Library Love Fest

Marshalling Justice

I just finished a book entitled Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall, by Michael G. Long.  Marshalling Justice will be on sale in January 2011. The year 2011 marks the 75th anniversary of Marshall's arrival at the NAACP offices in New York and the 50th anniversary of his move to the Federal bench, and with that we are proud to publish this book.  Many may think that this is just a collection of letters, but I can truly attest to the fact that it is much more than that.  Marshalling Justice really taps into who Thurgood Marshall was how he managed to stay active in the cause of civil rights. 

Marshalling Justice also shows what motivated him to champion certain cases, and what we discover is that it was not always for the greater good.  In some instances, it was personal.  Thurgood Marshall, being a native of Maryland always wanted to attend the University of Maryland Law School.  Unfortunately at the time he wanted to attend, blacks were not allowed admission.  After he graduated from Howard University School of Law, he had the opportunity to take on the case of another young black man craving admission to the University of Maryland Law School.  When the case was won, Marshall took it a step further.  He made it his business to ensure the young man succeeded in every aspect of his studies.  Whether the young man needed a tutor, a mentor and just a shoulder to lean on, Thurgood Marshall was there, so that he could show just how successful this young man could be.

I am SO excited about this book and would love to hear your comments.  I will send free advance reader copies of Marshalling Justice to the 15 lucky people who send us a comment or an email at librarylovefest at harpercollins dot com.  If you would be so kind as to send a brief review of the book after you read it, I would greatly appreciate it!

Marshalling Justice shines a light on an unsung hero in the area of civil and human rights.  I truly hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Enjoy!

-Bobby

NBC-TV's Weekend Today Show Book Buzz

John Searles gave a heads up about several books just out from various publishers.  Check it out!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39802472  

-Virginia

The Heroine's Bookshelf

Check out this great post about the Heroine's Bookshelf by Lesa Holstine, Library Manager from Arizona.  If you haven't picked up the Heroine's Bookshelf, please add it to your reading list today!

Thanks Lesa!

Enjoy,

-Bobby

Playing with the Moon

Just for fun…A very cool site with some very cool photos….

http://funnbee.info/2008/08/playing-with-moon.html

- Virginia

Stiltsville - Guest Review

We are so happy about the huge response we received for Stiltsville, by Susanna Daniel.  The love for Stiltsville continues! 

We received a great review from Lisa Steckhahn, Reference Librarian from the West Allis Public Library in Wisconsin.  Here is Lisa's review of Stiltsville:

This book is a look at the lifespan of a marriage and a friendship starting at the beginning and checking in at all of the major milestones along the way.  Frances meets Dennis and Marse at the same time.  Marse likes Dennis but he ends up falling for Frances.  Even with this rocky start Marse and Frances become best friends.  This is a testament to the author’s ability to create characters that are likeable but still fully realized with authentic flaws and strengths.  Susanna Daniel manages to avoid clichés and craft a believable story filled with a marriage’s mistakes and triumphs.  The Miami setting is another character in the book that lends an unforgettable setting.  It would be a great book to return to during the coldest days of winter. 

-Lisa Steckhahn
Reference Librarian
West Allis Public Library

Many thanks to Lisa and everyone at the West Allis Public Library.  If you have not added Stiltsville to your reading list, what are you waiting for? I believe you will love Stiltsville as much as we do!

Enjoy,

-Bobby

Man In The Woods gets the Trifecta!

Scott Spencer delivers the goods in his new novel and receives STARRED reviews in Kirkus and Booklist and Publishers Weekly.

The Washington Post says:
“This is a book to savor and read aloud, a book that is variously wise, funny and heartbreaking...The outcome must not be revealed here, except to say that it is as powerful as everything else in the book... ‘MAN IN THE WOODS’  is one of the three best novels I've read this year... and if you pressed me, I'd put it at the top of the list."

Want to read Man in the Woods?
Send an email to librarylovefest at harpercollins dot come and we’ll send a copy your way – with our compliments!

- Virginia

Praise for Bloody Crimes

Congratulations are in order for James L. Swanson!  He just received a starred review from Library Journal for his new book, Bloody Crimes! 

*Swanson, James. Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse. Morrow. Oct. 2010. 448p. ISBN 9780061988479. $26.99.

Swanson, Edgar Award–winner for his best-selling Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, now brilliantly reveals how, when Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis each relinquished executive power in April 1865, one as a result of assassination and the other through military defeat, they set in motion two enduring myths—the legend of the Union's emancipating, secular saint and the South's cult of the Lost Cause. Lincoln's assassination, national mourning, and funeral pageant, and Davis's manhunt, imprisonment, exoneration, release, and long postwar life, insists Swanson, continue to unsettle Civil War and Reconstruction historiography, not to mention American society, to this very day. Despite an artful job of portraying the rebel president of the Confederate States of America in a benign light, Swanson concludes that the 20th and 21st centuries belong to Lincoln, not Davis, whose legacy of favoring sectionalism and slavery has been lost through time, much as his beloved Beauvoir plantation was swept away during the Katrina disaster of 2005.

