Uncategorized

Anyone looking for their next immersive fantasy read needs to take a look at The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst, the first book in a new epic fantasy series.

Sarah is an award-winning YA author breaking into the adult realm with the story of a young girl training to be queen.  But in the kingdom of Renthia, the queen has a special task: she must control the spirits that reside in all natural things–trees, water, wind–and keep them from killing the humans. 

Only a few women are born with the ability to control the spirits, and Daleina learns at a young age that she's one of those women.  She's taken to a school with the other women with this ability, and as she trains to better control her powers, Daleina also discovers there's something dark and very wrong going on in the kingdom. 

Daleina is a great heroine to get behind; she's strong and intelligent, and gathers a great group of characters to help her along the way as she faces political intrigue, violent magic, and malevolent spirits in her quest to protect the realm. 

This is a fabulous start to what is sure to be an exciting series, so definitely download the egalley from Edelweiss and dive in!

-Amanda

Coming June 14th, Love Wins is the thrilling and deeply emotional recounting of the LGBT Americans, plaintiffs, legal teams, and judges involved with the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in the United States.

In a starred review, Booklist raves, "Told with a novel’s narrative drive, this recounting…is taut, tense, and highly readable…This book would make a great movie, and in the meantime, it is an excellent choice for book groups looking for exciting nonfiction."

Library Journal calls it a "fascinating look at the fight for gay marriage and at the experiences of gay couples and families. Recommended for public libraries."

Not only have Debbie and Jim done a marvelous job recounting this historic moment in American social justice, they also happen to really REALLY like libraries.  Take a moment to watch their special message just to you…

A word to the wise: I'd avoid taking in a fresh mouthful of coffee as you start reading the hilarious Karen Alpert, bestselling author of I Heart My Little A-Holes and creator of the Baby Sideburns parenting blog. The inevitable giggle fits will likely end with you covering the nearest book, screen, or innocent bystander with a Pollock-esque smattering of java. Her latest, I Want My Epidural Back, just went on sale this month, and as a busy mom and a serious library lover, she'd like offer a kind suggestion…

***

Dear librarians,

I am imploring you. Begging you. I am literally down on my knees asking you for one very simple thing. Can you please please pleeease start putting GPS tracking devices on library books?

Because here’s the thing. I’m a mom, which means when we go to the library my rugrats are basically like kids in a candy store, only they don’t walk out of the place with crazy hyper activity disorder and 9,000 cavities. They walk out with books. Awesome, educational, wonderful, creative books. A huge stack of them that are free. I’m like, “See? This is way better than a bookstore where you only get one.” And then we go home and they devour them. We sit on the couch and read them together. We take them in the car and read them while we’re waiting. We schlep them all over the place.

And then suddenly it’s three weeks later and here’s what happens. Aggghhh, the books are due! The books are due!! And I’m running around the house like a mad woman trying to scrounge them all up. Where’s Knuffle Bunny?!!! Has anyone seen Sleeping Beauty?!! Okay, everyone stop what you’re doing and look for Barbie’s Magical Pearl (made up name but it was something annoying like that). And yeah, I know you librarians love your Dewey Decimal system, but that shit doesn’t help you find a book when someone shoved it under the washing machine, or left it in the seat pocket of the car, or buried it at the bottom of the hamper.  

And I know GPS tracking devices on every book might sound a little expensive, but with the amount of late fees I paid you from that one Berenstain Bears book that we eventually found crammed in between the dollhouse and the wall, I’m hoping you can afford it.

Sincerely,

A mom who loves the library    

Happy National Library Week!

We’ve got exciting news to share!

HarperCollins has joined the American Library Association in celebrating Money Smart Week—a campaign created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago back in 2002 to help consumers better manage their personal finances.

Money Smart Week runs from April 23-30, 2016. HarperCollins will offer libraries unlimited access to seven finance-focused ebooks published for one month beginning April 15 and ending May 15, 2016. The price tag for all seven titles combined is $100.00.
 
If your patrons are looking for information on finance, these carefully chosen titles will offer good, solid advice on everything from investing, women and finance, and even kids and money!

