May 24, 2024

May 24, 2024

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The Peonies are Blooming!

Right on schedule, the peonies are bursting their blossoms. And of course, also on schedule, just as the early blooms came out, we had a forecast of severe thunderstorms. So I raced out to the garden and clipped enough for three bouquets before they became petals on the patio. You can see them above. Also, we inherited a peony plant from my mother-in-law’s garden, and this summer it bloomed with a lovely yellow flower. Years ago, my mom and I spent a lovely afternoon at Peony's Envy in Bernardsville, NJ, where they had some stunning species of peonies. It made for a wonderful memory.

Tom Donadio and I spent Wednesday at the U.S. Book Show: A Conference for Publishing Professionals, where we enjoyed a full day of programming about the business of publishing. While we often think of the author/reader relationship, there are so many other parts to the business of publishing that we are aware of but appreciated getting a deeper understanding of.

There were sessions about the basics, like how a P&L statement is created for a book --- and what is included in that --- to generate revenue and what that may look like over the lifespan of a book. I am not sure how many of you know that books are the only category of goods where unsold merchandise in a store may be returned for credit. It still astonishes me! What’s happening in AI, including a brief look at what five paid AI programs can generate, had us thinking about not just the effects of piracy, but how AI can make what we are working on sharper. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if we threw this newsletter into AI for editing?

A group of distinguished editors/publishers talked about what they think their super skill is --- the traits they have that make them good at their roles --- and what they have learned along the way. A panel about Spotify noted how they are going deep into the audio market where it already has captured music successfully. One thing I noted there: A cover needs to be really sharp and stand out to work in the very small format in which it appears on a phone screen.

We all hear about books being sold at auction (often, in reality, they are in full proposal or early manuscript form at that point). Six editors and agents took on this topic. Is it a “round-robin” auction or a “best bid,” and what happens if someone wants to preempt a buy? And yes, there is a chance that no one shows up to bid. I loved hearing each of their strategies. Also, what factors into this is the P&L, and often the number that can be a high bid comes from the corporate finance department. When I talk to authors, it’s interesting to hear not just who bought their book, but about others for whom there was an interest. And then there are the sales, the sell-in to stores --- from indies to chains to big-box stores to Amazon. What materials does sales need to best do their jobs? All these are components of a business in which the reader comes much further down the line.

It was a terrific day. Along with all of the great programming, there was a chance to see many publishing friends who we have not seen in four years --- and to meet others. It made me recall my first American Booksellers Conference that I attended 28 years ago this week, where I knew absolutely no one. I was in Chicago walking the floor of the conference center not sure which publisher published which books. I was a reader navigating what we would need to make a website for readers a reality. I put tons of paper catalogs into boxes (I still miss paper catalogs) and brought them to the shipping room at the conference center to send back to the office. And then I went to see Mission: Impossible, which made sense as that was what I felt like we were taking on, and I flew out the next day. From May until we launched on August 27th, we plotted, planned and revised.

My latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Terah Shelton Harris, who talks about her second novel, LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE. It’s our current Fiction Author Spotlight title and an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. In it, four siblings --- each fighting their own personal battle --- return home in the wake of their father's death in order to save their family's home from being sold out from under them.

Terah explains what heir property is and the research she did about it to inform her story. She talks about developing the plot from four different points of view and her inspiration for that. Terah always knows how a book will end when she begins writing, and she crafts the story towards that conclusion. She reveals who the easiest character was to write --- and who challenged her the most. Terah also shares the meaning of the dedication in the front of the book (which gave both of us a good laugh) and what’s next for her.

Be sure to watch the video here or to listen to the podcast here. And don’t miss my Bets On commentary in next week’s newsletter.

This is your last Weekly Update newsletter reminder to sign up for this month’s “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event, which will take place next Wednesday, May 29th at 8pm ET.

Our guest will be Ann Napolitano, and she will be talking about her New York Times bestseller, HELLO BEAUTIFUL, which was an Oprah's Book Club pick when it released last year. We also will touch on her 2004 debut novel, WITHIN ARM'S REACH, which is now available in a new paperback edition.

