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Jeremy Collier

Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves.

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Jeremy Collier

Milan Kundera

To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring --- it was peace.

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Milan Kundera

November 20, 2020

Last night, we hosted our first “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event with Jeanine Cummins, the author of AMERICAN DIRT, as our guest. We went with a new format for this program. I interviewed Jeanine at the start, and then we invited eight readers to join us to ask questions. We wrapped up with a Q&A from the audience.

I had been looking forward to this interview for a long time. I read an advance copy of the book in June 2019, and when it came out in January of this year (which feels like a lifetime ago), it was a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. It is now a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the Fiction category, which makes me so happy. Voting is open until November 30th. In our conversation, we talked about her research for the book, the stops and starts it had, and her various inspirations, as well as what the last 10 months have been like since it came out. Readers who joined us asked about the title, the cover design, her incorporating Spanish into the prose, and what she hoped people would take away from it. And there also was a lively conversation about the audio edition.

Editorial Content for V2: A Novel of World War II

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Curtis Edmonds

In reading V2, at one point I was reminded of the classic Chuck Jones “Road Runner” cartoons, which feature a brilliant but inept coyote who uses various stratagems and devices (which of course always backfire) to dispatch a blameless bird. V2 is not quite like that; it involves two people who are trying to kill each other at long range, with neither of them knowing that the other even exists. Read More

Teaser

It's November 1944. Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat. But when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a suspect. Unknown to each other, Graf and Connolly find themselves on opposite sides in the hunt for the saboteur. Their twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign, one of the most epic and modern but least explored episodes of the Second World War. Their destinies are on a collision course.

Promo

It's November 1944. Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat. But when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a suspect. Unknown to each other, Graf and Connolly find themselves on opposite sides in the hunt for the saboteur. Their twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign, one of the most epic and modern but least explored episodes of the Second World War. Their destinies are on a collision course.

About the Book

From the bestselling author of FATHERLAND and MUNICH comes a WWII thriller about a German rocket engineer, a former actress turned British spy, and the Nazi rocket program.

The first rocket will take five minutes to hit London. You have six minutes to stop the second.

Rudi Graf is an engineer who always dreamed of sending rockets to the moon. But instead, he finds himself working alongside Wernher von Braun, launching V2 rockets at London for the Nazis from a bleak seaside town in occupied Holland. As the SS increases its scrutiny on the project, Graf, an engineer more than a soldier, has to muster all of his willpower to toe the party line. And when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a prime suspect. 

Meanwhile, Kay Caton-Walsh, a young English intelligence officer, is living through the turmoil of war. After she and her lover, an RAF officer, are caught in a V2 attack, she volunteers to ship out for newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues hope to locate and destroy the launch sites. But at this stage in the war it’s hard to know who, if anyone, she can trust.

As the death toll soars, these twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign during the Second World War. And what the reader comes to understand is that Kay’s and Graf’s destinies are on a collision course.

Audiobook available, read by David Rintoul

Editorial Content for Silent Bite: An Andy Carpenter Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jack Kramer

SILENT BITE is David Rosenfelt’s 22nd entry in his Andy Carpenter mystery series, and it’s just as engaging and entertaining as the first 21. I must admit that I’ve now read all of them, and I still can’t help laughing out loud at the extraordinarily humorous phrases, sentences and stories that grace virtually every page. As a matter of fact, “LOL” now has a home, and its name is Andy Carpenter. But the beauty of these novels lies in the simple realization that they’re both funny and suspenseful. Read More

Teaser

Lawyer Andy Carpenter can finally take a breath; he’s almost back on dry land after a family Caribbean cruise forced on him by his wife, Laurie, to get into the Christmas spirit. Andy can’t wait to get back to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. But before the boat even docks, Andy gets several calls from his partner, Willie Miller. He needs to see Andy as soon as the Carpenters are back on solid ground. When Andy arrives home, he finds that all is not calm or bright, and Willie needs his help. Willie’s old cellmate, Tony Birch, has been arrested for murder. Andy doesn’t necessarily believe in Tony, but Willie does. And Andy believes in Willie, which is why Andy decides to take the case.

