Library Love Fest

Moonlight Mile - Guest Review

We at HarperLibrary are very excited about the new book from Dennis Lehane entitled Moonlight Mile.  Clearly we are not the only ones!  Check out this great review from Lesa Holstine, Library Manager from Arizona:

Lesa's Book Critiques
Books and Authors, with an emphasis on Mysteries.
Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

Twelve years ago, Angela Gennaro walked out on her partner, Patrick Kenzie when he turned four-year-old Amanda McCready over to her mother in Gone, Baby, Gone.  There was one more book in the series, then Dennis Lehane moved on to standalone novels, leaving Kenzie/Gennaro fans begging for more.  We've waited eleven years for Moonlight Mile, but we finally have the novel that concludes the series in a way we can live with.

Twelve years after the events of Gone, Baby, Gone, Patrick Kenzie is still a private investigator.  He's also a desperate man, "Sucking it up doing jobs I don't like for a company I'm not terribly in love with so that eventually I can get hired permanent and we can get insurance and benefits and a paid vacation."  He and Angie are married.  She's close to getting her doctorate, and they have a four-year-old daughter.  But, they're hurting in a bad economy just as everyone else is.  He lost his free office as a consequence of the church reforms in Boston following their failure to deal with bad priests.  Patrick is feeling the same desperation as so many people in the bad economy, worrying about money and mortgage payments.

And, Amanda McCready has disappeared again.  Her aunt never forgave Patrick for giving Amanda back to her lousy mother.  Since Bea blames Patrick for the past, she wants him to find the sixteen-year-old. But, now, she's a sixteen-year-old on the run from her crazy mother and gun-toting husband, with just a few members of the Russian mob after her.  So why wouldn't Patrick look for Amanda when, "A girl disappears again twelve years after her first disappearance brought down a gang of cops and cost the city a few mil during a bad budget year?"  Of course, he'll take the case that drove a wedge between him and Angie twelve years earlier. 

Dennis Lehane has brought us full circle with Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro Kenzie.  And, he is still the master at telling the story of the couple and their community.  They're brought up-to-date in a city suffering from a bad economy; empty houses, unfinished developments, and people desperate to survive.  It's a story of consequences, consequences as a result of events twelve years earlier, and consequences of events the characters have no control over, the economy.   Moonlight Mile allows Patrick and Angie to team up for one more case, while Angie reminds him "Why we got out of the rough stuff business.  It wasn't just because you got shot.  It was because we were junkies to it.  We loved it.  We still love it."  

And, we still love Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro.  So, thank you, Dennis Lehane, for Moonlight Mile.  Here's a fan who accepts Moonlight Mile as a satisfying conclusion to a beloved series.

Dennis Lehane's website is http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane.  HarperCollins, ©2010. ISBN 9780061836923 (hardcover), 336p. 
 
Thank you!
Lesa

Many thanks Lesa!  Pick up your copy of Moonlight Mile  NOW!

Enjoy!

-Bobby

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

Library Journal’s Ebook Summit: What I Learned

I am the resident 20something, and coincidentally, the youngest member of the Library Marketing team here at Harper.  I worked in a library in high school, and from youth, I’ve been a devotee of stacks, musty books, microfiche, book carts…the classic trappings of the library world.  But there’s so much more to it nowadays.  I’ve been back to my old hometown library, Patchogue Medford Library, and after a mere 7 years, it’s barely recognizable.   

With the increasing digitization of our world, the way we read is changing on a fundamental level.  And it’s left many of us—myself included—with mixed feelings. Kevin Kelly, of Wired Magazine, spoke glowingly of a shift from ownership to access, of sharing increasing the value of the books we love.  Eli Neiburger put a different spin on it, succinctly stating, “Libraries are screwed.”
 
It’s overwhelming sometimes, trying to gain perspective on concrete things, as well as the more ephemeral implications of ebooks, like the way a “read” changes when the format is electronic.   In a wonderful panel on Readers Advisory, Neal Wyatt, Duncan Smith, and Katie Dunneback discussed the changing “appeal” of a book in digital form.  The perks to reading on an ereader  are, when reversed, also its detractions.  For instance, if you interrupt your reading to click on a live link in the text, aren’t you disrupting a pace that was previously determined by the author? Does the experience become less “private,” less “personal,” as it becomes more interactive?  I have a lot of questions, and I know you do too. 

My biggest question: what can we, as publishers, do better when it comes to ebooks and libraries? Where do you stand in the digital divide?

At the end of the day, information matters—in any form, whether it’s an ebook or print.  Suffice it to say, Library Journal’s Ebook Summit was helpful on many levels.  We’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

-Kayleigh

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

Libraries and Job Seekers: a Match Made in Cyberheaven

"I'm pretty sure librarians can change the world," she said. "Libraries are such resources and librarians make it all happen." This article from the Wisconsin State Journal hit our inbox over the weekend.  If you get a second, read up--it's all about the increased internet usage in libraries over the last year or so.  Thanks for the tip, Melissa!

-Kayleigh