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We have four new "Bookreporter Talks To" interviews to share with you, and we changed things up
a bit for this first one. Instead of interviewing an author, Carol chatted with
Suzanne Skyvara and Danny Feekes from Goodreads. They talk about a number of books that have just come out, or will be out soon, along with titles that are trending with Goodreads members.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.
Mikel Jollett's memoir, HOLLYWOOD PARK, is a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.
Raised in the dangerous Synanon cult in California, Mikel recounts his childhood escape
and the tumultuous struggle he had to face to fit himself into our world.
His conversation with Carol is equally provocative and profound.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.
Carol had the pleasure of talking to Alex George about his latest novel, THE PARIS HOURS,
a Bets On selection that follows four ordinary people over the course of a single day
in the City of Light in 1927. Their vibrant conversation is filled with tidbits of
bookstore humor, writing inspirations and stories of Alex's time in France.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.
Scott Turow's new legal thriller, THE LAST TRIAL, is the 11th book in his series set in fictional Kindle County, Illinois. Carol had a wonderful discussion with Scott about the extensive research into pharmaceutical drug testing that he conducted and how he incorporated it into the book, the intricacies of interpreting the law, and how the internet has changed one’s ability to research a case.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.
On Thursday, June 25th at 1:30pm ET, members of the Simon & Schuster team will host a
Facebook Live Book Club chat to discuss THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell,
June's pick for S&S's Book Club Favorites. Lisa will be joining the conversation as well!
Over the past few weeks, I have had one very busy virtual life. On Wednesday night, I helped the Plainview-Old Bethpage Library launch their Summer Reading event with a talk about books that readers might want to explore for summer reading. Next week, I will be doing the same for the Rockville Centre Public Library, and I have future events with Fairfield Public Library, Avalon Free Public Library and Baldwin Public Library. I typically have not traveled outside the tri-state area for events like this, but given the restrictions on travel now, I realize that I could book at libraries around the country. If any one is interested in hearing more about the programs that we might be able to work on together, please let me know!
In our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview, we changed things up a bit. Instead of interviewing an author, I was joined by Suzanne Skyvara, who is the Vice President of Marketing & Editorial at Goodreads, and Danny Feekes, the Managing Editor at Goodreads. As one of the most useful resources for book lovers, Goodreads has a big hand in sharing great and exciting new reads. We talked about a whole host of incredible books that have just come out, or will be out soon, ranging from thrillers to literary fiction to memoirs and more. As they made recommendations for great reading, Suzanne and Danny also shared their thoughts about some books that are trending with Goodreads members that may be flying under the radar, as well as more well-known titles. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
And this event gets a drum roll... On Friday, May 29th, we hosted our 9th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event for booksellers, librarians and book club leaders. It is the first time that we have done this program virtually; typically it is a live event at BookExpo. Twenty-five publishers presented more than 80 books that they think will be of interest to book groups. While in the past the presentations were live, we could not share them with you. But this year, as we went virtual, the experience included a video of all the presenters. You can watch these presentations here. And if you would like to know more about the books, here’s a link to the PowerPoint presentation of the featured titles, as well as an Excel spreadsheet that lists the books both by publisher and alphabetically by title.
A few weeks ago, I figured out how to watch YouTube videos on our smart television instead of on a laptop or mobile device. I share this now as I think it would be fun to watch this video presentation on a big screen. It is worth doing some exploring on your own television to see if you can do this.
Our latest “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” contest title is MONTAUK by Nicola Harrison, which is now available in paperback. It is 1938, and Beatrice Bordeaux was looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and her husband, Harry. Instead, tasked with furthering his investment interest in Montauk as a resort destination, she learns she’ll be spending 12 weeks sequestered with the high society wives at The Montauk Manor --- a 200-room seaside hotel --- while Harry pursues other interests in the city. Bea ultimately finds herself drawn to a man who is nothing like her husband. Inspiring a strength and courage she had almost forgotten, his presence forces her to face a haunting tragedy of her past and question her future.
Three groups will win 12 copies of MONTAUK; to enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, July 8th at noon ET. We also have a discussion guide for the book, which you can take a look at here. I thoroughly enjoyed this book when I read it last year!
In our previous “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” contest, here are the five books mentioned most frequently as titles that our book groups read: THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes, THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett, AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens, and THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson. Scroll further down the newsletter to see the Top 15.
We have seven more guides to share with you in this newsletter.