Promo

Lawyer Andy Carpenter can finally take a breath; he’s almost back on dry land after a family Caribbean cruise forced on him by his wife, Laurie, to get into the Christmas spirit. Andy can’t wait to get back to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. But before the boat even docks, Andy gets several calls from his partner, Willie Miller. He needs to see Andy as soon as the Carpenters are back on solid ground. When Andy arrives home, he finds that all is not calm or bright, and Willie needs his help. Willie’s old cellmate, Tony Birch, has been arrested for murder. Andy doesn’t necessarily believe in Tony, but Willie does. And Andy believes in Willie, which is why Andy decides to take the case.

About the Book

Once again, bestselling author David Rosenfelt puts readers in the Christmas spirit in a tale that is equal parts murder mystery and holiday cheer in SILENT BITE, the next festive installment in this heartwarming series.

Lawyer Andy Carpenter can finally take a breath; he’s almost back on dry land after a family Caribbean cruise forced on him by his wife, Laurie, to get into the Christmas spirit. Andy can’t wait to get back to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. But before the boat even docks, Andy gets several calls from his partner, Willie Miller. He needs to see Andy as soon as the Carpenters are back on solid ground.

When Andy arrives home, he finds that all is not calm or bright, and Willie needs his help. Willie’s old cellmate, Tony Birch, has been arrested for murder. Andy doesn’t necessarily believe in Tony, but Willie does. And Andy believes in Willie, which is why Andy decides to take the case.

Audiobook available, read by Grover Gardner

Editorial Content for The Sun Collective

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

If there was a lifetime achievement award for unfairly underappreciated authors, Charles Baxter would be a leading candidate. Though his novel THE FEAST OF LOVE was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his beautifully crafted short stories have received their share of recognition from Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize, his writing has never achieved the acclaim it deserves. Read More

Teaser

Once a promising actor, Tim Brettigan has gone missing. His father thinks he may have seen him among some homeless people. And though she knows he left on purpose, his mother has been searching for him all over their home city of Minneapolis. She checks the usual places --- churches, storefronts, benches --- and stumbles upon a local community group with lofty goals and an enigmatic leader. Christina, a young woman rapidly becoming addicted to a boutique drug that gives her a feeling of blessedness, is inexplicably drawn to the same collective by a man who’s convinced he may start a revolution.

Promo

Once a promising actor, Tim Brettigan has gone missing. His father thinks he may have seen him among some homeless people. And though she knows he left on purpose, his mother has been searching for him all over their home city of Minneapolis. She checks the usual places --- churches, storefronts, benches --- and stumbles upon a local community group with lofty goals and an enigmatic leader. Christina, a young woman rapidly becoming addicted to a boutique drug that gives her a feeling of blessedness, is inexplicably drawn to the same collective by a man who’s convinced he may start a revolution.

About the Book

A timely and unsettling novel about the people drawn to --- and unmoored by --- a local activist group more dangerous than it appears. From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and “one of our most gifted writers” (Chicago Tribune).
 
Once a promising actor, Tim Brettigan has gone missing. His father thinks he may have seen him among some homeless people. 

And though she knows he left on purpose, his mother has been searching for him all over their home city of Minneapolis. She checks the usual places --- churches, storefronts, benches --- and stumbles upon a local community group with lofty goals and an enigmatic leader. Christina, a young woman rapidly becoming addicted to a boutique drug that gives her a feeling of blessedness, is inexplicably drawn to the same collective by a man who’s convinced he may start a revolution. 

A vision of modern American society and the specters of the consumerism, fanaticism and fear that haunt it, THE SUN COLLECTIVE captures both the mystery and the violence that punctuate our daily lives.

Audiobook available, read by Bronson Pinchot

Editorial Content for Ink

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Jonathan Maberry’s literary fingerprints are all over the place, and they are usually smeared in red. While he is primarily known for his work in the horror genre, it is difficult to know where to start when describing what he has written in other areas. Maberry has edited a series of anthologies devoted to the legendary television series “The X-Files.” He has penned horror and dark fantasy novels for young adults and a number of series in different genres, including mystery and suspense. Read More

Teaser

Tattoo-artist Patty Cakes has her dead daughter’s face tattooed on the back of her hand. Day by day it begins to fade, taking with it all of Patty’s memories of her daughter. All she’s left with is the certain knowledge that she has forgotten her lost child. The awareness of that loss is tearing her apart. Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is a predator who hunts for killers, and the ghosts of all of those dead people haunt his life. Some of those faces have begun to fade, too, destroying the very souls of the dead. All through the town of Pine Deep, people are having their most precious memories stolen.

