Author name: Library Love Fest

So by now you may have heard us mention a book called The Queen of the Tearling.  It was a July LibraryReads Top 10 Pick.  It was a #1 Indie Next Pick for July.  It received a starred review from Booklist.  And today it finally goes on sale!

The Queen of the Tearling follows nineteen-year-old Kelsea Glynn as she leaves the secluded home where she was raised to take up her rightful place on the throne of the Tearling kingdom.  But even after she and the Queen’s Guard fight through assassins and thieves to reach the capitol, she discovers that her mother, the former queen, and the Regent, her uncle, have driven the kingdom into a very dark era indeed.  This book has something for pretty much anyone: strong female heroine, mysterious magic system, sly political maneuverings, coming-of-age elements, a society with dystopian origins, and just the barest hint of romance that, all combined, will leave you salivating for the second book in the series (I know both Annie and I are definitely going to snatch up #2 as soon as we can).

Join me in wishing author Erika Johansen and The Queen of the Tearling a very happy book birthday today, and now go out and experience the beginning of a great adventure (with the promise of a movie adaptation to follow).

-Amanda

We are back from ALA with a bang! Or a boat. Either way, it is a great opportunity for you!  

Enter the Susan Elizabeth Phillips 'Heroes Are My Weakness' Sweepstakes for a Chance to Win a Princess® West Coast Getaway Cruise! 

In celebration of her new book, Heroes Are My Weakness (a personal fave of mine), Susan Elizabeth Phillips invites you to join her on a Princess® Cruise Fanfest and wine tasting excursion! WHA?!?!? Yes, please!

This three-day West Coast Getaway will be jam-packed with events during which you can spend time with the fun, fabulous New York Times bestselling author. Enter today for a chance to win!

– Annie

Yannick Murphy is the award winning author of The Call and her next novel, This Is the Water, will be coming to shelves near you in July. Get a behind the scenes look at Yannick's thoughts about her new novel and some of her summer reading recommendations.

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Q: In a recent summer books preview, the Los Angeles Times categorized THIS IS THE WATER as a “mystery/thriller”? Does that placement surprise you? How would you classify your novel? 

All fiction should have an element of mystery. It’s the mystery of not knowing where the writer is going to take the reader next that keeps the reader engaged. And it’s the writer not knowing how they’re going to solve their character’s dilemma that energizes the writing, because the reader can then feel the struggle taking place. Maybe that’s why This Is the Water has been categorized as a mystery. If the writer manipulates the reader too much, and takes them on an obvious journey, then there’s no real newness, no real mystery. If readers find the novel mysterious and suspenseful, I’m pleased—I take it to mean I’ve done my job. 

Q: As with your earlier work, like THE CALL where the story is told through a veterinarian’s journal entries, THIS IS THE WATER also tells a tale through a unique structure—in this case the point of view. At times, the reader sees things through the second-person perspective of Annie, a New England swim mother. At other times, the narration is omniscient, giving the reader the full view of all the characters and players involved, including a serial killer. How would you describe the point of view of THIS IS THE WATER? And, how did you decide on this sort of style and structure? 

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Q&A with Yannick Murphy, author of This Is the WaterRead More »

Drum Roll, please! I am thrilled to announce that the Library Love Fest team has put together a website with almost 150 title suggestions specifically for book clubs. So, now in addition to HarperReads – our Community Wide Reading Programs site – we offer the…  

We have divided the books into several categories to make it easier to peruse:

    • Choice Classics
    • Back in Time (a.k.a. Historical Fiction) 
    • Literary Grab Bag 
    • Love & Loss 
    • Mull It Over Mysteries 
    • Notable Nonfiction
    • LibraryReads Selections

We encourage you to visit www.HarperLibraryBookClub.com and start planning your next meeting.

– Annie

The dead of winter.
An isolated island off the coast of Maine.
A gorgeous, haunted man.
A funny, sassy woman.
A sinister house full of history…

I totally ate Heroes Are My Weakness up in a day – what a fabulously fun read! 

