May 2018

The Library Love Fest team is getting ready to head south to The Big Easy and we hope to see you there! In addition to our line-up of author signings, we'll also be hosting our world-famous book buzz, complete with coffee, snacks, and sound machines! Use our conference schedule below to mark your calendars so you don't miss a thing!

ALA Annual 2018

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Click here to watch the original A Streetcar Named Desire trailer that inspired our video!

8:30-10:00am
HarperCollins Adult Book Buzz
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Room 279-280

Refreshments will be served and seating is limited, so RSVP to librarylovefest@harpercollins.com today!

Don't forget to come to booth #3331 and meet our authors!

 
9:00-10:00am
Jason Porath / Tough Mothers
Booth signing

11:00am-12:00pm
Steve & Kathy Doocy / The Happy Cookbook
Booth signing

12:30-1:00pm
Steve & Kathy Doocy
What's Cooking Stage

12:00-1:00pm
Alec Nevala-Lee / Astounding
Booth signing

1:00-2:00pm
Sarah Weinman / The Real Lolita
Booth signing

2:30-3:30pm
UFL Program: Reads Like Fiction:
Nonfiction You Can't Put Down
Sarah Weinman, The Real Lolita
Convention Center, Room 286-287

2:00-3:00pm
Marjorie Herrera Lewis / When the Men Were Gone
Booth signing

3:00-4:00pm
LibraryReads Best in Sci Fi/Horror and Fantasy Authors
Featuring Alec Nevala-Lee, Astounding
Convention Center, Room 207

4:00-5:00pm
UFL Program: First Author, First Book
Marjorie Herrera Lewis, 
When the Men Were Gone
Convention Center, Room 286-287

4:00-5:00pm
Alyssa Cole / A Princess in Theory
Booth signing

8:00-10:00pm
Carnegie Awards – Sue Halpern speaker
Sheraton New Orleans, Grand Ballroom C
For tickets, visit www.ala.org

 

Sunday, June 24 

8:00-10:00am
RUSA Literary Tastes Breakfast
Jason Fagone, The Woman Who Smashed Codes
Convention Center, Room 218-219

9:00-10:00am
Sue Halpern / Summer Hours at the Robbers Library
Booth signing

10:30-11:30am
Jason Fagone / The Woman Who Smashed Codes
Booth signing

10:30-11:30am
UFL Program: Isn't it Romantic?
Jill Shalvis, Hot Winter Nights
Convention Center, Room 286-287

12:00-1:00pm
Jill Shalvis / Rainy Day Friends
Booth signing

3:00-5:30pm
President's Program
Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America
Convention Center, New Orleans Theater B

3:35-4:20pm
BONUS BOOK BUZZ!
HarperCollins with Sterling Publishing
Book Buzz Theater
Exhibit Hall: Next to booth #3511

3:30-4:30pm
Harrison Scott Key / Congratulations, Who Are You Again?
Booth signing

5:30-7:30pm
UFL Program: The Laugh's On Us*
Harrison Scott Key, 
Congratulations, Who Are You Again?
Hilton New Orleans Riverside, St. Charles Ballroom

Monday, June 25

8:30-10:00am
LibraryReads Bookalicious Breakfast
Featuring Sarah McCoy, Marilla of Green Gables
Convention Center, Room 275-277
For an invitation, contact Tina Jordan at: 
jordanfotine99@gmail.com

10:15-11:00am
Sarah McCoy / Marilla of Green Gables
Booth signing

10:40-11:10am
BONUS BOOK BUZZ!
HarperCollins / Harlequin
Book Buzz Theater
Exhibit Hall: Next to booth #3511

11:00am-12:00pm
Lou Berney / November Road
Booth signing

2:00-4:00pm
United for Libraries Gala Author Toast*
Featuring Lou Berney, November Road
Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Jefferson Room

*HarperCollins is a proud sponsor of
UNITED FOR LIBRARIES (UFL)
www.ala.org/united
Call 1-800-545-2433 ext 2161 for tickets.

 

Click here for a printable version of our full conference schedule!

Queen for a Day is a novel-in-stories set in New York City, which portrays with a remarkable blend of poignancy and humor the stages of a mother’s denial and final acceptance of her son’s autism and her battle with the public school system to get him a proper education. Today, we welcome Queen for a Day author Maxine Rosaler for a guest post.

***

For a long time I was ambivalent about libraries, having wasted so much time in college trying to study in them. College (all three that I jumped around to) was really wasted on me, but being possessed of a Puritanical spirit that was constantly at war with my inability to pay attention to anything but my own thoughts and desires, I was determined to try to study and the library was always where I tried to do that.