Libraries should contact their vendor for further information.

For more information regarding Money Smart Week events and financial tips, visit www.moneysmartweek.org/resources

Click here to view ALA’s press release.

I hope everyone is enjoying their time so far in beautiful Denver for the PLA 2016 conference!  We kicked off this morning with a multi-publisher book buzz, and a big thank you to everyone who attended!  If you did not attend and would still like to learn about the books we talked about, or if you attended and weren't able to get a handout, please see below.

…

Attention PLA Buzz Attendees!Read More »

Got money on the mind?  That's no surprise, considering we're still in the midst of tax season.  But author Anna Newell Jones may just have the information you need to go from anxious to worry-free.

In her forthcoming book The Spender's Guide to Debt-Free Living, Anna Newell Jones tells the story of how she eliminated her nearly $24,000 in debt in 15 months by going on a spending fast and compiles numerous tips on how you, too, can achieve a debt-free life, steps like

• Creating a personalized Debt-Free Life Pledge.
• Understanding where your money is going when you’re in debt, and where it will come from to pay it off.
• Finding additional income sources and generating side gigs.
• Re-integrating spending into your life once you’re out of debt, so that you stay out of debt.

No matter the level of debt, these tips can help set things moving in the right direction.  Definitely make sure to check out The Spender's Guide to Debt-Free Living when it hits shelves April 26.

-Amanda

We’ve been talking about The Nest for over a year and now it’s here.

This LibraryReads pick is just wonderful, and the critics agree. Here is a mere sampling of the raves that have been pouring in:

“[A] generous, absorbing novel…Sweeney’s endearing characters are quirky New Yorkers all… [a] lively novel. A fetching debut from an author who knows her city, its people, and their heart.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“In her debut, Sweeney spins a fast-moving, often-humorous narrative, and her portrait of each sibling is compassionate even as she reveals their foibles with emotional clarity…assured, energetic, and adroitly plotted…an engrossing narrative that endears readers to the Plumb family for their essential humanity.” — Publishers Weekly

“[S]cenes both witty and tragic… that glow with the confidence of an experienced comic writer… [Sweeney] maintains a refreshing balance of tenderness. Rather than skewering the Plumbs to death, she pokes them, as though probing to find the humanity beneath their cynical crust.” — Washington Post

Want a copy?  Let us know! First 20 folks to write to us at librarylovefest@harpercollins.com will receive a book that will stay with you for quite some time.

-Virginia

Stephanie Evanovich is the bestselling author of Big Girl Panties and The Sweet Spot.  If you attended this past ALA Midwinter in Boston or ALA Annual 2014 in Las Vegas, hopefully you had the chance to swing by our booth and meet her.  And if you did, you know she is absolutely hilarious.  Stephanie's third book, The Total Package, goes on sale today, and to celebrate, she's stopped by LLF to share her love for libraries with us.

***

I loved the library even before I learned to read when I used to feed the night deposit box with whatever books my mother was returning.  The library was where we went when it was either too cold or too hot to play outside.  I wasn’t aware of the public “shhhhhh” section of the library because in the children’s room, unless you were creating a real ruckus, you had a lot of freedom. 

I remember my school librarian more clearly.  The library was a cozy spot in the basement of my old elementary school—which really was a century-old building.   I proudly checked out my first book on Helen Keller for my first book report. 

…

LLF Guest Blogger: Stephanie EvanovichRead More »

Hear ye, hear ye!  The third episode of Under the Radar, Over the Moon has arrived!  Check out our new video for the wacky antics of your favorite LLF team and, of course, great new books!  This month we talk about:

Night of the Animals by Bill Broun: “Night of The Animals is the most beautiful, strange new novel I have read in years, and its obese, mentally ill, elderly protagonist is among the most engaging of heroes. The existence of this book in the present moment is a wonderment.” — Mary Gaitskill.  Click here for the egalley.

