November 5, 2021
 November 5, 2021 An Extra Hour for Reading! Longtime readers know how much I love this weekend. It’s time for me to get back the hour that I have been missing since we started Daylight Saving Time in March. And I also have at least 24 ways to spend this one hour! 2022 books have been making their way to the house, and these are the moments when I realize that work from home means I really, really need to get a handle on an organization system for these books. I want to read them all –- now. I already can see that this is going to be another great year for reading! I looked last night, and my interview with Stephanie Land about MAID has more than 7,700 views on YouTube --- in just three weeks. And that is not counting the podcast numbers --- or Facebook views. Wow! And the book is #2 again this week on the New York Times paperback nonfiction list. I love seeing that people are seeking out the book after watching the Netflix series.  My latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Nicole Baart, whose new thriller, EVERYTHING WE DIDN’T SAY, was the top Book of the Month Club selection for October and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. The book is set in a small town in Iowa and is told in dual time periods. The earlier time period follows siblings Juniper and Jonathan, who grow up on a small farm. Juniper leaves when she's 19, shortly after a neighboring farm couple are murdered. For years, Jonathan has been the prime suspect. Now Juniper is back to defend him, and a true-crime podcaster is hot on the trail of the unsolved mystery. The story is a slow burn that gets more and more intense as the pages flip, and I did NOT see the ending coming. Nicole loves true-crime podcasts and talks to me about their influence on her. She explains what attracts her to writing about small towns, as well as her inspiration for the novel. She also talks about her nonprofit organization, One Body One Hope, its mission and how it has impacted her life. Plus, we get to hear a little about what she's working on next. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast. Norah Piehl has our review and says, "Nicole Baart’s novel demonstrates a real understanding and fondness for small town and rural life, acknowledging the insularity, petty jealousies and resentments that can mar any community or family while also showing how both can adapt.... Along with being an effective mystery, EVERYTHING WE DIDN’T SAY is an exploration of how both people and communities can evolve in surprising ways." Don’t miss my Bets On commentary in next week’s newsletter.  Announcing Our New Special Contest! Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo is a popular congressman representing his gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn, while his sister, Olga, is a wedding planner for Manhattan’s power brokers. Ironically, Olga can’t seem to find her own love story...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets. Olga and Prieto’s mother, Blanca, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, during hurricane season, Blanca has stormed back into their lives. OLGA DIES DREAMING doesn’t release until January 4th, but we have 25 advance copies to give away to those who would like to read the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, November 19th at noon ET.  “In Case You Missed Them…and a Look Ahead”: Heather Gudenkauf  This week, we are featuring our review of Katie Couric’s much-talked-about memoir, GOING THERE. According to Cindy Burnett, “While the details of Couric’s career trajectory and her many ups and downs are engaging, her tales about operating in a predominantly male world stand out and will especially resonate with female readers…. The personal and conversational tone that Couric strikes carries the book; she writes as if she is talking to a good friend as she relays her story. Readers will feel like they have spent time chatting with someone they know and, by the end, someone they know reasonably well.” I am reading GOING THERE now as my book group is going to discuss it in December. When it came out, there was a lot of discussion about whether my group members wanted to listen to it on audio or read it in print. I am so looking forward to this discussion and seeing the format they read it in!  Gary Shteyngart is back with his first novel in three years, OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS, which has been getting lots of buzz due to its premise. In March 2020, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, each character will be forced to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. Our reviewer Harvey Freedenberg says, “In contrast to the early months of the pandemic, when some days seemed to stretch on for weeks, OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS flows so smoothly and gracefully that our parting from its characters almost feels as if it comes too quickly. Everyone who lived through the fraught experience of 2020 will have vivid and enduring memories of that 'year of imperfect vision.' Whatever those may be, they’ll be sharpened when viewed through the lens of this keenly intelligent novel.” OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS is November’s Barnes & Noble Book Club pick. On Tuesday, December 7th at 3pm ET, B&N will host a virtual event featuring Shteyngart. Click here to register. This coming Tuesday, Caitlin Starling will talk to Victoria Lee about THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE, which was October’s B&N selection. There’s still time to sign up for that event here. Other books we’re reviewing this week include:
Quick Takes on Regular Features We’ve also updated our Books on Screen feature for this month. November's roundup includes the series premieres of "Dexter: New Blood" on Showtime and "The Wheel of Time" on Amazon Prime Video; the season finales of "American Rust" on Showtime, "The Morning Show" on Apple TV+ and "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol" on Peacock; the conclusion of the Hulu miniseries "Dopesick"; the films Debbie Macomber's A Mrs. Miracle Christmas, Nantucket Noel, House of Gucci and Clifford the Big Red Dog; and the DVD releases of My Salinger Year, Flag Day and Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.    It was announced this week that THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES by Elif Shafak is Reese’s Book Club pick for November. Here’s what Reese has to say about the book: “What a wonderful read! Let me start by saying that this book moved me to tears...in the best way…. It is a powerful and poignant story about love, grief, exile --- and a fig tree who sees it all…. Most of all, I love the message at heart: humanity and nature are interwoven and despite our differences, there is far more that unites us.” We will feature our review later this month. This month’s “Read with Jenna” Today Show Book Club pick is THE FAMILY by Naomi Krupitsky, a debut novel about the tangled fates of two best friends and daughters of the Italian mafia, and a coming-of-age story of 20th-century Brooklyn itself. Krupitsky told “Today,” “One of the most important things to me that I hope readers find is this sense of play between opposites. The characters in the book are really violent, but you really love them. The girls are really sort of polar opposites, but they find strength in each other and that sort of refusal to see anything as black and white really informed me when I was writing.” STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman is November’s “Good Morning America” Book Club pick. Here’s what “GMA” has to say about the book, which takes place in Italy during World War II: “As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening together. It's such a page-turner, and Winman will draw you into the lives of her characters: Ulysses Temper, a young British soldier and one-time globe-maker, and Evelyn Skinner, a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and relive her memories of her youth. Their meeting sets off a course of events that will shape Ulysses' life for the next four decades.” For more November selections, including the Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, see our “Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks” feature here. Enter Our New Word of Mouth Contest Vote in Our New Poll --- and Check Out Results from the Last Poll Our previous poll asked which of 30 October releases you have read or are planning to read. Here are your top five picks: THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY by Amor Towles (54%), THE JUDGE'S LIST by John Grisham (45%), STATE OF TERROR by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (32%), OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout (29%), and LAST GIRL GHOSTED by Lisa Unger (28%). Click here for all the results.  This is your last weekly newsletter reminder to sign up for this month’s “Bookaccino Live” afternoon event, which will take place this Wednesday, November 10th at 2pm ET. I will present a number of titles releasing from November 9th through the end of the year, along with a few from January and February, that we are especially excited about. Please keep in mind that attendees of the live event will be invited to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading. Those who do will be eligible to win a prize! Be sure to register here by 1pm ET on Wednesday the 10th, and we will send you a list of the featured titles before the event.  Please keep in mind that we will be hosting our “10½ Annual” Book Group Speed Dating event next Friday, November 12th from 1pm ET to 3pm ET. Representatives from 17 publishers will present books that will be published from now through May that they think will be perfect for book groups to discuss. So if you are a bookseller, librarian or book club leader of multiple book groups and would like to attend this event virtually, please email me with the subject line "Speed Dating" and tell me about your trade affiliation so I can add you to the signup list.  Also remember that on Tuesday, November 16th at 8pm ET, we will be hosting our "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event with author guest Jim DeFede. His 2002 book, THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, served as the basis for the smash hit Broadway musical "Come From Away," which is now streaming on Apple TV+. Click here to register for the event. If you have a question for Jim that you would like to ask on camera during the event, please send me an email with the subject line “Question for Jim DeFede.”  This year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Damon Galgut for THE PROMISE. Set in South Africa during the country’s transition out of apartheid, the book explores the interconnected relationships between the members of a diminishing white family through the sequential lens of four funerals. THE PROMISE is Galgut’s ninth novel and first in seven years; his debut was published when he was just 17. Click here to read more about the author and this modern family saga. News & Pop Culture Reader Mail: Barb wrote, “Many thanks. My copy of THE MARRIAGE LIE arrived today. Looking forward to reading it. I'm a big mystery fan! I love your newsletters, and I enjoy reading about what you're cooking, plants you're growing and everything else.” Jeanne wrote, “As soon as I see a Bookreporter newsletter in my email, I immediately jump ahead and read yours first because I know without a doubt it’s going to be chock full of great reading recommendations, interviews and a slew of other fabulous items. I wanted to let you know that I selected the books I really, really want to read in the poll --- DEAR SANTA by Debbie Macomber and STATE OF TERROR by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny. I’ve read them both already, so I wasn’t sure if I should check them since I’ve read them. Obviously, they are two I would want to read since I already have LOL. Though from very different genres, both were fantastic and well written. I wish the entire staff of Bookreporter a safe, happy Halloween weekend. Thank you for all the hard work you put into your outstanding newsletter.” I am so happy that