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Editorial Content for Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Love Affair

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

In BOGIE & BACALL, William J. Mann has mined the legend, lore and lasting, well-established facts concerning two storied icons of the big screen. Read More

Teaser

In BOGIE & BACALL, William J. Mann offers a deep and comprehensive look at Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and the unlikely love they shared. Mann details their early years --- Bogart’s effete upbringing in New York City; Bacall’s rise as a model and actress. He paints a vivid portrait of their courtship and 12-year marriage: the fights, the reconciliations, the children, the affairs, Bogie’s illness and Bacall’s steadfastness until his death. He offers a sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of Bacall’s life after Bogie, exploring her relationships with Frank Sinatra and Jason Robards, who would become her second husband, and the identity crisis she faced. Surpassing previous biographies, Mann digs deep into the celebrities’ personal lives and considers their relationship from surprising angles.

Promo

In BOGIE & BACALL, William J. Mann offers a deep and comprehensive look at Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and the unlikely love they shared. Mann details their early years --- Bogart’s effete upbringing in New York City; Bacall’s rise as a model and actress. He paints a vivid portrait of their courtship and 12-year marriage: the fights, the reconciliations, the children, the affairs, Bogie’s illness and Bacall’s steadfastness until his death. He offers a sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of Bacall’s life after Bogie, exploring her relationships with Frank Sinatra and Jason Robards, who would become her second husband, and the identity crisis she faced. Surpassing previous biographies, Mann digs deep into the celebrities’ personal lives and considers their relationship from surprising angles.

About the Book

From the noted Hollywood biographer and author of THE CONTENDER comes this celebration of the great American love story --- the romance between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart --- capturing its complexity, contradictions and challenges as never before.

In BOGIE & BACALL, William Mann offers a deep and comprehensive look at Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart and the unlikely love they shared. Mann details their early years --- Bogart’s effete upbringing in New York City; Bacall’s rise as a model and actress. He paints a vivid portrait of their courtship and 12-year marriage: the fights, the reconciliations, the children, the affairs, Bogie’s illness and Bacall’s steadfastness until his death. He offers a sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of Bacall’s life after Bogie, exploring her relationships with Frank Sinatra and Jason Robards, who would become her second husband, and the identity crisis she faced.

Surpassing previous biographies, Mann digs deep into the celebrities’ personal lives and considers their relationship from surprising angles. Bacall was just 19 when she started dating the thrice-married 45-year-old Bogart. How might that age gap have influenced their relationship? In addition to what she gained, what might Bacall have lost by marrying a Hollywood superstar more than twice her age? How did Bogart, a man of average looks, become one of the greatest movie stars of all time? Throughout, Mann explains the unparalleled successes of their individual careers as well as the extraordinary love between them and the legend that has endured.

Filled with entertaining details and thoughtful insights based on newly available records and correspondence, and illustrated with 30-40 photographs, BOGIE & BACALL offers a fresh look at this famous couple, their remarkable relationship and their legacy.

Audiobook available, read by Todd McLaren

Editorial Content for Behold the Monster: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

Published in 1966, Truman Capote’s IN COLD BLOOD changed the American literary landscape. Often classified as a “nonfiction novel,” it recounted the murders of the Clutter family in Kansas in 1959. What made the book extraordinary, in addition to Capote’s unique and engaging narrative voice, was his own emotional engagement with the story, his relationship with the killers he interviewed, and how his research unfolded in real time. Capote’s work laid the foundation for much of today's true crime writing, found both in print and on podcasts. Read More

Teaser

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of 93 women. How could one man evade justice, manipulating the system for over four decades? More than a deep dive into Little's actions, Lauren's riveting and emotional accounts reveal the women who were lost to cold files, giving his victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time.

Promo

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of 93 women. How could one man evade justice, manipulating the system for over four decades? More than a deep dive into Little's actions, Lauren's riveting and emotional accounts reveal the women who were lost to cold files, giving his victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time.

About the Book

He was sitting right across the table...and he would have killed her if he could.

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of 93 women, often drawing his victims in haunting detail as he spoke. How could one man evade justice, manipulating the system for over four decades?

As the FBI, the DOJ, the LAPD and countless law enforcement officials across the country worked to connect their cold cases with the confessions, Lauren's coverage of the investigations and obsession with Little's victims only escalated.