The Maximum Security Book Club by Mikita Brottman: “Take nine convicted felons confined for the long haul at a maximum security men’s prison. Add a well-meaning literary scholar armed only with cheap reprints of challenging books by writers from Conrad to Kafka. The resulting dynamic is the subject of Mikita Brottman’s fascinating and unvarnished book about criminals as rough-hewn literary critics. I tore through The Maximum Security Book Club." — Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Water.  Click here to download an egalley!

Brighton by Michael Harvey: “Harvey has taken the elements of a classic crime novel and heightened them with race and class tensions, as well as the story of a remarkable friendship and an unforgettable family drama. The result is a novel that crackles with energy and makes you hold on until the final page.” — Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street.  Get started reading the egalley here.

So much love for these books!  And definitely make sure you check out past episodes on the Under the Radar, Over the Moon website here.  We hope you enjoy!

-Amanda

March is Maisie Month, and bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear is celebrating by answering all your burning questions about fan favorite sleuth Maisie Dobbs!  Click here to check out the questions and submit some of your own, and definitely make sure to check back today at 4pm EST for the answers!

If you find your Maisie appetite has only been whetted by this Q&A, worry not!  Maisie's next adventure, Journey to Munich, hits shelves March 29.

-Amanda

We're all familiar with the ancient Mayan civilization whose traces can be found across the Yucatan Peninsula in Central America, but do you know how those amazing ruins were discovered?  In Jungle of Stone, William Carlsen takes us on a journey with the team that originally fought through the jungle to uncover the lost civilization, a tale which Kirkus calls in a starred review “Thrilling. …A captivating history of two men who dramatically changed their contemporaries’ view of the past.”  You can uncover this untold story when Jungle of Stone hits shelves April 26, but today the author has stopped by LLF to "uncover" his love for libraries!

***

Just out of the army in the late 1960s, I entered the University of California, Berkeley, on the G.I. Bill.  I knew I would still have to work myself through school (I majored in of all things Rhetoric—very practical).  My first choice in the university’s “work-study” program was a job in one of the university’s many libraries.  While in the army I had spent most of my free time in post libraries, always with my head in a book.  Now, I found myself working as a library page in the university’s Bancroft Library, a research repository for western history collections.  While there I was asked to retrieve handwritten correspondence from Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain, two authors I revered, and to my disbelief I held in my hands many of their letters as I brought them up from the stacks to researchers.

I was hooked.  My dream was to write, and here early on I had discovered one of the great treasures of libraries, not only as cherished places of books but also the often hidden resources behind those books.  I went on to a career in journalism at the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times; and the need for libraries (oddly newspaper libraries are called “morgues”) and the power of research was never lost on me, particularly during my many years as an investigative reporter.

Decades after my first encounter with the Bancroft Library, I found myself there once again.  My wife and I lived for many years part time in Guatemala, where I had fallen in love with a nineteenth-century writer named John L. Stephens. I had traveled to several of the astonishing stone ruins of the ancient Maya scattered in the jungles of Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.  But I became ever more enthralled with that civilization through the eyes of Stephens, who in the 1840s published riveting books about his adventures with an artist named Frederick Catherwood and their discovery of the lost civilization of the Maya.  I decided to follow their 2,500-mile journey through the jungle in my beat-up 1985 Toyota Corolla, a car without air conditioning or radio and the closest thing I could find to the mules the two men had used during their expeditions.  On returning to my home in San Francisco, I discovered to my surprise that Stephens’s letters and personal papers were located across the Bay at the Bancroft Library.  There, spellbound by his personal writings and letters that revealed his deep friendship with Catherwood, who had so brilliantly illustrated their travels of exploration and adventure together, I began my own journey that resulted in Jungle of Stone, a work aimed at telling not only the story of their extraordinary lives but the discoveries they made that changed the world’s understanding of the history of the Americas before Columbus.

All the best,

Bill

***

Thanks Bill!  Look for Jungle of Stone on shelves April 26 to discover the unknown story of explorers who changed history.

-Amanda

Historical fiction is a perennial favorite among library readers and book clubs alike, and we have some great ones coming out this year.  Luckily you can get a head start by downloading the egalleys from Edelweiss, so I hope you enjoy these excellent forthcoming gems!