Then, after college, when I belonged to the 92nd Street Y, I would go to the terrific little library there and I loved discovering writers I had never heard of before, like Anita Brookner and Russell Hoban. Around that same time, when I was in late twenties, I remember once flipping through rows of capitalized index cards in those great-looking heavy wooden card catalogs at the main branch of the New York Public Library, thinking that it would be fun to be a detective. It was the only moment in my life that I can recall ever seriously contemplating being anything but a writer. That moment passed quickly when I realized that I could never do it: I knew it was inevitable that I would end up being thrown into a moral quandary about nailing a suspect. (I still think I would have been a great detective.)  

And then there were all the years I used to spend in the Columbia University library. My father went to Columbia, and there was something so great about wandering around the same rooms he had wandered when he was a student there. I loved the ancient look of everything: the marble floors and the wooden tables and desks, and those long winding staircases, with their thick, oak banisters and the dead quiet of the endless rows of stacks of books, some with the edges of their delicate pages turned brown. Now, if I ever have the time to wander the stacks, I often wish that I could have a computer chip implanted in my brain so that I could possess all of that knowledge. At the Columbia Journalism Library, I would make lists of literary journals to send my stories. And once, when I was working as a freelance copy editor, the librarian lent me a copy of Elements of Style. 

Also, my best friend, Pidge, has been a librarian for forty years.  And I really get a kick out of that. Last but not least, I absolutely love the mere fact that an institution like a public library exists. I love going to the library now, knowing that I can find anything I want to read there. Sadly, I also realize that in the future libraries might be the only place where people will be able to experience the wonderful physicality of books, with their paper pages that exude those wonderful, distinctive odors that have been around since Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press.   

***

Thanks Maxine! Be sure to check out Queen for a Day, on sale June 5.

-Lainey

Thanks for watching our May Facebook Live tiki talk! Below, you can find a list of the titles we presented. If you missed the video, be sure to check out the video on our Facebook page or in our Video Archive!

Upcoming Titles:

The Story of H by Marina Perezagua

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

The Sea Queen by Linnea Hartsuyker

Temper by Nicky Drayden

Another Woman’s Husband by Gill Paul

The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

Melmoth by Sarah Perry

The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

GuRu by RuPaul

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink

Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris

Author Backlist and Other Titles Available Now:

The Half-Drowned King  by Linnea Hartsuyker

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Furious Love by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger

It Devours! by Joseph Fink

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

 

We also talked about our new podcast! You can subscribe to The Library Love Fest Podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.

See you next month!

-Virginia, Chris, and Lainey

Back in 2016 when Abby Wambach was promoting her book Forward, she was one of the featured speakers at the BEA Librarians’ Dinner. She brought the house down with her powerful, emotional presentation. A few days ago, she delivered another powerful speech when she delivered the 126th commencement address of Barnard College to the Class of 2018. "Like all little girls, I was taught to be grateful… But one day I realized, I couldn't Little Red Riding Hood my way through life. I realized, I wasn't Little Red Riding Hood. I was the wolf." Check out the video here: https://bit.ly/2rQJGGE. Here’s the transcript: https://bit.ly/2IQrBSU.  She’s pretty amazing.

-Virginia

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank's newest novel, By Invitation Only, is on sale today and it already has some amazing buzz. It was included in USA Today's New & Noteworthy feature, named one of the "25 Best New Books for Summer 2018" by Good Housekeeping, and it's a 2018 Southern Book Prize Finalist!

By Invitation Only is a tale of two families, one struggling to do well, one well to do, and one young couple—the privileged daughter of Chicago’s crème de la crème and the son of hard-working Southern peach farmers.

Dorothea Benton Frank offers a funny, sharp, and deeply empathetic novel of two very different worlds—of limousines and pickup trucks, caviars and pigs, skyscrapers and ocean spray—filled with a delightful cast of characters who all have something to hide and a lot to learn. A difference in legal opinions, a headlong dive from grace, and an abrupt twist will reveal the truth of who they are and demonstrate, when it truly counts, what kind of grit they have. Are they living the life they want, what regrets do they hold, and how would they remake their lives if they were given the invitation to do so?

By Invitation Only is classic Dorothea Benton Frank—a mesmerizing Lowcountry Tale that roars with spirit, humor, and truth, and forces us to reconsider our notions of what it means to be a Have or a Have Not.

Congrats, Dorothea! We can't wait to see what review By Invitation Only will get next!

-Lainey

 

 

Sally Koslow, author of the acclaimed international bestseller The Late, Lamented Molly Marx, has a new novel releasing May 29th that is sure to delight lovers of literature and historical fiction alike. Another Side of Paradise brings to life the affair of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his longtime lover, Sheilah Graham. David Gillham, New York Times bestselling author of City of Women says, "In Another Side of Paradise, Sally Koslow gives us an intimate portrait of a tumultuous love affair that defies tragedy. You will not want to put it down." 

Today, we are thrilled to welcome Sally for a guest post that details her love of libraries!

***

If I hadn’t become a writer and editor, I’d have loved to be a librarian, helping readers discover new authors and dig deep into research. My motive is partly selfish. To work in a library would give me an excuse to be surrounded by books, which is how I imagine heaven.

