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Guess what?? Publishers Weekly has selected the following HarperCollins titles for its Best Books of 2014!

Charlee Fam's debut novel, Last Train to Babylon, goes on sale today, and to celebrate she spoke at the Long Island AAP Library Book Buzz. Look at her signing her first book for the first time! So exciting! 

Snag your copy now!

– Annie

We are all fans of Marilyn Johnson's This Book is Overdue!, but now Barbara Hoffert from Library Journal sat down with Marilyn to discuss her latest star-reviewed/LibraryReads pick, Lives in Ruins. The two powerhouse smarties discussed archeology and the men and women dedicated to bringing the past to life – the human element of what makes societies tick. You can watch all of the clips here, or check out a selection below:

When Mitch Albom’s novel The First Phone Call from Heaven first went on sale, it shot straight to the #1 position on the New York Times bestseller list.  This novel, from the author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife.  Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax?  Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out.  An allegory about the power of belief—and a page-turner that will touch your soul—Albom’s masterful storytelling has never been so moving and unexpected.  Now available in paperback (listen up, book clubs!), Mr. Albom celebrates the release by inviting you to share the miracles you experience in your everyday lives.  He has created this great video about the book, the nature of miracles, and a collection of inspirational occurrences that people experience in their day to day lives.

Do you have a miracle you would like to share?  Use the tag #everydaymiracles in any social media venue to share your own experience with miracles and learn about other great miracles from other people’s lives. And make sure you grab a copy of the paperback edition of The First Phone Call from Heaven if you haven't already experienced this bestselling exploration of faith and meditation on the nature of miracles.

-Amanda

Hear ye, hear ye, fans of supernatural thrillers and urban fantasies.  Gideon by debut author Alex Gordon will satisfy all of your witchy needs in the perfect blend of Preston & Child meets Kim Harrison.

When Lauren’s father dies, she makes a shocking discovery: the man she knew as John Reardon was once a completely different person, with a completely different name.  The only clues she has are an old photograph, some letters, and the name of a town—Gideon.  But someone—or something—doesn’t want her to discover the truth.  When she makes her way to Gideon, she discovers that nothing in this small Midwestern town is what it seems, including time itself.  Two hundred years ago, a witch was burned at the stake, but in this town, the past feels all too chillingly present.

Gordon really reinvents the usual witch mythology with this novel, and does a phenomenal job establishing a sleepily menacing feeling for the town right from the very beginning.  I definitely recommend it for fans of Deborah Harkness and Paula Brackston.

-Amanda

Want to go on a European adventure? So do I, but until that lotto ticket pays off I'm going to have to turn to fiction for my vicarious living. No better book for that than Us by David Nicholls, the #1 LibraryReads pick for November AND a Library Journal Top Ten of 2014! It is the story of a long time married couple – floundering, unraveling, lost – and their son who take a trip all around Europe to try to patch up their family.

Now, here is the super cool part: the Audio Book team has put together an interactive map, so when you click on the different cities you hear a portion of the audio book related to that location. How fun is that?! The narrator's voice is fantastic for the story, and it will make you immediately want to read/listen to the whole novel.

You can also enter to win a copy of the book and audio book, plus a travel pack (tote bag, water bottle, journal, etc) to perhaps take on your own adventures. 

Good luck!

– Annie

So my heading is a spoiler alert, but what exciting news! Us by David Nicholls has been named a Top Ten Book of 2014 by Library Journal!

And no wonder what with the amazing praise this novel has been getting:

“For those who loved One Day, the author’s latest is another heart-grabber about discovering what makes us happy and learning to let go.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Nicholls brings his trademark wit and wisdom to this by turns hilarious and heartbreaking examination of a long-term marriage…. This tender novel will further cement Nicholls’ reputation as a master of romantic comedy.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Nicholls is a master of the braided narrative, weaving the past and present to create an intricate whole…. A funny and moving novel.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The story follows one man’s efforts to salvage his marriage—and repair his troubled relationship with his teenaged son—during the course of a trip around Europe. It is a Virginia Stanley favorite, and it's so incredibly relatable and beautifully written.

Us goes on sale October 28th and I would urge, encourage, literally put a copy in your hands if I could, you to snap up a copy asap.

– Annie

Urban Waite is a Virginia Stanley fave, so it's exciting to have him guest blog. His latest book (on sale today!), Sometimes the Wolf, is a story of family, violence, and unintended consequences, and much like his last novel, The Carrion Birds, the writing is fantastic. Welcome, Urban!