Promo

Tattoo-artist Patty Cakes has her dead daughter’s face tattooed on the back of her hand. Day by day it begins to fade, taking with it all of Patty’s memories of her daughter. All she’s left with is the certain knowledge that she has forgotten her lost child. The awareness of that loss is tearing her apart. Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is a predator who hunts for killers, and the ghosts of all of those dead people haunt his life. Some of those faces have begun to fade, too, destroying the very souls of the dead. All through the town of Pine Deep, people are having their most precious memories stolen.

About the Book

From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry comes a stand-alone supernatural thriller INK, about a memory thief who feeds on the most precious of dreams.

Tattoo-artist Patty Cakes has her dead daughter’s face tattooed on the back of her hand. Day by day it begins to fade, taking with it all of Patty’s memories of her daughter. All she’s left with is the certain knowledge she has forgotten her lost child. The awareness of that loss is tearing her apart.

Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is a predator who hunts for killers, and the ghosts of all of those dead people haunt his life. Some of those faces have begun to fade, too, destroying the very souls of the dead.

All through the town of Pine Deep people are having their most precious memories stolen. The monster seems to target the lonely, the disenfranchised, the people who need memories to anchor them to this world.

Something is out there. Something cruel and evil is feeding on the memories, erasing them from the hearts and minds of people like Patty and Monk and others.

INK is the story of a few lonely, damaged people hunting for a memory thief. When all you have are memories, there is no greater horror than forgetting.

Audiobook available, read by Ray Porter

Editorial Content for Written in the Stars

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Alexandria Bellefleur makes her debut with WRITTEN IN THE STARS, a fun and romantic novel about two wildly different women and their Zodiac-approved love story. Read More

Teaser

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Elle Jones, an astrologer, dreams of finding her soul mate but knows it is not Darcy, who is way too analytical, punctual and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as herself. When Darcy’s brother --- and Elle's new business partner --- expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Darcy begs Elle to play along, and she agrees to pretend they’re dating. But Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays, and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship.

Promo

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Elle Jones, an astrologer, dreams of finding her soul mate but knows it is not Darcy, who is way too analytical, punctual and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as herself. When Darcy’s brother --- and Elle's new business partner --- expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Darcy begs Elle to play along, and she agrees to pretend they’re dating. But Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays, and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship.

About the Book

With nods to BRIDGET JONES and PRIDE & PREJUDICE, this debut is a delightful #ownvoices queer rom-com about a free-spirited social media astrologer who agrees to fake a relationship with an uptight actuary until New Year’s Eve --- with results not even the stars could predict!

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love --- and the inevitable heartbreak --- is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy’s brother --- and Elle's new business partner --- expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because... awkward.

Darcy begs Elle to play along and she agrees to pretend they’re dating. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship. But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?

Audiobook available, read by Lauren Sweet

Editorial Content for The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

From bestselling author Wendy Webb comes THE HAUNTING OF BRYNN WILDER, a companion to her highly acclaimed novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE LAKE, and a return to the mysterious and magical town of Wharton. Read More

Teaser

After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint boardinghouse for the summer, she hopes to put her life into perspective. In her fellow lodgers, she finds a friendly company of strangers. But in this inviting refuge, where a century of souls has passed, a mystery begins to swirl. The frail Alice knows things about Brynn, about all of them, that she shouldn’t. Bad dreams and night whispers lure Brynn to a shuttered room at the end of the hall, a room still heavy with a recent death. And now she’s become irresistibly drawn to Dominic --- even in the shadow of rumors that wherever this unsettlingly handsome man goes, suspicious death follows.