you shared these in the poll! "Wine & Words with Wade": It was a fun evening last week on Wade Rouse's weekly show; his guest was Mary Kay Andrews. They discussed THE SECRET OF SNOW, which he wrote under the pen name Viola Shipman, as well as Mary Kay's holiday book, THE SANTA SUIT, in a segment they called "Make Your Holidays Gay with MKA." "Yellowstone" on Paramount Network: It’s back on Sunday! And again I will be all over lines like, “Take the chopper; it will take too long with the truck.” "Succession" on HBO: I loved last week when the FBI was in the building to raid the Waystar offices, and Logan acted like they could be turned away. "American Rust" on Showtime: The finale is on Sunday night; I am trying to figure out how this is going to end. I have a few theories, but I keep knocking them around. It’s one of those shows that I had no idea where it was headed, but it has a slow burn to it. "Dopesick" on Hulu: This miniseries is really well done, though one episode a week is a bit maddening. Yes, I love to binge. "The Morning Show" on Apple TV+: To me, it jumped the shark last week. Seriously. The scenes in Italy. Jumped it. My Name is Pauli Murray on Amazon Prime Video: I caught a screening of this documentary last night. Pauli is a huge figure who I knew nothing about; the path of Pauli's life --- and the advocacy and fights taken on --- mirror the biggest political and social issues of the last century. It’s very well done. Here's the trailer. "Station Eleven" on HBO Max: A teaser trailer was released for this miniseries based on Emily St. John Mandel’s book, which launches on December 16th. Peyton and Eli Manning: Scott Shepherd had this to say about them this week: “The Manning Brothers are making 'Monday Night Football' entertaining again. Check out the Peyton and Eli show on ESPN2 — most Monday nights this fall.” I have to watch; so many are talking about this! Dear Rider on HBO: This documentary, which debuts Tuesday, will look at snowboarding pioneer Jake Burton Carpenter. The thing about Halloween is that, yes, there are candy leftovers (I was fueled on snack size candy packs this week), but now I also must pack up the light-up pumpkins and everything else that I managed to bring down from the attic last weekend in a flurry of trick-or-treat celebration madness. I went a tad overboard, ignoring my usual holiday decorating technique where I hold up each item in the attic and ask, “Will I really want to have to put this away in a few weeks?” A complete lack of self-control will mean more than a couple of trips back to the attic. Greg is headed to upstate New York for a Land Rover event this weekend. Cory is on a three-week road trip that this week had him in New Orleans. Yes, he ate at Mr. B’s, listened to some great music, and took a pontoon boat ride where the driver was the person who tracked down and killed the alligator that had eaten a man during Hurricane Ida. Seriously. He had photos. Now I remember why I like the pool. I told Cory to check out the Carousel Bar and Lounge in the Hotel Monteleone and grab beignets at Café du Monde, which is the usual tourist fare. His goal last night was to eat dinner on a balcony restaurant. We still have not had a hard frost here, so I have yet to really clean up the gardens. Flowers were still blooming last weekend. Tom did cover the lettuces and the herbs that are outside. I am trying to figure out if we can bring the plant rack that we have outdoors into the kitchen. Tom jokes that I have no spatial orientation for things like this. He is right! There was another time when I told him we could knock down a wall to make a room bigger. He said that then the second floor would come down as that is a load-bearing wall. See, this is why I did not marry a writer; I need someone who has a different skill set...as in his case, an engineer. We have been enjoying shopping at a local farmers' market on Sunday mornings. Last weekend, I bought three different --- and all amazing --- radishes. And so much lettuce...all kinds. Mine here at the house is in no way going to produce the same way. But we are eating a lot of salads! I also have been buying huge bunches of eucalyptus, which I love dried all over the house. I replenish it at this time every year. For the record, I tried to grow radishes and eucalyptus. I am a master at neither, so bring on the farmers' market! Also at the market, Nicola’s Pasta Fresca has a stand, and we love Chef Nicola's ravioli and pastas. We have been following this business since he started it, and they just added mail order delivery to certain states in the country. You can see what you can order here. We recommend the pumpkin ravioli, as well as the apple fennel! And we have beet ravioli here to try. Spend your extra hour wisely! Enjoy, and have a great week.     Featured Review: GOING THERE by Katie Couric  GOING THERE by Katie Couric (Memoir) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review:  OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS by Gary Shteyngart (Fiction/Humor) » On Tuesday, December 7th at 3pm ET, Gary Shteyngart will talk about OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS during a B&N Book Club virtual event. Click here to sign up. - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review:  EVERYTHING WE DIDN’T SAY by Nicole Baart (Domestic Thriller/Mystery) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. EVERYTHING WE DIDN'T SAY will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.  New Special Contest:  In Xochitl Gonzalez's debut novel, OLGA DIES DREAMING, a status-driven wedding planner grapples with her social ambitions, absent mother and Puerto Rican roots --- all in the wake of Hurricane Maria. We have 25 advance copies to give away to those who would like to read the book, which releases on January 4th. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, November 19th at noon ET. OLGA DIES DREAMING by Xochitl Gonzalez (Fiction) Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the one percent, but she can’t seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets. Olga and Prieto’s mother, Blanca, a Young Lord turned radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives. Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Xochitl Gonzalez’s OLGA DIES DREAMING is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream --- all while asking what it really means to weather a storm. - Click here to read an excerpt. Click here to enter the contest.  New Spotlight Feature: Bookreporter.com’s  Sometimes you hear about a book and just do not have time to read it. Other times, you have missed hearing about a book, and we would like to tell you about it. We do not want you to miss books that we think you will enjoy! In this feature, we are sharing books that you might not have read, and we also are getting the author’s next book on your radar. So then you never will need to say, “I missed them!” In our latest "In Case You Missed Them...and a Look Ahead" feature, we are spotlighting four psychological thrillers by Heather Gudenkauf: the previously released NOT A SOUND, BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND and THIS IS HOW I LIED, and the forthcoming THE OVERNIGHT GUEST, which will be in stores on January 25th. Click here to read more about these titles and for links to reviews and excerpts. NOT A SOUND: When a tragic accident leaves nurse Amelia Winn deaf, she spirals into a depression that ultimately causes her to lose everything that matters. Now, two years later and with the help of her hearing dog, she is finally getting back on her feet. But when she discovers the body of a fellow nurse in the dense bush by the river, deep in the woods near her cabin, she is plunged into a disturbing mystery that could shatter the carefully reconstructed pieces of her life all over again. BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND: For 12-year-old Cora Landry and her friends, Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover --- movies and Ouija and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences. Later that night, Cora is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. Soon their small rural town is thrust into a maelstrom. THIS IS HOW I LIED: Twenty-five years ago, the body of 16-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa --- discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold. For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. THE OVERNIGHT GUEST: True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace. As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls --- haunted by secrets of her own. Click here to read more in our Featured Review: WOKE UP THIS MORNING  WOKE UP THIS MORNING: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, with Philip Lerman (Performing Arts/Oral History) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review: THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE  THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman (Mystery) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review. Featured Review:  THE WICKED WIDOW: A Wicked City Novel by Beatriz Williams (Historical Romance) - Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read our review.    November’s New in Paperback Roundups
November's roundup of New in Paperback fiction titles includes THE KAISER'S WEB, Steve Berry's 16th Cotton Malone adventure, in which a secret dossier from a World War II-era Soviet spy comes to light containing information that, if proven true, would not only rewrite history --- it could impact Germany's upcoming national elections and forever alter the political landscape of Europe; Tana French's THE SEARCHER, a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense that asks what we sacrifice in our search for truth and justice, and what we risk if we don't; LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam, a magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong; and MOONFLOWER MURDERS, a brilliantly complex literary thriller featuring Anthony Horowitz's famous literary detective Atticus Pünd and retired publisher Susan Ryeland.
Among our nonfiction highlights are UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN, an urgent primer on race and racism from Emmanuel Acho, the host of the viral hit video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man”; IS THIS ANYTHING?, the first book in 25 years from Jerry Seinfeld, which features his best work across five decades in comedy; THE LUCKIEST MAN, a deeply personal and candid remembrance of the late Senator John McCain from one of his closest and most trusted confidants, friends and political advisors, Mark Salter; and MANTEL PIECES, a stunning collection of reviews, essays and pieces of memoir from two-time Booker Prize winner and international bestseller Hilary Mantel, whose subjects range far and wide.
Find out what's New in Paperback for the weeks of
November 1st, November 8th, November 15th, November 22nd and November 29th.    November’s Books on Screen Feature Here is a preview of this month's movies, TV shows and DVDs that are based on books. For a complete list of November's offerings, please click here.
Debbie Macomber's A Mrs. Miracle Christmas Clifford the Big Red Dog Nantucket Noel
"Dexter: New Blood" "The Wheel of Time"
"American Rust" "Dopesick" (8-episode limited series) "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol" "The Morning Show"
My Salinger Year    More Reviews This WeekTHE NAMELESS ONES by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller) BURNING BOY: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane by Paul Auster (Biography) THE CORRESPONDENTS: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II by Judith Mackrell (History) THE WISDOM OF CROWDS by Joe Abercrombie (Historical Fantasy) A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by Freya Marske (Historical Fantasy) RIGHT BEHIND HER by Melinda Leigh (Mystery/Thriller) MURDER AT GREYSBRIDGE: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter (Mystery) WHAT THE AMISH TEACH US: Plain Living in a Busy World by Donald B. Kraybill (Cultural Studies/History)   
Next Week’s Notables:
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