Latest Features and Contests
Bookreporter.com's 20th Annual Summer Reading Contests and Feature
Summer will be here before you know it! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through early August, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.
Our latest prize book is ANIMALS I WANT TO SEE: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds by Tom Seeman, which is now available. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, May 15th at noon ET.
» Click here to enter the contest.
Historical Fiction Author Spotlight: THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood
For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands --- and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them from Paris galleries and provincial towns to a surprising place: the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal and the lives they’ve left behind.
» Click here to read more in our Historical Fiction Author Spotlight.
Bookreporter.com Blog Post: "Linwood Barclay Talks About Book Banning"
In Linwood Barclay’s new thriller, I WILL RUIN YOU, a teacher’s act of heroism inadvertently makes him the target of a dangerous blackmailer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. The teacher, Richard Boyle, runs into trouble when he introduces his students to a novel that is not on the curriculum. This subplot inspired Linwood to share his thoughts on book banning and his experiences with it.
» Click here to read Linwood Barclay's blog post.
Bookreporter.com Bets On: THE PARIS NOVEL by Ruth Reichl
I do love armchair travel, especially when it is delivered to me by someone who clearly has fabulous taste, a keen eye and a seasoned palate. Ruth Reichl is the perfect guide for this --- and she weaves a terrific story around it in THE PARIS NOVEL.
Stella has had a very tough childhood, with a mother who ignores her more than she favors her. Along the way, she is abused as a child and walks away from her childhood home as soon as she can to build her own life. She finds joy working with an editor at Vintage Books; she is very happy and comfortable at her job there. But when her mother passes away, she finds herself with a rather interesting inheritance --- a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is like a little church mouse with absolutely no idea what to do for an adventure. Her boss says, “Go!” And with that kick in the right direction, she is on a plane.
» Click here to read more of Carol's commentary on THE PARIS NOVEL.
Bookreporter.com Bets On: DID I EVER TELL YOU?: A Memoir, by Genevieve Kingston
DID I EVER TELL YOU? by Genevieve Kingston is the kind of book you read --- and never forget.
When Genevieve (who was nicknamed Gwen) lost her mother, she was just 11 years old. Kristina had been ill with cancer for eight years, and she knew she would not live to see her daughter and son grow into adulthood. Instead of mourning her fate, she would busy herself with wrapping paper, ribbon and cards, assembling a treasure trove of gifts for her children. Gwen would see her mother fluttering about clearly on a mission. You could feel she was almost seeing her children at each future stage that she was wrapping a special message for them, taking them up to age 30. These notes and gifts carefully were placed in a box for each of them.
» Click here to read more of Carol's commentary on DID I EVER TELL YOU?
An Interview with Jack Du Brul, Author of CLIVE CUSSLER THE HEIST: An Isaac Bell Adventure
Detective Isaac Bell faces an attack on the Federal Reserve in THE HEIST, Jack Du Brul’s all-new adventure in the #1 New York Times bestselling series created by Clive Cussler. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House and Cussler’s primary publicist at G.P. Putnam’s Sons from 1999 to 2015, Du Brul explains how he first began collaborating with Cussler, what surprised him the most about Cussler as a writing partner, the importance of incorporating details into historical fiction, and what the future looks like for his protagonist.
» Click here to read the interview.
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for May
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads. We also feature a number of other prominent selections, including the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah’s Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.
LONG ISLAND is the latest Oprah’s Book Club selection. This follow-up to Colm Tóibín's 2009 bestselling novel, BROOKLYN, continues the story of Eilis Lacey more than two decades later. Now in her 40s, Eilis is living on Long Island with her husband, who is a plumber, and their two teenagers.
» Click here for May's Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks.
Bookreporter Talks To...
As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors and posting them on our YouTube channel. We also have been making them available as podcasts. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.
