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Editorial Content for Nonfiction

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

After reading NONFICTION, you may want to look up Julie Myerson to learn more about her and her book. Or maybe you will do so before you even begin delving into this work of fiction. Either way, you will find articles both critical of and sympathetic towards Myerson’s use of her own life and that of her children in her novels. That blurring of lines between real life and imagination is just one of the themes --- but perhaps the key one --- in NONFICTION, as the title may lead you to note. Read More

Teaser

Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself. As the mother --- a novelist --- attempts to understand her daughter, she finds herself revisiting her own uneasy, unresolved relationship with her mother. Weaving between childhoods past and present, laced with temptation and betrayal, NONFICTION is an unflinching account of a mother, daughter, wife and author reckoning with the world around her. But can a writer ever be trusted with the truth of her own story?

Promo

Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself. As the mother --- a novelist --- attempts to understand her daughter, she finds herself revisiting her own uneasy, unresolved relationship with her mother. Weaving between childhoods past and present, laced with temptation and betrayal, NONFICTION is an unflinching account of a mother, daughter, wife and author reckoning with the world around her. But can a writer ever be trusted with the truth of her own story?

About the Book

This is definitely not a ghost story. But for a while after you’re gone, I see you everywhere. Every ragged young person sitting huddled on a pavement, every stretched-out body under cardboard in a shop doorway.

Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself. As the mother --- a novelist --- attempts to understand her daughter, she finds herself revisiting her own uneasy, unresolved relationship with her mother. Weaving between childhoods past and present, laced with temptation and betrayal, NONFICTION is an unflinching account of a mother, daughter, wife and author reckoning with the world around her. But can a writer ever be trusted with the truth of her own story?

Clear-eyed, lacerating and fearless, Julie Myerson’s NONFICTION explores maternal love as an emotional foundation to both crave and fear. A hauntingly beautiful and deeply moving love letter from a mother to a daughter, this is a tale of damage and addiction, recovery and creativity, compassion and love.

Editorial Content for Here in Avalon

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

HERE IN AVALON, Tara Isabella Burton's third novel (following SOCIAL CREATURE and THE WORLD CANNOT GIVE), is her most magical, sincere book yet.

Once there were two sisters. Cecilia, the elder, is rarely washed or brushed, her tights are always full of runs, and she has never once been on time. In her sister Rose’s eyes, she is a revolution, an ephemeral creature who is as likely to do shots and smoke cigarettes with you on the lid of a grand piano as she is to make a security guard at a museum cry with her earnest, probing questions. Read More

Teaser

Raised --- and often neglected --- by a wayward mother, Rose finally has built the life she’s always wanted. Her sister Cecilia, on the other hand, has spent her life in pursuit of fairy-tale narratives of transcendence and true love. When Cecilia declares she’s come home for good, following the ending of a whirlwind marriage, Rose hopes Cecilia finally might be ready to face adulthood. But then Cecilia gets involved with the Avalon, a cultish-sounding cabaret troupe, and soon vanishes --- one of a growing number of suspicious disappearances among the city’s lost and loneliest souls. The only way Rose can find Cecilia is by tracking down the Avalon herself. But as Rose gets closer to solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, the Avalon works its magic on her, too.

Promo

Raised --- and often neglected --- by a wayward mother, Rose finally has built the life she’s always wanted. Her sister Cecilia, on the other hand, has spent her life in pursuit of fairy-tale narratives of transcendence and true love. When Cecilia declares she’s come home for good, following the ending of a whirlwind marriage, Rose hopes Cecilia finally might be ready to face adulthood. But then Cecilia gets involved with the Avalon, a cultish-sounding cabaret troupe, and soon vanishes --- one of a growing number of suspicious disappearances among the city’s lost and loneliest souls. The only way Rose can find Cecilia is by tracking down the Avalon herself. But as Rose gets closer to solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, the Avalon works its magic on her, too.

About the Book

An “enchanting” (Caroline Kepnes, author of YOU) New York City fairy tale about two sisters that fall under the spell of an underworld cabaret troupe that might be a dangerous cult --- but one that makes the materialist world left in its wake feel like a sinister cult itself.

Rose has come a long way. Raised --- and often neglected --- by a wayward mother in New York City’s chaotic bohemia, Rose has finally built the life she’s always wanted: a good job at a self-help startup, a clean apartment, an engagement to a stable if self-satisfied tech CEO who shares her faith in human potential, hard work and the sacrifice of childish dreams.

