October 23, 2020

Quick Links to Features on Bookreporter.com

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 $36,220 of our $50,000 goal.

You can read about our plans and donate here. If you would prefer donating via check, please send to:

The Book Report, Inc.
16 Mt. Bethel Road, Suite 365
Warren, NJ 07059

Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.

We are so excited to be hosting our first "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event!
We will be joined by Jeanine Cummins, who will talk about AMERICAN DIRT with Carol
and 15 guests who have read the book; other readers will be in the audience.
It will take place on Thursday, November 19th at 8pm ET.
Scroll further down the newsletter for all the details, and click on the image above to sign up.

Matthew McConaughey's much-talked-about memoir, GREENLIGHTS, released this week.
Carol enjoyed a virtual event on Wednesday where McConaughey was in conversation with
John Grisham about the book. The pairing was perfect, as McConaughey portrayed
Grisham's protagonist, Jake Brigance, in the 1996 film, A Time to Kill.
McConaughey has a few more virtual events scheduled, which you can check out here.

Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Rose Carlyle,
whose debut novel, THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR, will be a Bets On pick.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.

Premiering on Sunday, October 25th at 9pm ET/PT is "The Undoing," a six-part series that is based on Jean Hanff Korelitz's 2014 novel, YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, which was a Bets On pick.
Above is a photo that Jean shared of a bus that has the ad for the program displayed on it.

Carol is wondering if these are the last flowers of the summer.

Forever Stamps

Among the amusing things that I am finding as I go through boxes of paperwork here at the house are forever stamps from the post office. I have found sheets of them in random boxes; I must have started buying them when they were first issued in 2007. Last night, I sent mail with Gregory Peck stamps from 2011. I should seek out stamp collectors. I also have found so much correspondence from when we started our first website; I am going to do something with it for Bookreporter's 25th anniversary next summer.

I have been enjoying virtual author events these past few weeks. I find myself going through the event list that we share in each newsletter and logging on to watch many of them.

On Wednesday afternoon, I caught a terrific interview with John Grisham done by Julie Slavinsky from Warwick’s in La Jolla, California (which is the country’s oldest family-owned and operated bookstore). I also purchased A TIME FOR MERCY from them, as I think it’s important to support the stores that are bringing us this programming. Yes, it cost me extra for shipping, but it also brought me an hour of great entertainment worth the extra $3. And wait, I did not have to buy gas!

That evening, Matthew McConaughey and Grisham were in conversation, and it was another great event. It was more than “alright, alright, alright.” McConaughey did a wonderful job talking about his new book, GREENLIGHTS, a memoir that is “[a] love letter to life. It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights --- and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.” They each told stories about McConaughey being cast as Jake Brigance in A Time to Kill, and they seemed to have the same memories all these years later. McConaughey has a few more stops on his tour here.

Back in June, we asked if you've been attending virtual author, library, bookstore, book festival and/or publisher-sponsored events. Four months later, we're still curious to know if you're attending these events, and we're wondering how the results this time will compare to those of our previous poll. Click here to answer this follow-up poll. If you have not enjoyed events like these, I encourage you to give them a try...and then, whenever possible, support the venue by buying the book!

Over the past few months, we have ramped up our video and podcast programming to keep you on top of new book releases as many of you are not able to browse in bookstores and libraries.

Our latest project is one that we have been mulling for a few months --- a virtual book group discussion.

I am excited to share that on Thursday, November 19th at 8pm ET, we will be hosting our first “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event. Our special guest will be Jeanine Cummins, who will discuss AMERICAN DIRT, an Oprah’s Book Club selection and a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick (one of my first picks of 2020).

We will be embracing a new format for this program. I will chat with Jeanine, and then we are planning to have 15 book group participants who have read the book join our conversation, asking Jeanine questions and telling us about their reading experience. We are looking for questions about the book, its setting and its characters that will spur discussion. So for those of you who have read it, think about what you would like to ask. If you have not read it yet, there is still time to do so, and then submit a question to be considered for this portion of the event. Other readers are invited to join as audience members to watch the program --- and in the last 10 minutes, we will entertain questions from this group. As with our other events, this session will be conducted via Zoom.

If you would like to attend the event as a participant or as an audience member, sign up here by Monday, November 16th at 10am ET. We will send the link and password for the program on the morning of November 19th. If you are one of the 15 on-stage participants, we will confirm with you by November 17th. Our room can hold up to 500 attendees, so feel free to invite your friends and fellow book group members.

Back in January when AMERICAN DIRT released (which honestly seems like a lifetime ago), we featured our review, my Bets On commentary, the discussion guide, and feedback from 10 book groups that won copies of the book in a special contest we held at the end of 2019 on ReadingGroupGuides.com. I have been excited about AMERICAN DIRT ever since I read an early advance copy of it in June 2019 --- it’s an absolute page-turner that can spur a 360-degree conversation on the subject of immigration --- so I am thrilled to be talking to Jeanine about it. I spoke with her last week, and she is looking forward to this program.

