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Les Brown

You must think of failure and defeat as the springboards to new achievements or to the next level of accomplishment.

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Les Brown

August 24, 2012

One more week of summer since we all know once the long Labor Day ends, no matter what the calendar says, it's fall.

By then most people will have returned from vacation, some will have headed back to school and others back to a full work week after "Summer Fridays." It's one of the biggest seasons in the book world as many books release in anticipation of the holidays.

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Author Talk: Courtney Miller Santo, author of The Roots of the Olive Tree

Aug 23, 2012

Courtney Miller Santo’s debut novel, THE ROOTS OF THE OLIVE TREE, tells the story of five generations of miraculous firstborn women who live in a house together on a California olive grove. When a geneticist comes to study these marvels of longevity, Erin announces she is pregnant with a firstborn boy and the Keller women's world is blown wide open. In this interview, Santo discusses her extensive research process and shares some of the latest incredible findings about human longevity. She also gives insight into her characters and explains how some of them came into her mind fully formed.

Interview: William Kent Krueger, author of Trickster's Point

Aug 23, 2012

In TRICKSTER'S POINT, the 12th installment in William Kent Krueger's Cork O' Connor series, Cork is sitting on a mountain with a wounded Native-American governor elect. The arrow in the man's chest just happens to belong to Cork, who becomes the primary suspect in the murder. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com's Joe Hartlaub, Krueger talks about the landscape of his novels, the mythologies he incorporated in the writing of his latest book, and the complexity of  the relationship among Cork, Winona and Jubal.

Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Bernadette Fox has disappeared. It began when her daughter, Bee, aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle --- and people in general --- has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents and secret correspondence.

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Gregg Hurwitz, author of The Survivor

Nate Overbay --- a divorced former solider suffering from PTSD and slowly dying from ALS --- is about to commit suicide when a crew of robbers bursts into a bank. With nothing to lose, Nate confronts the robbers, taking them out one-by-one. The last man standing leaves Nate with a cryptic warning. Soon he is kidnapped by the mastermind of the failed heist and is given an ultimatum that could lead to the murder of his ex-wife and teenage daughter.

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The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Stand Alone Fantasy Titles, August 2012

The Way of Kings is represented in the stand-alone category because even though it is the opening volume of the series known as The Stormlight Archive, at present it is the only volume in publication. Brandon Sanderson has hit a home run that doesn't just clear the wall, it leaves the stadium. The world of The Way of Kings is so marvelously detailed and interesting, and the story arcs each have their own hooks to pull you along until the moment when they cross paths. Though he's gained a lot of traction as the man tabbed to finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, Brandon Sanderson is a remarkably talented creator and the product of his own design is nothing less than first rate.

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Watership Down by Richard Adams

Stand Alone Fantasy Titles, August 2012

A tale of heroism, adventure, and courage reminiscent of The Odyssey, Watership Down is the remarkable story of a warren of rabbits driven to find a new home when one of them, a runt named Fiver, has visions of the destruction of their warren by humans. Fiver can't convince the leaders that what he sees is true, so he and a small band escape the warren and flee to Watership Down and establish a new home. But nothing is without its problems, and soon a nearby militant warren seeks to dominate them. Once you look past the notion that it's a book about rabbits running around, you can find the deeper messages of honor, humanity, ethics, and what it means to be free. 

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Villains By Necessity by Eve Forward

Stand Alone Fantasy Titles, August 2012

In all conflicts between good and evil, good triumphs and the world is made right by this victory. But what if good was so triumphant that evil was eradicated? Would not the world crumble under the weight of imbalance. That is the conundrum faced by a set of villains in Eve Forward's clever debut novel, Villains By Necessity. In order to save the world from the evil of its over-indulged goodness, these villains must set forth to rekindle the proper balance of evil in the world, thereby restoring equilibrium and, in doing so, actually becoming heroes. A fun read cover-to-cover, with twists enough to keep readers enchanted. Not a particularly easy book to find, unfortunately.

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Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

Stand Alone Fantasy Titles, August 2012

So much of what Guy Gavriel Kay does is overflowing with beauty and elegance that it can be difficult to narrow down a favorite. Under Heaven, however, jumps out as one of the finest fantasy novels of the last twenty years, hands down. A stunningly superb mix of fantasy and history, Kay grafts the semblance of Tang Dynasty China onto his land of Kitan, and unravels the story of Shen Tai, a man who buries the dead from both sides of the opposing forces in war, and who steadily gains riches and who is protected by the spirits of those he has buried. Having been gifted 250 Sardian horses, Shen tries to find out who is trying to kill him, in this tumultuous land of power and honor. Those who swear they would never pick up a fantasy novel would do well to examine this book and see just what amazing work can be found in the genre.

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