Annie Hewitt is a down on her luck ventriloquist/failed actress forced to return to her recently deceased mother's cottage in order to search for her "legacy," which she hopes will prove enough to balance the massive amount of debt she owes.

Theo Harp is the debonair and vicious (or is he??) man of the manor who unexpectedly shows up and upsets Annie's whole life – just the way he did when they were teenagers. 

So much drama! So much hotness! So much miscommunication that drives the reader crazy in the best ways. 

Please download an egalley off Edelweiss. It's perfect summer reading.

– Annie

To celebrate the publication of the paperback edition of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman and William Morrow have created a special poster specifically for librarians.

If you’re planning to attend the ALA conference in Las Vegas later this month, be sure to stop by the HarperCollins booth (#502) and pick up a copy of this limited edition Neil Gaiman poster for your library.  A limited number of posters will be available each day of the conference.  Simply print out this page and bring it with you to the HarperCollins booth.

If you’re not attending ALA, fear not! The first 100 people to register here to request a poster will receive one in the mail.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

 In August, we will release a special video greeting from Neil Gaiman to readers, urging them to visit their local library.  This video will be available through LibraryLoveFest and Booklist Online.  Simply post this video on your library’s website, send a screen shot or link to librarylovefest@harpercollins.com and you will be entered in a raffle to win a year’s subscription to Booklist magazine.

This offer will launch in August, so be sure you’ve subscribed to our newsletter and liked our Facebook page to receive notification that the video is live and the raffle’s open to entrants!

Good luck!

Hope to see you in Vegas!

-The Library Lovefest Team

As some of you may know, Sophie Hannah has been chosen by the Agatha Christie estate to write the first Hercule Poirot novel since the death of the great Mystery Writer. The Monogram Murders goes on sale in Septemeber and it's going to be GOOD!

Sophie Hannah stopped by the office to tape a message to librarians. She is funny and charming, and that accent is fabulous!

So check out her video below, brush up on your Agatha backlist, and prepare for the most exciting mystery novel of the year!

 - Annie

As a former prosecutor and teacher of criminal law, bestselling author Alafair Burke is no stranger to the ins and outs of detective work and the inner workings of the court room.  In All Day and a Night, her latest novel featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, Ellie and her partner Rogan are assigned to a cold case that could free a convicted killer, and their search for new evidence leads to a secret that someone will do anything to keep hidden.  All Day and a Night recently received this stellar review from the Associated Press:

“Burke’s talent as a writer continues to grow along with Ellie’s character. Although this is the fifth book in the Ellie Hatcher series, there isn’t a better starting point than ‘All Day and a Night,’ which will keep the reader up all night.” (6/10/14)

All Day and a Night went on sale this week, so there’s no need to wait to dive into this thrilling mystery from “one of the finest young crime writers working today” (Dennis Lehane).

-Amanda

The months of summer are traditionally filled with vacations and travel.  Luckily, you don’t necessarily have to spend boat-loads of money to experience new places.  Check out these exciting reads that can take you all around the world from the exquisite comfort of your couch.

Gutenberg’s Apprentice by Alix Christie: an enthralling literary debut about the birth of printing in medieval Germany, told through the lives of the three men who made it possible.

Us by David Nicholls: a new novel from the author of One Day about a man who takes his family on vacation across Europe in an attempt to save his marriage and repair his relationship with his son.

Lives in Ruins by Marilyn Johnson: the author of This Book is Overdue! turns to the lives of real-life Indiana Joneses—the archaeologists who fight through swamps, jungles, and volcanoes to reclaim history for the rest of us.

You can download Gutenberg’s Apprentice today on Edelweiss, so go ahead and set off on your summer of adventurous reading.

-Amanda

Word has just been announced that The Queen of the Tearling is #4 on the July LibraryReads list! There has been such huge anticipation of this book, the first in a trilogy, and we here at LLF LOVE IT! 