Brit Bennett follows up her bestselling debut novel, THE MOTHERS, with her much-talked-about second book, THE VANISHING HALF, which is this month’s Barnes & Noble Book Club selection and the “Good Morning America” Book Club pick. In it, twin sisters who were inseparable as children ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds --- one black and one white. "I am so excited THE VANISHING HALF is GMA's June Book Club Pick," Bennett told "GMA." "I can't wait for you to meet Desiree and Stella, identical twin sisters who choose to live in two very different worlds. This is a story about identity, transformation, and family secrets but ultimately it's a story about love."
On Tuesday, July 7th at 7pm ET, B&N will host a Facebook Live discussion of THE VANISHING HALF, which will feature Bennett in conversation with Kiley Reid, whose debut novel, SUCH A FUN AGE, was an instant New York Times bestseller. Please note that last week’s discussion of their May pick, ALL ADULTS HERE --- featuring Emma Straub in conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert --- was postponed. We will let you know the new date once it is rescheduled.
A BURNING is this month’s “Read with Jenna” Today Show Book Club pick. In Megha Majumdar’s first novel, three individuals seek to rise --- to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies --- and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India. Jenna Bush Hager called the book "devastatingly beautiful” and went on to say, “I think books are a tool for empathy. And now when we are stuck at home --- and I definitely won’t be traveling to India this summer --- this is a tool for all of us to learn more about the plight of people all over the world." Majumdar added, "I hope that people will use the book to think about how they themselves have pursued dreams and tried to improve their own lives in hard conditions however those hard conditions have presented in their own lives. I also hope that people will find it a useful book for considering how injustice has shown up in their own communities."
In Victoria Connelly’s latest novel, THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN THINGS, Luke Hansard is desperate to keep the memory of his late wife, Helen, alive. So he reaches out to an online friend Helen often mentioned: Orla Kendrick, a reclusive photographer with a curious interest in beautiful but broken objects. There’s just one problem: Orla is hiding from a past that has left her physically and emotionally scarred, and she doesn’t want to be found. When Luke tracks Orla down, he encourages her out of her isolation and back into the world. As a result, painful secrets and dangerous threats begin to resurface.
Award-winning writer/director Jan Eliasberg makes her debut as a novelist in HANNAH’S WAR, a reimagination of the final months of World War II. In 1938 Berlin, groundbreaking physicist Dr. Hannah Weiss is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the 20th century: splitting the atom. She believes the weapon's creation will secure an end to future wars, but as a Jewish woman living under the harsh rule of the Third Reich, her research is belittled, overlooked and eventually stolen by her German colleagues. Seven years later, someone in the top-secret nuclear lab at Los Alamos has been leaking encoded equations to Hitler's scientists. Chief among Major Jack Delaney’s suspects is Hannah Weiss, an exiled physicist lending her talent to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mission. But over three days of interrogation, Jack will realize they have more in common than either one bargained for.
Other new guides we’re featuring include THE WIFE STALKER, Liv Constantine’s psychological thriller about a woman fighting to hold onto the only family she’s ever loved --- and how far she’ll go to preserve it; EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER by Linda Holmes (the host of NPR’s “Pop Culture Happy Hour” podcast), which is about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who has lost her husband and a major league pitcher who has lost his game; and Lauren Willig’s THE SUMMER COUNTRY, a sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy and rebellion set in colonial Barbados. The latter two titles are newly released in paperback.
Reese Witherspoon has made a special announcement concerning her next book club pick: “Elevating women’s stories is at the core of Reese’s Book Club. I love how this community champions the narrative for women and we are just getting started. Unity and understanding through the lens of storytelling is how we will continue these meaningful conversations. So, for the first time, I’ve selected two books for us to read this month: Austin Channing Brown’s I’M STILL HERE and Lucy Foley’s THE GUEST LIST. We will read these two books simultaneously over the course of June and July. I look forward to reading, listening and learning with y’all.”
AMERICAN SPY by Lauren Wilkinson is this month’s pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club. Here’s how they describe the book: “Set in 1986, the novel follows Marie Mitchell, a young black officer with the FBI who joins a task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the then-president of Burkina Faso. When she finds herself involved in a plot to overthrow Sankara, she begins to reconsider what it means to be a good American and a spy.” In a review for The New York Times, novelist Mick Herron called this debut novel “remarkably assured” and “thought-provoking.”
