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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

We can hardly keep up with it anymore!  Another tide of love has rolled in for Michael Chabon's Moonglow: Sam Sacks of The Wall Street Journal picked it as the Best Novel of 2016!  Check out his amazing praise:

“It’s fitting, though, that the best novel of 2016 was a moving work of escapism. Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is ostensibly an account of his grandfather’s life, but really a spellbinding collection of Greatest Generation tall tales. He lovingly describes an American melting pot that gives a home to refugees, bands together to fight Nazis and constructs rockets that carry men to the Moon. Whether the stories are meant to be aspirational or elegiac, they were beautiful to live in, and I missed the world they made when the book was done.”

If you can't get enough of Moonglow, make sure to register for Booklist's 2017 Carnegie Medal Shortlist Authors webinar, featuring Michael and the other authors on the shortlist!  Register here to sign up, and tune in on Tuesday, January 10 at 2:00pm Eastern to hear these amazing authors speak.

-Amanda

There's a lot of love flowing these days as we reach the end of 2016 and look back on the great books of the year.  One of the latest lists to be announced is that from Bill Goldstein of WNBC New York, and he included both News of the World by Paulette Jiles and Moonglow by Michael Chabon.  You can hear him talk about these and the rest of his picks from 2016 here.

These two books have received crazy amounts of praise, and both were chosen by public librarians as a Top 10 LibraryReads pick from their respective publication months.  If you haven't already dug in, don't let 2016 pass you by without diving in to these great reads!

-Amanda

One summer debut the LLF team is particularly excited about is Good Karma by Christina Kelly. Sure to tickle fans of Mary Kay Andrews and Dorothea Benton Frank, this is a heartfelt tale of two recent retirees and their beloved Boston Terrier, Karma, who, upon settling on a serene island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, find themselves drifting towards very different versions of post-retirement life.

This book will delight dog-lovers everywhere, with W. Bruce Cameron, New York Times bestselling author of A Dog's Way Home and A Dog's Purpose adding, "Normal dogs and abnormal people provide an entertaining glimpse of lives in transition in Good Karma. This charming novel is full of unique characters with twists and turns I did not see coming!"

Christina will be joining us this year at ALA Midwinter in Atlanta, Georgia, so please come by the HarperCollins booth #2017 on Saturday, January 21st, from 2:00-3:00pm to meet her and have a book signed! In anticipation, we will send a galley of Good Karma to the first FIVE people to email us at librarylovefest@harpercollins.com. If you prefer an egalley, please head over to Edelweiss to download one!

-Chris

Tim Dorsey's Clownfish Blues, the twentieth Serge A. Storms mayhem-filled thriller, is already getting great buzz in anticipation of publication next month!

In a starred review, Booklist raves, "Serge Storms is, hands down, one of the most original and just-plain-captivating characters in modern crime fiction: a brilliant, creative, manic-depressive killer who bounces from one episode to another, with the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a new puppy experiencing everything in the world for the very first time. The books are hilarious, too, with razor-sharp dialogue and off-the-wall plots and set pieces."

Publishers Weekly adds, "…readers will find plenty of sharp cultural commentary."

In this latest installment, while Serge and his drug-addled travel buddy Coleman are on a Sunshine State road trip shooting their own "episodes" of their favorite classic television show, Route 66, they stumble upon a lucrative conspiracy—headed by some big-time bad guys—to game the Florida state lottery. Chaos, hilarity, and sensational thrills ensue!

The egalley is up on Edelweiss so click here to download your copy before the January 24th on-sale date!

-Chris

Register for Booklist's FREE Carnegie Medal Award webinar on Tuesday, January 10th, at 2:00pm EST. Hear from Andrew Carnegie Award finalists Michael Chabon (Moonglow), Zadie Smith (Swing Time), Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad), and more! Click below to register.

Steven Gaines' powerful memoir One of These Things First has been chosen by the Boston Globe as one of the best books of 2016! Click here to see the full list!

An incredible recounting of Gaines' boyhood in pre-gentrified Brooklyn, his perilous process of self-discovery as he came to realize he was gay, and his subsequent time spent in the infamous Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic attempting to be "cured" of his homosexuality, One of These Things First is ripe with lush detail and stunning prose. It's simply a must-read.

To celebrate its inclusion in the Boston Globe's "best of" list, who called it a “deeply affecting memoir of growing up gay in the 1950s that somehow turns poignantly humorous when a teenage Gaines talks his way into a fabulous private mental hospital after a suicide attempt," we will send a copy of the book to the first 5 people to email us at librarylovefest@harpercollins.com. 