If you would like to ask Ann a question about the book on camera during the event and chat with her in our virtual green room before the event, please email me with your question using the subject line “Ann” by Wednesday at noon ET. Be sure to include your name, city and state, as well as your question. If you do not want to appear on camera but still would like to ask a question, please note that you want to be off camera, and share your question --- adding your name, city and state.

The newly released THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Stuart Turton, which is this month’s Top LibraryReads Pick, is the latest book we’re featuring in our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight.

Turton’s previous novels are THE 7½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE and THE DEVIL AND THE DARK WATER. His latest is a speculative thriller about an impossible murder that triggers a world-ending phenomenon that can only be stopped by the identification of the killer. Drawing inspiration from the novels of the Golden Age of Science Fiction and the tropes of a traditional Agatha Christie mystery, it introduces readers to an unreliable narrator with a marvelous secret and an ingenious puzzle with an existential question at its core: What does it truly mean to be human?

We have our review this week from Sarah Rachel Egelman, who has this to say: “Not just another post-apocalyptic survival tale, Stuart Turton’s new novel, THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, is full of curiosity, power, creativity and a unique understanding of family…. Overall, this is a fun, clever and provocative story about the end of one world and the beginning of a better one.” I am hoping to interview Stuart in early June!

The legendary Stephen King is back with a new collection of 12 short stories, many of which have never been published before. “You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes King in the afterword to YOU LIKE IT DARKER, which delves into the darker part of life --- both metaphorical and literal.

According to our reviewer Ray Palen, “YOU LIKE IT DARKER is dark but not in the overtly supernatural way you might expect. While there are definitely some otherworldly elements at play in this collection, most of the stories are deep explorations into the human condition and some dark souls that are in this world. Human monsters are always the worst kind anyway. There are connections to be found between some of these tales and more than a few Easter eggs left for those readers to discover and relish.”

Our reviewer Pamela Kramer also read the book and enjoyed it. Here are her thoughts on it: “YOU LIKE IT DARKER is not what I expected. It isn’t filled with horror stories or blood and gore. Rather, what Stephen King has done is take us on a stroll while he shares some dark anecdotes with us. These are tales with subtle twists that either take us by surprise or make us think about how huge the universe is and how little we know about the things that go bump in the dark of space. The stories are more about human nature and what we want to believe in than it is about supernatural evil --- good people caught in circumstances beyond their ken. King's imagination never seems to sleep.”

ONE PERFECT COUPLE, Ruth Ware’s latest work of psychological suspense, harks back to Agatha Christie’s classic AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. In this high-tension thriller that revolves around a new reality TV show, five couples are trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Ray Palen has our review and says, “Readers will be confounded as they try to figure out if any larger plan might be at play here --- a nearly impossible task as you are too busy being consumed by the deadly action of this very real game of 'Survivor.' ONE PERFECT COUPLE is Ruth Ware at her most cunning, and she does it all within the framework of an immensely popular form of entertainment that is wide open to this kind of speculation.”

A near-fatal health emergency in the summer of 2020 inspired IN MY TIME OF DYING, a powerful reflection on death --- and what might follow --- by award-winning reporter Sebastian Junger, who you may know as the bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM and FREEDOM.
 
Ray Palen (who clearly has been busy this week) calls IN MY TIME OF DYING “so well put together and both uplifting and eye-opening. While I am sorry that Junger (or anyone for that matter) would have to suffer like this, at least it happened to someone with the ability to share and examine the entire process from start to finish and give us all something to be thankful for about life.”
 
Other books we’re reviewing this week include:

• TABLE FOR TWO: For those Amor Towles fans who haven’t read this book yet, you’re in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood featuring one of his most beloved characters.
   
• THE SITUATION ROOM: George Stephanopoulos collaborates with Lisa Dickey to recount the history-making crises from the place where 12 presidents made their highest-pressure decisions: the White House Situation Room.
   
• REAL AMERICANS: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? That’s the question that Rachel Khong poses in her second novel, which is May’s Barnes & Noble Book Club selection, as well as this month’s “Read with Jenna” Today Show Book Club pick.