This month’s pick for Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites is Lisa Jewell’s psychological thriller, THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS, which is now in paperback. Lisa will be joining members of the S&S team for a Facebook Live Book Club chat about the book on Thursday, June 25th at 1:30pm ET. We encourage you to join the conversation with your comments about the novel and interact with Lisa and your fellow readers. If you missed last month’s discussion with Mary Beth Keane, whose novel ASK AGAIN, YES was May’s selection (and a Bets On title), you can watch it here.
For more June selections, including the Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, see our “Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks” feature here.
Since our last newsletter, I have conducted “Bookreporter Talks To” interviews with Mikel Jollett about his memoir, HOLLYWOOD PARK, which is a Bets On pick (I think book groups will have a lot to chat about with this book; I saw parallels to Tara Westover’s EDUCATED as I read it); Alex George, whose new historical novel, THE PARIS HOURS, we featured last month and is also a Bets On selection; and Scott Turow, whose latest legal thriller, THE LAST TRIAL, marks the return of celebrated criminal defense lawyer Sandy Stern and revolves around the prosecution of his lifelong friend --- a doctor accused of murder. You can find links to the videos and podcasts of these interviews, along with many others, on our “Videos & Podcasts” page.
Out in paperback now are three more Bets On picks: THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger, THE GOLDEN HOUR by Beatriz Williams, and THE DESERTER by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille. I had the pleasure of interviewing all four of these authors for “Bookreporter Talks To” segments, so if you’d like to revisit their interviews (or experience them for the first time), you also can check those out on the “Videos & Podcasts” page.
On Bookreporter, we have plenty of opportunities for you to win books. Our series of 24-hour Summer Reading contests have only just begun, along with our Father’s Day contest, where five readers will win six fiction and nonfiction titles for themselves or the fathers in their lives. And, as always, we have our Word of Mouth and Sounding Off on Audio contests, where you can win some fabulous hardcovers and audiobooks.
June is anything but quiet at ReadingGroupGuides.com. I hope you enjoy this update, and we will be back to you with another newsletter the week of June 22nd.
Have a great discussion this month.
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])
P.S. For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, ReadingGroupGuides.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
“What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” Contest: Enter to Win 12 Paperback Copies of
MONTAUK by Nicola Harrison for Your Group
Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.
Our latest prize book is MONTAUK by Nicola Harrison, which is now available in paperback. This epic and cinematic debut novel captures the glamour and extravagance of a summer by the sea with the story of a woman torn between the life she chose and the life she desires. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, July 8th at noon ET.
MONTAUK by Nicola Harrison (Historical Fiction)
Montauk, Long Island, 1938. For three months, this humble fishing village will serve as the playground for New York City’s wealthy elite. Beatrice Bordeaux was looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and her husband, Harry. Instead, tasked with furthering his investment interest in Montauk as a resort destination, she learns she’ll be spending 12 weeks sequestered with the high society wives at The Montauk Manor --- a 200-room seaside hotel --- while Harry pursues other interests in the city.
College educated, but raised a modest country girl in Pennsylvania, Bea has never felt fully comfortable among these privileged women, whose days are devoted not to their children but to leisure activities and charities that seemingly benefit no one but themselves. She longs to be a mother herself, as well as a loving wife, but after five years of marriage she remains childless while Harry is increasingly remote and distracted. Despite lavish parties at the Manor and the Yacht Club, Bea is lost and lonely and befriends the manor’s laundress whose work ethic and family life stir memories of who she once was.
As she drifts further from the society women and their preoccupations and closer toward Montauk’s natural beauty and community spirit, Bea finds herself drawn to a man nothing like her husband --- stoic, plain spoken and enigmatic. Inspiring a strength and courage she had almost forgotten, his presence forces her to face a haunting tragedy of her past and question her future.
Desperate to embrace moments of happiness, no matter how fleeting, she soon discovers that such moments may be all she has, when fates conspire to tear her world apart.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
Click here to enter the contest.
New Guide: THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett
June’s Barnes & Noble and
“Good Morning America” Book Club Picks
THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett (Fiction)
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, THE VANISHING HALF considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
As with her New York Times bestselling debut THE MOTHERS, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here for details on Barnes & Noble's virtual Book Club event on July 7th.
- Click here to see why the book is June's "Good Morning America" Book Club pick.
Click here for the discussion guide.
New Guide: A BURNING by Megha Majumdar
June's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club Pick
A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (Literary Thriller)
Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely --- an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth, hope and humor --- has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.
