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Kris Carr

My mom always said I liked to stir the pot with a glittering spoon.

Attribution

Kris Carr

June 12, 2020

One of the joys of this time of year is the garden. It’s early days, and everything is at peak. The weeds have not taken over, the colors are still vibrant, and the leaves are still green. It’s not too hot, and it’s not too cool. It’s the time you want to bottle up and remember vividly. Above are two flowers that I love: the passion flower is new to the container garden this year, while the streptocarpus ladyslippers are something that we have planted for the last three years. This year, I may try to bring the latter indoors for winter.

Editorial Content for The Summer House

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

One could be forgiven for momentarily thinking that a book titled THE SUMMER HOUSE involves bodies passionately bouncing off of each other over the course of a week or two in June. James Patterson and Brendan DuBois’ novel is anything but that. Yes, there are bodies bouncing throughout the book, but not in the carnal sense. What we have here is a thriller from beginning to end, wrapped around the nugget of an intriguing and puzzling mystery.
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Teaser

Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a nighttime mass murder. Eyewitnesses point to four Army Rangers --- known as the Night Ninjas --- recently returned from Afghanistan. To ensure that justice is done, the Army sends Major Jeremiah Cook, a veteran and former NYPD cop, to investigate. As Cook and his squad struggle to uncover the truth behind the condemning evidence, the pieces just won't fit --- and forces are rallying to make certain that damning secrets die alongside the victims in the murder house. With his own people in the crosshairs, Cook takes a desperate gamble to find answers --- even if it means returning to a hell of his own worst nightmares.

Promo

Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a nighttime mass murder. Eyewitnesses point to four Army Rangers --- known as the Night Ninjas --- recently returned from Afghanistan. To ensure that justice is done, the Army sends Major Jeremiah Cook, a veteran and former NYPD cop, to investigate. As Cook and his squad struggle to uncover the truth behind the condemning evidence, the pieces just won't fit --- and forces are rallying to make certain that damning secrets die alongside the victims in the murder house. With his own people in the crosshairs, Cook takes a desperate gamble to find answers --- even if it means returning to a hell of his own worst nightmares.

About the Book

When seven murder victims are found in a small town, the homicide investigation shakes a small-town sheriff to her core in James Patterson's tense thriller.

Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a nighttime mass murder. Eyewitnesses point to four Army Rangers --- known as the Night Ninjas --- recently returned from Afghanistan.

To ensure that justice is done, the Army sends Major Jeremiah Cook, a veteran and former NYPD cop, to investigate. But the major and his elite team arrive in sweltering Georgia with no idea their grim jobs will be made exponentially more challenging by local law enforcement, who resists the Army's intrusion and stonewall them at every turn.

As Cook and his squad struggle to uncover the truth behind the condemning evidence, the pieces just won't fit --- and forces are rallying to make certain that damning secrets die alongside the victims in the murder house. With his own people in the cross-hairs, Cook takes a desperate gamble to find answers --- even if it means returning to a hell of his own worst nightmares.

Audiobook available, read by Ari Fliakos

Editorial Content for The Second Home

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

From debut novelist Christina Clancy comes THE SECOND HOME, a pitch-perfect summer novel with a scintillating combination of drama, heart and lovely prose that will stay with you long into autumn. Read More

Teaser

After a disastrous summer spent at her family summer home on Cape Cod, 17-year-old Ann Gordon was left with a secret that changed her life forever, and created a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael. Now, 15 years later, her parents have died, leaving Ann and Poppy to decide the fate of the Wellfleet home that's been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is tainted with bad memories. Poppy loves the old saltbox, but after years spent chasing waves around the world, she isn't sure she knows how to stay in one place. Just when the sisters decide to sell, Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long-ago summer.

Promo

After a disastrous summer spent at her family summer home on Cape Cod, 17-year-old Ann Gordon was left with a secret that changed her life forever, and created a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael. Now, 15 years later, her parents have died, leaving Ann and Poppy to decide the fate of the Wellfleet home that's been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is tainted with bad memories. Poppy loves the old saltbox, but after years spent chasing waves around the world, she isn't sure she knows how to stay in one place. Just when the sisters decide to sell, Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long-ago summer.

About the Book

Compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, Christina Clancy's THE SECOND HOME is the story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with, and won't soon forget.

After a disastrous summer spent at her family summer home on Cape Cod, 17-year-old Ann Gordon was left with a secret that changed her life forever, and created a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael.

Now, 15 years later, her parents have died, leaving Ann and Poppy to decide the fate of the Wellfleet home that's been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is tainted with bad memories. Poppy loves the old saltbox, but after years spent chasing waves around the world, she isn't sure she knows how to stay in one place.

Just when the sisters decide to sell, Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long-ago summer. Reunited after years apart, these very different siblings must decide if they can continue to be a family --- and the house just might be the glue that holds them together.