The Girl from The Savoy by Hazel Gaynor, the bestselling author of A Memory of Violets and The Girl Who Came Home:  A young woman finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel after WWI and becomes torn between two men, two classes, and everything she knows and everything she dreams of.  Download the egalley here.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles:  In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women.  Download the egalley here.

Lazaretto by Diane McKinney-Whetstone:  A provocative, moving story that follows several unforgettable citizens through the struggle of 19th century Philadelphia’s early integration, from the author of the critically acclaimed novels Tumbling, Tempest Rising, Blues Dancing, Leaving Cecil Street, and Trading Dreams at Midnight.  Download the egalley here.

You can check out our catalogs on Edelweiss for even more downloadable egalleys here.  Enjoy!

-Amanda

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne is a delightfully hilarious, touching, and steamy debut romantic comedy that I absolutely loved.  Start with two completely opposite publishing assistants forced to share an office after a company merger, add a little competition, several misunderstandings, and a steamy kiss in the elevator, and you get the beginnings of funny romantic adventure where two people discover they may not hate each other after all.

But you don't have to just take my word for it.  In addition to all the in-house praise it's received, Booklist loved it, too!  They gave it a starred review and have made that review their Review of the Day!  You can read the whole review here.

And you can get a jump start reading the book itself by downloading the egalley from Edelweiss!  But I warn you, once you start reading, you won't be able to stop until you've experienced every laugh, sigh, and tender moment it has to offer.

-Amanda

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams attended ALA Midwinter as one of our guests this year, signing copies of A Certain Age ARE (on sale June 28, 2016) and generally charming everyone she met. Some passages of her new novel, A Certain Age, are excerpts from a 1920’s gossip column, recounting a scandalous murder trial. We asked Ms. Williams to channel that gossip columnist when she sat down to write her report of this year’s Midwinter ALA. We think Ms. Williams is the Bees Knees, so without further ado, we cede the blog to her.

***

Ladies and gentlemen, your faithful correspondent has sometimes heard it said—now, don’t be amazed—that librarians are a conservative lot on the whole, and not much given to games of hazard. To those ignorant observers I submit the following counter-evidence: the American Library Association recently held its Midwinter conference in Boston, Massachusetts.

Let me repeat myself, for those of you reading this column before breakfast. The great librarian pooh-bahs decided it would be a splendid idea to schedule a wintertime gathering of thousands within the limits of a city that received a hundred and eight inches of snow during the course of the previous winter, and in consequence, thousands of librarians duly reserved non-refundable tickets on their airlines of choice—to Beantown, mind you, not South Florida—and packed their trunks with woolly sweaters and optimism.

This, my friends, represents a gamble of the highest degree.

And yet—proving, perhaps, that the old saw that Our Lord watches over drunks, children, and librarians—the entire affair went off without a hitch. Imagine! Precipitation arrived in the form of rain, instead of what a certain Southern acquaintance of mine is pleased to call the Devil’s Dandruff. Cheerful smiles greeted your correspondent at every corner. When I arrived at the HarperCollins booth, dampened and breathless from navigating a veritable maze of exhibits, I found a crowd of improbably lively conference-goers who, having already run the gauntlet of presentations and seminars and author signings, were yet eager to discover what lay waiting in the pages of my latest novel. In the evening, at a dinner hosted by my publisher, a well-chosen cadre of thoughtful, vibrant, and terribly amusing authors and librarians kept the bookish conversation flowing without end.

And while the queue for an evening taxi stretched almost as long as the queue for a morning caramel macchiato, nobody seemed to mind, for we all had Books To Read, ladies and gentlemen, piles and piles of glorious books! Suitcases packed with them, arms made weary by them, noses twitching at the new-book scent of them—and all of these volumes ready to be opened and embraced as the friends one hasn’t yet met.

Which, I suppose, explains the apparent contradiction laid open at the beginning of this column: When the reward is sufficient, any amount of risk will seem perfectly reasonable.

***

Get an egalley of A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams here!