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I’m a horrible, no-good, devil of a person when it comes to writing Christmas thank you cards. I mean well. I swear I do. I intended to write that thank you letter, I just haven’t. This is an open letter to my aunt Lissa, former librarian, former bookstore owner, and book lover then and now. I’m sorry I didn’t write you a card last January. I should have. 

I got into this writing thing through reading. I pieced my time together, always reading first and then writing after. And to tell you the truth, I was pretty lonely doing it. I love books. I always have. My parents once grounded me for a summer and part of the punishment was reading ten books and doing ten book reports. It turned out to be a pretty good summer, but I didn’t brag about it then like I should have. 

The only problem with loving something like a book—at least for me—is that you rarely get to talk to anyone about it. This is where you, Lissa, come in. Last Christmas you asked for a stack of books—dog-eared, smelly, underlined, used or new—it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that I loved them. I wrapped up some Andrew Vachss, a little Woodrell, Tatjana Soli’s first novel, Jennine Capó Crucet’s collection, and a memoir by Justin St. Germain. You read them and more than that you wanted to talk to me about them. And for that I’m the one who needs to tell you, thank you. 

It took me a while to figure it out, but out there in the world are libraries, and in those libraries are librarians. And those librarians are people just like me—people who love books. People who want to talk about books and who on any given day will be there to have a conversation with you on the books they love, and that is a very good thing. 

So thank you to my aunt Lissa, and thank you to all the librarians out there. Thank you for being there to talk to shy, book-loving kids like me, who don’t brag enough about how wonderful being grounded with a reading list was.  

There is a very important deadline approaching! November 1st is the last day you can vote for "The Favorites of The Favorites" LibraryReads list.     

Inspired by the "Booker of Bookers" award to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize (and the "Best of The Bookers" to celebrate the 40th), LibraryReads is celebrating their first year by having library staff vote on their favorites from the September 2013 through September 2014 lists.

Here are the top 25 choices, so cast your vote asap so we can have a great December TBR pile.

PS: It pleases me NO END that The Bees by Laline Paull made this list. I love that book!

– Annie

Ariana Franklin was the award-winning author of Mistress of the Art of Death, the first in the critically acclaimed, bestselling medieval thriller series of the same name. She was working on this standalone historical thriller, The Siege Winter, at the time of her death, so her daughter, writer Samantha Norman, took up the mantle and finished the job.

England 1141. The country has been devastated by a long civil war that has left thousands dead. With no clear winner, castles and villages change hands from month to month as the English king Steven and his cousin, the Empress Matilda, battle for the crown.

At the heart of the story is a young girl, left for dead, who is found and raised by an expert archer and a slightly older young woman in charge of a castle and it's people. Both are strong and determined to do the right thing if it kills them.

So good! I just finished this last night after ignoring all my other activities for the last few evenings, and I think fans of Bernard Cornwell and Diana Gabaldon will be drawn to this fast paced, well researched novel. I also learned what a mountebank was, so much knowledge! Download the egalley now!

– Annie

T. Geronimo Johnson is the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of Hold it ‘Til it Hurts. His latest book, Welcome to Braggsville, is a dark and socially provocative southern comedy about four liberal UC Berkeley students who stage a mock lynching during a Civil War reenactment. Perhaps not the best idea, but certainly one that gets people talking.

In the stylistic vein of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Geronimo Johnson has written a razor-sharp satire that touches on issues of class, race, Obamaism, and social media. Karen Russell, New York Times bestselling author of Swamplandia! says “This book will wake you up! Welcome to Braggsville toggles brilliantly between tragedy and comedy and never lets the reader off the hook.” 

Billy Lynn was one of the best books I've worked on, and any read-alike for that immediately gets my attention. I would also comp it to Junot Diaz, Jonathan Lethem, and Jennifer Egan. I recommend downloading an egalley and checking it out.

– Annie

The story of Chris McCandless fascinated not just New York Times bestselling author of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of the nation. Krakauer’s book and the Sean Penn film skyrocketed Chris McCandless to fame, but the real story of his life and his journey was missing some critical back story.

Now, Carine McCandless, Chris’s sister, fills that void with her own story, The Wild Truth. Carine witnessed firsthand the highly dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that set the stage for Chris’s willingness to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska, and the complex and highly charged relationship he had with his father. Growing up in the same troubled and volatile household Carine finally reveals the broader and deeper reality about life in the McCandless family.