-Chris

I know there are a TON of Paulo Coehlo fans out there.  His book The Alchemist has enchanted readers all across the globe.  Now fans will be excited to hear that Paulo will be featured in a profile piece on CBS Sunday Morning to air this Sunday, December 18!  Tune in to hear all about this amazing, world-wide phenomenon.  Definitely make sure to mark your calendars!

-Amanda

Fridays are already arguably the best day of the work week, so what could possibly make this Friday better?

Tune in to the LibraryLoveFest Facebook page on Friday 12/16 at 10:30am EST to learn about some of the cool things our department does and hear about some of our favorite books for the gift giving season.

We'll be interviewed by a representative from Bookstr, with many shenanigans and great titles to come.  Don't miss out!

You voted, they counted, and the results are in!  Librarians across the country chose two HarperCollins Publishers titles for the December/January LibraryReads list!

Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson: The author of the wildly popular The Kind Worth Killing returns with an electrifying and downright Hitchcockian psychological thriller involving a young woman caught in a vise of voyeurism, betrayal, manipulation, and murder.  Request the egalley here.

Heartstone by Elle Katharine White: A debut historical fantasy that recasts Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom.  Request the egalley here.

Congratulations to all the winners, and don't forget to submit your votes for the February list!  You can check out some of our suggestions here.  The voting deadline is December 20.

I pounced on Sara Flannery Murphy's debut novel The Possessions as soon as the manuscript was available and was instantly entranced.  This book is literary and seductive, with the perfect hints of mystery and sci-fi to make it an incredibly engrossing read.  It's already received a starred review from Publishers Weekly calling it, “a beautifully rendered, haunting page-turner,” and another starred review from Booklist says it's "unforgettable and impossible to put down."  I could not agree more.  Make sure to grab the egalley from Edelweiss, and then read on for a special message from the author herself on her love of libraries.

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I grew up in libraries. Their interiors stand out in my memory as clearly as the details of friends’ homes. When I was very young, Little Rock’s downtown branch was a low building, spanning a block, all faux-marble floors and huge pillars. Later, the Main Branch was rehomed in a tall building with broad, sunny views of the Arkansas River. When I lived in a tourist town as a teenager, I frequented the local Carnegie library, with a steep stone staircase outside and twin mezzanines inside.

But more than the architectural details, the libraries I’ve entered over the decades have shared one trait in common. Libraries introduced me to the beauty of quiet. Silence not as an absence of noise, but as a presence in and of itself, textured and rich. The quiet is a level on top of a hum of activity: pages turning, patrons whispering, pens scratching, keyboards clicking. That particular quiet, filled with other people’s ambitions and daydreams, has always felt deeply welcoming to me. It’s an invitation to lose yourself in someone else’s story, or work on making your own story stronger.

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LLF Guest Post: Sara Flannery Murphy, author of THE POSSESSIONSRead More »

Debut author Tamara Valentine's What the Waves Know tells the story of a young woman's quest to recover her past and find herself after an incident when she was six years old robbed her of her voice.  The novel went on sale earlier this year to great praise: Kirkus Reviews called it, "A novel rich in mythology and childhood secrets…. This dreamy coming-of-age mystery unfolds in tantalizing waves with keen insight and lush prose," while Booklist said, "With the sass of Fannie Flagg and the subtle magic of Alice Hoffman, this short but powerful book should find readers of many generations."  Tamara has stopped by LLF today to share a behind-the-scenes look at What the Waves Know and her own history with libraries.

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Where I come from people aren’t born—they sprout. I grew up traipsing through thousands of acres of farmland, barefoot and bareback, astride a buckskin quarter horse in the heart of apple country in upstate New York.

A person can only watch apples grown for so long before it loses its entertainment value, so those who settled the region became skilled story builders, crafting such a rich array of folk religions that by the time the Erie Canal made it to town filled to the brim with barges and missionaries, there was nobody left to convert. My town is home to Mormonism, the Millerites, the Fox sisters’ spiritualists, the Publik Universalists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shakers, the Oneida Society, an active Iroquois nation, thriving Amish and Mennonite communities—and the list goes on. It is the reason I integrated a plethora of lore from diverse traditions in What the Waves Know.

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LLF Guest Post: Tamara Valentine, author of WHAT THE WAVES KNOWRead More »