We are noodling ideas for future "Bookaccino Live" Book Group authors, so if you have any suggestions, please send me a note with the subject line "Book Group Author."

My latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Rose Carlyle, whose debut novel, THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR, will be a Bets On pick. I love this line to describe it: “It’s a thriller with identical twins, fast yachts, tropical harbors, secrets and deceit, sex and crocodiles.” In the book, Iris and Summer are mirror twins, which means they are completely identical but physically asymmetrical. Iris, who has always been envious of her sister's perfect life, joins Summer on a sailing trip that goes awry. When Iris returns to land, she is assumed to be her sister and lives out the life she has always wanted. How long does she have until she is discovered, and what will the consequences be? Rose and I discussed what it means to be a mirror twin and the effect it can have on people's lives. With quite a bit of experience in sailing and traveling, she also described her own adventures in the context of the book and unraveled the story’s deeper messages. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.

Our reviewer Rebecca Munro has this to say about the book: "Rose Carlyle is an impressive new voice in the thriller genre, and she has produced a pitch-perfect suspense story. Between swapped identities, the eerie setting of the sea, and an unreliable, possibly insane narrator, the book has all the makings of a new classic.... Carlyle proves herself more than adept at dishing out revelations and pacing her twists and turns so that you can almost feel them coming, even when you cannot guess what they might be." Find out why I’m betting you’ll love this book in next week’s newsletter.

We gave away THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR in our final Fall Preview contest of the year. Congratulations to the winners of our 12 contests, and many thanks to all who entered!

Our next series of 24-hour giveaways will be our Holiday Cheer contests, and they kick off on Tuesday, November 17th. If you would like to receive a special newsletter announcing each day’s Holiday Cheer title, all you have to do is sign up here.

Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? Alice Hoffman answers that burning question in MAGIC LESSONS by exploring the early life of Maria Owens, matriarch of the family featured in PRACTICAL MAGIC and THE RULES OF MAGIC. Maria is abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby and left under the care of Hannah Owens, who teaches the girl all she knows. When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life: Love is the only thing that matters.

Jana Siciliano has our review and says, "Hoffman’s language moves along in the fashion of an expert storyteller. Her wordcraft is perfect, her love and celebration of women complete. This is another story in a long line of tales about tough and provocative females that will leave itself imprinted on your own heart for the rest of your days. Read MAGIC LESSONS. We all could use some during this dark time." For more about the book and why it was written, click here for a Q&A with Hoffman. We also are featuring the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com, which you can take a look at here.

Other books we’re reviewing this week include THE SILENCE, Don DeLillo’s timely novel set in the near future about five people gathered together in a Manhattan apartment, in the midst of a catastrophic event; THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LaRUE, a genre-dying novel from V.E. Schwab about a young woman in 1714 France who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever --- and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets; THE ZEALOT AND THE EMANCIPATOR, in which historian H. W. Brands narrates the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln --- two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin; and two novels to get you in the mood for the holidays --- THE CHRISTMAS TABLE, the latest installment in Donna VanLiere’s Christmas Hope series, and A DOG’S PERFECT CHRISTMAS, W. Bruce Cameron’s tale of what can happen when family members open their hearts to new possibilities.

We have a new Word of Mouth contest to tell you about. Let us know by Friday, November 6th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have the chance to win two major releases: FORTUNE AND GLORY, the 27th installment in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, and THE SENTINEL, book #25 in the Jack Reacher series, which Lee Child has penned with his brother, Andrew Child (who has written stand-alone thrillers as Andrew Grant).

Our previous poll asked which recently released or soon-to-be-released nonfiction titles you have read or are planning to read. Here are your top five picks: I’LL BE SEEING YOU: A Memoir by Elizabeth Berg (24%), ELEANOR by David Michaelis (21%), EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IN ITS TIME: Seasons of Love and Loss by Jenna Bush Hager (21%), THE WRITER’S LIBRARY: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager (21%), and SHE COME BY IT NATURAL: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh (19%). Click here for all the results.

News & Pop Culture:

Reader Mail

Elaine wrote, “I was so excited to receive a copy of THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN in the mail today, and I look forward to reading it! Thank you all so much for the book and for the Bookreporter newsletter, which I receive each week. Your newsletter and site are very helpful to me in deciding what books to read each season. All your hard work is very much appreciated."

Lee Child: Here is an article about his turning over the Jack Reacher franchise to his brother, Andrew. The first book that they've written together, the aforementioned THE SENTINEL, is coming out on Tuesday

"The Undoing" on HBO: This six-episode limited series, which premieres on Sunday night at 9pm ET/PT, is based on the book YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which was a Bets On selection when it came out in 2014. Jean shared the photo of the bus above with the ad for the show on it; here’s a link to the trailer. The novel has been rejacketed with the new title. The series is supposedly very different from the book. I will see what that means, but in the meantime, I do recommend the book! More on the series opener next week.

