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Editorial Content for All Tomorrow's Parties

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

To literary cognoscenti, Rob Spillman is well-known as the co-founder and editor of Tin House magazine and the husband of writer Elissa Schappell. In his revealing and energetic memoir, ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES, Spillman looks back from the perspective of middle age on the first, faltering steps he took along the road to realizing his artistic ambitions. This portrait of the artist as a young man is a captivating story of both personal awakening and the cultural upheaval that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall. Read More

Teaser

Rob Spillman --- the award-winning, charismatic co-founding editor of the legendary Tin House magazine --- has devoted his life to the rebellious pursuit of artistic authenticity. After an unsettled youth moving between divorced parents in disparate cities, Spillman would eventually find his way into the literary world of New York City, only to abandon it to return to Berlin just months after the Wall came down. Twenty-five and newly married, Spillman and his wife, the writer Elissa Schappell, moved to the anarchic streets of East Berlin in search of the bohemian lifestyle of their idols. But Spillman soon discovered he was chasing the one thing that had always eluded him: a place, or person, to call home.

Promo

Rob Spillman --- the award-winning, charismatic co-founding editor of the legendary Tin House magazine --- has devoted his life to the rebellious pursuit of artistic authenticity. After an unsettled youth moving between divorced parents in disparate cities, Spillman would eventually find his way into the literary world of New York City, only to abandon it to return to Berlin just months after the Wall came down. Twenty-five and newly married, Spillman and his wife, the writer Elissa Schappell, moved to the anarchic streets of East Berlin in search of the bohemian lifestyle of their idols. But Spillman soon discovered he was chasing the one thing that had always eluded him: a place, or person, to call home.

About the Book

Rob Spillman, the award-winning, charismatic cofounding editor of Tin House, has devoted his life to the rebellious pursuit of artistic authenticity. In ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES, he takes us on a journey through the formative years of his youth in search of purpose --- through Cold War to post-Wall Berlin and the gritty days of New York City's East Village in the eighties.

Born in Germany to two driven musicians, his childhood was spent backstage among the West Berlin cognoscenti, in a city two hundred miles behind the Iron Curtain. There, the Berlin Wall stood as a stark reminder of the split between East and West, between suppressed dreams and freedom of expression. It was against this distinctive backdrop that he became inspired to live for art.

After an unsettled youth moving between divorced parents in disparate cities, Spillman would eventually find his way into the literary world of New York City, only to abandon it to return to Berlin just months after the Wall came down. Twenty-five and newly married, Spillman and his wife moved to the bullet-pocked, anarchic streets of East Berlin in search of the bohemian lifestyle of their idols. But Spillman’s constant striving --- for inspiration and for identity --- ultimately led him to discover that he was chasing the one thing that had always eluded him: a place, or person, to call home.

ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES is an intimate, exhilarating and heartfelt memoir; a colorful, music-filled coming-of-age portrait of an artist’s life and an offbeat exploration of a shifting Berlin on the cusp of cultural renaissance.

Audiobook available, narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

Editorial Content for Death Sits Down to Dinner

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Carly Silver

As PBS’s hit show “Downton Abbey” drew to a close, books set against the same glittering Edwardian backdrop started to be released. Among them was Tessa Arlen’s Lady Montfort series, starring an aristocratic sleuth and her loyal housekeeper. The first volume, DEATH OF A DISHONORABLE GENTLEMAN, distinguished itself enough from “Downton Abbey” to make a mark of its own, but its follow-up, DEATH SITS DOWN TO DINNER, is lackluster. Read More

Teaser

Lady Montfort is thrilled to receive an invitation to a dinner party hosted by her close friend, Hermione Kingsley, the patroness of England's largest charity. Hermione has pulled together a select gathering to celebrate Winston Churchill's 39th birthday. But when the dinner ends, one of the gentlemen remains seated at the table with a knife between his ribs. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson unravel the web of secrecy surrounding the bright whirlwind of London society, investigating the rich, well-connected and seeming do-gooders in a race against time to stop the murderer from striking again.

Promo

Lady Montfort is thrilled to receive an invitation to a dinner party hosted by her close friend, Hermione Kingsley, the patroness of England's largest charity. Hermione has pulled together a select gathering to celebrate Winston Churchill's 39th birthday. But when the dinner ends, one of the gentlemen remains seated at the table with a knife between his ribs. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson unravel the web of secrecy surrounding the bright whirlwind of London society, investigating the rich, well-connected and seeming do-gooders in a race against time to stop the murderer from striking again.

About the Book

Filled with deceptions both real and imagined, DEATH SITS DOWN TO DINNER is a delightful Edwardian mystery set in London.

Lady Montfort is thrilled to receive an invitation to a dinner party hosted by her close friend, Hermione Kingsley, the patroness of England's largest charity. Hermione has pulled together a select gathering to celebrate Winston Churchill's 39th birthday. Some of the oldest families in the country have gathered to toast the dangerously ambitious and utterly charming First Lord of the Admiralty. But when the dinner ends, one of the gentlemen remains seated at the table, head down among the walnut shells littering the cloth and a knife between his ribs.

Summoned from Iyntwood, Mrs. Jackson helps her mistress trace the steps of suspects both upstairs and downstairs as Hermione's household prepares to host a highly anticipated charity event. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson unravel the web of secrecy surrounding the bright whirlwind of London society, investigating the rich, well-connected and seeming do-gooders in a race against time to stop the murderer from striking again.

