Bookreporter.com Newsletter

I am writing from Miami Beach where I am in town for Sleuthfest, the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America's mystery convention. As readers of this newsletter know, I never travel light, but I always try to carry just one bag. My pet peeve is that I never can find my luggage as it comes through on the luggage carousel as it's always been the ubiquitous black bag that everyone seems to carry. Sure I have tied things on it to make it "different," but still it was hard to spot.

Last weekend I was in a store and found turquoise luggage. I kid you not. This is my signature color and I gravitated towards it like bees to honey (love that literary imagery?). It was one of those "specials" where there are four pieces of matching luggage each packed inside each other. Usually I find this kind of thing promotionally tacky, but somehow my mood this time had my hauling this into the cart.

The Benefits: Today I stood tapping out answers on my Blackberry when the black bags came by and looked up when I saw my big blue bag come out. Also, I got six people complimenting me on it and telling me how great-looking it was. And it's lighter than my other luggage so I weighed in at 49.5 lbs today and saved extra baggage charges. I now have choices of luggage sizes, and if I bring all four any place I can look like one of those stars in the '40s like Ava Gardner who always had a matching set with them. Alas there is no hatbox, but honestly I think my baseball hats will jam just fine into any one of the four. Carrying these bags will make me smile. And I am sure people who know me are going to get more than a few laughs out of this. But isn't that what life is about? Smiling and giving laughs.

This has been a hellacious week. Between the flooding in the towns near my home in the wake of the N'oreaster and the horrific massacre in Virginia, my television was tuned to the news more than usual. The entire time I was watching the coverage from Blacksburg, I was thinking about Jodi Picoult's book, NINETEEN MINUTES, which I had read on vacation. Its plot revolves around a school shooting at a fictitious high school in New Hampshire where a teen who had been bullied shoots kids at his school. When I was reading this I kept thinking about how relevant it would be the next time a shooting took place at a school. It's sad I thought there WOULD BE a next time. Monday night I wrote a blog on the subject of this book, which you may want to take a look at. Today is the 8th anniversary of the Columbine tragedy...a sad day to recall.

Thinking about caring for those we love, our Mother's Day promotion launches this week and this is a prize I would want to win. (I wish my boys could enter!) Besides these books --- JULIA’S CHOCOLATES by Cathy Lamb, MARS NEEDS MOMS! by Berkeley Breathed, SWIMMING LESSONS and TURTLE SUMMER by Mary Alice Monroe and VIRGIN RIVER by Robyn Carr --- readers will win hatboxes filled with lavender-scented candles from Illuminations, Country Linen Fragrance Potpourri, Pink "Shower Flowers” from Crabtree & Evelyn, indulgent soft Hydrating Therapy Socks, Shasta Daisy Seeds to plant, and a Pink Pocket Magnifier w/LED from Great Point Light, which is perfect for moms who may find the type a bit teensy when the light is dim. Winners can opt to keep the basket themselves or give it to a special mom they know. They are really pretty and I had a ton of fun shopping for them.

We have two featured Debut Suspense/Thriller authors kicking off this week. The first is Heather Terrell and THE CHRYSALIS. I had the pleasure of meeting Heather and hearing her talk about her book back in January. It's the story of a young attorney who is defending an auction house against allegations that a painting that has come up for auction is a Nazi wartime theft. I have it with me this trip and I have been enjoying it enormously. We have 10 advance reading copies of THE CHRYSALIS to give to readers who would like to preview and comment on the book. Interested? Send your name and mailing address to DebutSuspenseThriller@bookreporter.com by April 27th to enter.

Our second featured Debut Suspense/Thriller author is Todd Buchholz, whose book THE CASTRO GENE is an intricately plotted knockout that hits stores May 15th. I saw an ad for this book in the Sleuthfest program here and I look forward to delving into it when I get back. We have 10 advance reading copies of THE CASTRO GENE to give to readers who would like to preview and comment on the book. Interested? Send your name and mailing address to DebutSuspenseThriller2@bookreporter.com by April 27th to enter. (Please note the slightly different email address)

This week we also have our advance reader comments on Beverly Barton's THE DYING GAME, Karen Robards's OBSESSION and Sandra Dallas's TALLGRASS. Masha Hamilton wrote this week to tell me that for her Camel Book Drive over 175 authors are participating, including Amy Tan, Jennifer Egan, Robert Munsch, Jane Yolen, Terry McMillan, Chris Bohjalian and Maeve Binchy. It has been broadened, spontaneously, to include booklovers of various stripes, including book clubs and library reading groups. For any book group that sends a box of books to the library, she's offering a phone chat about the library itself and her trip through the bush with the camels. We also have Stephen White's answers to reader questions.

It's National Library Week this week. Check out a book to celebrate, or if you are my older son, pay your library fines! Next week is National TV-Turnoff Week so stock up on some books to read.

When I landed today it was BRIGHT and sunny. Loving this. Looking forward to this weekend as Linda Fairstein, one of the absolute classiest and nicest authors, is being honored at this conference. More on this next week. Have a great week wherever you are and hold the people you love a tad closer this week.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

List of titles reviewed and featured on April 20th.

List of titles reviewed and featured on April 13th.