June 26, 2020
 June 26, 2020Quick Links to Features on Bookreporter.com Reviews | Features | Bookreporter.com Bets On | Upcoming Bets On  Latest Update on Our GoFundMe Campaign Thank you to those of you who have donated to our GoFundMe campaign. So far, with online and snail mail donations, we have raised $33,990 of our $50,000 goal. I will be sending thank you notes as soon as I come up for air! In addition to these contributions, we are loving your comments about how you enjoy Bookreporter.com. Here are two messages we received recently: Lesley: "I love Bookreporter! It's been a wonderful source of information and enjoyment over the years. Thank you!" Dianna: "Sharing books and how they make us feel and think is important." Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.  We have two new "Bookreporter Talks To" interviews to share with you.  Our second interview is with Julie Clark, whose new novel, THE LAST FLIGHT,  On Thursday, Carol was Wade Rouse's guest for "Happy Hour/Live & Loose" on his Viola Shipman Facebook page. She had a blast! Click on the image above to watch the interview.  Carol made a Triple Cherry Pie for Father's Day. Above you can see the three cherries blended together: When Life Gives You Cherries, There Also Are Pits Server Update: It looks like we will be doing testing on the new servers this weekend and will flip the switch on Monday or Tuesday, so there may be some downtime over the next few days. Thus, if you get an error message looking at a page, please try again in a bit! *** Thanks to the readers who wrote last week to note that the flowers in the newsletter were petunias, not pansies. I am not sure what I was thinking, but thanks to Myrna, Molly, Bonnie and Jane for catching this. I was amused by those who told me that “in their part of the country,” they were petunias. They are in ours, too. For humor, Tom Donadio, our Editorial Director --- who triple-checks the newsletter every week, but by his own admission knows nothing about flowers --- actually Googled pansies and thought the petunias looked like them! Which made me feel better. But they ARE petunias. For Father’s Day on Sunday, I made a Triple Cherry Pie. In the photo above, you can see the moment when the three kinds of cherries were blended together --- Bing cherries, Morellos in juice, and dried ones. This also was the moment when I realized that I had not pitted the Bing cherries. I am glad I caught it when I did...and yes, it was a very messy moment getting that pitting done. I am marking the recipe in red on what to do next time. I also made Ghirardelli brownies (from a mix), which are always a crowd-pleaser. They even come with a peppermint variety! And before you ask for my pie crust recipe, I roll through the frozen food aisle to find it. Roll, get it? This week, the tables were turned a bit as I was interviewed by Wade Rouse as part of his "Happy Hour/Live & Loose" that he does every Thursday night on his Viola Shipman Facebook page. If you missed it and want to watch, here is the link. Wade filmed from his kitchen this week, as he wanted to show viewers and me his amazing retro fridge and stove, both in turquoise. I love this, and for those who want to see more about these, they are from a company called Big Chill. My husband stopped in and gave them a peek on the screen; he also had a slightly panicked look that I was ready to order them. Well, I would love the stove. I need to find my tape measure! He fears my walking around with the tape measure and the phrase “I have an idea.” I have been doing a few virtual library events celebrating Summer Reading. I was at the Fairfield Public Library this past week. And on Monday night at 7pm ET, I am doing a program for the Avalon Free Public Library in New Jersey. New Plan: We have an idea to do a live event for our readers via Zoom sometime the week of July 13th. We want to select the best time for this event, so if you are interested, fill out this form and let us know what day of the week and time of day would work best for you to attend an event like this. We have a few ideas for it in mind. It would be fun to “see” many of you. We are featuring two “Bookreporter Talks To” interviews this week, and it just so happens that both of our author guests have written novels that revolve around getting a fresh start in life. I had a wonderful conversation with Megan Miranda, whose new psychological thriller is THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS, an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. When she was six years old, Arden Maynor disappeared while sleepwalking and went missing for days. Against all odds, she was found alive, hidden beside a storm drain. That was 20 years ago, and Arden (who now goes by the name Olivia Meyer) has moved on with her life. But when she stumbles on a dead man from her past while sleepwalking in her yard, the world she thought she had escaped comes tumbling back. Megan and I talked about the double-sided nature of the media and how it can bear down on the lives of undeserving individuals. I asked her what she did to research and structure a plot around a woman who has changed her life and name, and if it's truly possible for someone to purposely disappear from the public eye. We also touched on Megan's earlier novels: ALL THE MISSING GIRLS, THE PERFECT STRANGER and THE LAST HOUSE GUEST. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast. According to our reviewer Ray Palen, “THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS is an above-average psychological thriller/mystery that keeps the suspense at a high intensity, and each passing chapter seems to create more questions than it answers. The writing is crisp and should make for a much-talked-about summer read.” Find out why I’m betting you’ll love this book in next week’s newsletter. THE LAST FLIGHT promises to be one of the most talked-about books of the summer, so I was excited to chat with Julie Clark about it. We have been featuring the novel all month in our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight, and it will be a Bets On selection. Claire, who married into a political dynasty that she now wants out of, meets Eva in an airport bar. On a whim, the two decide to trade tickets and board the other’s flight. But when one of the planes goes down, Claire suddenly realizes that this is her chance to disappear and start a new life. Soon, though, she learns that Eva had secrets of her own that could put her at risk. In our interview, Julie talked about the logistics of constructing this setup for a thriller, especially the decisions she made that kept the story as feasible as possible. I asked her about the nature of each character's past, and without spoiling anything, she opened up a conversation about how secrets are so successfully revealed over the course of the novel. With so many mysteries at play, Julie also explains how she planned both plot and character to make THE LAST FLIGHT such a riveting read. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast. Norah Piehl has this to say in her review: “Clark skillfully gives readers just enough information to stay a few steps ahead of Claire while still leaving more than a few surprises up her sleeve. She also ties up the novel’s loose ends equally skillfully; even the one seemingly inconceivable coincidence on which a huge portion of the book hinges turns out not to be inconceivable at all…. Readers will come away from THE LAST FLIGHT feeling as if they know Claire and Eva --- and wondering how their lives would be different had they never met.” We posted a discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com, which you can take a look at here. My Bets On commentary will appear in next week’s newsletter. WHAT’S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS is a debut novel by Stephanie Scott that also will be a Bets On pick. In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the "wakaresaseya," a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. However, things don’t go according to plan when she and Kaitarō fall in love, which sets in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter's life. Rebecca Munro has our review and calls WHAT’S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS “a gripping and instantly compelling story about love and loss and how they shape our lives. [Scott’s] prose is tight yet lyrical, atmospheric yet grounded… This is a cleverly constructed, shrewd and beautiful novel with as much tension as heart, and plenty of worthy conversation starters about passion, deception and memory.” We also have a discussion guide for the book, which you can take a look at here. Don’t miss my “Bookreporter Talks To” interview with Stephanie, along with my Bets On commentary, in next week’s newsletter. Other books we’re reviewing this week include COUNTDOWN 1945, “Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace’s behind-the-scenes account of the 116 days leading up to the American attack on Hiroshima; Ottessa Moshfegh’s DEATH IN HER HANDS, a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds an ominous note on a walk in the woods; THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST, Chanel Cleeton’s new work of historical fiction about three women who are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys in 1935; and LOVE by Roddy Doyle, in which two old friends reconnect in Dublin for a dramatic, revealing evening of drinking and storytelling. I have THREE Bets On picks to share with you this week: TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE by Meg Mitchell Moore, THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley (Reese Witherspoon’s latest book club pick), and THE SECOND HOME by Christina Clancy. Click on each of the titles for my commentary. If you missed my “Bookreporter Talks To” interview with Meg Mitchell Moore from last week, you can watch the video here and listen to the podcast here. TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE and THE SECOND HOME are just two of the 30 titles that we are spotlighting in “Virtual Vacation Reads”. I am loving the feedback that we’ve been getting from readers and publishers about our brand new feature, which gives you the opportunity to virtually travel with our list of books set in idyllic vacation locales, like Cape Cod, Nantucket, Montauk, Charleston and Pasadena. We also have included links to indie bookstores that are at or near each of these locations, so you can pay them a virtual visit and do some shopping as well! In this week’s Summer Reading contests, we gave away the aforementioned THE LAST FLIGHT by Julie Clark, along with ASK AGAIN, YES by Mary Beth Keane (a Bets On pick that is now in paperback) and THE SWAP by Robyn Harding. Next week’s prize will be HER LAST FLIGHT by Beatriz Williams (which we will review next week), and the contest for that will begin on Tuesday, June 30th at noon ET. You can win the audio version of HER LAST FLIGHT (read by Cassandra Campbell) in this month’s Sounding Off on Audio contest, along with Megan Miranda’s aforementioned THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS (read by Rebekkah Ross). Let us know by Wednesday, July 1st at noon ET what audiobooks you’ve listened to, and you’ll be in the running to receive both these audio titles. As a reminder, we’ve extended the deadline for our current Word of Mouth contest. Submit your comments about the books you’ve read by Thursday, July 2nd at noon ET, and you may be awarded 28 SUMMERS by Elin Hilderbrand and THE PERSUASION by Iris Johansen, both of which we reviewed last week. If you haven’t had a chance to vote in our poll yet, we would love for you to weigh in: “As so many author and book events are taking place online these days, we’re curious to know: Do you attend virtual author, library, bookstore, book festival and/or publisher-sponsored events?” If you do attend these kinds of events, or would like to, be sure to scroll further down the newsletter for some events happening over the next few days that you may want to have on your radar. Congratulations to the winners of our Father’s Day contest! Five lucky readers --- Cindy G. from Palm Harbor, FL; Ellyn V. from La Crosse, WI; Linda S. from Bardstown, KY; Melinda S. from Apple Valley, CA; and Teresa Y. from Naples, NY --- will receive all six of our featured titles. News & Pop Culture Reader Mail: Phyllis wrote, “Since I'm mostly staying at home right now, your note saying I won a copy of THE LAST FLIGHT by Julie Clark in the Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight contest was a very nice lift to the week! From the time pre-publication reviews came out, I've been looking forward to reading it. Many thanks to you and your staff for continuing all the newsletters and reviews about books and for the great contests. For many years, I've enjoyed them all.” Janet wrote this after winning the aforementioned ASK AGAIN, YES in our Summer Reading contest: “I am so excited that I won! I look forward to receiving it whenever it is available since I don't read too well on a device. I enjoyed the June 17th program that Carol did at the Rockville Centre Public Library in NY. I have gone to your program for the last three years representing Franklin Square Public Library and hope next year it can be in person again. Thank you for all you do, and I look forward to more great reads in the future!” I, too, enjoyed this event, which I did for the fifth year in a row. Rene wrote this about winning DANCE AWAY WITH ME and MRS. LINCOLN'S SISTERS in a Word of Mouth contest: “Thank you so much!!! I received my hard copies last Thursday. It had been a really tough day, so it brightened my mood tremendously. There’s nothing like a new book! Thank you for all that you do for us booklovers out here. I’ve been reading your newsletter for my new book selections for years and years. I hope it will continue.” Margaret wrote, “Thank you for the email letting me know that I won a copy of THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN in the Summer Reading contest. I am beyond thrilled and can't wait to read and review it. I love your weekly newsletter with all the wonderful news about upcoming books!” Jill wrote, "I have to tell you I love the podcasts! You are such a great interviewer. I have heard you many times at the Morristown Festival of Books. You could have one a day, and I would listen every day. And sometimes I will buy a book and then watch the podcast again before I read it. I have purchased many books because of your podcasts." Nancy wrote, “I’ve been especially enjoying your podcasts during these challenging times...and thought I’d pass along this podcast (since you’ve mentioned Ottolenghi’s recipes in the past!). Listen to '712: An Hour with Yotam Ottolenghi' from June 4, 2020 in Podcasts." I so appreciated this! INTO THE WILD Bus: I read this week that the bus that was immortalized in Jon Krakauer’s book was hauled away. It was too dangerous for people to try to reach it. "I’ll Be Gone In the Dark" on HBO: Michelle McNamara’s award-winning book will be an HBO documentary series starting this Sunday, June 28th. You can see the trailer for it here. "Dead to Me" on Netflix: I had watched two episodes of season two and for some reason stopped watching. I binge-watched the rest of it on Friday night, and wow, that show is just amazingly plotted and acted. The finale was excellent to the very last scene. Highly recommended. American Library Association Youth Book Awards: Everything is virtual these days, so you can tune in to watch the Book Award Celebration on Sunday. Pre-recorded videos from book award winners will premiere for the first time throughout the day, according to the times designated by the schedule here. Viewers can watch live and share comments in chat, or view event videos on ALA’s YouTube channel soon after their premiere. We are especially excited about Jerry Craft winning both the Newbery and Coretta Scott King awards for NEW KID. You can watch him opening the box with his Newbery Medal here. This week, I managed to get a haircut/color and a massage, and tomorrow I have a pedicure booked. I love this total makeover. I am so impressed with how the salons have pivoted for safety. There are so many protocols in place! My hairdresser said there was a 30-page manual of what they needed to do to reopen. Impressive! There is nothing urgent on the agenda for the weekend, so I am hoping to spend time tossing things in the dumpster and tackling some weeds in the garden. I also have a plan for reorganizing my office here at the house that I am looking forward to working on. The pool is a blissful temperature, and I am hoping to finally drop myself into a daily swim routine. I did some floating in the evenings this week, and it was a total joy. I floated around one night listening to a podcast. I have a stack of great books ready for the next one to be selected and read. Next week, I will share what I have picked. We will be sending next week's newsletter on Thursday night, so we all can enjoy the long 4th of July weekend. Our team has been working double time since March, and I really hope that they all can take a breath and exhale a bit for the holiday. Now I am off to make homemade pizza as our friend Cathy is coming over for dinner. Read on, and have a great week…or at least six days. Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)    Featured Review:  THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS by Megan Miranda (Psychological Thriller/Mystery) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.  Featured Review: THE LAST FLIGHT by Julie Clark  THE LAST FLIGHT by Julie Clark (Psychological Thriller) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. THE LAST FLIGHT will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Featured Review:  WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS by Stephanie Scott (Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Don't miss our "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Stephanie Scott Featured Review: COUNTDOWN 1945  COUNTDOWN 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World by Chris Wallace with Mitch Weiss (History) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review: DEATH IN HER HANDS  DEATH IN HER HANDS by Ottessa Moshfegh (Metaphysical Thriller) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review: THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST  THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST by Chanel Cleeton (Historical Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review.  Bookreporter.com Bets On:    TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE by Meg Mitchell Moore (Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read more of Carol's commentary on TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE.
- Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read more of Carol's commentary on THE GUEST LIST. THE SECOND HOME by Christina Clancy (Fiction) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read more of Carol's commentary on THE SECOND HOME. Bookreporter.com’s Virtual Vacation Reads:  Do the current stay-at-home measures have you craving a summer getaway? Bookreporter has a way for you to virtually travel with our list of books set in vacation locales. Escape to idyllic spots like Cape Cod, Nantucket, Montauk, Charleston and Pasadena --- along with many others --- with our "Virtual Vacation Reads" feature. Pick your book(s) to embark on the summer vacation you've been dreaming of. You’ll only have to figure out how to send postcards! Please note: For your convenience, we have organized these books both by location and alphabetically by title. We also have included links to indie bookstores that are at or near each of these locations, so you can pay them a virtual visit as well! May we suggest that you buy these books from them? Click here to see our "Virtual Vacation Reads" feature. Bookreporter.com's 16th Annual  Summer is here! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through the end of August, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here. Our next prize book will be announced on Tuesday, June 30th at noon ET. This year’s prize books include:
Click here to read all the contest details and learn more about our prize books.    What’s New This Month on ReadingGroupGuides.com We currently have the following contest running on ReadingGroupGuides.com: "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest: Win 12 Copies of MONTAUK by Nicola Harrison for Your Group Here are our latest featured guides:
Please note that these titles, for which we already had the guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:
Click here to visit ReadingGroupGuides.com.    Upcoming Virtual Author Events As so many author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register. Saturday, June 27th at 2pm ET: Annie’s Book Stop Virtual Event: William Kent Krueger will discuss THIS TENDER LAND in an online event sponsored by Annie's Book Stop in Worcester, Massachusetts. Saturday, June 27th at 7pm ET: Third Place Books Virtual Event: Stephanie Scott, the author of WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS, will be in conversation with Jamie Ford, the New York Times bestselling author of HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET. Scroll up to read more about Stephanie's debut novel in this newsletter. Monday, June 29th at 8pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore Facebook Live Event: Megan Miranda (THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS) and Riley Sager (HOME BEFORE DARK) will be in conversation about their latest thrillers. Tuesday, June 30th at 6:30pm ET: Murder By The Book Live ZOOM Event: Crime by the Book's Abby Endler will interview Riley Sager about his new novel, HOME BEFORE DARK. Wednesday, July 1st at 7pm ET: Atlanta History Center Virtual Event: Megan Miranda will be talking about THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS with Virginia Prescott, the host of "On Second Thought" for Georgia Public Broadcasting. Wednesday, July 1st at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": Every Wednesday, Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe talk books and writing on their "Friends and Fiction" Facebook group page. This week's special guest will be Delia Owens, author of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. Thursday, July 2nd at 7pm ET: Murder Mystery Whodunnit: A Virtual Adventure by the Book: Join Megan Miranda, Jean Kwok, Wendy Walker and Michelle Cox, who will set the stage for their four suspenseful murder mystery novels. Then Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Steve Breen, with the help of an unnamed source, will offer a sketch artist demonstration, and you will see who the “murderer” turns out to be.   "Bookreporter Talks To" Videos & Podcasts “Bookreporter Talks To” is a video and podcast series that delivers a long-form, in-depth author interview every week. For years, Carol has 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 is to bring these author interviews to readers, wherever they may be. Watch on video, or listen as a podcast. (The podcasts include audio excerpts.) Here are our latest interviews:
Other authors we've interviewed include:
Upcoming interviews include:
Click here for a complete list of our    More Reviews This WeekLOVE by Roddy Doyle (Fiction) THE MOUNTAINS WILD by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Mystery) HEAD OVER HEELS by Hannah Orenstein (Romantic Comedy) NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin by Howard Blum (History) DEAD GIRL BLUES by Lawrence Block (Noir Thriller) THE MIST by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller) LOST RIVER by J. Todd Scott (Thriller) THE LOST DIARY OF VENICE by Margaux DeRoux (Romance) LOCKDOWN: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic edited by Nick Kolakowski and Steve Weddle (Thriller/Short Stories)   
Next Week’s Notables:
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