"This Is Us" on NBC: The two-hour season premiere is on Tuesday night at 9pm ET.

Adele: She is hosting "Saturday Night Live" this Saturday night. I typically do not watch "SNL" these days, but I may tune in for this, or watch the clips on Sunday morning.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix: I started watching this last weekend when I was cleaning my office. I need to revisit it when I can pay more attention.

"Unsolved Mysteries" on Netflix: The new season is available…and once again, I am sucked down the rabbit hole!

"Away" on Netflix: I enjoyed this, but there will not be a second season. Growl. I wanted to see what happened on Mars! And do they make it back?

"The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix: I am planning to watch the series this weekend.

Last weekend, I went on a tear cleaning up my office here at the house. I am happy to report that the floor is completely cleared of all piles of papers, books and tote bags, and I finally put down a terrific area rug in the seating area. It’s been folded on a chair for weeks, waiting for this moment. Yes, you can guess, it has turquoise in the pattern. There still are eight boxes that I need to go through, but they are neatly stacked and not making me anxious anymore! I still have pictures to be hung, but that is fun compared to the endless sorting that I have been doing for months now.

And the dining room has been sorted too. Though it’s still my recording studio, all of the miscellaneous electrical items have been boxed up, and many more have been tossed. I have saved my collection of cell phones from through the years. No reason except that I still marvel at how the technology has changed. There was a moment when I thought I tossed the iPad that is working instead of the one that died…about seven years ago. But fortunately, the one that works IS on the shelf in my office, and the one that does not work is in the box in my closet. Do not ask why I am holding onto that either, except that a very good friend gave it to me as a present and I remember the absolute joy it gave me to receive something that extravagant as a gift. There will be a second round of purge at some point, but not now.

At the moment there are no weekend plans, which is lovely. We may head to the farmer’s market on Sunday; it’s located very close to Cory’s apartment, so we will catch up with him when we are there. If I go, we do not need any more breakfast or rainbow radishes. Or tri-colored carrots. They all are pretty, but we are not eating them fast enough. There will be a charcuterie platter with them both this weekend and some amazing dip. The carrots are so fresh that they still have dirt on them. And instead of washing them, I put them in the fridge in a Tupperware-like container with the dirt still on them. So when I pluck them from the fridge, I can pretend *I* harvested them.

The pool is still open as the new cover has not arrived, but even with my wetsuit, I have not ventured in there. I fear the swimming season has ended. There is lots of reading to be done, but it will not be happening as I float in the pool.

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!

Announcing Our First “Bookaccino Live” Book Group Event with Jeanine Cummins, Author of AMERICAN DIRT, on Thursday, November 19th at 8pm ET

On Thursday, November 19th at 8pm ET, we will host our first “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event via Zoom. Our special guest will be Jeanine Cummins, who will discuss AMERICAN DIRT, an Oprah’s Book Club selection and a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.

For this event, there will be two ways to participate.

Fifteen guests who have read AMERICAN DIRT will join Carol Fitzgerald "on stage" to be part of the discussion, interacting with Jeanine and giving us their feedback on the book.

Other readers will watch the event and will be able to pose a question during the last 10 minutes of the program.

If you would like to attend the event as a participant or as an audience member, please sign up here by Monday, November 16th at 10am ET. We will send the link and password for the program on the morning of the 19th. If you are one of the 15 on-stage participants, we will confirm with you by the 17th. Our room can hold up to 500 attendees, so feel free to invite your friends and fellow book group members.

Click here to sign up for our first "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event.

An Interview with Alice Hoffman
and Our Review of MAGIC LESSONS

Alice Hoffman traces a centuries-old curse to its source in MAGIC LESSONS, which unveils the story of Maria Owens, who is accused of witchcraft in Salem and is the matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in PRACTICAL MAGIC and THE RULES OF MAGIC. In this interview, Hoffman talks about her decision to return to the Owens family in the form of a prequel; the most fun part of her research for the story, which is rich with historical details; the two special ladies in her life who have inspired her the most; and her next novel, which likely will be the conclusion to the Practical Magic series.

MAGIC LESSONS: The Prequel to Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
Audiobook available, read by Sutton Foster
Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Unnamed Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift, and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back. When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.

- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here for the discussion guide.

Read our review and the interview.

Featured Review: THE SILENCE by Don DeLillo

THE SILENCE by Don DeLillo (Fiction)
Audiobook available; read by Laurie Anderson, Jeremy Bobb, Marin Ireland, Robin Miles, Jay O. Sanders and Michael Stuhlbarg
It is Super Bowl Sunday in the year 2022. Five people, dinner, an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. The retired physics professor and her husband and her former student waiting for the couple who will join them from what becomes a dramatic flight from Paris. The conversation ranges from a survey telescope in North-central Chile to a favorite brand of bourbon to Einstein’s 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity. Then something happens, and the digital connections that have transformed our lives are severed. What follows is a dazzling and profoundly moving conversation about what makes us human. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

- Click here to read more about the book.