Rose’s sister Cecilia, on the other hand, never grew up. Irresponsible and impetuous, prone to jetting off to a European monastery one month and a falcon rescue the next, Cecilia has spent her life in pursuit of fairy-tale narratives of transcendence and true love --- grand ideas Rose knows never work out in the real world. When Cecilia declares she’s come home to New York for good, following the ending of a whirlwind marriage, Rose hopes Cecilia might finally be ready to face adulthood: compromises and all.

But then Cecilia gets involved with the Avalon: a cultish-sounding cabaret troupe --- one that appears only at night, on a mysterious red boat that travels New York’s waterways --- and soon vanishes: one of a growing number of suspicious disappearances among the city’s lost and loneliest souls. The only way Rose can find Cecilia is by tracking down the Avalon herself.

But as Rose gets closer to solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, the Avalon works its magic on her, too. And the deeper she goes into the Avalon’s underworld, she more she begins to question everything she knows about her own life, and if she’s willing to leave the real world behind.

Audiobook available, read by Devon Sorvari

Editorial Content for Daughter of Ashes: A Teresa Battaglia Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a criminal detective on the Italian police force, is nearing retirement primarily due to a progressive form of Alzheimer’s. But she never uses her health as an excuse not to do her job. Read More

Teaser

Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a trailblazing criminal detective on the Italian police force, is on sick leave, recovering from her recent brush with death in pursuit of a killer. But none of her colleagues, not even her partner, know that her Alzheimer’s is getting worse, and that she is unsure she will ever return to work. Teresa’s plans for retirement are shelved, however, when she is urgently summoned to meet with menacing serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Refusing to speak with anyone but Teresa, whose investigative work 27 years prior landed him in maximum security prison, Mainardi has disconcerting news: somebody is after him, and only Teresa holds the key to keeping everyone, including herself, safe. To solve the case, Teresa must come face to face with a history she thought she’d buried.

Promo

Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a trailblazing criminal detective on the Italian police force, is on sick leave, recovering from her recent brush with death in pursuit of a killer. But none of her colleagues, not even her partner, know that her Alzheimer’s is getting worse, and that she is unsure she will ever return to work. Teresa’s plans for retirement are shelved, however, when she is urgently summoned to meet with menacing serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Refusing to speak with anyone but Teresa, whose investigative work 27 years prior landed him in maximum security prison, Mainardi has disconcerting news: somebody is after him, and only Teresa holds the key to keeping everyone, including herself, safe. To solve the case, Teresa must come face to face with a history she thought she’d buried.

About the Book

Set in the idyllic mountains of Northern Italy, the latest volume in Ilaria Tuti’s gripping series is a tour de force, a poignant and irresistible story about the relentless pull of the past on the present.

Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a trailblazing criminal detective on the Italian police force, is on sick leave, recovering from her recent brush with death in pursuit of a killer. But none of her colleagues, not even her partner, know that her Alzheimer’s is getting worse, and that she is unsure she will ever return to work.

Teresa’s plans for retirement are shelved, however, when she is urgently summoned to meet with menacing serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Refusing to speak with anyone but Teresa, whose investigative work 27 years prior landed him in maximum security prison, Mainardi has disconcerting news: somebody is after him, and only Teresa holds the key to keeping everyone, including herself, safe. To solve the case, Teresa must come face to face with a history she thought she’d buried, back to when Giacomo first began to kill, and Teresa --- newly pregnant and married to an abusive man --- did everything she could to catch him.

Audiobook available, read by Christina Moore

Editorial Content for Dissolved

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Not only have Nordic or Scandinavian crime thrillers become their own unique genre, they continue to crank out increasingly talented writers who produce great stories set in this part of the world. DISSOLVED is my second time around with Sara Blaedel, but my first with her coauthor, Mads Peder Nordbo. Read More

Teaser

Everything is peaceful in Tommerup, Denmark, until a young mother disappears in the middle of an idyllic summer day. There’s no trace of the missing woman when Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp are called to investigate. When another person goes missing, and Liam and Dea find a strange note linking the second missing person to the first crime, they suspect the disappearances may be the work of a serial killer. As the investigation continues, dark secrets about the victims from the past are revealed. Is someone targeting them because of this? As more people vanish, it’s a race against time for Liam and Dea, who find themselves face to face with horrifying footage that reveals what is happening to the victims --- and what will happen to future targets if they can’t stop the killer.