Taut, symphonic, propulsive and riveting from its opening lines, A BURNING has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting. Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance at a breakneck pace on complex themes that read here as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice, and what it feels like to face profound obstacles and yet nurture big dreams in a country spinning toward extremism. An extraordinary debut.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to see why the book is June's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club pick.
Click here for the discussion guide.
New Guide: THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN THINGS
by Victoria Connelly
THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN THINGS by Victoria Connelly (Fiction)
After the tragic loss of his wife, Helen, Luke Hansard is desperate to keep her memory alive. In an effort to stay close to her, he reaches out to an online friend Helen often mentioned: a reclusive photographer with a curious interest in beautiful but broken objects. But first he must find her --- and she doesn’t want to be found.
Orla Kendrick lives alone in the ruins of a remote Suffolk castle, hiding from the haunting past that has left her physically and emotionally scarred. In her fortress, she can keep a safe distance from prying eyes, surrounded by her broken treasures and insulated from the world outside.
When Luke tracks Orla down, he is determined to help her in the way Helen wanted to: by encouraging her out of her isolation and back into the world. But Orla has never seen her refuge as a prison, and when painful secrets and dangerous threats begin to resurface, Luke’s good deed is turned on its head.
As they work through their grief for Helen in very different ways, will these two broken souls be able to heal?
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
Click here for the discussion guide.
New Guide: HANNAH’S WAR by Jan Eliasberg
HANNAH’S WAR by Jan Eliasberg (Historical Fiction)
Berlin, 1938. Groundbreaking physicist Dr. Hannah Weiss is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the 20th century: splitting the atom. She understands that the energy released by her discovery can power entire cities or destroy them. Hannah believes the weapon's creation will secure an end to future wars, but as a Jewish woman living under the harsh rule of the Third Reich, her research is belittled, overlooked and eventually stolen by her German colleagues. Faced with an impossible choice, Hannah must decide what she is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of science's greatest achievement.
New Mexico, 1945. Returning wounded and battered from the liberation of Paris, Major Jack Delaney arrives in the New Mexican desert with a mission: to catch a spy. Someone in the top-secret nuclear lab at Los Alamos has been leaking encoded equations to Hitler's scientists. Chief among Jack's suspects is the brilliant and mysterious Hannah Weiss, an exiled physicist lending her talent to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mission. All signs point to Hannah as the traitor, but over three days of interrogation that separate her lies from the truth, Jack will realize they have more in common than either one bargained for.
HANNAH'S WAR is a thrilling wartime story of loyalty, truth and the unforeseeable fallout of a single choice.
Click here for the discussion guide.
ReadingGroupGuides.com’s 9th Annual
Book Group Speed Dating Event:
Great Books for Book Groups
On Friday, May 29th, we hosted our 9th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event for booksellers, librarians and book club leaders — the first time it was done virtually. More than 80 books that would make great book group selections were presented by 25 publishers. You can take a look at a video of the presentation here.
If you would like to know more about these books, here’s a link to the PowerPoint presentation of the featured titles, as well as an Excel spreadsheet that lists the books both by publisher and alphabetically by title.
Click here to watch our first-ever virtual Book Group Speed Dating event.
Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for June
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Pennie's Pick for Costco. We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of June's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.
Indie Next
#1 Pick: A BURNING by Megha Majumdar
THE JANE AUSTIN SOCIETY by Natalie Jenner
THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett
BEACH READ by Emily Henry
THE SECOND HOME by Christina Clancy
LibraryReads
LibraryReads Top Pick: MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
THE BOYFRIEND PROJECT by Farrah Rochon
DEVOLUTION: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
THE EMPIRE OF GOLD: The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS by Megan Miranda
Target Book Club
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell
Pennie's Pick (Costco)
THE KEEPER OF LOST THINGS by Ruth Hogan
Barnes & Noble Book Club
THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett
Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club
I'M STILL HERE: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown and THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
A BURNING by Megha Majumdar
"Good Morning America" Book Club
THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett
PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club
AMERICAN SPY by Lauren Wilkinson
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell
Our Most Popular Book Group Selections for May’s "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
June’s New in Paperback Roundups on Bookreporter.com
June's roundup of New in Paperback fiction titles on Bookreporter.com includes THE NICKEL BOYS, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, who follows up his Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning bestseller THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD with the story of two boys who are sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida; THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON by Meg Waite Clayton, a pre-World War II-era story centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe --- and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety; and THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO, an unforgettable novel from Christy Lefteri that puts human faces on the Syrian war with the immigrant story of a beekeeper, his wife and the triumph of spirit when the world becomes unrecognizable.