Several librarians mentioned they were looking forward to this title at this month's Earlyword Galley Chat, and Carine will be doing a ton of great media including:

• • Good Morning America on November 7 
• • 20/20 also November 7
• • Nightline on November 7

And my favorite, there will be a one hour PBS documentary on the story, including scenes in Alaska at the original locations of Chris’s journey, two weeks after on sale! I will be tuning in. For a chance to see Carine in person, check out her tour schedule. 

– Annie

We are happy to welcome Valerie Geary to LLF today, the birthday of her book, Crooked River. I really enjoyed this novel, the story of two sisters determined to find the real murderer of a young woman and free their wrongly accused father. I'm a sucker for sister stories, and this relationship is loving, lovely and genuine. Welcome, Valerie!

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I am seven, sitting cross-legged on a rough carpet in the Oak Grove Elementary school library. An author has come to talk to us about writing. In my memory she is Madeleine L’Engle, but that seems too perfect to be true, wishful thinking that my brain, over the years, has transformed into something real. She reads from her book and, smiling, tells us we can be writers someday too. This is where it all began, I suppose.

I am twelve and my library card is my best friend. My ticket to anywhere. My escape. We are a single-income family of four on a budget; books are nonessentials. I ask for them for my birthday, for Christmas, but it’s never enough. The Albany Public Library may seem small to some people, but it’s the whole world to me. I bring home stack after stack and hide in the garage, my room, my tree fort in the woods, wherever I can be alone with these stories of other places, other people. I live in my imagination where I am set free.

I am twenty-eight. “Are you going to read all of those?” The man points at the six books I’ve pulled off the hold shelf at Multnomah County’s Kenton branch. I don’t tell him I have six more at home that I picked up the day before. I check out novels, short story collections, books on writing, but also books on bees and beekeeping because I’ve started a story about sisters who live in the woods with their beekeeper father. I’m thinking of calling it Crooked River. 

I am thirty-one, writing a love letter to all the libraries that have shaped me into the reader, writer, person I am today, and a thought hits me: Libraries change lives. They changed mine, anyway.  

November is a good month for HarperCollins books!  The Top Ten LibraryReads list for November has just been released, and we have the top three winners!

Congratulations to our winners: #1) Us by David Nicholls, #2) Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean, and #3) Lives in Ruins by Marilyn Johnson.  

Thank you to everyone who voted for this month's titles, and if you're not voting yet and would like to learn more, check out the LibraryReads website for more information and to see the new schedule of voting deadlines.  

The December list promises to be an exciting event, as librarians will vote for their Favorite of the Favorites, choosing your absolute favorite LibraryReads books from among the past year's winners.  Voting for that list ends on October 15, so go vote for your absolute favorites now!

-Amanda

Way back in my impressionable high school days, I participated in a week-long summer program at the Naval Academy, and for our morning workout on the last day, they brought in a SEAL to lead us.  And let me tell you, those guys are intense.  Luckily for everyone, I decided to go into publishing instead, but if you also want an insider’s knowledge of this group of elite soldiers, check out Navy SEALs: Their Untold Story by Dick Couch—a former SEAL and New York Times bestselling author—and William Boyd, co-author of Chris Kyle’s American Gun. 

Navy SEALs is the first complete history of the U.S. Navy SEALs, from their roots in World War II to their celebrated efforts in the Global War on Terror, featuring never-before-seen photographs, documents, and ephemera from the Naval archives.  This book is being published in tandem with a PBS documentary of the same name, airing this Veterans Day, November 11^th, at 9:00pm EST.

No authors or filmmakers have ever had the kind of access to the SEALs that Couch, Doyle, and the NavySEALs team have had. This is no dry history, but rather the SEALs themselves telling of their most fascinating, dangerous missions, entirely in their own words. Written with full cooperation of the Navy (complete with declassified documents and records), and featuring interviews with 100 former and active SEALs, Navy SEALs is the public’s closest look at this most secretive military division.

Don’t miss Navy SEALs and its companion documentary on November 11^th, and you, too, can get up close and personal with the world’s most legendary special forces.

-Amanda

Dystopian thrillers have become increasingly popular within the last couple of years, but if you’ve been craving a novel that expands the typical dystopian mold and turns the very fabric of the English language on its head, turn your literary gaze to Sandra Newman’s The Country of Ice Cream Star.

