Editorial Content for Negative Space
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Reviewer (text)
In the days when the world began to open up again after the COVID lockdown, a new stage of anxiety and trepidation took hold. People felt raw and craved connection, but they were still afraid of what those connections might bring. Gillian Linden’s thoughtful debut novel explores relationships and the return to the mundane as the pandemic crisis abates yet lingers. Read More
Teaser
NEGATIVE SPACE follows a week in the life of an English teacher at a New York private school. At home, her two increasingly restless children ask constant questions about mortality and find hidden wisdom in the cartoons they watch on television. Her husband tends to his plants and offers occasional counsel between Zoom calls to Hong Kong and Australia. And at school, as she navigates the currents between wealthy, increasingly disconnected students and bewildered faculty, she accidentally witnesses an ambiguous, possibly inappropriate interaction between a teacher and a student. She feels compelled to say something, but how can she be sure of what she saw?
Promo
NEGATIVE SPACE follows a week in the life of an English teacher at a New York private school. At home, her two increasingly restless children ask constant questions about mortality and find hidden wisdom in the cartoons they watch on television. Her husband tends to his plants and offers occasional counsel between Zoom calls to Hong Kong and Australia. And at school, as she navigates the currents between wealthy, increasingly disconnected students and bewildered faculty, she accidentally witnesses an ambiguous, possibly inappropriate interaction between a teacher and a student. She feels compelled to say something, but how can she be sure of what she saw?
About the Book
A gem of a debut novel about a young mother navigating the instabilities of teaching, parenting and marriage in the wake of the pandemic.
With deadpan humor and a keen eye for the strangeness of our days, NEGATIVE SPACE follows a week in the life of an English teacher at a New York private school. At home, her two increasingly restless children ask constant questions about mortality and find hidden wisdom in the cartoons they watch on television. Her husband tends to his plants and offers occasional counsel between Zoom calls to Hong Kong and Australia.
And at school, as she navigates the currents between wealthy, increasingly disconnected students and bewildered faculty, she accidentally witnesses an ambiguous, possibly inappropriate interaction between a teacher and a student. She feels compelled to say something, but how can she be sure of what she saw?
Precisely rendered and filled with sly observations about our off-kilter days, NEGATIVE SPACE is a witty and resonant portrait of a woman caught between the pressures of home and work, parenting and teaching, what’s normal and what isn’t. Writing with an acute sense of dread and delight, Gillian Linden has crafted a stunning debut that examines what we owe the people who depend on us in a fractured and indifferent world.
Editorial Content for Max's War
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Reviewer (text)
MAX’S WAR is another engrossing and powerful historical novel from award-winning author Libby Fischer Hellmann. From growing up Jewish in Germany as Hitler gains power to becoming a member of the US military intelligence unit, Max’s point of view will pull readers into a story that is rich in details and action. Read More
Teaser
As the Nazis sweep across Europe, Jewish teen Max and his parents flee persecution in Germany for Holland. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max must escape to Chicago, leaving his parents and friends behind. When he learns of his parents' deportation and murder, Max immediately enlists in the US Army. After basic training, he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he is trained in interrogation and counterintelligence. Deployed to the OSS as well, Max carries out dangerous missions in occupied countries. Post-war, he works for the Americans in the German denazification program, bringing him back to his Bavarian childhood home of Regensburg. Though the city avoided large-scale destruction, the Jewish community has been decimated. While there, he reunites with someone from his past. Can they rebuild their lives…together?
Promo
As the Nazis sweep across Europe, Jewish teen Max and his parents flee persecution in Germany for Holland. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max must escape to Chicago, leaving his parents and friends behind. When he learns of his parents' deportation and murder, Max immediately enlists in the US Army. After basic training, he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he is trained in interrogation and counterintelligence. Deployed to the OSS as well, Max carries out dangerous missions in occupied countries. Post-war, he works for the Americans in the German denazification program, bringing him back to his Bavarian childhood home of Regensburg. Though the city avoided large-scale destruction, the Jewish community has been decimated. While there, he reunites with someone from his past. Can they rebuild their lives…together?
About the Book
A sweeping World War II saga in which a young German Jew flees Europe, emigrates to America and joins the Army to fight Nazis.
As the Nazis sweep across Europe, Jewish teen Max and his parents flee persecution in Germany for Holland, where Max finds true friends and a life-altering romance. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max must escape to Chicago, leaving his parents and friends behind. When he learns of his parents' deportation and murder, Max immediately enlists in the US Army. After basic training, he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he is trained in interrogation and counterintelligence.
Deployed to the OSS as well, Max carries out dangerous missions in occupied countries. He also interrogates scores of German POWs, especially after D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, where, despite life-threatening conditions, he elicits critical information about German troop movements.
