March 2015

Welcome to Night Vale – it sounds so intriguing. Why thank you, I'd love to visit. Well be warned! Those who visit Night Vale are forever changed. 

Are you familiar with the podcast from the brilliant minds of Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor? The Guardian says it is “Hypnotic and darkly funny. . . . Belongs to a particular strain of American gothic that encompasses The Twilight Zone, Stephen King and Twin Peaks, with a bit of Tremors thrown in," so you know you can expect something magical!

Well, this novel, Welcome to Night Vale, is great for fans of the podcast as well as newbies to the town. It is a mystery involving appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to figure out who we are.

Joseph and Jeffrey are coming to ALA so I suggest you listen to the podcasts and get yourself an egalley so you can be fully indoctrinated into the fascinating and imaginative world!

– Annie

The 150^th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death is coming up next month on April 15.  Honest Abe was the 16^th president of the United States—leading the country through the Civil War, preserving the Union, and abolishing slavery—until his assassination by John Wilkes Booth in 1865.  We've published some excellent titles about this great president over the years, including (but certainly not limited to) James L. Swanson's Manhunt, Harold Holzer’s Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America, Fred Kaplan’s Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, Edward Steers’ The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia, Rich Lowry’s Lincoln Unbound, and Daniel Mark Epstein’s Lincoln's Men. 

These titles would make great additions to any Lincoln displays in libraries next month, and in order to spread the love, the first 15 people to send an email to librarylovefest@harpercollins.com mentioning this giveaway will receive a complimentary copy of Manhunt!  And if you like, feel free to send us a picture of your display, and we'll post it here on LLF!

-Amanda

Your friendly LLF team strongly supports reading Michael Perry's nonfiction (Visiting Tom, Truck), so we couldn't be more excited about his debut adult novel, The Jesus Cow (out in May). 

So excited in fact, that we made a Beyond the Book CD with Michael (he's a great musician!). Listen now!

And, as with so many greats, we are not alone in our admiration for his novel.

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“Perry, a New York Times best-selling nonfiction author (Population: 485), radio host, songwriter, and self-proclaimed amateur pig farmer, makes his fiction debut with this expansive yet grounded novel…. VERDICT A hilarious glimpse into small-town life and cowboy/farmer/“Scandihoovian” philosophy, combined with meditations on the meanings of faith, environmentalism, development, and romance. Highly recommended for fans of Christopher Moore.” –Library Journal  Starred review

“Humorist Perry’s first novel combines irreverence with just the right amount of sweetness in a genuinely funny satire of religion and morality in small-town, contemporary America.” –Booklist 

“Perry’s tale ripples with simple-life nostalgia…Good fun abounds when JCOW Enterprises sets up business and Harley’s life becomes ‘a rough approximation of things hoped for’”. –Kirkus 

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I think the moral of the story is, get a copy and read The Jesus Cow now! (How now Jesus cow!)

– Annie

Here are some fun facts (thanks to Wikipedia):

• A grand is a slang term for one thousand units of a given currency. Several grand can be shortened to Gs.
• The symbol K is sometimes used for a thousand, for example in referring to units of salary or in reference to the Y2K computer bug.
• Especially in the United States, the gambling community often refers to denominations of $1000 as dimes.
• A picture is worth a thousand words.

Why, you might be wondering, did we feel the need to provide you with these tidbits? Well today (this very post, in fact) marks our 1000th blog post!

That is a lot of book talks, author interviews, giveaways, and announcements and we would like to thank you very much for being a part of this Library Love Fest!

– Virginia, Annie, and Amanda

HarperCollins is delighted to reveal the jacket for Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman which will be published on July 14, 2015. 

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"There are so many wonderful parts of Go Set a Watchman that it was hard to pick just one iconic image to represent the book. This design is perfect- it draws on the style of the decade the book was written, but with a modern twist. Go Set a Watchman begins with Scout's train ride home, but more profoundly, it is about the journey Harper Lee's beloved characters have taken in the subsequent 20 years of their lives."