Told through the shifting perspectives of Ann, Poppy and Michael, this assured and affecting debut captures the ache of nostalgia for summers past and the powerful draw of the places we return to again and again. It is about second homes, second families and second chances.

Audiobook available, read by Tavia Gilbert

Editorial Content for 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ron Kaplan

There have been many books written about Willie Mays, but the Hall of Fame ballplayer wanted something different. Read More

Teaser

Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in baseball history because of his unparalleled hitting, defense and baserunning, the beloved Willie Mays offers people of all ages his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity and triumph in 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid. Presented in 24 chapters to correspond with his universally recognized uniform number, Willie’s memoir provides more than the story of his role in America’s pastime. This is the story of a man who values family and community, engages in charitable causes, especially involving children, and follows a philosophy that encourages hope, hard work and the fulfillment of dreams.

Promo

Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in baseball history because of his unparalleled hitting, defense and baserunning, the beloved Willie Mays offers people of all ages his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity and triumph in 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid. Presented in 24 chapters to correspond with his universally recognized uniform number, Willie’s memoir provides more than the story of his role in America’s pastime. This is the story of a man who values family and community, engages in charitable causes, especially involving children, and follows a philosophy that encourages hope, hard work and the fulfillment of dreams.

About the Book

The legendary Willie Mays shares the inspirations and influences responsible for guiding him on and off the field in this reflective and inspirational memoir.

Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in baseball history because of his unparalleled hitting, defense and baserunning, the beloved Willie Mays offers people of all ages his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity and triumph in 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid.

Presented in 24 chapters to correspond with his universally recognized uniform number, Willie’s memoir provides more than the story of his role in America’s pastime. This is the story of a man who values family and community, engages in charitable causes, especially involving children, and follows a philosophy that encourages hope, hard work and the fulfillment of dreams.

Audiobook available, read by Larry Herron and Julian McWilliams

Editorial Content for Pizza Girl

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

There is a particular nihilism found in some coming-of-age stories: a world-weariness, a disregard for self and safety, a distrust of societal norms. Jean Kyoung Frazier captures that sense of apathy and emotional drift in her debut novel, PIZZA GIRL. The book follows Jane, an 18-year-old pregnant pizza delivery girl who does her best to avoid the truth of her situation as she distances herself from her mother and boyfriend, spends her nights drinking alone, and develops an obsessive attachment to a middle-aged woman.
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Teaser

Eighteen years old, pregnant and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She's grieving the death of her father (with whom she has more in common than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future. Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled-covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other toward middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated and ultimately heartbreaking ways.

Promo

Eighteen years old, pregnant and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She's grieving the death of her father (with whom she has more in common than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future. Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled-covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other toward middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated and ultimately heartbreaking ways.

About the Book

In the tradition of audacious and wryly funny novels like THE IDIOT and CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN comes the wildly original coming-of-age story of a pregnant pizza delivery girl who becomes obsessed with one of her customers.

Eighteen years old, pregnant and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She's grieving the death of her father (with whom she has more in common than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.

Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled-covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other toward middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated and ultimately heartbreaking ways.

Bold, tender, propulsive and unexpected in countless ways, Jean Kyoung Frazier's PIZZA GIRL is a moving and funny portrait of a flawed, unforgettable young woman as she tries to find her place in the world.

Audiobook available, read by Jeena Yi

Editorial Content for All My Mother's Lovers

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Already being touted as one of the best books of 2020, Ilana Masad’s ALL MY MOTHER’S LOVERS is a generous and sharply observed chronicle of grief, sexuality and identity. With the pacing of a thriller and the heart of a romance, it more than lives up to its hype. Read More

Teaser

After Maggie Krause’s mother, Iris, dies suddenly in a car crash, Maggie finds five sealed envelopes with her will, each addressed to a mysterious man she’s never heard of. Overwhelmed by her grief and frustrated with her family, she decides to hand-deliver the letters. The ensuing road trip takes her over miles of California highways, through strangers’ recollections of a second, hidden life, and a journey through her own fears as she navigates her new relationship. As she fills in the details of Iris’ story, Maggie must confront the possibility that almost everything she knew about her --- her marriage, her lukewarm relationship to Judaism, her disapproval of her daughter’s queerness --- is more meaningful than she ever allowed herself to imagine.

Promo

After Maggie Krause’s mother, Iris, dies suddenly in a car crash, Maggie finds five sealed envelopes with her will, each addressed to a mysterious man she’s never heard of. Overwhelmed by her grief and frustrated with her family, she decides to hand-deliver the letters. The ensuing road trip takes her over miles of California highways, through strangers’ recollections of a second, hidden life, and a journey through her own fears as she navigates her new relationship. As she fills in the details of Iris’ story, Maggie must confront the possibility that almost everything she knew about her --- her marriage, her lukewarm relationship to Judaism, her disapproval of her daughter’s queerness --- is more meaningful than she ever allowed herself to imagine.

