We wrap up this year’s Holiday Author Blog series with Alena Dillon, whose debut novel, MERCY HOUSE, releases on February 11th. Alena and her husband are looking forward to celebrating their first Christmas with their son, who will be 10 months old. At first, they were just going to wrap up some toys they already own, or let him tear through gift bags with nothing but tissue paper in them. And surely, his grandparents would have plenty of goodies for him to unwrap. But then Alena put on her writer’s hat and finally figured out the ideal presents for her baby boy: books, of course. Lots and lots of books.
Liz Moore is the author of the acclaimed novels HEFT and THE UNSEEN WORLD. In her upcoming book, LONG BRIGHT RIVER (releasing January 7th), two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing. As a child, Liz was a voracious reader. She was always deciding between books she wanted to read and those she thought she should read --- especially during Christmastime. In our penultimate blog post of the holiday season, Liz explains how the discovery of gift certificates marked the beginning of her private relationship with books, which, in turn, helped lead to her writing career.
Joseph E. Levine
You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.
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Joseph E. Levine
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This is the time of year when “Best Of” lists are everywhere. These annual roundups always seem to spark lively discussions among readers as they reflect on their favorite books of the year. Although we at Bookreporter.com don’t have a “Best Of” list of our own, we’ve compiled a number of them for you here. See which of your top picks appear on these lists and which titles you feel should've been included but weren't. Perhaps you’ll even find some books to add to your reading list as we head into the new year!December 17, 2019
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 16th, December 30th and January 6th 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 very special contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where we are giving readers the opportunity to share their favorite book that they read with their group this year and their favorite book that they read outside their group. One Grand Prize winner will receive six outstanding book group titles releasing early next year: AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, LADY CLEMENTINE by Marie Benedict, LONG BRIGHT RIVER by Liz Moore, THE QUEEN'S FORTUNE: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire by Allison Pataki, and SAINT X by Alexis Schaitkin. Be sure to enter by Monday, February 3rd at noon ET.
Also, please keep in mind our End-of-the-Year contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2019. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 52 books, while 13 other winners will receive a selection of four of these titles. The deadline for your entries is Monday, January 6th at noon ET.
And be sure to check out our Holiday Author Blogs, which have returned for a 12th consecutive year. We are featuring a new blog post from an author on select days through Thursday, December 19th talking about the books that she has given and/or received during the holidays. This year's contributors are Alena Dillon, Marjan Kamali, Jean Kwok, Sarah McCoy, Liz Moore, Kim Michele Richardson, Wendy Wax and Karen White.
Jean Kwok is the New York Times and international bestselling author of GIRL IN TRANSLATION, MAMBO IN CHINATOWN and her latest novel, SEARCHING FOR SYLVIE LEE, which untangles the complicated ties binding three women --- two sisters and their mother --- in one Chinese immigrant family, and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears and a series of family secrets emerge. In this touching holiday blog post, Jean talks about immigrating to New York City from Hong Kong with her family at the age of five, the hardships they had to endure, and her very first Christmas, which turned out to be more special than she ever could have imagined.
Bernard Malamud
We didn't starve, but we didn't eat chicken unless we were sick, or the chicken was.
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Bernard Malamud