I just love the excitement, mystery, and uncertainty of a novel with a thrilling supernatural twist.  Books that blur the line between real and imagined and make you question anything and everything make my heart race and my eyes go wide as I tear through the pages.  Here are a couple of my favorite supernatural/thriller hybrids coming out soon that are sure to keep you reading late into the night.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay: A teenage boy disappears in the woods, and his mother starts to see his shadowy ghost in the corners of their home, while other people in town see dark figures looking through their windows.  But is what they're seeing real or imagined, and what really happened out in the woods?  Get started reading the egalley here!

Killfile by Christopher Farnsworth: A man born with the power to read minds is hired to steal back stolen intellectual property, but hidden motives abound that will push his abilities to their limits.  An exciting and action-packed exploration of what it would be like to read and influence minds.  Download an egalley here!

The Stopped Heart by Julie Myerson: Two story lines in two centuries overlap through time in an English cottage, where one family goes to recuperate after a terrible family tragedy and the other accepts a mysterious house guest who may be hiding dark secrets.  An egalley is available here.

You definitely don't want to miss out on the twists and turns, action and intrigue, and uncertainty and mystery of these subtly supernatural novels.  Download the egalleys today!

-Amanda

Alison Gaylin, bestselling author of the Brenna Spector series, has a new standalone, What Remains of Me, on sale tomorrow!  This utterly thrilling work of psychological suspense traces two high-profile Hollywood murders separated by over three decades and focuses in on the tight-lipped woman convicted of the first and the primary suspect of the second. Let's just say the case may not be as clear cut as it first appears…  

Alison was gracious enough to visit us here at LLF and share her own story of library love.  So without further ado…enjoy!

***

When I was growing up, my local library was a refuge for me – and not just because of the hours I spent there alone, poring over everything from Judy Blume novels to rock star biographies to the true crime books I came to be obsessed with. I also loved the library for its activities. Since I was an only and often bored child, my mom signed me up for several of the kids’ classes offered by the library over the summer – one-or-two day workshops in poetry writing, pottery, terrarium-building, you name it.     

At first, I was skeptical (classes over the summer?) But I was a fast convert. It could have been the subject matter, which was so much more interesting than anything going on at my regular school. It could have been the enthusiasm of both the teachers and my fellow participants, which again, made the workshops feel more like adventure than education. But really, I think it was the library itself. The smell of books in their protective covers, the softness of my footfalls as I made my way to the back room in which the classes were held, the smiles of the librarians as I passed. It was all so familiar and in such a warm, wonderful way. If a building could be a friend, my local library was it.    

So when the head of the children’s department from my own local library asked me to lead a teen writing workshop a few years back, I said yes right away. I could revisit those times. I could help these kids experience the same feeling I once had, escaping from the day-to-day, learning something new… and that’s when reality set in. Teens today are different. Their phones in tow at all times, they are in constant communication and therefore constantly distracted. What use did they have for a voluntary writing class in a library, of all places? At least, that’s the way I was thinking as I prepared the writing exercises for the two-hour class. Do they notice the smell of library the way I used to, I thought. Do they appreciate the silence, or do headphones keep them from experiencing silence at all, ever?       

Would I have to beg for their attention, to pluck headphones out of ears and physically take phones away like a real teacher in a real school? My spirits sank at the thought. But once I arrived at the library and climbed the stairs to the room where the workshop would be held, I knew that I needn’t have worried.     

My students sat around a table, notebooks at the ready, phones nowhere in sight. And throughout the two-hour-long workshop, they were engaged, active, asking lots of questions, pencils moving fast over their notebook pages as they worked on their assignments. The time went by as quickly as I remembered during the library classes of my childhood. And thinking about it later, I realized something: Whether their parents had pushed them into taking the writing course or not didn’t matter. Once they walked through those library doors, they really wanted to be there. Just like me. Some things never change.

***

Thanks again to Alison for joining in on the library love fest.  The book goes on sale tomorrow, February 23, so be sure to grab a copy from your favorite bookstore or website, or hop on over to your local library and check it out!

-Chris