About the Book

Unfolding over the course of nine days, and written with enormous heart, ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS is a meditation on the universality and particularity of family ties, grief and generational divides, as well as a tender and biting portrait of sex, gender and identity.

After Maggie Krause’s mother dies suddenly in a car crash, Maggie finds five sealed envelopes with her will, each addressed to a mysterious man she’s never heard of. Maggie and her mother, Iris, weren’t close, especially since Maggie came out, but she never thought they would run out of time to figure each other out. Now in her late 20s, Maggie is finally in something resembling a serious relationship, wondering if some of whatever shaped her parents’ decades-long love story might exist after all.

Overwhelmed by her grief and frustrated with her family, Maggie decides to escape the shiva and hand-deliver her mother’s letters. The ensuing road trip takes her over miles of California highways, through strangers’ recollections of a second, hidden life (that seems almost impossible to reconcile with the Iris she knew), and a journey through her own fears as she navigates her new relationship. As she fills in the details of Iris’s story, Maggie must confront the possibility that almost everything she knew about her mother --- her marriage, her lukewarm relationship to Judaism, her disapproval of her daughter’s queerness --- is more meaningful than she ever allowed herself to imagine.

Audiobook available, read by Rebecca Lowman

Editorial Content for The Beauty of Broken Things

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Susan Miura

When his wife’s life ends in a train crash, Luke Hansard implodes. Helen was his forever love, and he can’t imagine a future without her. To honor her memory, he makes a commitment to deliver a gift that Helen had planned to mail to an online friend she’d never met in person. After perusing the friend’s photography account on social media, he figures out she lives in an old castle, just a few hours away. The castle and its imagery-rich setting in Suffolk County, England, is one of the endearing elements of THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN THINGS.
  Read More

Teaser

After the tragic loss of his wife, Helen, Luke Hansard is desperate to keep her memory alive. In an effort to stay close to her, he reaches out to an online friend Helen often mentioned: a reclusive photographer with a curious interest in beautiful but broken objects. But first he must find her --- and she doesn’t want to be found. Orla Kendrick lives alone in the ruins of a remote Suffolk castle, hiding from the haunting past that has left her physically and emotionally scarred. When Luke tracks Orla down, he is determined to help her in the way Helen wanted to: by encouraging her out of her isolation and back into the world. But Orla has never seen her refuge as a prison, and when painful secrets and dangerous threats begin to resurface, Luke’s good deed is turned on its head.

Promo

After the tragic loss of his wife, Helen, Luke Hansard is desperate to keep her memory alive. In an effort to stay close to her, he reaches out to an online friend Helen often mentioned: a reclusive photographer with a curious interest in beautiful but broken objects. But first he must find her --- and she doesn’t want to be found. Orla Kendrick lives alone in the ruins of a remote Suffolk castle, hiding from the haunting past that has left her physically and emotionally scarred. When Luke tracks Orla down, he is determined to help her in the way Helen wanted to: by encouraging her out of her isolation and back into the world. But Orla has never seen her refuge as a prison, and when painful secrets and dangerous threats begin to resurface, Luke’s good deed is turned on its head.

About the Book

United by tragedy, can two broken souls make each other whole?

After the tragic loss of his wife, Helen, Luke Hansard is desperate to keep her memory alive. In an effort to stay close to her, he reaches out to an online friend Helen often mentioned: a reclusive photographer with a curious interest in beautiful but broken objects. But first he must find her --- and she doesn’t want to be found.

Orla Kendrick lives alone in the ruins of a remote Suffolk castle, hiding from the haunting past that has left her physically and emotionally scarred. In her fortress, she can keep a safe distance from prying eyes, surrounded by her broken treasures and insulated from the world outside.

When Luke tracks Orla down, he is determined to help her in the way Helen wanted to: by encouraging her out of her isolation and back into the world. But Orla has never seen her refuge as a prison, and when painful secrets and dangerous threats begin to resurface, Luke’s good deed is turned on its head.

As they work through their grief for Helen in very different ways, will these two broken souls be able to heal?

Audiobook available, read by Jan Cramer

Editorial Content for Parakeet

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

PARAKEET by Marie-Helene Bertino is garnering a lot of attention and is deserving of all the accolades and buzz. Surreal and slippery, brimming with emotion, it is hard to characterize and summarize. At its center is the Bride during the week of her wedding. She is ambivalent at best about her nuptials, and has moments of extreme anxiety and hostility when she thinks too much about what her life with the groom will be like. Read More

Teaser

The week of her wedding, The Bride is visited by a bird she recognizes as her dead grandmother because of the cornflower blue line beneath her eyes, her dubious expression, and the way she asks: What is the Internet? Her grandmother is a parakeet. She says not to get married. She says: Go and find your brother. In the days that follow, The Bride's march to the altar becomes a wild and increasingly fragmented, unstable journey that bends toward the surreal and forces her to confront matters long buried.

