Ever had a night when it's easier to just keeping typing on the couch rather than move? I am writing this note on Thursday night when I SHOULD be packing for LA as I am flying out early Friday morning to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Instead, I am writing the newsletter opener. When I leave town, I worry that I will not have power, a battery that works or an Internet connection, and thus the newsletter will not get done. This from a woman who travels with a backup battery and a Verizon air card. Okay, okay, I always am overprepared.

I am meeting up with a few readers at the Book Festival. I have my schedule pretty well figured out, so if you are going to be there, drop me a note and we can try to coordinate meeting up.

This week we are launching a new One to Watch feature for CRAZY FOR THE STORM by Norman Ollestad, and we are doing something different for this. We have 100 (!) advance copies to give away to readers who would like to preview the book and comment about it. You may remember that I was just wild about this book when I read it. I have shared it with 10 of my "big mouth" reader friends, and they each have finished it and called to rave. If you are interested in reading it, please fill out this form by Friday, May 1st.

There is also a really great video in which Ollestad talks about the book and the experiences behind it, which you can watch here. It includes some original interview footage from the plane crash back in 1979 when Norman was 11. I had done a quick Google search and found that the story had been featured on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and had wanted to see it, so it was pretty cool to see those clips in the video. I am excited about this book; it's definitely going to be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection.

Patti Callahan Henry stopped by the office on Tuesday, and we shot an impromptu video of her talking with me about her upcoming book, DRIFTWOOD SUMMER. We'll have it for you closer to the on-sale date of June 2nd. We will be doing more of these interviews in the weeks to come as authors stop by and we shoot them with our handy dandy Flip camera, which is a ton of fun to use.

News this week that THE LOST SYMBOL, the long-awaited book from Dan Brown, will be in stores on September 15th. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon here and from your local independent bookseller here. Please note that next Friday, May 1st is a special Shop Indie Day. On that day we are asking everyone to buy one book --- paperback, hardcover, audiobook --- at an independent bookstore near you. Find yours here. Consider it a celebration of some of the millions of small companies, like ours, that make up America. I know that when I stop in a local bookstore when I travel, I not only meet kindred spirits, but also can get a quick feel for the place where I am visiting!

If any of you are in book clubs, this is the last week to answer the 2009 ReadingGroupGuides.com Book Group Survey; it closes on April 30th, so if you have not weighed in yet, please do so now!

Besides this we are running two very special contests on ReadingGroupGuides.com that we wanted to be sure are on your radar. The first is for THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein, in which 100 groups will have the opportunity to win a copy of the paperback, which releases in June, as well as some other fun book-related items. Three of these groups will also have the opportunity to have a live chat with the author --- two by phone and one IN PERSON. Click here for contest details. We are also running a contest for ROOFTOPS OF TEHRAN by Mahbod Seraji, in which 50 book clubs will have the opportunity to win a copy of the title. I really loved this book and will be featuring it in our Bookreporter.com Bets On feature in the coming weeks. You can find out more about that contest here.

Speaking of voting, if you have a child or teen in your house, have them pop over and vote for the Children's Choice Book Awards. They have both kids and teens categories. I am thrilled to have been asked to present the teen award on May 12th. This same evening Al Roker will be presenting an award to Whoopi Goldberg. When she had her TV show, my boys and I loved watching it. She had one episode where the PIN number for her ATM card was stolen, and I ALWAYS think of that when I type in my own code.

I wanted to get another title on your radar, THE PHOTOGRAPHER by Emmanuel Guibert, which will be in stores on May 12th. It's a brilliant merging of photography and graphic illustrations that tells the story of a Doctors Without Borders trip in 1986 into Afghanistan. The combination makes this a very special experience and makes the story very powerful. There is an exhibit of the photos and art at the VII Gallery in Brooklyn through May 19th. I had hoped to get out there tonight for the opening, but there was too much going on. It will be on my agenda in these next few weeks.

We’ve received wonderful advance reader responses to three of the titles recently featured on the site, including LOOK AGAIN by Lisa Scottoline, PRAYERS FOR SALE by Sandra Dallas (which is the current Barnes & Noble Pick) and PLEA OF INSANITY by Jilliane Hoffman. Click on the authors' names above to read our advance readers’ comments.

