NOT surprisingly, I love The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (I dare you to click on all those links), so it's exciting that I can now share a sneak peek with you. Just click through to Facebook via the image below to unlock the first excerpt. The more Likes, the more excerpts…easy, peasy.
Also, here is the book trailer for your viewing pleasure.
Happy Friday!
– Annie
That was the title of Booklist's'latest newsletter, so obviously I had to share. While the poor folks in Chicago suffer through this prolonged winter also (side note: if anyone is warm anywhere in the U.S. please let me know so I can immediately come visit you), they are snuggling up with some choice Harper books. Starred reviews went to Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Joe Hill's NOS4A2.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: "Gaiman mines mythological typology… to build the cosmology and the theater of a story he
tells more gracefully than any he’s told since Stardust."
NOS4A2: "In Heart-Shaped Box (2007) and Horns
(2010), Hill showed hints of an enlarging literary toolbox. With this
700-page opus, the tool set is complete, and Hill has indeed built
something very big."
The next two months are going to bring some excellent reading opportunities IMHO.
– Annie
PS: Anyone going to be at TLA? Neil Gaiman will be speaking there!
I'm a little late to this party since Kayleigh has been raving about Andrew Sean Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells for ages, but I read it over the weekend and had to share how much I loved it!
Greer's writing is beautiful and his story moved me (how sappy is that?), but it's exactly what happened. Greta Wells is a 31 year old living in NYC in 1985. In quick succession her beloved twin brother, Felix, dies and her long time partner, Nathan, leaves her. Bereft and inconsolable Greta tries electrocompulsive therapy which ends up transporting her to parallel lives in 1918 and 1941.
Greta learns about herself and her other selves as she switches between each era, and discovers ways to cope with her pain and ultimately create a happy life for herself.
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells received a starred review in Library Journal and I have 5 galleys to give away, so if you'd like one please email me your mailing address.
– Annie
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING.
We are starting a fun new feature entitled "Library Love Fest Presents…" with the help of Library Journal's Barbara Hoffert. Our first guest is Helene Wecker, author of The Golem and the Jinni. Watch my intro video to learn all about it….
Click through for the highlights or check out our YouTube page for the entire program!
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You guys were all so helpful with your suggestions for my barcart a few weeks ago that I wanted to show you how it turned out. Drum roll…..
I won those cool bottles on ebay, and found this awesome glasses/ice bucket set. I swoon everytime I walk into my apartment. Now who wants a cocktail?
– Annie
Until I Say Good-bye is a very poignant, funny and eloquent memoir that went on sale yesterday, so if you have a chance to pick it up I would recommend doing so.
Susan Spencer-Wendel is a 46 year old mother who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) two years ago. But instead of giving up, she decided to face her last few years with joy and positivity.
She traveled to see the Northern Lights, to Cyprus to meet long-lost relatives, and to NYC to try on wedding dresses with her teenage daughter at Kleinfelds (of Say Yes to the Dress fame).
Susan's story is genuine and a bit heartbreaking, although the book is not sad; it is ultimately inspiring. Watch this video of her and her hubs, and then go read the book.
– Annie
Virginia Stanley loves We Are Water!
She emailed me this picture from the beaches of Turks and Caicos (yeah, feel free to be uber jealous) with the subject "Great Beach Read!"
Sadly, it doesn't come out until October, so guess you will have to add it to your (Dreaming of) Summer Reads pile. Unless you have an e-reader, in which case I recommend requesting an egalley from Edelweiss!
– Annie
I've lived in New York for most of my life and sadly only been to Red Hook, Brooklyn to go to Ikea (Kayleigh would be appalled by this). Luckily, I have Visitation Street by Ivy Pochoda to bring this diverse and colorful community to life for me.
Ivy tells the story of June and Val, two 15 year-olds who have been friends since childhood. One sweltering summer night, just another in a long line of boring sweltering nights, the girls decide to float out into the bay on a small, pink raft. Only Val returns.
The story that follows focuses on the individuals in the neighborhood in the aftermath of June's disappearance; the lonely music teacher who finds Val washed up on shore; the bodega owner/aspiring journalist who sees potential for change in Red Hook; a young man from the projects who dreams of escaping. It's atmospheric and compelling. Highly recommended!
Dennis Lehane picked this as the second in his eponymous line of books with Harper, and says Visitation Street is "gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain…" Nailed it!
Want to read it? First 10 people to email me will get an ARC.
– Annie
PS: Kayleigh talked about this book on one of our webisodes. Have you watched them yet? Please do…
Priscille Sibley is the author of The Promise of Stardust, a story of love and family, and the incredibly difficult decisions that need to be made in the wake of a terrible crisis.
She was nice enough to answer several questions I had about her writing process, inspiration and what role libraries played in the creation of her debut novel.
***
1. This is your first book – Congratulations! What was your inspiration?
Thank you! I’m a registered nurse and early in my career I took care of a child who was in a persistent vegetative state. It was tragic and heartbreaking. His situation weighed on me for a very long time. When the Terri Schiavo situation was topping every news report, I couldn’t get that little child off my mind. One night, watching the news, I had a “what if” moment. That was the seed for The Promise of Stardust. But it took a few more years before I began to write the novel.
2. The Promise of Stardust is a story about loss and tragedy, but it is also a story about love and hope. As a writer how to you strike a balance between the two?
I suppose I saw it a little differently. There’s a family in the middle of a medical crisis. A beloved member has suffered brain death. Every one of them knows she would not want to be kept alive. They agree on that much, and that would be the end of the story if there weren’t something still at stake. There is. She’s pregnant. The baby, which is barely even a fetus, just eight weeks gestation, gives her husband something to cling to in his grief and in his denial. He has hope for something beyond death. Now there is a conflict because the family does not agree. People can love each other and still argue about the right course. I didn’t want to make anyone a villain. Even though there is one character no one seems to like, I do think he means well. I suppose that is how I created the balance. Their intentions are all good.
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A big congratulations goes out to Mr. Ben Fountain who has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his masterpiece (my opinion), Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.
Billy Lynn received heaps of recognition last year – it was a National Book Award finalist and a NY Times 100 Notable Book - and now the publishing world has agreed.
If you haven't read it yet (get on it!), it is a razor sharp satire set in Texas during the American war in Iraq about the gaping disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. It is smart and funny and heart-wrenching, and does for the Iraq war what Catch-22 did for Vietnam.
Ok, I'll stop ranting, but for realz, add it to your TBR piles.
– Annie
