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Editorial Content for Horror Movie

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

To classify Paul Tremblay’s books as “horror” completely diminishes what he does. His work clearly rises to the level of classic fiction and crosses many genres in doing so. His latest novel, HORROR MOVIE, takes the premise of the “cursed” horror film to new heights in a story that is constantly engaging, frightening and at times disturbingly real. Read More

Teaser

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fan base. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big-budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. Still, he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors and surreal fan conventions --- demons of the past be damned. But at what cost?

Promo

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fan base. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big-budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. Still, he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors and surreal fan conventions --- demons of the past be damned. But at what cost?

About the Book

A chilling twist on the “cursed film” genre from the bestselling author of THE PALLBEARERS CLUB and THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fan base. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors and surreal fan conventions --- demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost? 

HORROR MOVIE is an obsessive, psychologically chilling and suspenseful feat of storytelling genius that builds inexorably to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.

Audiobook available, read by various narrators

Editorial Content for A Talent for Murder

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Peter Swanson is one of my favorite writers working today. With the release of his latest novel, A TALENT FOR MURDER, I am pleased to say that not only has Swanson hit it out of the park again, he has produced a story that both amazed and confounded me.

The opening chapter is told from the point of view of Josie, an attendee at a teacher’s conference who has an open marriage and actively seeks out a male partner for sex. Following a tryst in her hotel room, the scene ends abruptly and shockingly as a naked Josie is tossed over the balcony to her death. Read More

Teaser

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger. A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern --- five unsolved cases of murdered women. Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence?

Promo

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger. A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern --- five unsolved cases of murdered women. Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence?

About the Book

A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married is a murderer in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, the New York Times bestselling author of THE KIND WORTH KILLING and EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS.

No murder is by the book.

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern --- five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is. But what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.

Audiobook available; read by Sophie Amoss, Stephen Graybill, Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead, Kathleen Early and Keith Szarabajka

Editorial Content for 1974: A Personal History

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

I've enjoyed reading Francine Prose's fiction for many years, as well as her shorter form literary criticism and her wonderful guide to the craft of writing (and reading), READING LIKE A WRITER. Prose's new work is her first foray into memoir territory. It’s both strikingly intimate and self-reflective, as well as a commentary on a particular time and place. Read More

Teaser

During her 20s, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories --- and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York. What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam War, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and an artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.

Promo

During her 20s, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories --- and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York. What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam War, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and an artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.

About the Book

The first memoir from critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose, about the close relationship she developed with activist Anthony Russo, one of the men who leaked the Pentagon Papers --- and the year when our country changed.

During her 20s, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories --- and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York.

What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam War, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and an artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.

Audiobook available, read by Francine Prose

Editorial Content for Parade

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

“Seinfeld” was (supposedly) a show about nothing. However, throughout its long run, it turned out to be the tales of a group of self-obsessed, obnoxious, petty people who made us roar with their responses to the ridiculous minutiae that make up most of our interactions in daily life. Entertainment has long taken the idea of something small and giving it a spotlight as a proper means of illuminating the insanity of modern-day life. Now celebrated author Rachel Cusk once again takes the novel to another stage of definition in her latest effort. Read More

Teaser

Midway through his life, the artist G begins to paint upside down. Eventually, he paints his wife upside down. He also makes her ugly. The paintings are a great success. In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street. Her attacker flees, but not before turning around to contemplate her victim, like an artist stepping back from a canvas. At the age of 22, the painter G leaves home for a new life in another country, far from the disapproval of her parents. Her paintings attract the disapproval of the man she later marries. When a mother dies, her children confront her legacy: the stories she told, the roles she assigned to them, the ways she withheld her love. Her death is a kind of freedom.

Promo

Midway through his life, the artist G begins to paint upside down. Eventually, he paints his wife upside down. He also makes her ugly. The paintings are a great success. In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street. Her attacker flees, but not before turning around to contemplate her victim, like an artist stepping back from a canvas. At the age of 22, the painter G leaves home for a new life in another country, far from the disapproval of her parents. Her paintings attract the disapproval of the man she later marries. When a mother dies, her children confront her legacy: the stories she told, the roles she assigned to them, the ways she withheld her love. Her death is a kind of freedom.

About the Book

From Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline trilogy, comes this startling, exhilarating novel that once again expands the notion of what fiction can be and do.

Midway through his life, the artist G begins to paint upside down. Eventually, he paints his wife upside down. He also makes her ugly. The paintings are a great success.

In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street. Her attacker flees, but not before turning around to contemplate her victim, like an artist stepping back from a canvas.

At the age of 22, the painter G leaves home for a new life in another country, far from the disapproval of her parents. Her paintings attract the disapproval of the man she later marries.

When a mother dies, her children confront her legacy: the stories she told, the roles she assigned to them, the ways she withheld her love. Her death is a kind of freedom.

PARADE is a novel that demolishes the conventions of storytelling. It surges past the limits of identity, character and plot to tell the story of G, an artist whose life contains many lives. Rachel Cusk is a writer and visionary like no other, who turns language upside down to show us our world as it really is.

Audiobook available, read by Genevieve Gaunt

Editorial Content for Shadowheart: An UNSUB Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Meg Gardiner returns with the fourth entry in her taut and thrilling UNSUB series. SHADOWHEART features a battle between two serial killers that starts out like a game of cat and mouse and grows to be something far different. Read More

Teaser

In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders. Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash, to hunt down an unstoppable killer.

