January 2017

Joyce Carol Oates’ latest novel, A Book of American Martyrs, has already received a starred review Library Journal and another from Booklist calling it "robust, relentless, inquisitive, and astutely balanced."  This whopper of a review just came in from Ron Charles of the Washington Post, and we couldn't resist sharing.  Check it out!

“Joyce Carol Oates’s new novel, 'A Book of American Martyrs,' arrives splattered with our country’s hot blood. As the Republican Congress plots to cripple Planned Parenthood and the right to choose hinges on one vacant Supreme Court seat, 'American Martyrs' probes all the wounds of our abortion debate. Indeed, it’s the most relevant book of Oates’s half-century-long career, a powerful reminder that fiction can be as timely as this morning’s tweets but infinitely more illuminating. For as often as we hear that some novel about a wealthy New Yorker suffering ennui is a story about 'how we live now,' here is a novel that actually fulfills that promise, a story whose grasp is so wide and whose empathy is so boundless that it provides an ultrasound of the contemporary American soul…. They are American families so separated by opportunity and ideology that they could be living in different countries, but Oates’s sympathetic attention to the dimensions of their lives renders both with the clarity we first saw in her classic 1969 novel, “them.”… For 'American Martyrs,' Oates has mastered an extraordinary form commensurate to her story’s breadth. The book is written in a structure fluid enough to move back and forth in time, to shift from first to third person without warning, sometimes breaking into italics as though this febrile text couldn’t contain the fervency of these words…. Although Oates’s Twitter feed leaves little doubt about her personal views, as an artist, she’s far too good to allow her book to descend into such polemics, and gradually the story moves away from that endlessly cycling debate between evangelicals and civil libertarians…. To enter this masterpiece is to be captivated by the paradox of that tragic courage and to become invested in Oates’s search for some semblance of atonement, secular or divine. Regardless of your own faith or politics, the real miracle here is how, even after 700 pages, we can still be racing along, steeling ourselves for the very last line, a line we’re desperate to reach — but not too soon.”

You can read the full review here.  This is definitely one to check out, people.  A Book of American Martyrs goes on sale February 7, so there's still a little time left to request the egalley and dive in before it hits shelves!  You won't want to miss out.

-Amanda

Colin Thubron's Night of Fire follows the preoccupations, memories, and fates of six tenants of a burning house, and this searing, poetic masterwork of memory went on sale earlier this month to rave reviews.  In addition to earning starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus, Night of Fire also received this fantastic praise from Ron Charles of the Washington Post: "Night of Fire may be the hottest novel of the year, but the real heat is generated by Thubron’s gorgeous prose and his reflections on the persistence of memory…. A profound and exquisite novel.”  

Today, I'm very excited to share a special message about libraries from the author himself.  Read on!

***

My love of libraries began in the great Pantheon-like reading-room of the British Museum.  Marx, Ghandi and Lenin were all readers here, as were Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf.  Astonishing the silence that reigned in that huge, echoing building.  When it closed down and moved, my heart sank.  Its successor was completed three times over budget and years overdue.  Prince Charles famously dubbed its reading room as better suited to a secret police academy.  But in fact it is superb.  The institution has quietly endeared itself to visiting Londoners, and its soft, open-plan spaces mute the noise of more than 1,200 readers.

It is a strange comfort to work here now, in a Britain where libraries have never been more threatened and depleted.  As local councils find their budgets cut, these oases of quiet civilization in the commercial high street disappear.  Every week another library or two closes down: almost 350 in the past six years.

In a lifetime of travelling, it is the fragility of libraries that most strikes me.  Fire, in the end, must be the chief enemy of the book.  The great library of Alexandria was consumed in successive fires over eight centuries, to our incalculable loss.  Among the ruins of ancient Pergamon in Turkey you may see no more than an overgrown stone bench from the 200,000-volume library of the Hellenistic kings; the great imperial library of Constantinople was periodically engulfed in flames.