New York Times bestselling author and lead of the Starz docuseries "Confronting a Serial Killer" Jillian Lauren delivers the harrowing report of her unusual relationship with a psychopath. But this is more than a deep dive into the actions of Samuel Little. Lauren's riveting and emotional accounts reveal the women who were lost to cold files, giving Little's victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time.

Audiobook available, read by Nikki Zakocs

Editorial Content for How Can I Help You

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

If you're a book lover, chances are you have a fond memory of a kindly, knowledgeable or just plain cool librarian who helped ignite your love of reading. Let's just say that the library workers portrayed in Laura Sims' HOW CAN I HELP YOU are not like that at all. And at least one of them might not turn you on to books --- she might just turn on you. Read More

Teaser

No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge and watches her carefully. When a tragic incident in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper --- even as her new fixation becomes all-consuming and sends both women hurtling toward disaster.

Promo

No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge and watches her carefully. When a tragic incident in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper --- even as her new fixation becomes all-consuming and sends both women hurtling toward disaster.

About the Book

The lives of two librarians become dangerously intertwined in this razor-sharp exploration of human nature and the lure of artistic obsession.

No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.

That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge and watches her carefully. When a tragic incident in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper --- even as her new fixation becomes all-consuming and sends both women hurtling toward disaster.

Chilling, incisive and darkly humorous, HOW CAN I HELP YOU is a propulsive work of psychological suspense that asks how far we might go to justify our most monstrous desires.

Audiobook available, read by Carlotta Brentan and Maggi-Meg Reed

Editorial Content for Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

With the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War (or the “American War,” as they call it in Vietnam) approaching, it’s likely that many more books about the war and its aftereffects will be published over the next year or two. It’s hard to imagine that many of them will be as thoughtful, personal and probing as Beth Nguyen’s OWNER OF A LONELY HEART. Read More

Teaser

At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her father, sister, grandmother and uncles fled Saigon for America. Beth’s mother stayed --- or was left --- behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was 19. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than 24 hours together. OWNER OF A LONELY HEART is a memoir about parenthood, absence and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth’s relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years --- sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, sometimes with her mother alone and sometimes with her sister --- Beth tells a coming-of-age story that spans her own Midwestern childhood, her first meeting with her mother, and becoming a parent herself.

Promo

At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her father, sister, grandmother and uncles fled Saigon for America. Beth’s mother stayed --- or was left --- behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was 19. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than 24 hours together. OWNER OF A LONELY HEART is a memoir about parenthood, absence and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth’s relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years --- sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, sometimes with her mother alone and sometimes with her sister --- Beth tells a coming-of-age story that spans her own Midwestern childhood, her first meeting with her mother, and becoming a parent herself.

About the Book

From the award-winning author of STEALING BUDDHA'S DINNER, a powerful memoir of a mother-daughter relationship fragmented by war and resettlement.

At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her father, sister, grandmother and uncles fled Saigon for America. Beth’s mother stayed --- or was left --- behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was 19. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than 24 hours together.

OWNER OF A LONELY HEART is a memoir about parenthood, absence and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth’s relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years --- sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, sometimes with her mother alone and sometimes with her sister --- Beth tells a coming-of-age story that spans her own Midwestern childhood, her first meeting with her mother, and becoming a parent herself.

Vivid and illuminating, OWNER OF A LONELY HEART is a deeply personal story of family, connection and belonging: as a daughter, a mother and as a Vietnamese refugee in America.

Audiobook available, read by Beth Nguyen

Editorial Content for The Bones of the Story

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Carol Goodman has long been a favorite author of mine. She loves literary fiction, historical events and ancient legends --- often blending all three together in the same book. Read More

Teaser

It’s been 25 years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. Now, the president of Briarwood College is bringing together faculty, donors and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago. Guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemorative event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates. When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize that someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past.

Promo

It’s been 25 years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. Now, the president of Briarwood College is bringing together faculty, donors and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago. Guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemorative event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates. When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize that someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past.

About the Book

The twisty locked-room mystery from two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, about a group of former classmates trapped on their college campus --- with a murderer among them.

It’s been 25 years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the double tragedy. Now, the college President is bringing together faculty, donors and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemorative event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.

When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did 25 years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?

