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November 12, 2004

Bookreporter.com Newsletter November 12, 2004
This Week on Bookreporter.com

Bigger, More Robust and We Hope Better...

Book Journalist Roundtable: Bookreporter.com Talks to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly

Bookreporter.com Talks to Luanne Rice, Author of SILVER BELLS

Win Copies of EMMA, Featured in THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

LONDON BRIDGES by James Patterson

New on ReadingGroupGuides.com
This Week's Book Reviews and Features
Poll: Which of these books have you read or do you look forward to reading?
Question of the Week: What Author Would You Invite for the Holidays?
Word of Mouth: Tell Us What You're Reading -- TWO Prizes!
Quick Links to Features On The Book Report Network
 
Bookreporter.com
Past Reviews
Can't See the Graphics? Read This Newsletter Online
Past Poll: Do you read excerpts of books online to help you select what books you may be interested in reading?
Past Question of the Week: Tell us about one book that you were intrigued to read after reading an excerpt.
Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight Promotion
Debut Suspense/Thriller One to Watch Promotion
Mystery Mayhem Promotion

Fantasy Author Spotlight Promotion

One to Watch Promotion
Chick Lit Promotion

Bigger, More Robust and We Hope Better...

The newsletter is coming to you a bit late this week, but includes a few extras as the company that we work with on this, Patron Mail, upgraded their system this week. What's new? More quick links on the upper right. Also, the ability to add links in the text to take you more quickly to features, reviews and excerpts. In the weeks to come we also will be able to share 15 features instead of 10. We're excited about this new format; hope that you are too.

More good news: Last month for the first time we had more than 200,000 unique visitors at Bookreporter.com. Thanks to each of you for reading and helping us to hit this milestone.

This week we are bringing you an interview that I enjoyed working on, a roundtable discussion with four prominent book journalists --- Charlotte Abbott, Book News Editor of Publishers Weekly; Bob Minzesheimer, Book Reviewer and Publishing Reporter of USA Today; Sam Tanenhaus, Editor of the New York Times Book Review; and Steve Wasserman, Editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review--- who weigh in about book awards and prizes, bestseller lists and what influences readers. Read it to see what inspired this feature.

Thanks to the more than 730 of you who already responded to our 3rd Annual Reader Survey. For those of you who have not yet been polled, it's your chance to weigh in on what you buy, where you buy it, what you read and what prompts you to read it. Your replies will help us program Bookreporter.com in the weeks and months to come, so please do weigh in. My original goal was 1,000 respondents. Seeing this terrific initial response I now would love to see 2,000 respondents by December 5th. May we suggest that you vote now?

And for sharing your thoughts in this poll you can be entered to win a $100 gift certificate from Amazon, as well as two other $25 gift certificates. Click on the link below to learn more.  One quick comment. There are three parts to the survey, so if you only answered one or two parts and would like to finish the survey, please click on the link below to access it.

I love to swim. It's the only exercise I am passionate about. I swam here at the house thru October --- swimming and trick or treating in the same day was a first this year. For most of October I spent mornings wrestling with the solar cover (think of a large piece of bubble wrap on top of the water) and scooping leaves so I could swim. Last weekend I decided this year my swimming is not ending with the cold weather and joined the local Y. I swam every morning this week. As my sons have dubbed me The Queen of Multitasking, I have a new idea --- listening to audiobooks while swimming. A pal once told me that he does this. Now I am not a fan of audiobooks, but somehow this sounds interesting to me. Besides counting strokes, laps and writing email in my head, there is not much else you can do when you swim. Will let you know if I figure out how to do this! If you have the answer, drop me a note.

As promised, from now until the holiday we are going to spotlight bookish gifts you may want to give...or get. This week's selection --- THE CHRISTMAS THIEF by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark. Here's the story --- the Rockefeller Center tree is stolen from a forest in Vermont on the morning it is to be cut down with great ceremony. Alvirah Meehan, the lottery winner turned sleuth, teams up with private investigator Regan Reilly to solve the mystery.

As I am reading this, I realize that authors have great imaginations. When you and I watch the tree lighting I think we focus on the lights going on, the carolers and the endless stats that NBC will share with us about it. I don't think we imagine the tree being stolen and a mystery surrounding it. I would like to know some of the stories that my favorite authors have written in their heads that surround every day events. Ponder that one and answer our Question of the Week about what author you would like to invite to a holiday meal. I have a list of authors that I would invite. I wonder if they know how well I cook! Maybe I should send my menu and an invite. Wait, is that a plot for a book? 

Lots on our lineup this week...enjoy. Have a nice week....

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

Answer our 3rd Annual Reader Study here.
 

Book Journalist Roundtable: Bookreporter.com Talks to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly

Bookreporter.com's co-Founder Carol Fitzgerald interviewed four prominent book journalists --- Charlotte Abbott, Book News Editor of Publishers Weekly; Bob Minzesheimer, Book Reviewer and Publishing Reporter of USA Today; Sam Tanenhaus, Editor of the New York Times Book Review; and Steve Wasserman, Editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review. The fast-paced and lively discussion included conversation about book prizes and awards, bestseller lists and influences on readers.
Read our Book Journalist Roundtable here.
 

Bookreporter.com Talks to Luanne Rice, Author of SILVER BELLS

Bookreporter.com Co-Founder Carol Fitzgerald interviews Luanne Rice, author of SILVER BELLS. Rice talks about the inspiration behind her holiday book, the profound influence that her high school history teacher had on her, and the importance of "looking up" in everyday life. She also discusses her future plans, which includes the publication of two novels in the summer of 2005.
Read our interview with Luanne Rice and an excerpt of SILVER BELLS here.
 