Promo

Everything is peaceful in Tommerup, Denmark, until a young mother disappears in the middle of an idyllic summer day. There’s no trace of the missing woman when Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp are called to investigate. When another person goes missing, and Liam and Dea find a strange note linking the second missing person to the first crime, they suspect the disappearances may be the work of a serial killer. As the investigation continues, dark secrets about the victims from the past are revealed. Is someone targeting them because of this? As more people vanish, it’s a race against time for Liam and Dea, who find themselves face to face with horrifying footage that reveals what is happening to the victims --- and what will happen to future targets if they can’t stop the killer.

About the Book

For fans of Jo Nesbø and Lars Kepler comes the newest crime novel from Denmark's bestselling suspense giants Sara Blædel and Mads Peder Nordbo.

Everything is peaceful in Tommerup, Denmark, until a young mother disappears in the middle of an idyllic summer day. There’s no trace of the missing woman when Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp are called to investigate. The small town is on edge, rumors begin to fly, and blame is cast on Charlotte’s husband, who was the last to see her. When another person goes missing and Liam and Dea find a strange note linking the second missing person to the first crime, they suspect the disappearances may be the work of a serial killer.

As the investigation continues, dark secrets about the victims from the past are revealed. Is someone targeting them because of this? As more people vanish, it’s a race against time for Liam and Dea, who find themselves face-to-face with horrifying footage that reveals what is happening to the victims --- and what will happen to future targets if they can’t stop the killer.

In this pulse-pounding thriller, Sara Blædel and Mads Peder Nordbo ratchet up the tension in a cat-and-mouse game where the killer is always one step ahead.

Audiobook available, read by Lila Newman

Editorial Content for Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century (Centenary Edition)

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

In LEOPOLD AND LOEB, Hal Higdon presents a thorough, thoughtful and appropriately eerie account of the evil deeds perpetrated by two highly gifted young men seeking to achieve the “perfect crime.” Read More

Teaser

The 1924 murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb shocked the nation. One hundred years later, the killing and its aftermath still reverberate through popular culture and the history of American crime. Hal Higdon’s true crime classic offers an unprecedented examination of the case. Beginning with a new author Preface, Higdon details Leopold and Loeb’s journey from privilege and promise to the planning and execution of their monstrous vision of the perfect crime. Drawing on secret testimony, Higdon follows the police investigation through the pair’s confessions of guilt and recreates the sensational hearing where Clarence Darrow, the nation’s most famous attorney, saved the pair from the death penalty.

Promo

The 1924 murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb shocked the nation. One hundred years later, the killing and its aftermath still reverberate through popular culture and the history of American crime. Hal Higdon’s true crime classic offers an unprecedented examination of the case. Beginning with a new author Preface, Higdon details Leopold and Loeb’s journey from privilege and promise to the planning and execution of their monstrous vision of the perfect crime. Drawing on secret testimony, Higdon follows the police investigation through the pair’s confessions of guilt and recreates the sensational hearing where Clarence Darrow, the nation’s most famous attorney, saved the pair from the death penalty.

About the Book

The 1924 murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb shocked the nation. One hundred years later, the killing and its aftermath still reverberate through popular culture and the history of American crime.

Hal Higdon’s true crime classic offers an unprecedented examination of the case. Beginning with a new author Preface, Higdon details Leopold and Loeb’s journey from privilege and promise to the planning and execution of their monstrous vision of the perfect crime. Drawing on secret testimony, Higdon follows the police investigation through the pair’s confessions of guilt and recreates the sensational hearing where Clarence Darrow, the nation’s most famous attorney, saved the pair from the death penalty.

Published in observance of the case's centennial, LEOPOLD AND LOEB tells the dramatic story of a notorious crime and its long afterlife in the American imagination.

January 5, 2024

And we’re back! I confess that I feel like the break was a little shorter than I would have liked. There were lots of books that I had hoped to read, though I did read two that I enjoyed that I will get to in a minute. And I think just a wee bit more relaxing could have happened. But just before the staff headed out to celebrate with our families, we met as a team to work on some plans for 2024, and those have us very excited.

Which of the following fiction titles releasing in January are you planning to read? Please check all that apply.

January 5, 2024, 766 voters

January 5, 2024 - January 19, 2024

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of January 5 - January 19.

January 2, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 1st and January 8th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for January, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites, and the Target Book Club.