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June 28, 2024

While I spend a lot of time writing online and doing virtual events, I do love getting out to meet readers, which is what I got to do on Wednesday night at the Avalon Free Public Library. I am trying to remember how many summers I have been doing this program. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, as well as some new ones. The weather was great there, unlike the first year when it was absolutely pouring. I joke that that was my christening into Avalon.

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Interview: Robert J. Lloyd, author of The Bedlam Cadaver: A Hunt & Hooke Novel

Jun 27, 2024

In late 17th-century London, rich young women are being kidnapped and then murdered. Harry Hunt, formerly of the Royal Society but now a rich gentleman, is falsely accused. To clear his name, he must rely on his abandoned scientific expertise and battle the full force of the British aristocracy in THE BEDLAM CADAVER, Robert J. Lloyd's third Hunt & Hooke mystery. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Lloyd discusses why he decided to set his latest novel at Bethlehem Hospital (aka Bedlam). He also explains how he handles science and medicine in his series and reveals the one person from another historical period he would like to make the subject of a book.

June 25, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 24th and July 1st 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 SHELTERWOOD by Lisa Wingate, which released earlier this month. This sweeping novel is inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

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June 25, 2024

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we think is a great summer reading selection. Read more about it, and enter our Summer Reading Contest by Wednesday, June 26th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of HONEY by Isabel Banta, which is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

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David Wroblewski, author of Familiaris

It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has gotten him into trouble…again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's north woods, where they hope to make a fresh start --- and, with a little luck, discover what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends --- human, animal and otherworldly --- to realize their dreams.

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Liv Constantine, author of The Next Mrs. Parrish

Hard work and immaculate planning turned Amber Patterson Parrish from invisible wallflower to prominent socialite. Less than a year after her husband Jackson’s tax-evasion scandal, Amber reigns supreme over the Bishops Harbor community. But with Jackson being released from prison, Amber’s free time --- and money --- is vanishing. Meanwhile, Daphne Parrish left Bishops Harbor after her divorce from Jackson, swearing she would never go back. But when one of her daughters runs away from home, desperate to see her father, Daphne agrees to return for the summer for their daughters’ sake. When a ghost from Amber’s past emerges looking for revenge, these three figures find unlikely allies in one another. But who is playing who?

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Griffin Dunne, author of The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. In the midst of it all, Griffin’s 22-year-old sister, Dominique, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne’s career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist. But THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its lovable, infuriating, funny and moving characters --- its author most of all.

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Lucy Foley, author of The Midnight Feast

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen. But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.

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Riley Sager, author of Middle of the Night

One July night, 10-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent on a manicured lawn in a quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again. Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle? The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place --- be it quiet forest or suburban street --- is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.

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Editorial Content for Sandwich

Book

Sandwich

Contributors

Sarah Rachel Egelman

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

Catherine Newman’s latest novel is a study in laser-focused love. The joys and emotional perils of being sandwiched between aging parents and young adult children are offered up here with humor and a keen sense of observation. It is astute and honest, but that doesn’t even begin to cover it. Lovely and weird, SANDWICH holds its happiness and sorrows in equal measure. Read More

Teaser

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals and messes of all kinds. This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past --- except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing; her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends her into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

Promo

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals and messes of all kinds. This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past --- except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing; her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends her into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

About the Book

From the beloved author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, a moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch and learning to let go.

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital and --- thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing --- septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past --- except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing --- her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

Audiobook available, read by Nan McNamara