This novel is set in the aftermath of a plague that has destroyed society, killed off all adults, and continues to infect everyone who reaches 18 years old.  Groups of children have banded together to recreate distinct primitive societies, each separately characterized by an aspect of civilization we know today: farming, manufacturing, thieving, and war.  The story follows 15-year-old Ice Cream Star as she leads her band of children across the broken country in a quest for the cure when their former leader, Ice Cream’s brother, begins to show signs of the disease.

But what really sets this novel apart is the language.  I cannot gush enough about how masterfully Sandra Newman has manipulated traditional English sentence structure and common phrases to reimagine descriptions, feelings, and actions in startlingly innovative and beautiful ways.  You don’t have to take only my word for it though:

 “Sandra Newman has an amazingly original way of thinking… Hysterically funny, profoundly strange, and unbearably beautiful. Often all at once.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

 “What an astonishing achievement… I can’t remember when I last read something so original or sophisticated or emotionally engaging or so breathtakingly ambitious.” — Kate Atkinson, author of Life After Life

 “Sandra Newman has created a language for Ice Cream Star that is unique, both broken down and rapturous, full of powerful feeling as well as laconic toughness, and flashing with gorgeous detail. This is a brilliantly plausible dystopia, a thrilling adventure and altogether an amazing book.” — Adam Foulds

And don’t just trust them either!  Download the literary epic/dystopian thriller The Country of Ice Cream Star from Edelweiss and experience it for yourself.  Like, right now.

-Amanda

I can't believe I haven't spoken about A Reunion of Ghosts yet! I have talked about it to everyone I know, so it seems like I should have posted about it, but alas I was remiss. Forgive me and then PLEASE go download it from Edelweiss. Love this one! A great read. 

In the vein of the family saga Fall on Your Knees, A Reunion of Ghosts is the confessional of three sisters who have decided to commit suicide on the very last day of the 20th century. This novel is their memoir in which they reveal the story of a family haunted by suicide ever since the sisters’ great-grandfather, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, developed the first poison gas used in warfare and also the lethal agent used in the Third Reich’s gas chambers. The great-grandfather who haunts the generations was inspired in part by the troubled life of Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of mustard gas.

The sisters have all agreed to write the book together, and as they share their individual stories and perspectives, their unique but harmonious voices unveil a sad but fascinating family legacy. I highly recommend it!

– Annie 

What REALLY happened after Moriarty went over the Reichenbach Falls?? Conan Doyle brought Sherlock back to life (due to popular demand), but his arch-nemesis was never heard from again. Well now the story continues! In Moriarty, UK sensation, Anthony Horowitz, has created a world post-Moriarty/pre-Sherlock's resurrection where London faces an evil the likes of which Scotland Yard has never seen…

Days after the incident at the Swiss waterfall, Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. Moriarty’s death has left an immediate, and incredibly poisonous vacuum in the criminal underworld, and there is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind, Clarence Devereux.

Chase and Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation originally introduced by Conan Doyle in “The Sign of Four”, must forge a path through the darkest corners of London in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty’s successor.

A riveting, deeply atmospheric tale of murder and menace, Moriarty breathes life into Conan Doyle’s dark and fascinating world once again. So much excitement for this book! Lots of librarian chatter on Earlyword's galley chat, and Horowitz was just announced as the author for the next James Bond novel! Very cool!

– Annie 

Love is in the air! Check out these great romance novels from beloved authors, Tessa Dare and Eloisa James

Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare: The second book in the Castles Ever After series features Miss Clio Whitmore, a lovely young woman who is fed up with waiting for her fiancé, the Marquess of Granville, to finally agree to set a date. She plans on saying adios, sir because it has been 8 YEARS since he proposed, and nada wedding. However, the Marquess’ brother, Rafe, has something to say about this and vows that his brother will marry Clio, even if he has to woo her himself to make it happen. You can imagine that this plan has some holes and amongst the flowers, cakes, wining, and dining, Rafe begins to realize the outcome might not be exactly what he originally bargained for. 

Author John Searles loves book clubs and has set himself a challenge to meet with one book club in every state in the nation! If he makes it to all 50 states in the next year, the first book club to talk to him in each state will win a tote bag full of books for every member! 

John’s already scheduled talks with clubs from many states, but he hasn’t yet received any entrants from book clubs in the states of Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming. So if your library is in one of those states and has a book club – sign up now, chances are you’ll be the first and could win a Skype with John, plus a huge pile of books!

