June 2017

This year's ALA Annual conference in Chicago was one of the largest ever, with around 22,000 librarians in attendance!  It was a wonderful show in every aspect, from the great panels to the wonderful authors and exciting conversations in the booth.  

If you weren't able to attend the show, you missed out on a couple exciting things: HarperCollins celebrated its 200th anniversary in the booth on Friday night with a champagne toast.  We look pretty good for our age, right?!

You've also probably heard that No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts was chosen as the inaugural pick for Sarah Jessica Parker's Book Club Central.  A hearty round of applause for this wonderful debut novel!

And finally, you didn't get to see your favorite Library Love Fest trio talk about some of the top books from the Fall 2017 and Winter 2018 lists.  But fear not!  Our presentation was audio recorded and is hosted on EarlyWord.com.  Head there to listen to all the books we talked about, complete with sound machine effects.  Click here for a copy of our handout to follow along.

We hope to see you at next year's conferences in Denver and New Orleans!  Make sure to stop by and say hello!

-Amanda

Photo courtesy of the American Library Association

Among all the incredible happenings at this year's ALA Annual in Chicago, perhaps the biggest news was that No One Is Coming to Save Us, the debut novel by Stephanie Powell Watts, was chosen by Sarah Jessica Parker as the inaugural pick for her new book club, Book Club Central, formed in partnership with ALA, Booklist, and United for Libraries. You can read the New York Times coverage of the announcement here and also see Sarah Jessica unveil the pick on Good Morning America here.  

An intimate and deeply human look at an extended African American family living in contemporary North Carolina as they wrestle with their conflicted visions of the American Dream, No One Is Coming to Save Us released in April to widespread critical acclaim. Janet Maslin with the New York Times raved, "Watts’s book envisions a backwoods African-American version of The Great Gatsby. The circumstances of her characters are vastly unlike Fitzgerald’s, and those differences are what make this novel so moving." The Washington Post praised Watts as "unusually deft with dialogue…. [The novel is] conveyed in a prose style that renders the common language of casual speech into natural poetry, blending intimate conversation with the rhythms of gossip, town legend, even song lyrics…. An indelible story."

To celebrate the occasion, we will send a copy of the book to the first 25 people to email us at librarylovefest@harpercollins.com. Congratulations Stephanie!

-Chris

For all you Adriana Trigiani fans out there, there's only one week left before her sweeping Italian saga Kiss Carlo hits shelves.  

The beloved New York Times-bestselling author of The Shoemaker’s Wife has created an exhilarating epic novel of love, loyalty, and creativity—the story of an Italian-American family on the cusp of change.

Don't miss your chance to see Adriana herself on June 19 on NBC TV/TODAY SHOW and on June 20 WNYW/Good Day New York!

 Be prepared to be swept off your feet by Kiss Carlo and add this gem to the “library of your dreams.”

The first 25 people to send us an email at librarylovefest@harpercollins.com will receive complementary copies of Kiss Carlo!  Don't miss out! [EDIT: this giveaway is now closed]

-Amanda

Tessa Hadley is the author of six critically acclaimed novels, in addition to her latest release, Bad Dreams and Other Stories.  The beloved author of The Past has proven herself to be the champion of revealing the hidden depths in the deceptively simple, as on display in these amazing stories.  Where else would such a great writer find peace and inspiration than in a library?  Tessa recently stopped by LLF to share what libraries mean to her.

***

The University Library

I’m remembering being an undergraduate student in Cambridge in the 1970s. It was a complicated time, I didn’t quite love it and didn’t altogether hate it either. I had one or two wonderful teachers, I made two or three good friends. I’d thought before I went that I might belong in Cambridge finally—be among my own kind. But it turned out to be the same old story as when I joined the Brownies, or Drama Club, or took ballet classes, or went to school camp—I just wasn't good at belonging anywhere. But I did read a lot, and thought a lot, and began to make out the shape of things, and I’m grateful forever for that opportunity and that freedom.

My room in the first year was in an austere grey block built as a memorial after the First World War, adjacent to the equally austere 1930s University Library—red-brick, architecturally a cross between a station and a cinema. So I could fall out of bed and go into the library to work—which I did rather often, because my room was a handsome new attic conversion only fitted with an electric fan heater. There was no central heating; the older rooms downstairs had lovely gas fires. It was so desperately cold in the Cambridge winter that I had to write essays in the library or in bed, under the duvet with all my clothes on; at least the library was warm.

…

LLF Guest Post: Tessa Hadley, author of BAD DREAMS AND OTHER STORIESRead More »

Not only did it debut at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, BookPage features Michael Crichton's thrilling Western Dragon Teeth as today's review of the day.  Calling it "thrilling and thought-provoking," BookPage asserts Michael "draws from the best of Western fiction" for this discovered blockbuster.

This comes in additional to all the great reviews Dragon Teeth has already received:

“Dragon Teeth isn’t ‘literary’ fiction. Plain and simple, it’s Crichton fiction — a fun, suspenseful, entertaining, well-told tale filled with plot twists, false leads and lurking danger in every cliffhanging chapter. When you’re done, you’ll wish for more.” —USA Today (four stars)

“A totally unexpected flashback to the days when Crichton was central to the entertainment world… If you like a good Crichton paleo-action story incorporating real historical figures, you’ll like this one.” —New York Times

“Rollicking…a page-turner.” —Wall Street Journal

You can read the full BookPage review here before grabbing a copy of Dragon Teeth, on shelves now!

-Amanda

You voted, and the results are in!  Congratulations to Joshilyn Jackson's The Almost Sisters for making the July LibraryReads list!

If you haven't dipped in yet, now's the perfect time to request the egalley.  With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama has penned a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality—the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.

A round of applause for the entire list!  If you want your voice heard, make sure you submit your votes for the August LibraryReads list by June 20.  Check out our list of suggested reading here.

—Amanda

So much love for our books at the very popular program: Librarian Shout ‘N Share at BookExpo!

This is co-sponsored by the AAP and
Library Journal.

A handful of rock star librarians talked about upcoming books that have them jazzed. Wilda Williams, the Fiction Editor at Library Journal was the moderator.  The participating librarians were: Stephanie Anderson, Assistant Director for Public Services, Darien Library; Stephanie Chase, Director, Hillsboro Public Library; Charlene Rue, Deputy Director of Collection Management, BookOps, NYPL and Brooklyn Public Libraries; and Todd Krueger, Collection Development, Baltimore County Public Library.

Several HarperCollins titles received shout outs from the panelists including: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn, The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine, Unforgivable Love by Sophfronia Scott, The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean, and The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy.

-Virginia

Did you attend BookExpo this year? If so, you might have noticed a more slimmed down and focused show that felt particularly special with the continued emergence of librarian attendees. In yesterday's EarlyWord BookExpo roundup, featuring a picture of yours truly, the continued shift towards librarian attendees is further highlighted along with some of the show's most talked about titles. Spoiler alert: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn was one of them! Click the link below to read more!

www.earlyword.com/2017/06/05/librarians-dominate-bookexpo-2017

-The LLF team

Couldn't make our buzz at Book Expo 2017?  Click the link below to download a pdf copy of our handout!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RsUAB4nxLQYk52aGJxblZrWkk/view?usp=drivesdk