I’m Betting You’ll Love…
My latest Bets On selection is THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood, our recent Historical Fiction Author Spotlight title, which we reviewed last week. Click here for my Bets On commentary. And if you missed my interview with Ann from two weeks ago, be sure to watch or listen to it.
 
Revisiting My “Bookreporter Talks To” Interview with William Kent Krueger
Out in paperback this week is William Kent Krueger’s most recent stand-alone novel, THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, a Bets On title. In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances. I talked to Kent about the book last October in a special live interview when it released in hardcover. So if you missed the discussion or would like to check it out again, you can watch it here or listen to the podcast here.
 
Books Dad Will Want to Read…and Can Win!
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER is one of the seven books you can win for yourself or your dad in our Father’s Day contest. Others include AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present by Fareed Zakaria and THE MALACHI COVENANT by Dee Kelly Jr. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, June 14th at noon ET.
 
Summer Reading Contest Update
In this week’s Summer Reading contest, we gave away SUCH A LOVELY FAMILY by Aggie Blum Thompson. Next week’s prize book will be I WILL RUIN YOU by Linwood Barclay, a Bets On pick and another of our Father’s Day titles. The contest will go live on Tuesday, May 28th at noon ET.
 
Enter Our New Word of Mouth Contest
We have a new Word of Mouth contest to tell you about. Let us know by Friday, June 7th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win two huge 2024 releases: CAMINO GHOSTS by John Grisham and ERUPTION by Michael Crichton and James Patterson.
 
Vote in Our New Poll --- and Check Out Results from the Last Poll
For our latest poll, we’ve listed 30 fiction titles releasing in June, and we’re asking you which, if any, you’re planning to read. Click here to let us know.
 
In our previous poll, we listed 11 of my Bets On picks that are now or soon will be in paperback, and we asked which of these you have read or plan to read. Below are your top five picks, and you can see all the results here.

• THE RIVER WE REMEMBER by William Kent Krueger (57%)
• HOMECOMING by Kate Morton (50%)
• HAPPINESS FALLS by Angie Kim (38%)
• DROWNING by T. J. Newman (27%)
• THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE by Rachel Beanland (25%)

Earlier today, we heard the sad news that Caleb Carr has passed away from cancer at the age of 68.

Carr was the critically acclaimed author of such books as THE ALIENIST (which was adapted into a 10-episode series on TNT in 2018); THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS (a follow-up to THE ALIENIST that TNT turned into an eight-episode series in 2020); and SURRENDER, NEW YORK. In April, we reviewed his memoir, MY BELOVED MONSTER, which detailed his remarkable friendship with a half-wild rescue cat named Masha whom he adopted.

Carr also taught military history at Bard College and worked extensively in film, television and the theater. His military and political writings appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize is KAIROS by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann. Erpenbeck becomes the first German writer to win the prize (she was longlisted in 2018), and Hofmann is the first male translator to win it.
 
The novel, which was originally written in German, follows a destructive affair between a young woman and an older man in 1980s East Berlin, with the two lovers seemingly embodying East Germany’s crushed idealism. A meditation on hope and disappointment, KAIROS poses complex questions about freedom, loyalty, love and power.

Featured Review: YOU LIKE IT DARKER by Stephen King

YOU LIKE IT DARKER: Stories by Stephen King (Supernatural Thriller/Short Stories)
Audiobook available, read by Will Patton with Stephen King
“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to his new collection of 12 stories (many never-before-published) that delve into the darker part of life --- both metaphorical and literal. For half a century, King has been a master of the form, and these stories --- about fate, mortality, luck and the folds in reality where anything can happen --- are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in YOU LIKE IT DARKER, readers also will feel that exhilaration, again and again. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: ONE PERFECT COUPLE by Ruth Ware

ONE PERFECT COUPLE by Ruth Ware (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Imogen Church
Lyla’s post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, “One Perfect Couple,” she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, where they will compete against four other couples to win a cash prize. But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real --- and the stakes are life or death. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: IN MY TIME OF DYING
by Sebastian Junger

IN MY TIME OF DYING: How I Came Face-to-Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by Sebastian Junger (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Sebastian Junger
For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. Yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger --- a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical --- to undertake a scientific, philosophical and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

New Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight
and Featured Review:
THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD
by Stuart Turton

THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Stuart Turton (Dystopian Mystery/Thriller)
Outside the island, there is nothing. The world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island, it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists are living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island --- and everyone on it.