Read on for the details on how to enter your book club to win John!

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John Searles Wants to Talk to 1 Book Club From Every StateRead More »

From the author of The Girl with a Clock for a Heart comes The Kind Worth Killing, another dark literary suspense novel about a random encounter and the murders that follow. On a late flight from London to Boston millionaire Ted Severson meets the mysterious and beautiful Lily Kintner. Over one too many martinis, Ted reveals secrets about his wife Miranda—how his marriage has gone stale, how a week ago he caught her in an adulterous act with their architect. And when Ted jokes that he would like to kill Miranda for what she’s done, Lily calmly states, “I’d like to help.” After all, she continues, what difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than life intended? 

Back in Boston, Ted and Lily forge a strange, twisted bond while plotting Miranda’s demise. But Lily has her own dark history she’s not sharing with Ted, and suddenly these co-conspirators are pulled into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with some very surprising results.

This book is SO good – I really liked his first one, but this one is stellar. It has 3 separate parts and at the end of each, you are just like WHA???? What just happened??

Joe Hill, author of NOS4A2 and Horns says “A work of lovely violence and graceful malevolence, The Kind Worth Killing slips into your life like a stiletto in the ribs. This is a book that launches Peter Swanson straight into the ranks of the killer elite, alongside Tana French, Gillian Flynn, and Lauren Beukes. He’s the real deal.”  

Tony Schumacher has twisted history in his thrilling debut novel, and makes us wonder what would have happened had Germany conquered England in WWII? The Darkest Hour (ON SALE TODAY!) follows John Henry Rossett, a hardened, former British detective reluctantly working for the SS in the Office of Jewish Affairs. But when John discovers a young Jewish boy hiding in an abandoned building, he breaks from the SS, and vows to protect the child and hopefully achieve what he has believed was impossible—redemption.

Tony joins us today to discuss the ties that bond – Library Books. Welcome!

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There is a post going around on Facebook at the moment. You’ve probably seen it: “List ten books that have changed you or stayed with you…”
Even though I spend my time on Facebook saying “please don’t tag me”… I got tagged.

I guess that’s what Facebook friends are for.

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Guest Blogger: Tony Schumacher, author of The Darkest HourRead More »

A round of applause is in order for Sophie Hannah and The Monogram Murders.  This new Hercule Poirot mystery—the first sanctioned by the Agatha Christie estate—went on sale last week and has blasted up to the #13 spot on the New York Times bestseller list.  But it's not just book buyers who love this mystery; Sophie Hannah's addition to the Christie canon has also been showered with starred reviews.

On top of the starred reviews it has received from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, The Monogram Murders has also been awarded another starred review from Booklist Online:

"The return of Hercule Poirot after a 40-year absence is certain to please the legions of Agatha Christie fans, young and old, forced to content themselves with rereading the master. Working with the authorization of the Christie estate, Hannah, known for her psychological thrillers, proves more than capable at re-creating the legendary Belgian detective, who once again puts his “little grey cells” to good use, this time in unraveling an exquisitely tangled triple murder. Attempting to take some time away from his regular detective work, Poirot is staying in a London residential hotel. One night, dining solo at a nearby café, he encounters a distraught woman who claims to be “beyond help.” The woman quickly disappears, but Poirot becomes convinced, for reasons we only learn much later, that she is somehow connected to three murders in an upscale hotel, crimes that have the Belgian’s hotel mate, Scotland Yard Inspector Catchpool, completely baffled. Poirot elbows himself into the action, mercilessly ordering Catchpool about while he interviews hotel staff and gets his deductive juices flowing. Hannah sticks to the Christie formula, embellishing now and again, and making the most of the hapless but quite sympathetic Catchpool as the largely clueless narrator. Not that there aren’t a plethora of clues on offer. Hannah lards this retro dish with a surfeit of red herrings and, of course, plenty of suspects, all of which will satisfy fans of Golden Age whodunits. Poirot is at his lordly, flamboyant best during the Great Reveal, staged at the hotel, which is likely to leave even the most determined clue-sniffers reeling. Christie devotees will be devoutly hoping that Hannah plans on a few more twirls of Poirot’s mustache. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Morrow is pulling out all the stops to ensure that Poirot’s return is trumpeted wherever cozy fans take their tea."

Congratulations, Sophie, Hercule, and The Monogram Murders!

-Amanda