Among our nonfiction highlights are a newly updated edition of CATCH AND KILL, in which Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost --- from Hollywood to Washington and beyond; ORDINARY GIRLS, a searing memoir from Jaquira Díaz, who writes fiercely and eloquently of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age; AMERICAN PREDATOR, in which journalist Maureen Callahan takes us on a journey into the chilling, nightmarish mind of a relentless killer, and to the limitations of traditional law enforcement; and THE PLAZA, journalist Julie Satow's thrilling history of how one illustrious hotel has defined our understanding of money and glamour, from the Gilded Age to the Go-Go Eighties to today's Billionaire Row.
Find out what's New in Paperback for the weeks of
June 1st, June 8th, June 15th, June 22nd and June 29th.
Announcing Bookreporter.com's 15th Annual
Father's Day Contest: Best Books for Dad
Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? In our 15th annual "Best Books for Dad" contest, we have a selection of books that are perfect gift-giving suggestions for Dad, keeping him busy through the rest of the year. Five readers will be awarded a copy of each of our six featured titles. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, June 22nd at noon ET.
This year's prize books are:
Click here to enter the contest.
Bookreporter.com’s 16th Annual
Summer Reading Contests and Feature
Summer will be here before you know it! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through the end of August, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.
This year’s prize books include:
Click here to read all the contest details and learn more about our prize books.
Recent Bookreporter.com Bets On Selections
HOLLYWOOD PARK: A Memoir by Mikel Jollett (Memoir)
As a young child, Mikel lived in what started as a commune in California that later devolved into a cult called the Church of Synanon. I confess to being riveted to the behavior that happens in a group like this, but I knew little about Synanon as I started reading.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Mikel Jollett.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on HOLLYWOOD PARK.
THE PARIS HOURS by Alex George (Historical Fiction)
THE PARIS HOURS by Alex George is set over one day in 1927 in Paris. This is Paris at a time when the arts and culture scene is brilliant and dynamic --- and, yes, many well-known names like Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust and Josephine Baker, and their work, are swirling through the city and giving it so much energy. But Alex chose not to write about those personalities, but rather four ordinary people: three men and one woman. They go about their days toiling at their work, each with secrets and backstories that Alex gradually weaves together.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Alex George.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on THE PARIS HOURS.
THE HEIRLOOM GARDEN by Viola Shipman (Fiction)
I dare you to read THE HEIRLOOM GARDEN and not want to garden --- or at least visit a garden, or arrange some flowers. This book, the fifth in Viola Shipman’s Heirloom series, is the best one, which is saying something as I loved THE SUMMER COTTAGE last year.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Viola Shipman.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on THE HEIRLOOM GARDEN.
TINY IMPERFECTIONS by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans (Romantic Comedy)
I read TINY IMPERFECTIONS back in January after meeting the authors, Alli Frank and Asha Youmans, at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. Their presentation was so good that I could not wait to read it. In fact, Asha handed me her personal copy, which her mother had wrapped in a fabulous plastic cover.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on TINY IMPERFECTIONS.
BIG SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner (Fiction)
BIG SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner is a juicy beach read. Again, Jen tackles a theme for which readers turn to her --- the complicated and often fraught nature of female friendship. Here, we have Daphne, a woman who has learned to love her body for what it is, who strives not to cycle back to her high-school self when her friend Drue, the “it” girl, comes back on the scene with an unusual request --- for her to be the maid of honor at her wedding, which is taking place on Cape Cod.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Jennifer Weiner.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on BIG SUMMER.
HELLO, SUMMER by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
HELLO, SUMMER by Mary Kay Andrews is a juicy summer read with a mystery woven between the pages. In it, Conley is a young reporter set to leave her Atlanta job to head to Washington, D.C., to work at a hot investigative reporting website when suddenly the company there folds. Without a job or an apartment, she is forced to head back to her small hometown in Florida and work for the local paper that her family owns.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Mary Kay Andrews.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on HELLO, SUMMER.
ALL ADULTS HERE by Emma Straub (Fiction)
ALL ADULTS HERE by Emma Straub brings us a mother and her three adult children, all of whom are coming to terms with who they are in life today. Let’s just say they are not the versions of themselves that they once imagined, but they are still family --- and it’s challenging to share their lives now, but onward they stride. It’s a wonderful balance of being simultaneously heartfelt, witty and relatable.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Emma Straub.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on ALL ADULTS HERE.