There is still time to get an egalley on Edelweiss, so SUPER recommend that you read it immediately. And then spend the next year jonesing for the second one. 

It's also going to be a movie in the not too terribly distant future which is great. Emma Watson, the Harry Potter producers, an awesome script…what's not to love?

Enjoy!

– Annie

So, our brains tell us magic isn’t real.  That whenever a magician makes a coin disappear and reappear or reads our minds, we know there’s some trick, some form of misdirection he’s using to make us believe something otherworldly is occurring.  We know it’s not real, but we believe it anyway.  Enter Angel Killer, by real-life magician Andrew Mayne. 

FBI agent Jessica Blackwood believes she left her family and past as a rising-star magician behind after a life-threatening accident during a routine performance.  And she’s right, until the FBI encounters a killer whose crime scenes absolutely baffle reality.  A woman dead for two years is found half-way out of the grave, as if she’d been brought back to life.  A woman with feathers in her arms is found in the middle of Times Square, as if she’d fallen from Heaven.  Jessica must use her magician background and knowledge of the art of misdirection to figure out what’s really happening, to see beyond what the killer wants people to see.

Angel Killer was a self-published ebook bestseller, and I can totally see why.  The author melds his own experience as a magician with his family’s knowledge of FBI proceedings (both his father and brother are agents) to create a character who knows how to see what’s going on besides what’s in front of her eyes, and uses that knowledge to explain the unbelievable.  I was completely absorbed by Jessica’s unique thought processes, but the novel also pays homage to the mundane but vital inner workings of the FBI, an insight I also enjoyed reading about.  While reading, you’ll constantly be asking yourself, “how did he do that?!”  Sometimes you get answers, sometimes you don’t, but as with any magical trick, it’s the uncertainty and wonder that pull you in.  Definitely make sure to grab it from Edelweiss, and as an added bonus, you might just learn some of the carefully guarded secrets from the captivating world of magicians.

-Amanda

Let's send up a couple fireworks for Smith Henderson's Fourth of July Creek!  This literary debut is stunning, and if you don't believe me, just check out this awesome review from The Washington Post:

“The best book I’ve read so far this year… The product of more than a decade’s work, this richly plotted novel is another sign, if any were needed, that new fiction writers are still telling vibrant, essential stories about the American experience… Like those other ad-men-turned-novelists Peter Carey and Salman Rushdie, Henderson knows how to create the sensation that we’re being propelled through a story that’s just as poignant as it is frightening.  Infused with psychological complexity and lush with the landscape of the Northwest, the novel barrels along with the chaotic demands of Pete’s job and family, from crisis to crisis to quiet scenes of despair. At unexpected moments, the narration shifts briefly into the second person, placing us right in Pete’s life. And that larger story is interrupted by snippets of dialogue between two unnamed figures talking about the harrowing plight of Pete’s daughter. It’s a complex structure that could easily grow unwieldy, but Henderson choreographs these parts so masterfully that the novel is never less than wholly engaging… All week I was looking for opportunities to slip back into these pages and follow the trials of this rural social worker. The greatness of ‘Fourth of July Creek’ stems from Henderson’s ability to subtly tie the struggles of one ordinary man to the broader currents of American culture, both its blessings and its evils. The result is a story that is simultaneously intimate and grand, written in a style athletic enough to capture a spectacular range of harrowing events. These may be the End Times for Jeremiah Pearl, but they’re just the beginning for Smith Henderson.” -Ron Charles (6/3/14)

Fourth of July Creek is already on sale, so don't wait to check it out!

-Amanda

Today the ever so delightful Katherine Hall Page has stopped by to celebrate her book birthday! Small Plates is now on sale and ready to be reserved at your local library, so make sure you are on the list! 

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I wrote my first short story when I was about nine years old. And then didn’t write another one for over thirty years. The first one has been lost in the mists of time, but I believe it was about my dolls coming to life and I’m pretty sure fairies played a part. What I do recall is sending it in to my favorite magazine, Jack & Jill. They sent back a very kind rejection letter, which I found some years ago in a box of things my mother had saved. 