Editorial Content for Down the Darkest Street: A Pete Fernandez Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Tom Callahan

Hardcore mystery fans like me will immediately link the title of this book to a famous quote: “down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.” Those words from Raymond Chandler defined the hard-boiled protagonist of the post-World War II mystery novel. The antiheroes of Chandler and Dashiell Hammett populated the revolutionary genre of film noir. Read More

Teaser

Pete Fernandez should be dead. His life --- professional and personal --- is in ruins. His best friend is dead. His newspaper career is past tense. His ex is staying with him as her own marriage crumbles. On top of that, the former journalist finds himself in the eye of a dangerous storm. He's investigating a missing girl with an unexpected partner and inching closer and closer to a vicious, calculating killer cutting a swath of blood across Miami --- while at the same time battling his own personal demons that refuse to be silenced.

Promo

Pete Fernandez should be dead. His life --- professional and personal --- is in ruins. His best friend is dead. His newspaper career is past tense. His ex is staying with him as her own marriage crumbles. On top of that, the former journalist finds himself in the eye of a dangerous storm. He's investigating a missing girl with an unexpected partner and inching closer and closer to a vicious, calculating killer cutting a swath of blood across Miami --- while at the same time battling his own personal demons that refuse to be silenced.

About the Book

Pete Fernandez should be dead. His life --- professional and personal --- is in ruins. His best friend is dead. His newspaper career is past tense. His ex is staying with him as her own marriage crumbles. On top of that, the former journalist finds himself in the eye of a dangerous storm; investigating a missing girl with an unexpected partner and inching closer and closer to a vicious, calculating killer cutting a swath of blood across Miami --- while at the same time battling his own personal demons that refuse to be silenced.

DOWN THE DARKEST STREET, the hard-boiled sequel to Alex Segura’s acclaimed debut, SILENT CITY, tells a tale of redemption, survival and the sordid backstreets of Miami --- while asking the question that many are too scared to answer: When faced with pure darkness, would you fold or fight?

Audiobook available, narrated by Kevin T. Collins

Editorial Content for The Orion Plan

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In 1999, Mark Alpert edited a special edition of Scientific American that focused on space exploration. One particular article caught his interest: it discussed the possibility of another civilization launching a small automated probe instead of a large spaceship. Thus an idea was born, and it festered in Alpert's psyche until he put it down on paper in the form of his latest novel, THE ORION PLAN. Read More

Teaser

Scientists thought that Earth was safe from invasion. But now an alien species --- from a planet hundreds of light-years from Earth --- is proving them wrong. A small spherical probe lands in an empty corner of New York City. It soon drills into the ground underneath, drawing electricity from the power lines to jump-start its automated expansion and prepare for alien colonization. When the government proves slow to react, NASA scientist Dr. Sarah Pooley realizes she must lead the effort to stop the probe before it becomes too powerful. Meanwhile, the first people who encounter the alien device are discovering just how insidious this interstellar intruder can be.

Promo

Scientists thought that Earth was safe from invasion. But now an alien species --- from a planet hundreds of light-years from Earth --- is proving them wrong. A small spherical probe lands in an empty corner of New York City. It soon drills into the ground underneath, drawing electricity from the power lines to jump-start its automated expansion and prepare for alien colonization. When the government proves slow to react, NASA scientist Dr. Sarah Pooley realizes she must lead the effort to stop the probe before it becomes too powerful. Meanwhile, the first people who encounter the alien device are discovering just how insidious this interstellar intruder can be.

About the Book

Scientists thought that Earth was safe from invasion. The distance between stars is so great that it seemed impossible for even the most advanced civilizations to send a large spaceship from one star system to another.

But now an alien species --- from a planet hundreds of light-years from Earth --- has found a way.

A small spherical probe lands in an empty corner of New York City. It soon drills into the ground underneath, drawing electricity from the power lines to jump-start its automated expansion and prepare for alien colonization.

When the government proves slow to react, NASA scientist Dr. Sarah Pooley realizes she must lead the effort to stop the probe before it becomes too powerful. Meanwhile, the first people who encounter the alien device are discovering just how insidious this interstellar intruder can be.

In THE ORION PLAN, Mark Alpert presents a fascinating story of first contact with an alien intelligence far beyond what we can imagine.

Cassandra Duffy

The beauty of standing up for your rights is others will see you standing and stand up as well.

Attribution

Cassandra Duffy

Indies Choice and E.B. White Real-Aloud Awards 2016

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has announced the winners of the 2016 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, as voted by independent booksellers nationwide.

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

April 2016

I tore through GLORY OVER EVERYTHING: Beyond The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom realizing it’s been a while since I had read a book set before the Civil War. It opens in 1830, and Jamie, who is biracial but passes as white, has fled from Virginia where his parentage has been discovered and is living in Philadelphia society as a wealthy silversmith. He must return to the South to do a favor for a man to whom he owes a great debt, traveling there to rescue that man’s son. This will take him near Tall Oakes and a ruthless slave hunter who has not forgotten him. Escape via the Underground Railroad weaves its way into the story, which is a complete page-turner.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

April 2016

LILAC GIRLS by Martha Hall Kelly is set during World War II. It’s the story of three women whose lives intersect during the war. Caroline Ferriday is a humanitarian; Kasia Kuzmerick is a Polish prisoner in the Ravensbrück camp and is known as “a Rabbit” (you will have to read to find out why); and Herta Oberheuser is a doctor at the camp. Each woman’s story is told in stand-alone chapters. Martha writes such brilliant cliffhangers that more than once I found myself flipping to the character’s next chapter to discover what was going to happen!

Do you remove the dust jacket (the detachable outer cover) when you read a hardcover book?

April 14, 2016, 726 voters

April 14, 2016

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about in the months ahead. Read more about it, and enter our Spring Preview Contest by Friday, April 15th at 11:59am ET for a chance to win one of five copies of A CERTAIN AGE by Beatriz Williams, which releases on June 28th. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!