Verdict: Swanson successfully fuses the strengths of historical integrity, balance, and masterful prose into one compelling work. Bloody Crimes should be required reading for every American.

—John Carver Edwards

Job well done James!  Keep that star shining bright!

-Bobby

Book Giveaway! Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey

Richard Kadrey returns with high-octane follow-up to his addicting SANDMAN SLIM. Publishers Weekly has given it a nice shout-out:

“James Stark, antihero of 2009's Sandman Slim, returns in this gritty, over-the-top tale of supernatural mayhem. Having taken his revenge on the rival magician who got him sent to Hell, Stark settles in sorcery-infested Los Angeles and gets a part-time gig with the Golden Vigil, an angelic hit squad of dubious morality that's somehow allied with Homeland Security. He spends the rest of his time as a freelance slayer of monsters. When Lucifer comes to Earth, supposedly to oversee a Hollywood biopic of his life, he hires Stark to be his bodyguard, but something isn't quite right and soon the city is awash in murderous zombies. Stark has to get to the bottom of the mystery or risk being sent back to Hell, along with everyone he cares about.
Profane, intensely metaphoric language somehow makes self-tortured monster Stark sympathetic and turns a simple story into a powerful noir thriller.”
- Publishers Weekly
Eos, $22.99 (448p) ISBN 978-0-06-171431-3; October 2010

Richard Kadrey’s series is snarky, sarcastic, dark, twisted, and totally addicting. If you haven’t read this author, you’re in for a treat. 

“If Simon R. Green wrote an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter, it would read much like Sandman Slim—violent, vivid, non-stop action of the supernatural kind. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Charlaine Harris

Send an email to librarylovefest at harpercollins dot com and we’ll get you started with a copy of SANDMAN SLIM.

-Virginia

Little Princes

We are so excited about the upcoming release of Little Princes, by Conor Grennan.  Last month, I wrote about this amazing story.  If you missed it, click here.

We received a great review from Lisa Steckhahn, Reference Librarian from the West Allis Public Library in Wisconsin.  Here is Lisa's review of Little Princes:

A three month stint volunteering in an orphanage in Nepal on a trip around the world became a life mission that not only changed Conor Grennan’s life but the lives of many of Nepal’s children forever. Most of these orphans are not really orphans at all.  Their parents were conned by human traffickers who convinced them that they could give their children a better life by allowing them to be taken away.  So inspired by his time volunteering he started a nonprofit foundation called Next Generation Nepal (NDP).  This book recounts his story from his arrival in Nepal to trekking across the Himalayas in search of the children’s parents.  When I started this book I knew next to nothing about Nepal. But this engaging story has educated and touched me about this little know part of the world.  This book is sure to become a hit when it's released in January.

-Lisa Steckhahn
Reference Librarian
West Allis Public Library

Many thanks to Lisa and everyone at the West Allis Public Library.  If you would like a copy of Little Princes and didn't request one previously, please post a comment or email us at librarylovefest at harpercollins dot com and I would be more than happy to send you one.  I'd love to hear your comments!  I truly believe you will love Little Princes as much as we do!

Enjoy,

-Bobby

Tom Franklin: a star for a star!

BOOKLIST
September 1, 2010

*Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.  Franklin, Tom (Author)
Oct 2010. 288 p. Morrow, hardcover, $24.99. (9780060594664).

Rural Mississippi in the 1970s was rife with racial tension, but skin color didn’t matter to boyhood companions Silas Jones and Larry Ott. Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother, and Larry, the child of white lower-middle-class parents, were both outsiders, Silas because of his color, Larry because he was quiet and a little odd, his nose always buried in horror novels. The young men’s bond strengthened over time, until the night a pretty local girl went on a date with Larry to the drive-in movies and was never heard from again. No body was found and Larry never confessed, but that didn’t keep the townspeople from suspecting him. Estranged from his friend, Silas heads off to college in Oxford, Mississippi, and more than 20 years later, returns to take a job as town constable. He sees no reason to contact Larry, who’s settled into a lonely existence as a mechanic, unable to escape the relentless whispers and dirty looks. The disappearance of another girl brings the two former friends back together, forcing them to come to terms with buried secrets and dark truths. Edgar Award winner Franklin (Hell at the Breech, 2003) renders luminous prose and a cast of compelling characters in this moody, masterful entry.— Allison Block

Congratulations, Tom!

-Virginia