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Melanie Benjamin, author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Of all the glamorous stars of New York high society, none blazes brighter than Babe Paley. Her flawless face regularly graces the pages of Vogue, and she is celebrated and adored for her ineffable style and exquisite taste. But beneath this elegantly composed exterior dwells a passionate woman who is desperately longing for true love and connection. Enter Truman Capote. This diminutive golden-haired genius with a larger-than-life personality explodes onto the scene, setting Babe and her circle of Swans aflutter.

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December 4, 2015

Ruth Ware on Her Favorite Christmas Book --- and How it Came Back into Her Life

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Posted by emily
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London-based author Ruth Ware’s debut novel, IN A DARK, DARK WOOD, is about a bachelorette party weekend gone horribly, horribly awry. Considering her own book is a fast-paced thriller, it’s surprising to learn that her favorite Christmas story is rather plotless and idyllic. Here, she talks about LUCY AND TOM’S CHRISTMAS, the picture book she loved so much, and the miraculous coincidence that brought it back into her life.

Edward Gibbon

The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.

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Edward Gibbon

Anne Girard, author of Platinum Doll

It's the Roaring Twenties, and 17-year-old Harlean Carpenter McGrew has run off to Beverly Hills. There, she has everything a girl could want, except an outlet for her talent. But everything changes when a dare pushes her to embrace her true ambition --- to be an actress on the silver screen. With her timeless beauty and striking shade of platinum-blond hair, Harlean becomes Jean Harlow. And as she's thrust into the limelight, Jean learns that this new world of opportunity comes with its own set of burdens.

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Michel Bussi, author of After the Crash

Hailed as "a novel so extraordinary that it reminded me of reading Stieg Larsson for the very first time" (Sunday Times, UK), a near-million copy bestseller in Europe --- centered on a tragic plane crash in the Alps and the mystery surrounding its only survivor, an infant girl.

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The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian

From the New York Times bestselling author of MIDWIVES and THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS comes the spellbinding tale of a party gone horribly wrong: two men lie dead in a suburban living room, two women are on the run from police, and a marriage is ripping apart at the seams.

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James Kaplan, author of Frank: The Voice

Despite his mammoth fame, Frank Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. Now James Kaplan brings deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that incomparable voice, from Sinatra’s humble beginning in Hoboken to his fall from grace and Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra --- as man, as musician, as tortured genius.

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Val McDermid, author of Splinter the Silence: A Tony Hill and Carol Jordan Novel

Is it violence if it’s virtual? The outspoken women targeted by the increasingly cruel internet trolls and bullies would probably say so. For some of them, the torrents of bile and vicious threats prove too much. They begin to silence themselves in a series of high-profile suicides. Or do they? Tony Hill isn’t convinced. But he’s the only one. Former cop Carol Jordan is too busy messing up her life to care. Until she gets an unexpected second chance. Now it’s game on, and the stakes have never been higher.

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Kliph Nesteroff, author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy

In THE COMEDIANS, comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff brings to life a century of American comedy with real-life characters, forgotten stars, mainstream heroes and counterculture iconoclasts. Based on over 200 original interviews and extensive archival research, Nesteroff’s groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped and changed American culture over the past 100 years.

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Debbie Macomber, author of Dashing Through the Snow: A Christmas Novel

Ashley Davison, a graduate student in California, desperately wants to spend the holidays with her family in Seattle. Dashiell Sutherland, a former army intelligence officer, has a job interview in Seattle and must arrive by December 23. Ashley and Dash reluctantly decide to share the car, but neither anticipates the wild ride ahead. Though Ashley and Dash may never reach Seattle in time for Christmas, the season is still full of surprises --- and their greatest wishes may yet come true.

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