–Michael Morrison, President and Publisher U.S. General Books and Canada  

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Go Set a Watchman will be available in hardcover, e-book, digital audio, and CD.

Very exciting news!!

– Annie

In addition to the starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal (not to mention being the #3 LibraryReads pick last November), Lives in Ruins by library favorite Marilyn Johnson is still bringing in the rave reviews.

A recent review in the American Archaeology Magazine says of Lives in Ruins, “Johnson weaves a serious tale of learning about archaeologists and their craft with humor and insight. The wild cast of characters is the stuff of Hollywood….This book is a delight for all of us amateurs who someday want to become serious archaeologists.” 

Talk about universal appeal!  You can read the full review here.  And make sure Lives in Ruins is on your To Be Read pile, if you haven't torn through it already.

-Amanda

Enter to win one book or audiobook for your personal library—and five books or audiobooks for your local library! Be one of ten winners to choose from this selection of new books.  For complete details and to enter for a chance to win, click here.

On April 6, the shortlist of titles considered for the Carnegie Award will finally be announced.  To get everyone excited, the American Library Association is hosting a March Madness-esque competition to see who can guess which titles will be chosen for the Carnegie shortlist.  Think you're up for the challenge?  You can find full rules and links to participate here.  They'll be giving away a set of the shortlist titles and a $50 cash card to the ultimate winners, so make sure you fill out your bracket before the contest closes on April 5!

I love this book! I can't say enough good things about A Reunion of Ghosts, and it's going to be on sale March 24, so I suggest getting your hands on a copy so we can chat about how great it is over vodka martinis (just a thought).  

Watch this lovely book trailer and then order your own!

– Annie

Maisie Dobbs fans, the wait is over! Today A Dangerous Place goes on sale and Maisie is back, having spent the last four years learning a great deal about love and loss. 

When her stepmother requests that Maisie return to England to spend time with her ailing father, Maisie obliges, but midway there realizes she isn't ready, so she disembarks in Gibraltar, a 
"most dangerous place." 

Days after Maisie’s arrival, a photographer is murdered, and Detective Maisie Dobbs begins to reemerge and becomes entangled in the case, drawing the attention of the British Secret Service. At a crossroads between her past and her future, Maisie must choose how to proceed, knowing that England is, for her, an equally dangerous place, albeit in a very different way.

Jacqueline Winspear will be on the Book Club Girl Radio Show on March 25, so be sure to listen!

– Annie

The ever delightful and lovely, Matthew Quick, brings us his next novel, Love May Fail, about the beautiful and damaged Portia Kane. Portia has just left her cheating, pornography director husband and is desperate to connect with the one "good" man she has ever known, her high school English teacher, Mr. Vernon.

Portia remembers the Mr. Vernon of 20 years ago, inspiring and kind, a man who believed in his students and made them believe in themselves, if only for that short year. Unfortunately, life has not been kind to Mr. Vernon, and when Portia tracks him down in the middle of nowhere Vermont he is a broken man, a shadow of the man she has held in her memory. Can she rescue Mr. Vernon from himself and for her own well-being?

Told from the perspectives of several unique and well-defined characters, Portia learns many things – love, forgiveness, hope – while discovering that good can exist in people (plural).

Definitely worth the read (I especially liked the voice of Chuck Bass: former Mr. Vernon-inspired student, ex-heroin addict, present day Portia love interest). Get a galley now!

– Annie

PS: Fun fact: it has been optioned by Sony, so it will be a movie. In which case, I vote Jeffrey Dean Morgan play Chuck. If you read it, let me know who you envision!

Everybody loves a good mystery.  And we've got a great compilation of mystery and thriller titles all ready for download in our Edelweiss catalogs.  But to celebrate the first taste of spring this week, here are three of our chilling favorites.

Flame Out by M.P. Cooley: The follow-up to Ice Shear, in which former FBI-agent-turned-small-town-cop June Lyons must solve two connected cases whose roots stretch back decades in time—and dangerously touch the lives of those closest to her.  Check it out here!