Next week is Mystery Writers of America week. I am attending a symposium on Wednesday where Sue Grafton will be one of the Grand Masters along with James Lee Burke. I never have heard Grafton speak, so I am looking forward to this! The Edgar Awards dinner is Thursday night, and I am looking forward to that as well. This is the first time I am traveling to LA and not renting a car. Call this my ode to economic austerity. Since the event is on the UCLA campus in walking distance to my hotel and the event at The Mystery Bookstore also is in walking distance, it seems really silly to have a car just to get to/from the airport. So I guess I will leave my car charger home for my phone. See, one less thing to pack!

I'm planning to take three books on this four-day trip --- WRONGFUL DEATH by Robert Dugoni, RULES OF VENGEANCE by Christopher Reich, which will be in stores on August 4th, and BURNT SHADOWS by Kamila Shamsie, in stores on April 28th, which I already started and am loving. See, SOME packing decisions have been made. It's supposed to be summer-like here in the Northeast while temperatures will be cooler in LA. Just my luck that we get a sneak peek at summer and I miss it. Happy reading....

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

For 20 years, John Sandford’s books have been beloved for their “ingenious plots, vivid characters, crisp dialogue and endless surprises” (The Washington Post). Sandford is the author of 19 Prey novels and eight other books, including, most recently, HEAT LIGHTNING. In WICKED PREY, his newest Prey thriller releasing on May 12th, Lucas Davenport faces danger on multiple fronts when the Republican National Convention comes to St. Paul.

-Click here to read an excerpt from WICKED PREY.
-Click here to read John Sandford’s bio.
-Click here to see John Sandford's backlist.
-Click here to read critical praise for WICKED PREY.
-Visit John Sandford’s official website, www.JohnSandford.org.
-Click here to see our advance copy winners.

More about WICKED PREY:
Danger stalks Lucas Davenport at work and all too close to home, in the superlative new thriller by the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather stayed away, including a crew of professional stickup men who’ve spotted several lucrative opportunities. All that’s headache enough for Lucas Davenport --- but what’s about to hit him is even worse.

From a new voice in suspense/thriller writing comes a novel in which a decades-old crime and a modern-day string of murders force a young college student to be a pawn in a psychopath’s twisted game. ALL THE PRETTY DEAD GIRLS, John Manning’s debut suspense/thriller novel, is now available in stores.

-Click here to read a third excerpt from ALL THE PRETTY DEAD GIRLS.
-Click here to read John Manning’s bio.
-Click here to read critical praise for ALL THE PRETTY DEAD GIRLS.
-Click here to see our advance copy winners.

More about ALL THE PRETTY DEAD GIRLS:
Two decades ago, at a private women’s college in upstate New York, a student was brutally attacked in her dorm room, but her assailant was never found. Sue Barlow arrives at Wilbourne College 20 years later. When a classmate disappears, Sue thinks it’s an isolated incident until two other girls vanish. As fear grows on campus, Sue begins to sense she’s being watched, and as the body count rises, she soon realizes that a twisted psychopath is summoning her to play a wicked game.

April’s roundup of New in Paperback titles includes ODD HOURS, the fourth Odd Thomas book that finds Dean Koontz’s young hero struggling to save several entire cities from total destruction; THE BOURNE SANCTION by Eric Van Lustbader, which centers on Jason Bourne’s investigation of a previously unknown Muslim extremist sect called the Black Legion; CERTAIN GIRLS, a sequel to Jennifer Weiner’s debut novel that catches up with protagonist Cannie Shapiro 13 years after her appearance in GOOD IN BED; WINTER STUDY, Nevada Barr’s 14th mystery featuring National Park Ranger/sleuth Anna Pigeon; UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri that takes us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers; SOMEBODY ELSE’S DAUGHTER, a psychological thriller and a probing study of richly conflicted characters in emotional turmoil from THE DOCTOR’S WIFE author Elizabeth Brundage; and APPLES & ORANGES, Marie Brenner's memoir of sibling rivalry that asks a universal question: How can two people from the same family turn out so entirely different?

The Children’s Book Council has announced the finalists for the second annual Children's Choice Book Awards. The favorite book finalists were determined by close to 15,000 children and teens. Thousands more can cast their votes for their favorite books, authors and illustrators at bookstores, schools, libraries and at www.BookWeekOnline.com until May 3rd.

The Children’s Choice Book Awards winners will be announced live at the Children’s Choice Book Awards gala on May 12th in New York City as part of Children’s Book Week (May 11-17th), the oldest national literacy event in the United States.