SUMMERS AT THE SAINT is a fresh new summer mystery from Mary Kay Andrews full of romance, betrayal and long-buried secrets. Mary Kay talks about the resort that she modeled the St. Cecelia (aka “the Saint”) after and how she conducted research there while spending time with a friend. She also touches on the many storylines that are woven so well into this upcoming Bets On title and points out that the novel originally had a different beginning. It is said that “summer begins with MKA,” and Mary Kay explains exactly why this book deserves that moniker and to be read wherever readers are this summer. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Carol had the pleasure of talking to Ann Hood about her new book, THE STOLEN CHILD, which will be a Bets On pick. In it, an unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate. Ann loves the World War I time period and has researched it through the years. She talks about her travels to WWI battle sites and how her son shares her passion for this history. Her thoughts about the tears she has shed inspired one thread of the storyline. Carol and Ann also touch on some musical references and discuss their shared love of knitting, mistakes and all. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Megan Miranda returns to “Bookreporter Talks To” to discuss her new thriller, DAUGHTER OF MINE. When Hazel unexpectedly inherits her family home, she’s drawn back to the place --- and people --- she left behind years earlier. But as the lake level behind the house continues to fall, long-buried secrets suddenly begin to emerge, including evidence that may finally explain the mystery at the heart of her family. Megan shares her inspiration for the novel, which is a Bets On selection, as well as insight into her creative process. She also explains how she laid out the twists that make this story so special. Megan loves the narrator of the audio edition, Inés del Castillo, as she feels Inés sets the right tone for the book. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
» Click here for a complete list of our "Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts, along with upcoming interviews.
Latest Reviews
Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days or return to a place where she’s already been. But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s.
In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone --- ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk --- has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty. But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist --- one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife’s guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old, twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that never should have been built. A house, and what dwells beneath.
Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. But inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray and is developing true friends --- and feelings --- in this century. So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.
Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche and global politics has shifted over time, as has the interpretation of the life of his author. But Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote. Ian's childhood with his gifted brother, Peter, and his extraordinary mother set the pattern for his ambition to be “the complete man,” and he would strive for the means to achieve this “completeness” all his life. Nicholas Shakespeare’s talent for uncovering material that casts new light on his subjects is fully evident here. His unprecedented access to the Fleming archive and his nose for a story make this a fresh and eye-opening picture of the man and his famous creation.
Pete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago that still stands today. He was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified --- until he wasn’t. In the 1980s, Pete Rose came to be at the center of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. He kept secrets, ran with bookies, took on massive gambling debts, and was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. The revelations that followed ruined him, changed life in Cincinnati and forever altered the game. CHARLIE HUSTLE tells the full story of one of America’s most epic tragedies --- the rise and fall of Pete Rose.
A local teenager is found brutally murdered in the Settlement, Granite Harbor’s historic archaeological site. Alex Brangwen is the town’s sole detective, and this is his first murder case. Isabel, a single mother attempting to support her family while healing from her own demons, finds herself in the middle of the case when she begins working at the Settlement. Her son, Ethan, and Alex’s daughter, Sophie, were best friends with the victim. When a second teenager is found murdered, the body left in the same manner as the first victim, both parents are terrified that their child may be next. As Alex and Isabel race to find the killer in their midst, the town’s secrets --- past and present --- begin bubbling to the surface, threatening to unravel the tight-knit community.
Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. He’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her. But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married, and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates, so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark is not quite what she assumed.
Manhattan psychiatrist Bill Madrian takes pride in the level of trust he establishes with his patients. For a patient to open up, they must truly believe that everything said in a therapy session remains confidential. But Bill has never realized the complications this confidentiality could present --- until he treats Alex Bronzi. One day, in a session with Alex, the young man asks, “Hey Doc, ya wanna know who clipped Boris Levenko?” Boris Levenko was a major crime boss who had been executed a few days prior. The question gives Bill information he desperately did not want to hear. With this knowledge, Bill’s life is upended, and he begins a fight for survival that takes him and his loved ones on a nightmarish journey far beyond the realm of anything he ever could have imagined.
Copyright © 2024 The Book Report, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