Audiobook available, read by Elisabeth Rodgers

Editorial Content for Night Candy: A Colleen Hayes Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

L. Dean Murphy

Following 2022’s LINE OF DARKNESS, the ’70s nears an end. “Inflation was over ten percent. The economy was hemorrhaging jobs.” At an astounding 85 cents per gallon, the gas-guzzling Ford Torino that tyro private investigator Colleen Hayes drives to and from Sonoma County costs $25 a week. Read More

Teaser

In a tragic turn of events, ex-con PI Colleen Hayes’ daughter, Pam, has lost her baby. Meanwhile, a serial killer given the name “Night Candy” is targeting sex workers, both male and female. The situation doesn’t improve when Colleen’s friend and ally --- SFPD Inspector Owens --- is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, who was found burned in a fire the same night the pair had tried to rekindle their love. Could Owens have really done what they say? Even Colleen has her doubts. But there are people depending on her: Owens, who needs help finding his ex-wife’s real killer, and a trio of sex workers Colleen keeps her eye on --- especially with Night Candy on the loose. Then, one of the three girls is next to disappear. If anything is to test Colleen’s resolve, December 1979 seems to be it.

Promo

In a tragic turn of events, ex-con PI Colleen Hayes’ daughter, Pam, has lost her baby. Meanwhile, a serial killer given the name “Night Candy” is targeting sex workers, both male and female. The situation doesn’t improve when Colleen’s friend and ally --- SFPD Inspector Owens --- is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, who was found burned in a fire the same night the pair had tried to rekindle their love. Could Owens have really done what they say? Even Colleen has her doubts. But there are people depending on her: Owens, who needs help finding his ex-wife’s real killer, and a trio of sex workers Colleen keeps her eye on --- especially with Night Candy on the loose. Then, one of the three girls is next to disappear. If anything is to test Colleen’s resolve, December 1979 seems to be it.

About the Book

1970s San Francisco: the sights, the sounds, the serial killers.

As the ’70s draw to a close in San Francisco, things do not bode well for the city --- or for ex-con PI Colleen Hayes, whose daughter Pam, in a tragic turn of events, has lost her baby. Pam leaves San Francisco, and Colleen, who moved there to reunite with her, starts to wonder what she’s doing in the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, a serial killer given the name “Night Candy” is targeting sex workers, both male and female. The situation doesn’t improve when Colleen’s friend and ally --- SFPD Inspector Owens --- is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, who was found burned in a fire the same night the pair had tried to rekindle their love. Could Owens have really done what they say? Even Colleen has her doubts.

But there are people depending on her: Owens, who needs help finding his ex-wife’s real killer, and a trio of sex workers Colleen keeps her eye on --- especially with Night Candy on the loose. Then, one of the three girls is next to disappear. If anything is to test Colleen’s resolve, December 1979 seems to be it.

Editorial Content for Sinners of Starlight City

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

Take a trip back in time to visit the spectacle of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, courtesy of Anika Scott. Read More

Teaser

It’s the worst year of the Great Depression, and the Chicago World’s Fair becomes a symbol of the good that’s yet to come. As the mysterious Madame Mystique, Rosa Mancuso mixes magic with a dose of bare skin burlesque, bringing customers to the home of the Fair’s carnival rides and spectacles. Rosa doesn’t perform for fame, though. She has come from Mussolini’s Italy to America, where she’s plotting her revenge for the murders of her family. The perpetrator will soon arrive at the World’s Fair via a celebrated Italian air fleet, and Rosa is determined to be prepared. But when her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to her desperate for help, with a dangerous mobster close on her heels, Rosa agrees to protect Mina and her new baby, born across the color line.

Promo

It’s the worst year of the Great Depression, and the Chicago World’s Fair becomes a symbol of the good that’s yet to come. As the mysterious Madame Mystique, Rosa Mancuso mixes magic with a dose of bare skin burlesque, bringing customers to the home of the Fair’s carnival rides and spectacles. Rosa doesn’t perform for fame, though. She has come from Mussolini’s Italy to America, where she’s plotting her revenge for the murders of her family. The perpetrator will soon arrive at the World’s Fair via a celebrated Italian air fleet, and Rosa is determined to be prepared. But when her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to her desperate for help, with a dangerous mobster close on her heels, Rosa agrees to protect Mina and her new baby, born across the color line.

About the Book

From the author of the international bestseller THE GERMAN HEIRESS, a gripping historical drama about a woman determined to avenge the crimes against her family, set at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.

Vengeance is in the family, and the family is a bond like no other...