Promo

In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders. Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash, to hunt down an unstoppable killer.

About the Book

What happens when two serial killers begin to compete with each other?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Gardiner comes a new high-octane thriller in the acclaimed UNSUB series.

FBI Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix faces a case from nightmares.

In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders.

Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one, but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash to hunt down an unstoppable killer.

Audiobook available, read by Hillary Huber

Editorial Content for The Nature of Disappearing

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sam Johnson

Kimi Cunningham Grant lets her research and suspense skills lead the way in THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING. In the opening scene, for instance, wilderness guide Emlyn mills an odd atmosphere with her latest client. They make a fair trade: a "hopper-dropper” tool she made by hand for a brown trout her client caught. Yet she can’t ignore an unjust animosity emanating from her client, as if Californian wildfire smoke obstructing the Obsidian Mountains is her doing. Read More

Teaser

Emlyn doesn't let herself think about the past. How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the love of her life, left her half dead on the side of the road three years ago. She now lives alone in her Airstream trailer and works as a fishing and hunting guide in scenic Idaho. Her closest friends are the community's makeshift reverend and a handsome Forest Service ranger. But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. As Emlyn and Tyler trace Janessa's path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry still crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods --- and that Janessa isn't the only one in danger.

Promo

Emlyn doesn't let herself think about the past. How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the love of her life, left her half dead on the side of the road three years ago. She now lives alone in her Airstream trailer and works as a fishing and hunting guide in scenic Idaho. Her closest friends are the community's makeshift reverend and a handsome Forest Service ranger. But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. As Emlyn and Tyler trace Janessa's path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry still crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods --- and that Janessa isn't the only one in danger.

About the Book

In this captivating novel of suspense from the USA Today bestselling author of THESE SILENT WOODS, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when the friend who introduced them goes missing.

Emlyn doesn't let herself think about the past.

How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the love of her life, left her half dead on the side of the road three years ago.

Her new life is simple and safe. She lives alone in her Airstream trailer and works as a fishing and hunting guide in scenic Idaho. Her closest friends are the community's makeshift reverend and a handsome Forest Service ranger who took her in at her lowest.

But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. Janessa has become a social media star, documenting her #vanlife adventures with her rugged boyfriend. She hasn't posted lately, though, and when Emlyn realizes the most recent photo doesn't match up with its caption, she reluctantly joins Tyler to find her old friend. As the two trace Janessa's path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry still crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods --- and that Janessa isn't the only one in danger.

Poignant, suspenseful and unforgettable, Kimi Cunningham Grant's THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING explores what it takes to start over --- and the cost of letting the past pull you back in.

Audiobook available, read by Emily Pike Stewart

Editorial Content for A View from the Stars: Stories and Essays

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pauline Finch

Despite having written award-winning science fiction for more than three decades and building up an international niche following, Chinese author-engineer Cixin Liu is still something of an enigma. And A VIEW FROM THE STARS, his second anthology of shorter essays and fiction pieces, does very little to dispel that mystique. But it nevertheless offers a wide range of distinctive and absorbing approaches to an ever-evolving genre. Read More

Teaser

A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the past three decades of New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu's prolific career, putting his nonfiction essays and short stories side-by-side for the first time. This collection includes essays and interviews that shed light on Liu's experiences as a reader, writer and lover of science fiction throughout his life, as well as short fiction that gives glimpses into the evolution of his imaginative voice over the years.

Promo

A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the past three decades of New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu's prolific career, putting his nonfiction essays and short stories side-by-side for the first time. This collection includes essays and interviews that shed light on Liu's experiences as a reader, writer and lover of science fiction throughout his life, as well as short fiction that gives glimpses into the evolution of his imaginative voice over the years.

About the Book

A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the past three decades of New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu's prolific career, putting his nonfiction essays and short stories side-by-side for the first time.

This collection includes essays and interviews that shed light on Liu's experiences as a reader, writer and lover of science fiction throughout his life, as well as short fiction that gives glimpses into the evolution of his imaginative voice over the years.

Audiobook available, read by Brian Nishii

June 21, 2024

I love summer. I enjoy early morning swims, gardening, and reading in the pool or in the turquoise tent that we affectionately call “the Cleopatra tent.” I finally found some terrific dinner plate dahlias at the nursery. Last year, I bought two plants at another nursery that they swore were dinner plates, but they turned out to be regular-sized flowers, which was a disappointment. You can see what I am talking about above. Karyn, who has been doing a lot of planting for us, was here early this morning, working on a section that we bought plants for last week. But it was just too hot; the ground was way too dry.

When you go on vacation, what do you do about books? Please check all that apply.

June 21, 2024, 642 voters

Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate

June 2024

I know little about Eastern Oklahoma, and I never have traveled there. But after reading SHELTERWOOD by Lisa Wingate, I would love to see this part of the country.

The book is set in two time frames. In 1909, we meet 11-year-old Olive Augusta Radley, who knows that the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards are not safe around her stepfather. The older girl disappears, and shortly after, Ollie flees to the woods with the younger girl. After the passage of the Dawes Act, which gave every Indian man, woman and child land, the youngest of these inheritors were preyed upon by men who wanted to lay claim to their oil rights. Children were hidden in the woods in places like the Winding Stair Mountains. There they would forage for food and protect one another, setting up their own systems of order in which the older children would watch out for the younger ones.