Woman with a Secret by Sophie Hannah: The internationally bestselling author of The Monogram Murders returns with a dark and chilling psychological thriller in which a woman desperate to hide a devastating secret in her past is drawn into a murder investigation. Get your egalley here!

In the Dark Places by Peter Robinson: Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is back in this crackling novel of suspense, a moody and sophisticated mystery full of serpentine curves from New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author of Children of the Revolution and Before the Poison. Read it here!

The only mystery left here is why you haven't started reading these yet!

-Amanda

We certainly made no secret of our collective love for Erika Johansen's debut novel The Queen of the Tearling, and our exaltations on its sequel, The Invasion of the Tearling, have only just begun.  Annie loved it, I certainly devoured it, and Library Journal gave it a star!

In a starred review to be in their March 15 issue, Library Journal says, "A bold storytelling choice makes this so much more fascinating than just a saga of warring kingdoms. Both Kelsea’s struggles in the Tear to protect her people and Lily’s narrative are completely gripping, and the anticipation of a revelation of how these two women are linked will keep readers turning the pages. It’s satisfying while leaving readers desperate for the next volume.”

See what all the fuss is about by downloading an egalley here.

-Amanda

The New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Black Caucus First Novel Award for Wench returns to the Civil War era in Balm, a powerful story of love and healing about three people who struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future.

The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life. Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others’ suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift. Searching for his missing family, Hemp cannot receive redemption until he is reunited with those taken from him.

Beautiful in its historical atmosphere and emotional depth, Balm is a stirring novel of love, loss, hope, and reconciliation set during one of the most volatile periods in American history.  For fans of Valerie Martin’s Property and Tara Conklin’s House Girl.

Get your egalley here.

– Annie 

I promise you, lovely LLF readers, I had this blog post written and scheduled for today and then yesterday during Earlyword Galley Chat THE SAME TOPIC was discussed! How psychic is that???

Girl on the Train has been getting much deserved praise and crazy accolades for ages, but if you have read it and want something else to continue your relationship with unreliable, disturbed women surrounded by mysterious and dark circumstances, you should definitely read The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. IT IS STELLAR!

I love it! and so do some seriously rockstar librarians: 

Have to say, this conversation made me smile and also think, sweet! I'm good at my job 🙂

READ IT NOW!

– Annie

Fans of the television shows The Tudors, the CW's Reign, and the novels of Phillippa Gregory and Alison Weir, listen up!  If you can't get enough of Medieval period court dramas, intrigue, and romance, I hope you've already found your way to Joanna Hickson's The Agincourt Bride, the story of the genesis of the Tudor dynasty, now continued in The Tudor Bride, on sale today!

The Tudor Bride tells the story of Catherine de Valois, King Henry V’s new French Queen.  Even after an heir is born, Catherine is not safe from court intrigue when King Henry is struck down by fever, and enemies swarm to take power.  She must face removal from court life, separation from her child, new love, secrets, and mortal danger before all the dust settles.

The Tudor Bride makes its way to American shelves today, but you can also get a sneak peak at author Joanna Hickson's next novel, Red Rose, White Rose, by downloading an egalley here.  Enjoy!

-Amanda

I am so tired of this cold, grey, snowy, sleety weather. Today I'm pretending it is 80 degrees and sunny, and I am sitting at the beach with the sun beating down, reading under an umbrella with an icy cold beverage. The book I have in my hand is called Bad Kid, and it's funny and poignant…the perfect mix of keeping it light but significant. 

Filled with the music and popular culture of the late-eighties and early-nineties (which is so my scene), this coming-of-age memoir from comedian and The Moth host David Crabb tells his story about growing up gay and Goth in San Antonio, Texas

He discusses how he realized (thanks George Michael!) what every bully already knew: he was gay; and then found a group of people with whom it was completely possible to be himself. A group of outlandish friends who reveled in being outsiders: goths.

David started wearing black, cutting class, staying out all night, drinking, tripping, chain-smoking, idolizing The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, and Joy Division—and learning lessons about life and love along the way. His journey through adolescence is very universal and everyone will be able to relate to the overarching desire to figure yourself out. 

Get a galley now, and come pretend with me!

– Annie