But the security system also has wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer --- and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

- Click here to read Stuart Turton's bio.
- Click here to visit Stuart Turton's website.
- Connect with Stuart Turton on Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read our review.

Click here to read more in our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight.

Fiction Author Spotlight and Featured Interview:
LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE by Terah Shelton Harris
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE by Terah Shelton Harris (Fiction)
"Don't let the white man take the house."

These are the last words King Solomon says to his son before he dies. Now all four Solomon siblings must return to North Carolina to save the Kingdom, their ancestral home and 200 acres of land, from a development company that has their sights set on turning the valuable waterfront property into a luxury resort.

While fighting to save the Kingdom, the siblings also must save themselves from the secrets they've been holding onto. Junior, the oldest son and married to his wife for 11 years, is secretly in love with another man. Second son Mance can't control his temper, which has landed him in prison more than once. CeCe, the oldest daughter and a lawyer in New York City, has embezzled thousands of dollars from her firm's clients. Youngest daughter Tokey wonders why she doesn't seem to fit into this family, which has left an aching hole in her heart that she tries to fill in harmful ways.

As the Solomons come together to fight for the Kingdom, each of their façades begins to crumble and collide in unexpected ways.

Told in alternating viewpoints, LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE is a searing portrait of the power of family and letting go of things that no longer serve you, exploring the burden of familial expectations, the detriment of miscommunication, and the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children.

- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read Terah Shelton Harris' bio.
- Click here to visit Terah Shelton Harris' website.
- Connect with Terah Shelton Harris on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Watch or listen to our "Bookreporter Talks To" interview
with Terah Shelton Harris.

Click here to read more in our Fiction Author Spotlight.

LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.
Don't miss Carol's Bets On commentary in next week's newsletter.

Bookreporter.com's 19th Annual
Father's Day Contest: Best Books for Dad

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? In our 19th annual "Best Books for Dad" contest, we have a selection of books that are perfect gift-giving suggestions for Dad, keeping him busy through the rest of the year. Five readers will be awarded a copy of each of our seven featured titles. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, June 14th at noon ET.

This year's prize books are:

• AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present by Fareed Zakaria
• ALL THE GLIMMERING STARS by Mark Sullivan
• ANIMALS I WANT TO SEE: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds by Tom Seeman
• I LIVED TO TELL THE WORLD: Stories from Survivors of Holocaust, Genocide, and the Atrocities of War by Elizabeth Mehren
• I WILL RUIN YOU by Linwood Barclay
• THE MALACHI COVENANT by Dee Kelly Jr.
• THE RIVER WE REMEMBER by William Kent Krueger

Click here to enter the contest.

Bookreporter.com Bets On:
THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood

THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood (Historical Fiction)
Ann Hood has been interested in World War I for a while. She has traveled to battlefields and read extensively on the subject. So her writing a novel, THE STOLEN CHILD, set partially in this time period makes a lot of sense. She knows her way around the facts to create a beautiful story up against them.

Nick Burns was a soldier in the war, and he has been haunted by something for decades. As enemy forces headed into town, a young woman thrust her baby and two of her paintings into this young American’s hands, imploring him to take care of her son. And then she was gone.

Nick was unable to keep the boy and left him in what he thought would be a safe place. But the child and these paintings, which he still has, have been on his mind for the longest time. What happened to the baby, and what happened to the painter?

- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to watch our "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Ann Hood.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.

Click here to read more of Carol's Bets On commentary.

