Archives - Weekly Update

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a reading that Gregg Hurwitz did for his new book, TRUST NO ONE. I loved this book when I read a very early galley over the Christmas holiday and am glad we now can share it with you as it came out this week. Gregg told two wonderful back stories on things that influenced the book. He is a self-confessed insomniac, and the opener, which is dramatic and powerful (you can read it here), came to him one night when he was lying in bed and started thinking, “What is the worst thing that could happen at this time of night?” And from there he conceived the book’s opening scene that takes place at 2:18AM. He also was not allowed to watch television as a child except for Red Sox games and Hitchcock movies. Hitchcock very much influenced his writing as he liked the kind of a story where the character gets plunged in somewhere and from there it becomes a series of what ifs. Gregg is a terrific presenter, so if you ever get the opportunity to see him at a book reading or signing, go.

This holiday weekend finds my older son, Greg, on the Isle of Man. I asked if he was opening an offshore account. He remarked no worries; he instead was looking for Jeremy Clarkson from "Top Gear," the British car show that the boys and my husband think is soooo clever and funny. (The kind of show that will drive me out of the room when the theme music comes up.) He also reminded me that Thomas the Tank Engine (whose theme music also can drive me from the room, but also makes me wistfully remember Greg’s toddler years) and his friends live on the Island of Sodor and that Rev. W. Awdry took the name from the Isle of Man's diocese, which is 'Sodor and Man'. See what traveling is teaching him? It makes me wonder WHY I am paying for college. Maybe I should just send him on vacations. And Greg, that is a joke.

I feel like I live in Seattle these days. The rain has left the New York metropolitan area in a perpetual state of damp. Yesterday I got so wet walking just a block that my shoes were squeaky for the rest of the day. We opened the pool a month ago, and it was beautifully crystal clear within a day for the first time in years. And it has stayed that way. I think it’s too cold for algae to grow! Of course, it has been so cold that I hopped in and out just twice and both times decided that I am not a 60-degree water kind of girl.

Last weekend the weather was amazing, so it was time for outdoor reading. I started with PERFECTION, a memoir by Julie Metz. After her husband’s sudden death, Julie learned that for years, unbeknownst to her, he had been having affairs with women, one of whom was the mother of her daughter’s best friend. In the days after his death, her brother and some friends learned his story, but no one wanted to tell her. Little by little it came out, and instead of burrowing herself in sorrow, Julie contacted these women. They had the story that Henry had never told her --- and through these conversations she learned a lot about the man she had loved and the double life he led. She writes with honesty, but there is no "woe is me" on these pages, which keeps it interesting. If you are in a book group, you may want to check out a contest we are running on ReadingGroupGuides.com in which 10 book clubs will have the opportunity to win a copy of the title. Click here for more details.

Yesterday I was quoted in USA Today in a piece concerning the talk about digital content and digital devices at BookExpo America where I said that I felt "that too much attention is going to devices and formats and digitizing, instead of books and authors, which is what people care about." After a week where I got to meet a number of authors, saw others speak about their books and had another at the house for coffee, I realized that the excitement about books for me comes from talking about books and the stories behind them, not whether I read them on a screen or on pages.