Read more about EMMA, a title featured in THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB here.
Win Copies of EMMA, Featured in THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
Ever thought about making your book club a Jane Austen Book Club? Given the success of the bestseller THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, by Karen Joy Fowler, we're sharing with book clubs what they need to make this happen. Between now and April, each month we will publish a discussion guide that Fowler has written expressly for book clubs for one of the six Jane Austen titles mentioned in the book. Our first selection is EMMA.

To make this Austen celebration even more fun, we are selecting 5 groups to each win 12 copies of EMMA for their discussion. Interested? See the link below for more details.
Read more about Win Copies of EMMA, featured in THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB here.
 

LONDON BRIDGES by James Patterson

LONDON BRIDGES by James Patterson (Thriller)

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Terrorists have seized the world's largest cities. London, Washington, DC, New York, and Frankfurt will be destroyed unless their demands are met. Alex Cross is stunned to learn that two of his deadliest adversaries --- familiar to all fans of this series --- may be behind the plot.

Read an excerpt.


 

Click here to a review of LONDON BRIDGES and an excerpt.
 
New on ReadingGroupGuides.com
 
More than a dozen new reading group discussion guides have been added to ReadingGroupGuides.com. They include a guide for BANISHING VERONA by Margot Livesey, a book that I have been reading --- and enjoying. Also, for those of you whose groups like nonfiction, we add Micheline Maynard's THE END OF DETROIT, a NYT bestseller that looks at what happened to the Big Three automakers, and a guide for NOT FADE AWAY by Laurence Shames and Peter Barton, which, as many of you may know, is a real favorite of mine. For those who wonder what happened in their former relationships, there is a guide from the memoir by Susan Shapiro called FIVE MEN WHO BROKE MY HEART. Shapiro, a journalist, tracks down the five men who'd broken her heart between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five.
Go to ReadingGroupGuides.com
 
Read the reviews and features here. Read the reviews and features here. Read the reviews and features here.
This Week's Book Reviews and Features

THE STUPIDEST ANGEL: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, by Christopher Moore

Reviewed by Andi Shechter

Christmas in the small California coastal tourist town of Pine Cove is anything but your average holiday season in Christopher Moore's latest novel, a not-so-typical Christmas story in which hilarity abounds. 

SAVANNAH {or} A GIFT FOR MR. LINCOLN by John Jakes (Historical Fiction)

Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton

John Jakes's latest Civil War novel is set in Savannah, where the widow Sara and her feisty twelve-year-old daughter Hattie struggle to save the family rice plantation. When General William T. Sherman offers the conquered city to President Lincoln as "a Christmas gift," Hattie and the feared general find themselves on a collision course that will astonish both of them.

QUEENAN COUNTRY: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country by Joe Queenan (Humor/Travel)

Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

Joe Queenan, the acerbic satirist on everything from Hollywood films to sports fandom, takes a crack at travel literature with his new book, as he seeks the answer to an eternal question: What makes the Brits tick? 

THE GRAND SLAM: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf by Mark Frost (Sports)

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

From the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed The Greatest Game Ever Played comes this riveting, in-depth look at the life and times of golf icon Bobby Jones.

THE DREAMING GAME: A Portrait of a Passionate Life by Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. (Nonfiction)

Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott

Author and historian Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. provides a loving and inspiring portrait of his mother, Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt, an extraordinary woman who brought an intensity and originality to the life around her.

 

Read the reviews and features here.
 
Poll: Which of these books have you read or do you look forward to reading?

Which of the following books have you read or do you look forward to reading?

Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz
London Bridges by James Patterson
Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
Night Fall by Nelson DeMille
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
Runaway by Alice Munro
Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Twisted by Jonathan Kellerman
Whiteout by Ken Follett
Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith
None of the above

Talking turkey, do you prefer white meat or dark meat?
White meat
Dark meat
I do not like turkey.

Answer the Poll here.
 
Browse through forthcoming books here. Read about books that have won awards here. Sign up for Author Newsletters here.
Question of the Week: What Author Would You Invite for the Holidays?
Question:
What author would you like to have a holiday meal with?

Our next question update will be on December 3rd.
Answer the Question of the Week.
 
Read more NIGHT FALL here. Read more about TWISTED here.
Word of Mouth: Tell Us What You're Reading -- TWO Prizes!

Tell us what books YOU are reading and loving --- or even those you don't.

This week we have some great prizes: FIVE readers each will win a copy of NIGHT FALL by Nelson DeMille and TWISTED by Jonathan Kellerman.

Please note that our next Word of Mouth update will be on December 3rd.

Need more details about Word of Mouth? Click here.
 

As always, here are a few housekeeping notes. If you are seeing this newsletter in a text version, and would prefer to see the graphics, you can either read it online (see the link on the upper right) or change your preferences below.

Those of you who wish to send mail to Bookreporter.com, please see the form on the Write to Us page. We were forced to move to this format after we were inundated with SPAM at the other address. If you would like to reach me, please write [email protected]. Writing any of the respond buttons below will not get to us.

Quick observation --- we have noticed that many of you have been changing your Internet providers in the past month. If you do, please be sure to "take us along" by signing up for the newsletter in your new name!

Happy reading! Don't forget to forward this newsletter to a friend or to visit our other websites from TheBookReportNetwork.com: ReadingGroupGuides.com, AuthorsOnTheWeb.com, FaithfulReader.com, AuthorYellowPages.com, Teenreads.com, and Kidsreads.com.

--- Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

The Book Report Network
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