November 25, 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 $36,870 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.

Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Jacqueline Winspear,
whose memoir, THIS TIME NEXT YEAR WE'LL BE LAUGHING, is a Bets On pick.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.

On November 13th, we hosted our "9 1/2 Annual" Book Group Speed Dating event
for booksellers, librarians and book club leaders. More than 70 books releasing in winter/spring 2021
that would make great book group selections were presented by 18 publishers.
Click on the image above to watch the presentation.

On November 11th, we hosted our last “Bookaccino Live” event of the year.
Carol presented books releasing between November 10th and January 5th, as well as
four publishing in February. Click on the image above to watch the presentation.
You also can see a list of the featured titles here.

On Wednesday, January 13th at 2pm ET, we will host our first "Bookaccino Live" event of 2021.
Carol will present a number of books releasing between January 12th and February 2nd
that she would like to get on your radar. Click on the image above to sign up.

Our second “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event will take place on Thursday, January 21st at 8pm ET. Our guest will be William Kent Krueger, who will talk about THIS TENDER LAND.
Click on the image above to sign up. If you would like to be one of our “live panelists”
and ask Kent a question, please fill out this form.

Carol's table is all set for Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A short holiday work week means that we all were working double time! Whew, we literally turned out a full update in 2 1/2 days. So once again I wave my mouse at our Editorial Director, Tom Donadio, with appreciation!

There’s lots to share. First, we have our interview with Jacqueline Winspear; the title of her new book, THIS TIME NEXT YEAR WE’LL BE LAUGHING (a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick), coincidentally could be our mantra. After 16 novels, she has taken the bold step of turning to memoir, revealing the hardships and joys of her family history. Both shockingly frank and deftly restrained, her story tackles the difficult, poignant and fascinating family accounts of three generations --- her grandparents, her parents, and she and her brother. Her childhood was spent picking hops and fruit on farms in rural Kent, capturing her ties to the land and her dream of being a writer at its very inception. Jackie talks about this eye-opening and heartfelt portrayal of a post-War England that we rarely see and how she pulled together these memories. She also discusses the experience of narrating the audiobook. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.

On Wednesday, January 13th at 2pm ET, we will be hosting our next "Bookaccino Live" afternoon event. I will present titles releasing between January 12th and February 2nd, along with a few from March, that I would like to get on your radar. Click here to register. Those attending the live event will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win prizes. We have changed our signup system; you will now sign up directly via Zoom. It will eliminate our spending time searching out duplicate names! Please note to be very careful with the spelling of your email address as that will be needed to access the program. When we send our confirmation emails, I typically fix at least six addresses that have easily seen typos.

If you missed our November 11th “Bookaccino Live” event, where I talked about books coming out from mid-November to early January, along with four February releases, you can watch the presentation here and see a list of the featured titles here.

Earlier this month, we hosted our “9 1/2” Annual Book Group Speed Dating event for booksellers, librarians and book club leaders. Eighteen publishers presented more than 70 books that they think will be of interest to book groups for winter/spring 2021. You can watch these presentations here. In the next couple of weeks, we will share a link to our PowerPoint of the featured titles, as well as an Excel spreadsheet that lists the books both by publisher and alphabetically by title. And we will break out the presentations by publisher as well.

Coming off the heels of our first “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event featuring Jeanine Cummins, which was a huge success and so much fun, we are happy to announce that our next Book Group event will take place on Thursday, January 21st at 8pm ET. Our guest will be William Kent Krueger, who will talk about THIS TENDER LAND. You will be signing up for this event via Zoom as well. We will be looking for audience volunteers to ask questions, so if you would like to participate in this portion of the program, please share your question here. You still need to register for the event via Zoom; this is an additional signup. By the way, our long lead time gives you time to read the book before this event, as we will assume people have read it and will be talking spoilers.

Now to this week’s update...

The murder of a glamorous DC socialite becomes Alex Cross’ deadliest case since ALONG CAME A SPIDER. That’s the tantalizing tagline to DEADLY CROSS, the 28th installment in James Patterson’s long-running series featuring the beloved detective and psychologist. According to Joe Hartlaub, the book “feels as if Patterson, even at this late date in his career, is hitting a new plateau in the series, which should spark renewed interest in this already extremely popular character and author.”

PIECE OF MY HEART is the final collaboration between the late Mary Higgins Clark, the “Queen of Suspense,” and her bestselling co-author, Alafair Burke. Television producer Laurie Moran must solve the kidnapping of her fiancée’s nephew --- just days before her wedding. Our reviewer Pamela Kramer points out, “The ending is clearly what Clark and Burke had cleverly foreshadowed, but it is also filled with unpredictable turns and some unexpected emotion…. PIECE OF MY HEART would be a fabulous book club choice because the authors write so thoughtfully about family, love and sacrifice."

Philippa Gregory’s new historical novel, DARK TIDES, tracks the rise of the Tidelands family in London, Venice and New England. Katherine B. Weissman has our review and says, “I’m not going to ruin the plot by disclosing what Sarah finds in Venice, but I must emphasize that Livia…is a beautiful, manipulative, fascinatingly duplicitous creature. Her sheer wickedness lends energy to the narrative, and I’ll bet that Gregory had fun writing her…. Gregory’s storytelling chops and engagement in the untold history of women makes this book an inspiring feminist entertainment.” We've also added the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com, which you can see here.

DARK TIDES is one of the books we’re giving away in our Word of Mouth contest; the other is Michael J. Fox’s new memoir, NO TIME LIKE THE FUTURE: An Optimist Considers Mortality, which we plan to review next week. Submit your comments about the books you’ve read by Friday, December 4th at noon ET, and you’ll be in the running to win both these titles.