Some of my earliest memories are stopping by the old brick library in my hometown—Fargo, North Dakota—along with my mother to pick up her weekly batch of books, since she was possibly the library’s best customer. As I got older, I began to check out books myself, though my mom ix-nayed Nancy Drews. She thought they weren’t sufficiently well-written, a point which I’m sure most successful mystery writers would vehemently debate, since many credit those mysteries to jumpstarting their passion.

My childhood favorite was The Secret Garden, which I read countless times, and launched my fondness for contemporary British writers—with Margaret Drabble, Edward St. Aubyn, Penelope Lively, Tessa Hadley, Jane Gardam at the top of my list, partly for their dry humor. When my seventh grade English teacher asked us to review a book, Frances Hodgeson Burnett’s classic was the title I picked, though when I turned in the assignment she embarrassed me in front of the class by saying was my choice for younger children. I got the message. Since the YA genre hadn’t yet emerged, with my mother’s guidance I began reading books meant for adults: Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Marjorie Morningstar, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Exodus, Mila 18, Sybil… The week of my Bat Mitzvah, when I should have been practicing my Torah portion, I was deeply into Gone with the Wind, which, I do not regret. F. Scott Fitzgerald, whom I attempt to bring to life in my forthcoming novel, Another Side of Paradise, may not have had a high regard for Margaret Mitchell’s talent, but on this point, Mr. Fitzgerald and I disagree. The storytelling! The characters!

…

LLF Guest Post: Sally Koslow, Author of ANOTHER SIDE OF PARADISERead More »

                          

You voted, they counted, and the winners have been announced. We are excited to share that The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz has been selected as the #4 LibraryReads pick for the month of June. A huge congratulations to all the titles on the list! See the full list here.

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz: The New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty brilliantly reinvents the classic crime novel once again with this clever and inventive mystery starring a fictional version of the author himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes, investigating a case involving buried secrets, murder, and a trail of bloody clues. 
Click here to request the egalley on Edelweiss.

"Actually, the word is not murder, it’s ingenious….a masterful meta-mystery." 
—Booklist  review

"Sharp-witted readers who think they’ve solved the puzzle early on can rest assured that they’ve opened only one of many dazzling Christmas packages Horowitz has left beautifully wrapped under the tree." 
—Kirkus Reviews  review

"Deduction and wit are well-balanced, and fans of Peter Lovesey and other modern channelers of the spirit of the golden age of detection will clamor for more." 
—Publishers Weekly  review

Thanks to all who participated and submitted votes for the June LibraryReads list! Be sure to submit your votes for the July LibraryReads list by May 20th. You can see our recommendations here. Click here to learn more about LibraryReads.

-Chris

Our friends at Booklist are kicking off Mystery Month 2018 and we're joining in on the fun! We recently ran the above ad highlighting three mystery titles we think you'll find extra thrilling. Keep reading to find out more!

***

Pulse by Michael Harvey
The acclaimed author of Brighton returns to Boston in this thrilling crime story with a dose of the supernatural—The Force meets Bird Box—in which the murder of a Harvard football star sends his brother and two veteran detectives down a rabbit hole of heartbreaking loss, sordid characters, and metaphysical conspiracies. 

Click here to download the egalley from Edelweiss
LibraryReads voting deadline: August 20th

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
The #1 internationally bestselling author returns with a new standalone where a sudden act of violence shatters one woman’s understanding of her mother and her past. 

"[Slaughter’s] talent for writing convincingly flawed yet sympathetic characters is in high relief here, as she juggles the mystery of Laura, past and present. Readers will find themselves totally immersed in the suspenseful, alternating story lines and won’t want either of them to end…. This departure from Slaughter’s more-gruesome stand-alone thrillers and popular series mysteries will more than satisfy her many fans."
—Booklist  review by Rebecca Vnuk, LibraryReads Executive Director

Click here to download the egalley from Edelweiss
LibraryReads voting deadline: June 20th 

November Road by Lou Berney
Set against the assassination of JFK, a poignant and evocative crime novel that centers on a desperate cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America—a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances from the multiple award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone. This is the HarperCollins Lead Read for Fall 2018.

"November Road is a remarkable and unforgettable reading experience. Lou Berney’s artistry as a writer hits you in the heart and tugs hard at your soul. This tense and riveting thriller unfolds in the shadow of the assassination of JFK and is a deeply moving love story about people caught in moral dilemmas for which there are no easy answers and who together find hope against all odds. It will stay with you long after you read the final page. You will recommend it to friends. You will read it again. Berney is a writer to be read and admired. This is a staggeringly brilliant book and a flat-out terrific read." 
—Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Force

Click here to download the egalley from Edelweiss
LibraryReads voting deadline: August 20th

***

We hope you enjoy these spectacular reads! To stay up-to-date with all the mystery happenings this month, visit The Booklist Reader.

-Chris