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Lee Smith, author of Dimestore: A Writer's Life

Set deep in the mountains of Virginia, the Grundy of Lee Smith’s youth was a place of coal miners, tent revivals, mountain music, drive-in theaters and her daddy’s dimestore. It was in that dimestore --- listening to customers and inventing adventures for the store’s dolls --- that she became a storyteller. Even when she was sent off to college to earn some “culture,” she understood that perhaps the richest culture she might ever know was the one she was driving away from --- and it’s a place that she never left behind.

Jacqueline Winspear, author of Journey to Munich: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man’s wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie Dobbs --- who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter --- to retrieve the man from Dachau. Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers --- and finds herself questioning whether it’s time to return to the work she loved. But the Secret Service may have other ideas.

April 1, 2016 - May 2, 2016

Here are audiobook recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of April 1 - May 2.

April 1, 2016 - April 15, 2016

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of April 1 - April 15.

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

April 2016

THE NEST by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney is a brisk and really juicy read. In it, two brothers and two sisters are in line for an inheritance when the youngest one turns 40. Each has an immediate need for this money; let’s just say that the chickens have been counted before they've been hatched, and they all are over-extended in a financial way. Something happens to one of the brothers, and suddenly the nest egg everyone was banking on becomes a sum much less than what they were anticipating as their mom parses a huge chunk his way to save the family.

The three adult Plumb siblings confront the culprit, their errant brother Leo, who is fresh from rehab, over lunch at the Oyster Bar in Manhattan. Suddenly everyone is caught up in their own dramas and each other’s.

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

April 2016

THE SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR by Helen Simonson takes place during the summer before World War I. Set in East Sussex (where Helen was raised) in 1914, Beatrice Nash has arrived in town to teach. Agatha Kent, who has lobbied for her tenure there, is distressed to learn that Beatrice is not some old schoolmarm type, but rather a pretty and bright young woman. Beatrice is clearly saddened by the death of her father and seems to be viewing her time in Sussex as an opportunity to read, escape, and be alone with her books and her bicycle. She quickly acclimates to the small town, but not without moments where faux pas are made as she learns the idiosyncrasies of the folks in the town.

Editorial Content for Lust & Wonder: A Memoir

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Kilberg

Augusten Burroughs is an avid memoirist. Having made a name for himself with the release of his first book, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, Burroughs has made a career out of describing the trials he has undergone first as a child in an unstable and abusive family, and later as an alcoholic and life after rehab. His latest production, LUST & WONDER, is all about his attempts to build romantic relationships during his less youthful years.  Read More

Teaser

In chronicling the development and demise of the different relationships he's had while living in New York, Augusten Burroughs examines what it means to be in love, what it means to be in lust, and what it means to be figuring it all out. With Augusten's unique and singular observations, and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, LUST & WONDER is an intimate and honest memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for.

Promo

In chronicling the development and demise of the different relationships he's had while living in New York, Augusten Burroughs examines what it means to be in love, what it means to be in lust, and what it means to be figuring it all out. With Augusten's unique and singular observations, and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, LUST & WONDER is an intimate and honest memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for.

About the Book

From the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an intimate look at the driving forces in one man’s life.

With Augusten's unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, LUST & WONDER is a hilariously frank memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. His story began in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, endured through DRY, and continues with this memoir, the capstone to the life of Augusten Burroughs.

Funny, sweet, alarming and ultimately moving and tender, LUST & WONDER is an experience of a book that will resonate with anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.

Audiobook available, narrated by Augusten Burroughs

Editorial Content for Clawback: An Ali Reynolds Novel

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

"Clawback: Proceeds from an investment that is found to be fraudulent are confiscated and then redistributed to all investors on a proportional basis." Read More

Teaser

When Ali Reynolds’ parents lose their life savings to a Ponzi scheme, her father goes to confront his longtime friend and financial advisor, only to stumble into the scene of a bloody double homicide. With her father suddenly a prime suspect, Ali and her husband work to clear her father’s name, while at the same time seeking justice for her parents as well as the scheme’s other suddenly impoverished victims, one of whom is a stone cold killer.

Promo

When Ali Reynolds’ parents lose their life savings to a Ponzi scheme, her father goes to confront his longtime friend and financial advisor, only to stumble into the scene of a bloody double homicide. With her father suddenly a prime suspect, Ali and her husband work to clear her father’s name, while at the same time seeking justice for her parents as well as the scheme’s other suddenly impoverished victims, one of whom is a stone cold killer.

About the Book

In New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance’s latest thriller, Ali Reynolds faces her most controversial mystery yet, solving the murder of a man whose Ponzi scheme bankrupted hundreds of people, and left them seeking justice…or revenge.

When Ali’s parents lose their life savings to a Ponzi scheme, her father goes to confront his long-time friend and financial advisor, only to stumble into the scene of a bloody double homicide. With her father suddenly a prime suspect, Ali and her husband work to clear her father’s name, while at the same time seeking justice for her parents as well as the scheme’s other suddenly impoverished victims, one of whom is a stone cold killer.