Other books we’re reviewing this week include WAR LORD, the final installment in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales series, which chronicles the epic story of the making of England --- the basis for the hit Netflix series “The Last Kingdom”; IN THE LION’S DEN, the highly anticipated second book in Barbara Taylor Bradford’s House of Falconer saga, which spans the years from 1889 to 1892 and recounts various setbacks in James Lionel Falconer’s seemingly charmed life; TOM SEAVER: A Terrific Life, baseball columnist Bill Madden’s authoritative biography of the Hall of Fame pitching legend, who is still the greatest player ever to wear a Mets jersey; and DEARLY, Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade, which addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature --- and zombies.

In this week’s Holiday Cheer contest, we gave away MUSICAL CHAIRS by Amy Poeppel. Next week’s prizes will be A DOG’S PERFECT CHRISTMAS by W. Bruce Cameron, FINDING MRS. FORD by Deborah Goodrich Royce, and ON OCEAN BOULEVARD by Mary Alice Monroe. The first contest of the week will go live on Monday, November 30th at noon ET.

Our poll continues to ask which of 25 titles releasing this month and next month you are planning to read, if any. Click here to let us know what you are looking forward to reading!

The Grammy nominations were announced this week. Of particular interest to us are the nominees for Best Spoken Word Album. They are ACID FOR THE CHILDREN: A Memoir written and read by Flea; THE ANSWER IS…: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek, read by Ken Jennings and Alex Trebek; BLOWOUT: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth written and read by Rachel Maddow; CATCH AND KILL: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators written and read by Ronan Farrow; and CHARLOTTE’S WEB by E.B. White, read by Meryl Streep and a full cast. The winner will be announced on Sunday, January 31st during the 63rd Grammy Awards telecast on CBS.

So you can sound smart at your Thanksgiving table, here’s some trivia. The copyright on THE GREAT GATSBY will expire at the end of 2020. What does this mean? In 2021, anyone will be allowed to publish the book, adapt it to a movie, make it into an opera or stage a Broadway musical. We learned this week that there is a new edition coming out with an introduction by John Grisham. An interesting moment in publishing!

News & Pop Culture

Reader Mail:

Cheryl wrote, “I just wanted to thank you for spotlighting and promoting authors and their books. I have watched every single 'Bookreporter Talks To' segment, some of them two or three times. I watch when you post them, and again before I start each new book, and then again when I finish the book. Your recent 'Bookaccino Live' Book Group event has me really excited to read AMERICAN DIRT. The past three days, I've read THIS TENDER LAND, SEARCHING FOR SYLVIE LEE and THE NIGHT BEFORE. I'm always excited when you put up a new segment and get intrigued to see what questions you will ask the authors. Your questions are exactly what I want to know, and gets me really excited to read a new book or a new author. To you and your team, thank you for all you do for us readers.” What a lovely note to get. And Cheryl, you are one very avid reader! Thank you for your note; we already are working on our interview plans for 2021!

"The Queen’s Gambit”: It is now Netflix’s most successful limited scripted series, with 62 million household views in the first 28 days. No wonder chess sets are flying out of stores. Oh, and the book on which it is based was #3 on the New York Times bestseller list last week. I love seeing that.

Lisa Scottoline’s ETERNAL: Every Tuesday night at 7:30pm ET on her Facebook page, Lisa screens a new episode of her fabulous “Behind the Book: Talking ETERNAL” video series, followed by a Facebook Live event telling you about the research she did in Rome. ETERNAL will be out on March 23rd, and it’s terrific. I love seeing the story behind the book.

Hillbilly Elegy on Netflix: I watched it last night, and I just did not love it. I wanted to, but I felt like it was overplayed.

Let Them All Talk on HBO Max: This was filmed on the Queen Mary 2 on her seven-day Transatlantic Crossing from New York to Southampton and will air on December 10th. Why am I sharing this? Well, it’s about an author who has a book due and has hit a dry spell. So she is packed off on a cruise to "work on her novel" with her two best friends and her nephew. It stars Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen, Gemma Chan, Lucas Hedges and Dianne Wiest. Here's the trailer. I think author friends will tell you that writing a book is nothing like this.

This Saturday is Small Business Saturday. Shop local, including at your local bookstore. Many small retail businesses have had a particularly rough time during the pandemic, and they can use your support! Saturday is also Indies First Day.

Thanks to all of you for reading this newsletter, enjoying the reviews on our website and attending/watching our live events. Your being a part of Bookreporter is the reason that we get to do what we enjoy so much.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter how you are celebrating. Above is a photo of my table set for the holiday. I feel like Thanksgiving this year is a placemat kind of a holiday, not a fussy tablecloth. We still are making our typical adventuresome menu, and we all look forward to next year when there will be many more around the table. We really hope Jackie Winspear has it right and that this time next year we'll be laughing.

Once the turkey dinner is done, I am ready to start decorating for Christmas. I already plucked the pumpkins off the front porch. Most of the mums have been composted. It’s time for evergreens and lots of lights. See you in December.

Read on, and have a great week and a half.

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: DEADLY CROSS by James Patterson

DEADLY CROSS by James Patterson (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Brad Sanders
Kay Willingham led a life as glamorous as it was public --- she was a gorgeous Georgetown socialite, philanthropist and the ex-wife of the vice president. So why was she parked in a Bentley convertible idling behind a DC private school, in the middle of the night, with the man who was the head of that school? Who shot them both, point blank, and why? The shocking double homicide is blazed across the internet, TV, newspapers --- and across Alex Cross' mind. Kay had been his patient once. And maybe more. She had many enemies, but all of them seemed to need her alive. The harder the investigators push, the more resistance they find when they leave behind the polite law offices and doctors' quarters of the state capital. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

- Click here to read more about the book.