her on the run, all begrudgingly are toted along on this trip. Charlotte wants to recover the days of old when it was just her and the kids, but the passing years have definitely splintered these relationships. Sounds idyllic, right? - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read more of Carol's commentary.  Bookreporter.com Bets On:  BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN (Audiobook) written by Diane Chamberlain, read by Susan Bennett (Fiction) In 1940, a young woman named Anna Dale from Plainfield, New Jersey, is hired to paint a mural for the Edenton, NC post office. She is the winner in a national contest where murals are to be hung in local areas to showcase appreciation of the towns. Her life is lonely; her mom recently passed away, so she jumps at this opportunity. What she does not know is how the town she is going to be working in is harboring deep prejudices and animosity toward her as an outsider. The mural is neither finished nor hung, and is long forgotten by many. Click here to read more of Carol's commentary.  Bookreporter.com's Ninth Annual Spring is in the air (or will be very soon)! We’ve already caught the fever --- and it’s being fueled by some wonderful new and upcoming releases. Our ninth annual Spring Preview Contests and Feature spotlights many of these picks, which we know people will be talking about over the next few months. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through April 24th at noon ET. You will need to check the site to see the featured book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce each title, which you can sign up for here. Our next prize book will be announced on Monday, March 16th at noon ET. This year's featured titles are:
Click here to read all the contest details    Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for March Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Pennie's Pick for Costco. We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites. Below is a preview of March's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here. Indie Next LibraryReads Target Book Club Pennie's Pick (Costco) Barnes & Noble Book Club Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club "Good Morning America" Book Club Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites   "Bookreporter Talks To" Videos & Podcasts In late August 2019, we launched “Bookreporter Talks To,” a video and podcast series where we deliver a long-form, in-depth author interview every week. For years, I have moderated book festivals and author events around the country. But we know that readers often do not live where they can attend an author event. Our goal --- to bring these author interviews to readers, wherever they may be. Watch on video, or listen as a podcast. (The podcasts include audio excerpts.) By the way, this follows a long history of The Book Report Network delivering compelling programming to readers. Back in 1997, the company hosted the first online interview with John Grisham, which started a tradition of ongoing interviews with authors. Authors interviewed to date include:
Upcoming interviews include:
Watch our "Bookreporter Talks To" interviews and listen to our podcasts.    More Reviews This WeekTRACE ELEMENTS: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery) RUST: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach (Memoir) THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE: A Henry Farrell Novel by Tom Bouman (Mystery) DOCILE by K.M. Szpara (Science Fiction) UNDER THE RAINBOW by Celia Laskey (Fiction) THAT LEFT TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE by Scott Phillips (Noir Thriller/Humor) GIRL CAN’T HELP IT: A Krista Larson Mystery by Max Allan Collins (Mystery/Thriller) MARCHING TOWARD MADNESS: How to Save the Games You Always Loved by John LeBar and Allen Paul (Sports)   
Next Week’s Notables:
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