It’s the worst year of the Great Depression, and America needs all the hope it can get. The Chicago World’s Fair, a glittery city-within-a-city, becomes a symbol of the good that’s yet to come. But every utopia has a seedy side --- and that’s Rosa Mancuso’s world. As the mysterious Madame Mystique she mixes magic with a dose of bare skin burlesque, bringing customers to the home of the Fair’s carnival rides and spectacles.

Rosa doesn’t perform for fame, though. She has come from Mussolini’s Italy to America, where she’s plotting her revenge for the murders of her family. The perpetrator will soon arrive at the World’s Fair via a celebrated Italian air fleet, and Rosa is determined to be prepared.

But when her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to her desperate for help, with a dangerous mobster close on her heels, Rosa agrees to protect Mina and her new baby, born across the color line. With the clock ticking, Rosa decides the only way to survive is to make vengeance a family affair and prompt everyone to, at last, confront the sins from their pasts.

A gripping story of retribution, belonging and survival, SINNERS OF STARLIGHT CITY boldly explores the complexity of identities straddling ethnic lines and asks: Who gets to decide who we are and where we belong?

Audiobook available, read by Carlotta Brentan

Editorial Content for Time Will Break the World

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rachael Stark

Separating life from art is not easy, especially when it comes to the 1976 Chowchilla, CA school bus kidnapping. And TIME WILL BREAK THE WORLD, based on the same subject, is an uneasy art.

The real crime was apparently so far out in left field that madnesses like the Manson Family massacre and Ted Bundy’s monstrosities are part of contemporary conversation, yet Chowchilla has somehow been set aside like the names of the kidnappers and still-living victims. Read More

Teaser

On the second to last day of summer school in 1984, Calvin and Jason Schott hijack a school bus carrying 19 students, an unthinkable act of violence that devastates the community of Brookwood. Thirty years later, Brenda and Emily Mashburn --- twin sisters and survivors of the ordeal --- are forced to relive the kidnapping as they film a documentary about the event in an attempt to thwart Calvin's looming parole hearing. Meanwhile, Jason fights for his brother's release, hoping that a reunited family can finally bring peace to their elderly mother and ease the guilt he feels over his role in the kidnapping. The result is a feud between the two families, with neither side willing to back down.

Promo

On the second to last day of summer school in 1984, Calvin and Jason Schott hijack a school bus carrying 19 students, an unthinkable act of violence that devastates the community of Brookwood. Thirty years later, Brenda and Emily Mashburn --- twin sisters and survivors of the ordeal --- are forced to relive the kidnapping as they film a documentary about the event in an attempt to thwart Calvin's looming parole hearing. Meanwhile, Jason fights for his brother's release, hoping that a reunited family can finally bring peace to their elderly mother and ease the guilt he feels over his role in the kidnapping. The result is a feud between the two families, with neither side willing to back down.

About the Book

On the second to last day of summer school in 1984, Calvin and Jason Schott hijack a school bus carrying 19 students, an unthinkable act of violence that devastates the community of Brookwood. Thirty years later, Brenda and Emily Mashburn --- twin sisters and survivors of the ordeal --- are forced to relive the kidnapping as they film a documentary about the event in an attempt to thwart Calvin's looming parole hearing.

Meanwhile, Jason fights for his brother's release, hoping that a reunited family can finally bring peace to their elderly mother and ease the guilt he feels over his role in the kidnapping. The result is a feud between the two families, with neither side willing to back down.

Inspired by the largest kidnapping-for-ransom scheme in American history, TIME WILL BREAK THE WORLD weaves a rich backdrop of place and circumstance --- long-term trauma, dysfunctional family legacies, sibling rivalry, a granite quarry, and the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

July 28, 2023

Last weekend was the perfect summer weekend for reading --- it was sunny, not humid and not broiling hot. I had declared it a weekend of reading. I started with EVERYONE HERE IS LYING by Shari Lapena. I have coined Shari “The Queen of the One-Sit Read.” Once I start reading one of her books, I do not stop until the last page has been turned. And that is exactly what I did. I moved from the reading chair in what we have dubbed the “Cleopatra” reading tent (which is turquoise, of course) to the side of the pool where I could stand and read when I was not floating and reading. Shari completely delivered --- again. More on the book below as we are reviewing it this week!

What is the format of the book you are currently reading? Please check all that apply, as we know many of you may be reading more than one book.

July 28, 2023, 769 voters