Featured Review: TABLE FOR TWO by Amor Towles

TABLE FOR TWO: Fictions by Amor Towles (Fiction/Short Stories)
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini and J. Smith-Cameron
In TABLE FOR TWO, Amor Towles shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles’ novel, RULES OF CIVILITY, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself --- and others --- in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows and dive bars of Los Angeles. Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: THE SITUATION ROOM
by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey

THE SITUATION ROOM: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey (Politics/History)
Audiobook available, read by Peter Ganim and Elisabeth Rodgers
No room better defines American power and its role in the world than the White House Situation Room. And yet, none is more shrouded in secrecy and mystery. Created under President Kennedy, the Sit Room has been the epicenter of crisis management for presidents for more than six decades. Time and again, the decisions made within the Sit Room complex affect the lives of every person on this planet. Detailing close calls made and disasters narrowly averted, THE SITUATION ROOM will take readers through dramatic turning points in a dozen presidential administrations. It’s the definitive, past-the-security-clearance look at the room where it happened, and the people --- the famous and those you've never heard of --- who have made history within its walls. Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.

- Click here to read more about the book.

Click here to read our review.

Featured Review: REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong
May’s Barnes & Noble and “Read with Jenna”
Today Show Book Club Picks

REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong (Fiction)
Audiobook available; read by Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang and Eunice Wong
REAL AMERICANS begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when 22-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love. In 2021, 15-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.

» REAL AMERICANS is May's Barnes & Noble Book Club pick. On Tuesday, June 4th at 3pm ET, B&N will host a live virtual event with Rachel Khong. Click here to sign up.

- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
- Click here to see why the book is this month's "Read with Jenna" pick.

Click here to read our review.

Bookreporter.com's 20th Annual
Summer Reading Contests and Feature

More Reviews This Week

MIND GAMES by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
Audiobook available, read by January LaVoy
The Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother’s. But as 12-year-old Thea’s parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they’re about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb. Back in Kentucky, Thea and her grandmother, Lucy, both awaken from the same nightmare. And though the two have never discussed the special kind of sight they share, they know as soon as their tearful eyes meet that something terrible has happened. The kids will be staying with Grammie, and thanks to Thea’s vision, their parents’ killer will spend his life in supermax. Over time, Thea will make friends, build a career and find love. But that ability to see into minds and souls still lurks within her --- and the inmate who shattered her childhood has the same ability. Reviewed by Pamela Kramer.

AND THEN? AND THEN? WHAT ELSE? by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Michael Crouch
Writing as Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler has led several generations of young readers into that special and curious space of being hopelessly lost, and joyfully finding yourself, in the essential strangeness of literature. The wondrous and perilous journey of the Baudelaire orphans sprung from the author’s own path, from his childhood discovery of Baudelaire’s poetry through the countless peculiarities of his pursuit of a literary life --- abject failure and startling success, breakthrough and breakdown, concordance and controversy --- lit along the way by the books and culture he loved best. AND THEN? AND THEN? WHAT ELSE? is a book not just for anyone curious about the creator of Lemony Snicket, but for anyone who loved books when they were a child and still loves them now. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.

THE YANKEE WAY: The Untold Inside Story of the Brian Cashman Era by Andy Martino (Sports)
Audiobook available, read by Andy Martino
When Brian Cashman arrived in the Bronx as an intern in 1986, he discovered a team in chaos, run on impulse and emotion, and lacking the sheen that had defined the Yankees in earlier eras. Decades later, Cashman had risen through the ranks of the front office, earned the trust of the Steinbrenner family, and become the longest-serving GM in the Yankees’ storied history, helping to transform the Yankees to glory with a string of World Series championships and an unmatched streak of winning seasons. With unprecedented inside access and featuring exclusive interviews with Cashman, owner Hal Steinbrenner, top front-office executives, and current Yankee stars and coaches, award-winning baseball journalist Andy Martino gives fans a view from the GM’s seat that we would never normally see. Reviewed by Ron Kaplan (www.RonKaplansBaseballBookshelf.com).