My publisher has just brought out my novel, Night of Fire, wrapped in an artificially singed jacket, reflective of the fire that ravages the building whose tenants’ stories form the heart of the book.  If an apocalyptic fire should engulf our planet, this novel will be ready for it.  In fact the only library that may escape such a cataclysm is a Confucian temple I visited in the old Chinese capital of Xian.  There, over a millennium ago, a forest of eight-foot-high stones was inscribed in black granite, preserving the laws and songs of ancient China.  It is a bewitching and strange experience to walk down this avenue of words, which—in any final apocalypse—may be the survivor of all our written endeavors.

***

I think we can all agree on the importance of libraries, now more than ever.  Make sure you check out Night of Fire, on shelves now!

-Amanda

If you keep up with our Under the Radar, Over the Moon video series, you'll already know our fearless leader Virginia is in love with Amita Trasi's The Color of Our Sky, a sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends in Mumbai, India, whose lives converge only to change forever one fateful night.  But the love for this powerful debut novel doesn't stop there!  The Color of Our Sky just received a starred review from Library Journal, which says, "under Trasi’s deft hand a satisfying intersection of the stories emerges, with an emotional tone that resonates after the final page is turned."

Make sure you download the egalley and dive into this moving story today.  And if you haven't seen our January Under the Radar, Over the Moon episode yet, where Virginia raves about this book, check it out here!

Sign up for our newsletter to receive more videos like this every month.

-Amanda

Yesterday the Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2017 Edgar Allen Poe Awards, which honors the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television published or produced in 2016.  We are very proud that many HarperCollins titles are on the list:

Best Novel:

The Ex by Alafair Burke: In this breakout standalone novel of suspense in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on a Train, a woman agrees to help an old boyfriend who has been framed for murder—but begins to suspect that she is the one being manipulated.

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin: The USA Today bestselling author of the Brenna Spector series returns with her most ambitious book to date, a spellbinding novel of psychological suspense, set in the glamorous, wealthy world of Hollywood—a darkly imaginative and atmospheric tale of revenge and betrayal, presumed guilt and innocence lost, dirty secrets and family ties.

Best First Novel by an American Author:

The Lost Girls by Heather Young: A stunning debut novel that examines the price of loyalty, the burden of regret, the meaning of salvation, and the sacrifices we make for those we love, told in the voices of two unforgettable women linked by a decades-old family mystery at a picturesque lake house.

Best Fact Crime:

The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer: The New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Women chronicles the powerful and spellbinding true story of a brutal race-based killing in 1981 and subsequent trials that undid one of the most pernicious organizations in American history—the Ku Klux Klan.

Mary Higgins Clark Award:

Blue Moon by Wendy Corsi Staub: New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub returns to Mundy's Landing—a small town where bygone bloodshed has become big business.

The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd: World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford goes to dangerous lengths to investigate a wounded soldier’s background—and uncover his true loyalties—in this thrilling and atmospheric entry in the bestselling “vivid period mystery series” (New York Times Book Review).

Congratulations to all the nominees!  Winners will be announced April 27, so stay tuned!

-Amanda

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of the standalone psychological thrillers The Wrong Man, Eyes on You, Hush, The Sixes, and the Bailey Weggins mystery series. She returns this March with another standalone novel, The Secrets You Keep, about a successful self-help author who suddenly finds her life spiraling dangerously out of control. 

We showed this video at our title presentation during the ALA Midwinter conference but wanted to make sure you all got a chance to see it, too.  Check out the interview below between Kate and her editor Laura for a special behind-the-scenes look at the new novel.

Make sure to request the egalley of The Secrets You Keep today and keep an eye out for when it hits shelves March 21.

-Amanda

Jenny Colgan is the author of the beloved novels Little Beach Street Bakery and The Bookshop on the Corner, which was chosen by public librarians across the country as a LibraryReads pick last year.  This June, she returns with The Cafe by the Sea, a new novel about a young woman who leaves her London life to return to her Scottish home and opens a cafe.  Jenny recently stopped by the office to talk about her inspiration for The Bookshop on the Corner and give us a sneak peek at The Cafe by the Sea.