Essentially we start our reading lives with short stories and I, for one, have continued to love them. In school, our readers were made up of short stories, each chapter, even in Dick and Jane, was a complete tale. Then there was My Weekly Reader, which always had a piece of fiction mixed in with the news.

My Livingston, New Jersey librarian, Ruth Rockwood, must have also been a fan of the genre. When I was older and allowed to check out books from the adult section, she steered me toward many authors: O. Henry, Willa Cather, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Eudora Welty, Katherine Mansfield, to name a few. It was through an anthology from the library that I discovered the pleasure of spine tingling reading—Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Shirley Jackson and Saki in particular. 

As a writer, I find short stories much more difficult to write than novels. And, although I quite like the ones I’ve done for Small Plates, I do not kid myself that I have mastered the form. To be as able at longer fiction as short is rare, especially in the mystery genre—Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and, more recently, Robert Barnard are without equal. Henry David Thoreau summed it up best, perhaps, observing to a friend: “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” 

I don’t understand why some readers avoid short stories—“I want to read something that’s not over so quickly” is one comment I often hear. A good short story not only lingers on the palate, but also prods us to think deeply about what might happen next—and even what might have occurred earlier. Small Plates is all about the pleasure of ordering tapas or several appetizers instead of an entrée.

Enjoy!

Introducing the next hysterical romantic (mis)adventure from the internationally bestselling Mhairi McFarlane, author of You Had Me At Hello! 

Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn’t be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren’t always this way, and her years spent as the butt of schoolyard jokes are ones she’d rather forget.

So when James Fraser – the architect of Anna’s final humiliation at school – walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change, right? So why does Anna feel like she’s a fool to trust him? 

Reserve an early copy of Here’s Looking at You today, and experience this laugh-out-loud funny and romantic story! 

You can also enter Mhairi’s cover contest! Post a photo recreating the cover of You Had Me At Hello as a comment to this Facebook post. One lucky winner will be chosen by Mhairi to win a gift certificate to Warby Parker. 

Get creative! We're so excited to see your version of the cover, however you want to recreate it. Five random photos will also be chosen by the Harper 360 team to be featured on their Facebook page the day after the contest ends. Good luck! 

I made no secret of my own love for The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis, and praise for this book just keeps on coming.  A starred review from Booklist says, "this beautifully wrought novel is a sometimes wrenching but ultimately uplifting story of murder and betrayal in the face of faith, family in its truest sense, and—most of all—love," and Library Journal just released its own starred review for this beautifully tragic novel: 

"Like Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, this sprawling second novel by Massachusetts author Francis (The Liar’s Diary) starts out with a traumatic incident involving a young boy befriended by a girl and expands from there into a Dickensian story in which criminals with murky motives mingle casually with the pure of heart. But instead of London or New York City, the tangled lives of the two motherless children, Gus and Hallie, and their friend, Neil, unfold on the beaches and narrow streets of Provincetown, on the outermost tip of Cape Cod, and in the seacoast city of New Bedford, MA. Fate lies heavily on the characters, as the book explores fatherhood, inheritance, human behavior, and the aspects of ourselves that can be changed. VERDICT Steeped in sea air and completely ignoring the tourist season, this story captures the essence of year-round life on the Cape and the Portuguese Catholic traditions of New Bedford fishermen as its themes of passionate treachery and abiding love play out in sometimes heartbreaking ways. Recommend to readers wondering what to read after The Goldfinch."—Laurie Cavanaugh, Holmes P.L., Halifax, MA

Congratulations to Patry Francis and The Orphans of Race Point!

-Amanda

First of all, check out those gruesome covers.  Yikes.  Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s epic vampire trilogy (The Strain, The Fall, and The Night Eternal) follows a ragtag group of humans—including a CDC investigator, a Holocaust survivor, and a former gangbanger—as they battle a mysterious and ever-widening vampiric virus that threatens to take over New York City, and soon the whole world.  And now, if your imagination just doesn’t quite cut it, the series comes to the small screen this July on FX in The Strain.  Judging by those TV-tie-in covers and these two teaser trailers, we are in for one chilling ride. 