WE LOVED IT ALL: A Memory of Life by Lydia Millet (Nature/Essays)
Audiobook available, read by Xe Sands
Emerging from Lydia Millet’s quarter-century of wildlife and climate advocacy, WE LOVED IT ALL marries scenes from her life with moments of nearness to “the others”--- the animals and plants with whom we share the earth. Accounts of fears and failures, jobs and friendships, childhood and motherhood are interspersed with accounts of nonhumans and meditations on the power of story to shape the future. Seeking to understand why we immerse ourselves in the domestic and immediate, turning away from more sweeping views, she examines how grand cultural myths can deny our longing for the company of nature and deprive us of its charisma and inspiration. The fear and grief of extinction and climate change, Millet suggests, are forms of love that might be turned to resistance. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

LEFT FOR DEAD: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World by Eric Jay Dolin (History)
Audiobook available, read by L.J. Ganser
In LEFT FOR DEAD, Eric Jay Dolin tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half. With deft narrative skill and unequaled knowledge of the very pith of the seafaring life, Dolin describes in vivid and harrowing detail the increasingly desperate existence of the castaways during their 18-month ordeal --- an all-too-common fate in the Great Age of Sail. Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds.

STILL WATERS by Matt Goldman (Domestic Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Helen Laser
Liv and Gabe Ahlstrom are estranged siblings who haven’t seen each other in years, but that’s about to change when they receive a rare call from their older brother’s wife. “Mack is dead,” she says. “He died of a seizure.” Five minutes after they hang up, Liv and Gabe each receive a scheduled email from their dead brother, claiming that he was murdered. The siblings return to their family-run resort in the Northwoods of Minnesota to investigate Mack's claims, but Leech Lake has more in store for them than either could imagine. Drawn into a tangled web of lies and betrayal that spans decades, they put their lives on the line to unravel the truth about their brother, their parents, themselves and the small town in which they grew up. Reviewed by Kate Ayers.

THE WHOLE TRUTH: A D.I. Adam Fawley Thriller by Cara Hunter (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available; read by Lee Ingleby, Emma Cunniffe and Roy McMillan
When DI Adam Fawley is assigned a sexual assault case filed by an Oxford student against a tenured professor, he expects the facts to match up with the far too many previous reports he’s investigated time and again. But neither he nor anyone on his team imagined the victim would turn out to be a male rugby player accusing one of the university’s most respected female professors. As the detectives try to unravel the truth behind the he said/she said crime, another threat arises --- someone with a personal grudge against Fawley. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

GUMSHOE LUCK: A Mortimer Angel Mystery by Rob Leininger (Mystery)
Mortimer Angel runs headlong into another girl and another adventure that twists and turns and ends up in places he never could have imagined. Like all the other Gumshoe novels, GUMSHOE LUCK is humorous, deadly and bawdy. [Note: The first book in the series, GUMSHOE, was nominated for a Shamus Award by the PI Writers of America for best PI novel of 2016. If you don't like sexy situations (written in an R-rated style, not X, not written explicitly), this won't be for you. A lot of people, however, like Mort's free-wheeling way of dealing with the world, and the women he meets along the way.] Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy.

Next Week's Notables:
Noteworthy Books Releasing on May 28th

Below are some notable titles releasing on May 28th that we would like to make you aware of. We will have more on many of these books in the weeks to come. For a list of additional hardcovers and paperbacks available the week of May 27th, see our “On Sale This Week” newsletter here.

THE CALL TO SERVE: The Life of an American President, George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham (Biography)
In honor of the 100th anniversary of George H. W. Bush’s birth, this visually stunning chronicle curated by Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham features never-before-published photos and memories celebrating the 41st president’s vision of leadership as service to country.

CAMINO GHOSTS by John Grisham (Thriller)
#1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham takes you back to Camino Island, where bookseller Bruce Cable and novelist Mercer Mann always manage to find trouble in paradise.

FIRST FROST: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
Going back and forth between 1964 and the present day, Craig Johnson brings us a propulsive dual timeline as Walt Longmire stands between the crossfire of good and evil, law and anarchy, and compassion and cruelty at two pivotal stages in his life.

KNIFE RIVER by Justine Champine (Literary Mystery)
KNIFE RIVER is a tense, intimate and heartrending portrayal of how deeply and imperfectly women love one another: in romantic relationships, in friendships and especially as sisters.