Promo

After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint boardinghouse for the summer, she hopes to put her life into perspective. In her fellow lodgers, she finds a friendly company of strangers. But in this inviting refuge, where a century of souls has passed, a mystery begins to swirl. The frail Alice knows things about Brynn, about all of them, that she shouldn’t. Bad dreams and night whispers lure Brynn to a shuttered room at the end of the hall, a room still heavy with a recent death. And now she’s become irresistibly drawn to Dominic --- even in the shadow of rumors that wherever this unsettlingly handsome man goes, suspicious death follows.

About the Book

From the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of DAUGHTERS OF THE LAKE comes an enthralling spellbinder of love, death and a woman on the edge.

After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint boardinghouse for the summer, she hopes to put her life into perspective. In her fellow lodgers, she finds a friendly company of strangers: the frail Alice, cared for by a married couple with a heartbreaking story of their own; LuAnn, the eccentric and lovable owner of the inn; and Dominic, an unsettlingly handsome man inked from head to toe in mesmerizing tattoos.

But in this inviting refuge, where a century of souls has passed, a mystery begins to swirl. Alice knows things about Brynn, about all of them, that she shouldn’t. Bad dreams and night whispers lure Brynn to a shuttered room at the end of the hall, a room still heavy with a recent death. And now she’s become irresistibly drawn to Dominic --- even in the shadow of rumors that wherever he goes, suspicious death follows.

In this chilling season of love, transformation and fear, something is calling for Brynn. To settle her past, she may have no choice but to answer.

Audiobook available, read by Xe Sands

Editorial Content for One of Our Own: A Gregor Demarkian Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

ONE OF OUR OWN marks the bittersweet end of the long-running Gregor Demarkian series due to the passing of Jane Haddam, the pseudonym for prolific author Orania Papazoglou. While she penned a number of romance novels under her own name and other aliases, Papazoglou achieved her greatest success with the Demarkian books. She wrote ONE OF OUR OWN in the final year of her life, knowing it would be her last. Read More

Teaser

A mysterious black van is spotted by several people at various times in the area around Cavanaugh Street, Philadelphia's Armenian-American enclave. Presumed by some to be related to the increasing ICE raids around the area, the mystery deepens one night when a body falls out of the back of the van. Marta Warkowski, a reclusive older woman, is found bound up in a garbage bag. In a coma, she is unable to tell police how she ended up as she did. When they go to search her apartment, the police find the dead body of her building's super, a man with whom she has a history of conflict. Gregor Demarkian is pulled in once again, for a final case, to uncover the truth about the murder --- and attempted murder --- on Cavanaugh Street.

Promo

A mysterious black van is spotted by several people at various times in the area around Cavanaugh Street, Philadelphia's Armenian-American enclave. Presumed by some to be related to the increasing ICE raids around the area, the mystery deepens one night when a body falls out of the back of the van. Marta Warkowski, a reclusive older woman, is found bound up in a garbage bag. In a coma, she is unable to tell police how she ended up as she did. When they go to search her apartment, the police find the dead body of her building's super, a man with whom she has a history of conflict. Gregor Demarkian is pulled in once again, for a final case, to uncover the truth about the murder --- and attempted murder --- on Cavanaugh Street.

About the Book

In Jane Haddam's ONE OF OUR OWN, Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and police consultant, returns for his final case --- a surprising murder and an attempted murder, which threaten the safety of his Philadelphia neighborhood.

A mysterious black van is spotted by several people at various times in the area around Cavanaugh Street, Philadelphia's Armenian-American enclave. Presumed by some to be related to the increasing ICE raids around the area, the mystery deepens one night when a body falls out of the back of the van when speeding through the neighborhood.

Marta Warkowski, a reclusive older woman, is found bound up in a garbage bag after it falls out of the van. In a coma, Warkowski is unable to tell police how she ended up as she did. When they go to search her apartment, the police find the dead body of her building's super, a man with whom she has a history of conflict. How did she end up in garbage bag in the back of a mysterious van? How did he end up dead in her locked apartment? What does all of this have to do with the real estate holdings of infamous local developer, Cary Alder?

Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent and consultant, is ready to retire. He and his wife, Bennis, have agreed to foster a child, Javier, with a mysterious past and limited language skills. But he is pulled in once again, for a final case, to uncover the truth about the murder --- and attempted murder --- on Cavanaugh Street.

Audiobook available, read by David Colacci