Post-war, he works for the Americans in the German denazification program, bringing him back to his Bavarian childhood home of Regensburg. Though the city avoided large-scale destruction, the Jewish community has been decimated. Max roams familiar yet strange streets, replaying memories of lives lost to unspeakable tragedy. While there, however, he reunites with someone from his past, who, like him, sought refuge abroad. Can they rebuild their lives… together?
This epic story about a Ritchie Boy is Libby Hellmann’s tribute to her late father-in-law, who was active with the OSS and interrogated dozens of German POWs.
Sure to captivate readers of Kate Quinn and Kristin Hannah, MAX'S WAR echoes modern-day decisions made during periods of conflict and explores what happens when hate seems to be winning.
Audiobook available, read by Derek Shetterly
Editorial Content for Begin Again
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
It’s August 2023, the eve of Frankie McKenzie’s 36th birthday, and she’s worried that she’s stuck in a life she never chose. Marooned in a stifling job (she’s a celebrity gossip columnist for an online magazine), striking out at bad first date after bad first date, Frankie has watched her friends and former boyfriends couple up, marry off, have kids and move to the suburbs, while she continues to lead her fabulous single lifestyle in London all alone. Read More
Teaser
Frankie McKenzie dies in a freak kebab-related accident after what she sees as yet another dud of a first date. But life isn’t over for Frankie. Instead, she is miraculously offered a second chance: Frankie can revisit key moments from her past to see if different choices will lead her to the fulfilling life she’s always dreamt of. Should she decide to languidly lounge by warm Mexican waters with sexy Raphael? Or say yes to the proposal of earnestly reliable university-sweetheart Toby? Perhaps a worry-free gilded cage with Callum is the solution! Or what about that high-powered media career she thought she wanted? Soon, Frankie will see what her life would have been if only she’d caught that one-way flight, accepted the marriage proposal, or attended the intimidating job interview.
Promo
Frankie McKenzie dies in a freak kebab-related accident after what she sees as yet another dud of a first date. But life isn’t over for Frankie. Instead, she is miraculously offered a second chance: Frankie can revisit key moments from her past to see if different choices will lead her to the fulfilling life she’s always dreamt of. Should she decide to languidly lounge by warm Mexican waters with sexy Raphael? Or say yes to the proposal of earnestly reliable university-sweetheart Toby? Perhaps a worry-free gilded cage with Callum is the solution! Or what about that high-powered media career she thought she wanted? Soon, Frankie will see what her life would have been if only she’d caught that one-way flight, accepted the marriage proposal, or attended the intimidating job interview.
About the Book
Have you ever wanted to change the past and discover the result of choices not taken? Now, in this brilliantly fun novel of what-ifs, missed chances and new beginnings, Frankie McKenzie discovers what starting over might bring.
Despite living firmly in her comfort zone, Frankie McKenzie feels unsettled. She can’t help feeling something’s missing. Is it a home to call her own? Travel? A more rewarding job? A relationship? Before she can work it out, she dies in a freak kebab-related accident after what she sees as yet another dud of a first date.
But life isn’t over for Frankie. Instead, she is miraculously offered a second chance: Frankie can revisit key moments from her past to see if different choices will lead her to the fulfilling life she’s always dreamt of.
And there are so many opportunities! Should she decide to languidly lounge by warm Mexican waters with sexy Raphael? Or say yes to the proposal of earnestly reliable university-sweetheart Toby? Perhaps a worry-free gilded cage with Callum is the solution! Or what about that high-powered media career she thought she wanted?
Soon, Frankie will see what her life would have been if only she’d caught that one-way flight, accepted the marriage proposal, or attended the intimidating job interview. Will she finally find her Mr. Right? Or discover she already had? Which way should she turn? And over and over she asks herself the question: What would she change if she could begin again?
Audiobook available, read by Emma Sidi
April 19, 2024
Through the years, I have met hundreds of authors in person, and others via their social media or virtual events. I have seen more speak in front of audiences at award shows or festivals. For some, I know lots about their lives --- their children, their spouses, their pets. For others, much less. For every author who I have read, there is a connection to them via the printed page.
Recently, two authors shared peeks inside their lives with unsettling information about their health.
April 16, 2024
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 15th and April 22nd 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 Ann Hood’s upcoming novel, THE STOLEN CHILD. This future Bookreporter.com Bets On title is about an unlikely duo who ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate. In anticipation of the book’s May 7th release, we are awarding an advance copy to 25 readers. The deadline for your entries is Friday, April 26th at noon ET.
April 16, 2024
This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this spring. Read more about it, and enter our Spring Preview Contest by Wednesday, April 17th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of DID I EVER TELL YOU?: A Memoir by Genevieve Kingston, which is now available and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!