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January 31, 2023

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 30th and February 6th 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 Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary for THE MITFORD AFFAIR, Marie Benedict’s latest work of historical fiction. The book revolves around novelist Nancy Mitford, who must choose between country and family when two of her sisters swear their allegiance to fascism in the lead-up to World War II.

January 31, 2023

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this winter. Read more about it, and enter our Winter Reading Contest by Wednesday, February 1st at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of EXILES by Jane Harper, which is now available and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction 2023

The American Library Association (ALA) has selected THE SWIMMERS by Julie Otsuka as the winner of the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and AN IMMENSE WORLD: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong as the winner of the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

Jeff Hobbs, author of Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System

There has been very little written about juvenile detention and the path to justice. For many kids, a mistake made at age 13 or 14 --- often resulting from external factors coupled with a biologically immature brain --- can resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle-class life a mere fantasy. Here, in CHILDREN OF THE STATE, Jeff Hobbs challenges any preconceived perceptions about how the juvenile justice system works. He presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors and --- most importantly --- children.

Stephen Hunter, author of The Bullet Garden: An Earl Swagger Novel

July, 1944: The lush, rolling hills of Normandy are dotted with a new feature --- German snipers. From their vantage points, they pick off hundreds of Allied soldiers every day, bringing the D-Day invasion to its knees. It’s clear that someone is tipping off these snipers with the locations of American GIs. But who? And how? General Eisenhower demands his intelligence service to find the best shot in the Allied military to counter this deadly SS operation. Enter Pacific hero Earl Swagger, who is assigned this crucial and bloody mission. With crosshairs on his back, Swagger can’t trust anyone as he infiltrates the shadowy corners of London and France for answers.

Grady Hendrix, author of How to Sell a Haunted House

When Louise finds out that her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world. Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale. But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them.

Bret Easton Ellis, author of The Shards

Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friends --- or his own mind --- to make sense of the danger they appear to be in?

Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex , author of Spare

It was one of the most searing images of the 20th century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow --- and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling --- and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. With its raw, unflinching honesty, SPARE is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Editorial Content for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Benjamin Stevenson combines a riveting whodunit with a witty and sharply self-referential look at mystery fiction in EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, which not only lives up to its wacky and absurd title, but delivers far more than plain shock. Read More

Teaser

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it?

Promo

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it?

About the Book

Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club in this “utterly original” (Jane Harper), “not to be missed” (Karin Slaughter), fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery.

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.

I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let’s get started.

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

My brother
My stepsister
My wife
My father
My mother
My sister-in-law
My uncle
My stepfather
My aunt
Me

Audiobook available, read by Barton Welch

Editorial Content for All Hallows

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In several prior reviews, I have talked glowingly about the writing talents of Christopher Golden. He has shown in dozens of terrific novels that he is a well-rounded and prolific writer, often capable of handling multiple genres even within the same book.

However, I must admit that the lifelong horror fan inside of me was squealing with delight to learn that his latest release, ALL HALLOWS, is a pure horror tale set on Halloween night in the small town of Coventry, Massachusetts, in 1984. Let the comparisons to “Stranger Things” begin! Read More

Teaser

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, secrets are being revealed. And all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

Promo

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, secrets are being revealed. And all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

About the Book

New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales. But in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man.

There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask...

Audiobook available, read by Ronnie Butler and January LaVoy