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June 14, 2024

I love the colors this time of year. Yesterday I spent part of the morning picking out shade plants at a local nursery, and they had peacocks on the property. There were two in “my colors,” and one spread its feathers while we were there, which is called “train rattling.” Also, it may be to draw attention to another bird for mating or to ward off predators. So either the peacock I saw was flirting, or it was terrified of us. I wish I had snagged a better photo of the train rattling as it was gorgeous.

Interview: Greg Iles, author of Southern Man

Jun 13, 2024

After a five-year hiatus, Greg Iles is back with SOUTHERN MAN, the hugely anticipated new Penn Cage thriller that captures the political unrest of a nation dangling between a chaotic past and an unpredictable future. In this interview conducted by Bookreporter reviewer Ray Palen, Iles explains his inspiration for writing the Natchez Burning trilogy and this latest novel, which takes place 15 years ahead of the trilogy. He also talks about his decision to include the character of third-party candidate and conservative radio talk show host Robert E. Lee White in the story, the role that he feels fiction should play going forward, the possibility of adapting these books as a film or series, and the health crisis he went through while writing SOUTHERN MAN that nearly cost him his life.

July 2024 Bookaccino Live Signup

June 11, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 10th and June 17th 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 our special contest for Marjan Kamali’s upcoming novel, THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN. This future Bookreporter.com Bets On title is a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young, and the way love and courage transforms our lives. In anticipation of the book’s July 2nd release, we are awarding an advance copy to 25 readers. The deadline for your entries is Friday, June 21st at noon ET.

June 11, 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 12th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of LADY TAN'S CIRCLE OF WOMEN by Lisa See, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

June 7, 2024

I have no shelf control. I love that line. It’s so very true. The shelves of upcoming books to read have morphed into piles on the floor. A few weeks ago, I sorted them by publication date. There were a lot coming out on June 4th and others on June 11th, so that was not exactly one of my greater solutions.

Jacqueline Winspear, author of The Comfort of Ghosts: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion --- the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group. Maisie’s quest to bring comfort to the youngsters and the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie’s first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental fighter aircraft. As Maisie unravels the threads of her dead husband’s life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true.

Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island

Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents. It is the spring of 1976, and Eilis has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades. One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that he will not raise the baby but instead deposit it on Eilis’ doorstep. It is what Eilis does --- and what she refuses to do --- in response to this stunning news that makes LONG ISLAND so riveting.

Michael Crichton, author of Eruption

Michael Crichton, the creator of Jurassic Park, “ER,” Twister and Westworld, had a passion project he’d been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson. A history-making eruption is about to destroy the Big Island of Hawaii. But a secret held for decades by the US military is far more terrifying than any volcano.

Editorial Content for You Never Know: A Memoir

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Roberta O'Hara

The title of Tom Selleck’s memoir is ironic as we the audience feel like we know him. And while the moniker points more to luck and happenstance in an unexpected career, the content of the book supports the theory that he is who he is: an incredibly likable, trusting and trustworthy sort of person who also happens to be terribly good-looking. Read More

Teaser

In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, beloved actor Tom Selleck brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes, and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories. “Magnum P.I.” fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that easily could have gone on for years longer. Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In YOU NEVER KNOW, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy.

Promo

In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, beloved actor Tom Selleck brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes, and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories. “Magnum P.I.” fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that easily could have gone on for years longer. Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In YOU NEVER KNOW, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy.

About the Book

There are many miles from the business school and basketball court at the University of Southern California to 50 million viewers for the final episode of a TV show called "Magnum P.I." Tom Selleck has lived every one of those miles in his own iconoclastic and joyful way.

Frank, funny and open-hearted, YOU NEVER KNOW is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time, the highly personal story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes, and, over time, his well-earned success.

Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from "the Dating Game" to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West and escorting her to black-tie social functions). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-30s and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose authenticity and ease in front of the camera connected with audiences worldwide while embodying and also redefining the clichés of onscreen manhood.

In YOU NEVER KNOW, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of "The Rockford Files," who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges. He also more than tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer.

Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In YOU NEVER KNOW, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm and talent and self-deprecating humor, Selleck’s memoir reveals an American icon who has reached remarkable heights by always insisting on being himself.

Audiobook available, read by Tom Selleck