LONG HAUL: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (True Crime)
From the FBI’s former assistant director comes a shocking journey to the dark side of America’s highways, revealing the FBI Highway Serial Killings Initiative’s hunt for the long-haul truckers behind an astonishing 850 murders --- and counting.

THE PASSIONATE TUDOR: A Novel of Queen Mary I by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the dramatic and poignant life of King Henry VIII’s daughter --- infamously known as Bloody Mary --- who ruled England for five violent years.

THE SECOND COMING by Garth Risk Hallberg (Fiction)
From the New York Times bestselling author of CITY ON FIRE comes an intimate epic that plunges us deep into the lives of a troubled teenage girl and her estranged father when he returns home in an attempt to save her. Navigating love, grief, betrayal and redemption, Jolie and Ethan must find a way to survive as a family.

SOUTHERN MAN by Greg Iles (Political Thriller)
This hugely anticipated new Penn Cage novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and CEMETERY ROAD is about a man --- and a town --- rocked by anarchy and tragedy, but unbowed in the fight to save those they love.

SUMMER ON HIGHLAND BEACH by Sunny Hostin (Fiction)
"The View" cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin transports readers to Highland Beach in this captivating third novel of her New York Times bestselling Summer Beach series.

YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls (Romance/Humor)
From the internationally bestselling and Booker Prize-longlisted author of ONE DAY, one of the most enduring love stories of its generation, comes an uplifting and unputdownable love story about second chances.

Click here to see the latest "On Sale This Week" newsletter.

From left to right: Ann Napolitano, Sunny Hostin, Eve J. Chung

  Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

Here are three upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.

Wednesday, May 29th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will talk to three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin about her new book, SUMMER ON HIGHLAND BEACH, the captivating third entry in her Summer Beach series.

Wednesday, May 29th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Ann Napolitano about her most recent book, HELLO BEAUTIFUL, as well as her 2004 debut novel, WITHIN ARM'S REACH, which is available in a new paperback edition. Ann also will answer questions from guests who will be "on stage," as well as from other members of the audience. If you would like to be one of our featured audience guests and ask Ann a question on camera, please email Carol with the subject line “Ann” by May 29th at noon ET.

Thursday, May 30th at 6pm ET: Queens Public Library: Eve J. Chung will discuss her extraordinary debut novel, DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG, which is based on her family story about a mother and her daughters and their harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China.

 "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 is our latest interview:

• Terah Shelton Harris (LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE) Video | Podcast

Other authors we've interviewed this year include:

• Mary Kay Andrews (SUMMERS AT THE SAINT) Video | Podcast
• Ashley Elston (FIRST LIE WINS) Video | Podcast
• Katherine Faulkner (THE OTHER MOTHERS) Video | Podcast
• Simone Gorrindo (THE WIVES: A Memoir) Video | Podcast
• Tamron Hall (WATCH WHERE THEY HIDE: A Jordan Manning Novel) Video | Podcast
• Kristin Hannah (THE WOMEN) Video | Podcast
• Ann Hood (THE STOLEN CHILD) Video | Podcast
• Megan Miranda (DAUGHTER OF MINE) Video | Podcast
• Amanda Peters (THE BERRY PICKERS) Video | Podcast
• Anna Quindlen (AFTER ANNIE) Video | Podcast
• Hank Phillippi Ryan (ONE WRONG WORD) Video | Podcast

Upcoming interviews include:

• Genevieve Kingston (DID I EVER TELL YOU?: A Memoir)
• Ruth Reichl (THE PARIS NOVEL)

Click here for a complete list of our
"Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts.

Our Latest Poll: June Fiction Releases to Anticipate

Click here to vote in the poll by Friday, June 7th at noon ET.

Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What
You're Reading --- and You Can Win Two Books!

Click here to enter the contest.

Quick Links to Features on Bookreporter.com

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"Bookreporter Talks To" Videos & Podcasts | "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books"
  Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks | Book Festivals

Please visit the other websites in TheBookReportNetwork.com: ReadingGroupGuides.com and AuthorsOnTheWeb.com.

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