-Amanda

David Wellington is a delight. Some of you might be familiar with him for his Monster Island Trilogy, some might remember him for his appearance at TLA (zombie historical figures featured in his short story). Either way, I super support you checking out his latest book The Hydra Protocol, in which Jim Chapel must infiltrate a top secret Russian military base and disable an unstable supercomputer.

David has popped in today, on the birthday of his book, to share some thoughts about his childhood library. 

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I’ve written before about the library where I worked, but today I’d like to take a second for some fond memories of the library where I grew up. It was sprawling and full of people. It was built of oiled wood, painted steel shelving, scuffed linoleum; it sounded like the repetitive chunk-chunk of the machine that printed out due dates. It was heaven.

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Guest Blogger: David WellingtonRead More »

We're Number 1! We're Number 1! And such modest winners. This month's LibraryReads list was just announced and Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey was chosen as the #1 book. In more exciting news, The Hurricane Sisters by Dorothea Benton Frank also made the list. Thank you everyone who loved and voted for these books! 

Are you voting? Get onto Edelweiss to submit and have your voice heard!

– Annie

Elizabeth is Missing by debut novelist Emma Healey is a particular favorite of Amanda's and today has been chosen as the featured review on Booklist's website in honor of Mystery Month. 

Simultaneously a sophisticated mystery and a heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory and identity, Elizabeth is Missing possesses an unforgettable narrator in Maud, a grandmother fighting a losing battle against the devastating effects of memory loss.

"Part mystery, part meditation on memory, part Dickensian revelation of how apparent charity may hurt its recipients, this is altogether brilliant."
– Booklist

This book goes on sale June 10, but until then you can snag an egalley on Edelweiss.

– Annie

Dale Brown is a prolific writer and has had many military fiction bestsellers. His latest book, Starfire, finds Bradley James McLanahan alone for the first time since the death of his heroic father, Patrick McLanahan, and thrust into the middle of what could become a global battle for control of space.

Dale wrote a beautiful piece about the importance of libraries in his life, and we are happy to have him share that with us today.

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HOME AWAY FROM HOME–in more ways than one

by Dale Brown

Where was your favorite place growing up? Grandma's kitchen? Your bedroom with the dog sleeping on your bed? The basement with the race car set attached to a huge sheet of plywood?

Mine was most definitely the library.

The old red brick North Park Library at the corner of Delaware and Hertel Avenues in Buffalo was my first introduction into the world of libraries. My Dad took me there to sign up for Little League one evening, but I soon forgot about baseball and started roaming the shelves, pulling out books and marveling about how many there were, covering every imaginable subject–and they were free, except if I forgot to return one on time.

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Guest Blogger: Dale BrownRead More »

There’s been a lot of buzz (pun totally intended) going around about Laline Paull’s debut novel The Bees, and yesterday we finally celebrated its Book Birthday. 

The Bees is literally about bees, set in an ancient society where only the Queen may breed and any deformity means death. When a devout young worker bee finds herself in the possession of a deadly secret, she becomes a hunted criminal whose decisions will mean life and death for her entire hive.

The Bees was chosen by librarians as one of May’s Top 10 LibraryReads picks, and Library Journal named it Debut of the Month, saying in a starred review “Paull’s debut presents the intricate world of the honeybee hive, where devotion and service are sacred, and caste, politics, and power are as present as in any human royal court. A powerful story reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, in which one original and independent thinker can change the course of a whole society.”  Shelf Awareness shared an interview with Laline about the background and inspiration for the novel, BookPage published an excellent review, and make sure you check out our own video with Laline (I just love the poem about libraries she quotes at the end).

Get in on this buzz and join the hive by picking up a copy today!

-Amanda