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Editorial Content for Storm Warning

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

David Bell has made a fine career for himself writing top-notch psychological thrillers that seem to be conceived from the collective nightmares of his readers. His latest effort is no exception. Read More

Teaser

Jake Powell is racing to get off the Florida barrier island on which he lives as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building. Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.

Promo

Jake Powell is racing to get off the Florida barrier island on which he lives as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building. Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.

About the Book

A man living on a Florida barrier island must protect his family from both an approaching hurricane and a relentless killer.

Jake Powell is racing to get off the Florida barrier island on which he lives as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building.

Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.

Audiobook available, read by Sean Patrick Hopkins

Editorial Content for God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

It's rare to read a novel in which a vibrant yet intimate portrait of a character is not only a feature, it's kind of the whole point. It's even rarer for the reader to be so totally immersed in that character's consciousness, in which his or her voice and the substance of the book are so thoroughly commingled. When I was trying to describe the experience of reading Joseph Earl Thomas' debut novel to others, I just gave up, thrust a page at them and commanded, "You just have to read it yourself." Read More

Teaser

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round-the-clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak and responsibility.

Promo

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round-the-clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak and responsibility.

About the Book

A stirring, unsparing novel about Black life in Philadelphia and the struggle to build intimate connections through the eyes of a struggling ex-Army grad student that “reads like a direct communication from the soul,” (Justin Torres) from the virtuoso author of SINK. 

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round-the-clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak and responsibility.

Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day Black life --- of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics.

Audiobook available, read by JD Jackson

Editorial Content for Diamond Cut

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

L. Dean Murphy

Beyond the glitzy theme parks of Florida’s other Magic City are “working” women along the seedy section of Orange Blossom Trail. What you won’t see there are pricey call girls. This is the tale of one who escaped the downward spiral of “the life,” as sex-trade workers call it. Read More

Teaser

Sandy Corrigan used to be called Diamond. She used to live in an apartment with other girls like her, though she rarely slept there. Instead, she spent her evenings in hotel rooms with lonely, unfaithful men. That is, until the incident. But despite the personal hell she endured, the nightmarish crisis saved her from a life spent in strangers’ beds. Sandy now spends her evenings reading to her six-year-old son, Tyler, and her days working for her brother’s private investigation business. Despite severing all ties to her former life, a girl from her past reappears and asks Sandy to investigate the disappearance of a young call girl. Sandy takes the case. But what she doesn’t expect to discover is a sordid web of corruption, sex and murder, and she soon grows more entangled with each step she takes.

Promo

Sandy Corrigan used to be called Diamond. She used to live in an apartment with other girls like her, though she rarely slept there. Instead, she spent her evenings in hotel rooms with lonely, unfaithful men. That is, until the incident. But despite the personal hell she endured, the nightmarish crisis saved her from a life spent in strangers’ beds. Sandy now spends her evenings reading to her six-year-old son, Tyler, and her days working for her brother’s private investigation business. Despite severing all ties to her former life, a girl from her past reappears and asks Sandy to investigate the disappearance of a young call girl. Sandy takes the case. But what she doesn’t expect to discover is a sordid web of corruption, sex and murder, and she soon grows more entangled with each step she takes.

About the Book

To find a missing girl, Sandy must return to the insidious places she once worked tirelessly to escape.

Sandy Corrigan used to be called Diamond. She used to live in an apartment with other girls like her, though she rarely slept there, instead spending her evenings in hotel rooms around Orlando with lonely, unfaithful men. That is, until the incident.

But despite the personal hell she endured, the nightmarish crisis saved her from a life spent in strangers’ beds. Sandy now spends her evenings reading to her six-year-old son, Tyler, and her days working for her brother’s private investigation business.

Despite severing all ties to her former life, a girl from her past reappears and asks Sandy to investigate the disappearance of a young call girl. Unsure of whether or not the girl is alive, and wary of the past traumas the investigation could bring to the surface, Sandy takes the case. What she doesn’t expect to discover is a sordid web of corruption, sex and murder, and she soon grows more entangled with each step she takes. Can she survive the horrors she thought she escaped years ago?

Audiobook available, read by Christin Reinmuth

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

July 2024

I was a huge fan of Chris Whitaker’s previous novel, WE BEGIN AT THE END, and I have been waiting impatiently to see what he would write next. When the 600-plus-page ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK came to my house, I just wanted to hunker down and see where Chris was taking us now. Once again, he did not disappoint.

The book opens in 1975 in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, where we are introduced to its two young protagonists. The first is Saint, who is somewhat of an outsider. She is a pianist and a beekeeper. Her parents are absent, and she is being raised by her grandmother, Norma, who drives a bus and embraces the differences in her. The other is a boy nicknamed Patch because of the patch over his missing eye; his real name is Joseph. There is a bond between these two that is forged after Patch attempts to steal honey from Saint. He is like the bad boy who is always getting in trouble, and she is the girl who wants to set him on the right path.

Husbands & Lovers by Beatriz Williams

July 2024

I smiled a lot while reading HUSBANDS & LOVERS, loving what Beatriz Williams captures in a book that is genre-bending. It’s both historical fiction and women’s fiction, and it features a great love story…or two. Beatriz once again tackles two time frames --- actually, there are three --- but for the first time, one of them is in present day…or at least in this decade (2022 New England). Mallory is a single mom whose 10-year-old son, Sam, is at camp and has eaten poisonous mushrooms, which have destroyed his kidneys. He is in weekly dialysis and needs to be watched carefully as too much water or too many salty foods can throw his body off. He desperately needs a transplant.

Which of the following titles releasing in July have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.

July 12, 2024, 880 voters

July 12, 2024 - July 26, 2024

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of July 12 - July 26.

July 12, 2024

As promised, I spent the holiday weekend reading. There is an art to reading in the pool. If I have an advance copy, I do not worry about getting it wet. So I can float in the pool with the book, or walk around with it as shown above with BAD TOURISTS by Caro Carver. (My husband snapped this picture when I was not looking.) If it is a hardcover, I instead read standing at the side of the pool, which is how I read THE CLIFFS by J. Courtney Sullivan. (We are reviewing both this week, and they also will be Bookreporter.com Bets On selections.) When floating, another option is audio, which I have been doing so I can enjoy more books.

Interview: Larry Tye, author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America

Jul 11, 2024

Larry Tye’s THE JAZZMEN is a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz --- Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie --- who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Tye explains why he chose these three iconic figures as the subjects of his book, how he approached the process of doing original research into their lives and times, and why he believes that jazz is here to stay.

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