Audiobook available, narrated by Karen Ziemba

Editorial Content for Behave

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Alex Bowditch (alexandra.bowditch@gmail.com)

Andromeda Romano-Lax’s third novel, BEHAVE, opens with an eerie similarity to my own personal life: like her protagonist, the young, pioneering female scientist Rosalie Rayner, I too am a recent graduate of Vassar College. However, our shared alma mater is not the only point of connection that the author succeeds in establishing between her character and this reader. Rayner’s deeply introspective, first-person narration of her forays into early 20th-century behavioral psychology and subsequent relationship with the dynamic John B. Read More

Teaser

In 1920, when she graduated from Vassar College, Rosalie Rayner was ready to make her mark on the world. She won a coveted research position at Johns Hopkins assisting the charismatic celebrity psychologist John B. Watson. Together, Watson and Rayner conducted controversial experiments on hundreds of babies to prove behaviorist principles. They also embarked on a scandalous affair that cost them both their jobs --- and recast the sparkling young Rosalie Rayner, scientist and thinker, as Mrs. John Watson, wife and conflicted, maligned mother, just another “woman behind a great man.”

Promo

In 1920, when she graduated from Vassar College, Rosalie Rayner was ready to make her mark on the world. She won a coveted research position at Johns Hopkins assisting the charismatic celebrity psychologist John B. Watson. Together, Watson and Rayner conducted controversial experiments on hundreds of babies to prove behaviorist principles. They also embarked on a scandalous affair that cost them both their jobs --- and recast the sparkling young Rosalie Rayner, scientist and thinker, as Mrs. John Watson, wife and conflicted, maligned mother, just another “woman behind a great man.”

About the Book

From the author of THE SPANISH BOW comes a lush, harrowing novel based on the real life story of Rosalie Rayner Watson, one of the most controversial scientists --- and mothers --- of the 20th century.

“The mother begins to destroy the child the moment it’s born,” wrote the founder of behaviorist psychology, John B. Watson, whose 1928 parenting guide was revered as the child-rearing bible. For their dangerous and “mawkish” impulses to kiss and hug their child, “most mothers should be indicted for psychological murder.”

BEHAVE is the story of Rosalie Rayner, Watson’s ambitious young wife and the mother of two of his children.

In 1920, when she graduated from Vassar College, Rayner was ready to make her mark on the world. Intelligent, beautiful and unflappable, she won a coveted research position at Johns Hopkins assisting the charismatic celebrity psychologist John B. Watson. Together, Watson and Rayner conducted controversial experiments on hundreds of babies to prove behaviorist principles. They also embarked on a scandalous affair that cost them both their jobs --- and recast the sparkling young Rosalie Rayner, scientist and thinker, as Mrs. John Watson, wife and conflicted, maligned mother, just another “woman behind a great man.”

With BEHAVE, Andromeda Romano-Lax offers a provocative fictional biography of Rosalie Rayner Watson, a woman whose work influenced generations of Americans, and whose legacy has been lost in the shadow of her husband’s. In turns moving and horrifying, BEHAVE is a richly nuanced and disturbing novel about science, progress, love, marriage, motherhood and what all those things cost a passionate, promising young woman.

Audiobook available, narrated by Elizabeth Rogers

Editorial Content for Cold Barrel Zero

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

COLD BARREL ZERO, Matthew Quirk's new thriller, is somewhat different from his first two books, THE 500 and THE DIRECTIVE. The common thread running through all three novels is the excellence of craftwork, balanced in equal parts by top-notch storytelling, memorable characterization, fine plotting and exquisite pacing. While the first two titles were closer to financial thrillers, his latest is a full-on military/espionage work that plays on the reader's emotions throughout. Read More

Teaser

John Hayes is a Special Operations legend who went rogue on a deep-cover mission and betrayed his own soldiers. Disgraced and on the run, he returns to the United States to get back to his wife and daughter and take revenge on his accusers with a series of devastating attacks. Only one man can stop him: Thomas Byrne. He once fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic, but he gave up the gun. Now a surgeon, Byrne moves from town to town, trying to forget his past, until he is called upon by a high-ranking government official to help capture the man he once called a friend.

Promo

John Hayes is a Special Operations legend who went rogue on a deep-cover mission and betrayed his own soldiers. Disgraced and on the run, he returns to the United States to get back to his wife and daughter and take revenge on his accusers with a series of devastating attacks. Only one man can stop him: Thomas Byrne. He once fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic, but he gave up the gun. Now a surgeon, Byrne moves from town to town, trying to forget his past, until he is called upon by a high-ranking government official to help capture the man he once called a friend.

About the Book

A CODE HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT. A BLACK OPS TEAM THAT WENT TOO FAR.

John Hayes is a Special Operations legend who went rogue on a deep-cover mission and betrayed his own soldiers. Disgraced and on the run, he returns to the United States to get back to his wife and daughter and take revenge on his accusers with a series of devastating attacks.

Only one man can stop him: Thomas Byrne. He once fought alongside Hayes as a combat surgeon, but he gave up the gun. Now a medic, he moves from town to town, trying to forget his past, until he is called upon by a high-ranking government official to help capture the man he once called a friend.

Hayes and Byrne were once as close as brothers, but with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance and nothing as it seems, both men must decide whom to trust --- and whom to betray. In a final, explosive battle for justice, they face off along a rifle's cold barrel.

COLD BARREL ZERO brings together the blistering pace of Lee Child, the nonstop action of Brad Thor and the richly drawn characters and moral stakes of Daniel Silva. An experienced reporter armed with deep behind-the-scenes research into America's Special Operations Forces, Quirk takes the military thriller to a new level of suspense.

Audiobook available, narrated by Peter Coleman