Promo

The week of her wedding, The Bride is visited by a bird she recognizes as her dead grandmother because of the cornflower blue line beneath her eyes, her dubious expression, and the way she asks: What is the Internet? Her grandmother is a parakeet. She says not to get married. She says: Go and find your brother. In the days that follow, The Bride's march to the altar becomes a wild and increasingly fragmented, unstable journey that bends toward the surreal and forces her to confront matters long buried.

About the Book

Acclaimed author of 2 A.M. AT THE CAT'S PAJAMAS, Marie-Helene Bertino's PARAKEET is a darkly funny and warm-hearted novel about a young woman whose dead grandmother (in the form of a parakeet) warns her not to marry and sends her out to find an estranged loved one.

The week of her wedding, The Bride is visited by a bird she recognizes as her dead grandmother because of the cornflower blue line beneath her eyes, her dubious expression, and the way she asks: What is the Internet?

Her grandmother is a parakeet. She says not to get married. She says: Go and find your brother.

In the days that follow, The Bride's march to the altar becomes a wild and increasingly fragmented, unstable journey that bends toward the surreal and forces her to confront matters long buried.

A novel that does justice to the hectic confusion of becoming a woman today, PARAKEET asks and begins to answer the essential questions. How do our memories make, cage and free us? How do we honor our experiences and still become our strongest, truest selves? Who are we responsible for, what do we owe them, and how do we allow them to change?

Urgent, strange, warm-hearted and sly, PARAKEET is ribboned with joy, fear and an inextricable thread of real love. It is a startling, unforgettable, life-embracing exploration of self and connection.

Audiobook available, read by Angela Daw

Editorial Content for Of Mice and Minestrone: Hap and Leonard – The Early Years

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I have been reading Joe R. Lansdale practically from the jump --- ever since his debut novel, ACT OF LOVE, released in 1981 --- and am still trying to catch up. Lansdale cuts a wide swath across and through multiple genres and media to the extent that one wonders if perhaps there is a building somewhere in east Texas where a multitude of unknown, though extremely talented, writers labor 24/7/365 to feed the collective maw of readers whom he has acquired over the course of four decades. Read More

Teaser

Hap Collins looks like a good ol’ boy. But even in his misspent youth, his best pal is Leonard Pine, who is black, gay and the ultimate outsider. Inseparable friends, Hap and Leonard climb into the boxing ring, visit their families, get in bar fights and just go fishing --- all the while confronting racists, righting wrongs and eating a whole lot of delicious food. In OF MICE AND MINESTRONE, Joe R. Lansdale --- along with his daughter Kasey Lansdale’s down-home recipes and New York Times bestselling crime author Kathleen Kent’s introduction --- has cooked up a new passel of tales for you about the unlikeliest duo East Texas has to offer, created by his own self.

Promo

Hap Collins looks like a good ol’ boy. But even in his misspent youth, his best pal is Leonard Pine, who is black, gay and the ultimate outsider. Inseparable friends, Hap and Leonard climb into the boxing ring, visit their families, get in bar fights and just go fishing --- all the while confronting racists, righting wrongs and eating a whole lot of delicious food. In OF MICE AND MINESTRONE, Joe R. Lansdale --- along with his daughter Kasey Lansdale’s down-home recipes and New York Times bestselling crime author Kathleen Kent’s introduction --- has cooked up a new passel of tales for you about the unlikeliest duo East Texas has to offer, created by his own self.

About the Book

A brand-new Hap and Leonard series collection chock full of Joe R. Lansdale’s inimitable blend of humor, mayhem and insight, OF MICE AND MINESTRONE delivers never-before-seen stories; a selection of the boys’ favorite recipes, by Kasey Lansdale; and an introduction from New York Times bestselling crime author Kathleen Kent.

Today’s Special: Justice, East Texan-Style

Hap Collins looks like a good ol’ boy. But even in his misspent youth, his best pal is Leonard Pine, who is black, gay and the ultimate outsider. Inseparable friends, Hap and Leonard climb into the boxing ring, visit their families, get in bar fights and just go fishing --- all the while confronting racists, righting wrongs and eating a whole lot of delicious food.

So pull up a seat and sit a spell. Master storyteller Joe R. Lansdale --- along with Kasey Lansdale’s down-home recipes and Kathleen Kent’s introduction --- has cooked up a new passel of tales for you about the unlikeliest duo East Texas has to offer, created by his own self.