After reading Jenny's novels, it's now a fervent dream of mine to live in Scotland.  Dive into The Bookshop on the Corner or The Cafe by the Sea, and I know you'll agree.

-Amanda 

In Rescuing Penny Jane, Amy Sutherland takes us on an unforgettable journey into the special world of rescue and shelter dogs—and the growing number of dedicated people who are deeply invested in saving these precious lives.  This is a tale perfect for anyone with a furry loved one of their own that has already received a starred review from Booklist saying, "She seamlessly interweaves a narrative of the dogs she has loved over the years—warts and all. Reader, beware: you may find yourself falling in love with each one, too."  Check out the lovely guest post below to hear how Amy's local library helped this story be told.

***

While writing my new book, I spent the mornings working in the quiet of my home office in the company, appropriately, of my two rescue dogs, Walter Joe and Penny Jane. But after lunch, when the silence and the solitude started to distract me, I left my furry co-authors and walked to what I jokingly call “the loudest place in Charlestown”—the neighborhood library.

The Charlestown Public Library is an unusually modern building, a big cube of concrete lined with tall, gleaming windows, in a profoundly historic neighborhood. Unlike most of the locals, I admire the building and inside there are wide maple worktables that gleam in the abundant light. After a morning isolated in my condo and my mind, I would spread my notes across one of those tables and soldier on amid people of all ages reading books, studying for American citizenship tests, and doing their bills. Though we each toiled away at our own projects, I felt that we were somehow on a team, which relieved the solitariness of working on a book that was proving near impossible to write. The librarians’ daily greetings also helped, as did the noise.

…

LLF Guest Post: Amy Sutherland, author of RESCUING PENNY JANERead More »

   

You voted, they counted, and the February LibraryReads list has been announced!  We'd like to wish a huge congratulations to the two HarperCollins titles that were chosen:

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World.

Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie: Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are drawn into separate investigations that hold disturbing—and deadly—complications for their own lives in this powerful mystery in the bestselling series.

Congratulations!  And don't forget to submit you votes for the March list by January 20.

-Amanda

Peter Swanson's electrifying psychological thriller Her Every Fear goes on sale today!  In addition to being an LLF departmental fave, Her Every Fear has been named one of the 10 essential thrillers by Library Journal, chosen as an Indie Next Pick for January 2017, and voted into the Top 10 December/January Library Reads list.  Not to mention garnering rave reviews, including starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist and this latest from the Wall Street Journal: “Chapter by chapter, the text peels back layers to reveal a pathological relationship between Kate’s cousin and a long-ago acquaintance that’s reminiscent of a folie à deux out of Patricia Highsmith… By then, readers, privy to much Kate doesn’t know, may be experiencing their own anxiety.”  Anxiety-inducing indeed!

And what better way to spend your book birthday than hanging with librarians!  Read on for a special message from Peter Swanson about his new book and his love for libraries.

***

No one tells you that when you become a published author you are going to run out of shelf space. First of all, you get many copies of your own book, and even if you give most of them away it’s impossible to not want to hoard at least a few. Then you get sent galleys for possible blurbs, and you also start meeting other authors at readings and festivals, so, naturally, you have to buy their books. Before you know it, you’re out of shelf space.

All of this is just me leading up to saying: Thank God for libraries! I’ve probably visited more often this year, and taken out more books, than in any year since I was a ten year old with a massive book habit. Just last month, I took out every mystery novel I could find that involved voyeurs so I could compile a Top Ten Voyeurs in Literature List for The Guardian. Going online, I found everything I looked for.

…

LLF Guest Post: Peter Swanson, author of HER EVERY FEARRead More »

   

If you're reading this blog, that probably means you're a voracious reader, and THAT probably means you read a ton of books in 2016.  But are you reading the same things as everyone else?  Last week, the New York Public Library revealed their most popular check outs of 2016, including separate lists for each borough, and even favorites from each branch!  The system-wide list includes some of the top titles of the year, including Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird. Check out the full list here to see how your reading tastes compare, as well as some readalikes to the top checked-out books.

-Amanda