GHOSTS OF HARVARD by Francesca Serritella (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
GHOSTS OF HARVARD by Francesca Serritella is set at Harvard University, where Cady has just started freshman year. Heading to Harvard was a big deal for her family. The spring before, her brother, Eric, who suffered from schizophrenia, died by suicide there. So naturally, while she's there, the impact of losing him is very fresh on her mind.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Francesca Serritella.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here for more of Carol's commentary on GHOSTS OF HARVARD.
"Bookreporter Talks To" Videos & Podcasts
“Bookreporter Talks To” is a video and podcast series that delivers a long-form, in-depth author interview every week. For years, Carol has moderated book festivals and author events around the country. But we know that readers often do not live where they can attend an author event. Our goal is to bring these author interviews to readers, wherever they may be. Watch on video, or listen as a podcast. (The podcasts include audio excerpts.)
Here are our latest interviews:
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Alex George (THE PARIS HOURS) Video | Podcast
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Mikel Jollett (HOLLYWOOD PARK: A Memoir) Video | Podcast
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Suzanne Skyvara, the Vice President of Marketing & Editorial at Goodreads, and Danny Feekes, their Managing Editor Video | Podcast
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Scott Turow (THE LAST TRIAL) Video | Podcast
Other interviews include:
Upcoming interviews include:
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Julie Clark (THE LAST FLIGHT)
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Megan Miranda (THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS)
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Meg Mitchell Moore (TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE)
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Stephanie Scott (WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS)
Click here for a complete list of our
"Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts.
Enter Our Ongoing Bookreporter.com Contests:
"Word of Mouth" and "Sounding Off on Audio"
We currently are featuring the following guides on ReadingGroupGuides.com:
THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN THINGS by Victoria Connelly (Fiction)
United by tragedy, can two broken souls make each other whole? That is the question Victoria Connelly poses to the readers of her latest novel, THE BEAUTY OF BROKEN THINGS.
A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (Literary Thriller)
For readers of Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi and Jhumpa Lahiri, A BURNING is an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise --- to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies --- and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India.
EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER by Linda Holmes (Fiction/Humor)
This heartfelt debut is about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who has lost her husband and a major league pitcher who has lost his game.
HANNAH’S WAR by Jan Eliasberg (Historical Fiction)
A "mesmerizing" reimagination of the final months of World War II (Kate Quinn, author of THE ALICE NETWORK), HANNAH'S WAR is an unforgettable love story about an exceptional woman and the dangerous power of her greatest discovery.
MONTAUK by Nicola Harrison (Historical Fiction)
An epic and cinematic novel by debut author Nicola Harrison, MONTAUK captures the glamour and extravagance of a summer by the sea with the story of a woman torn between the life she chose and the life she desires.
THE SUMMER COUNTRY by Lauren Willig (Historical Fiction)
A brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of THE THORN BIRDS and NORTH AND SOUTH, New York Times bestselling historical novelist Lauren Willig delivers her biggest, boldest and most ambitious novel yet --- a sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy and rebellion set in colonial Barbados.
THE VANISHING HALF by Brit Bennett (Fiction)
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE MOTHERS comes a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds --- one black and one white.
THE WIFE STALKER by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller)
The bestselling author of THE LAST MRS. PARRISH returns with a psychological thriller, filled with chilling serpentine twists, about a woman fighting to hold onto the only family she’s ever loved --- and how far she’ll go to preserve it.
Please note that these titles, for which we already had the guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell (Psychological Thriller)
From the New York Times bestselling author of THEN SHE WAS GONE comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.
THE GOLDEN HOUR by Beatriz Williams (Historical Fiction)
Beatriz Williams, the New York Times bestselling author of THE SUMMER WIVES, is back with another hot summer read: a dazzling epic of World War II in which a beautiful young “society reporter” is sent to the Bahamas, a haven of spies, traitors, and the infamous Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
THE LAST BOOK PARTY by Karen Dukess (Fiction)
Eve Rosen is invited into a seductive, literary world that she thinks will turn her into a writer. But will she have to lose herself to find her own voice?
MISTRESS OF THE RITZ by Melanie Benjamin (Historical Fiction)
Melanie Benjamin's captivating novel is based on the story of the extraordinary real-life American woman who secretly worked for the French Resistance during World War II --- while playing hostess to the invading Germans at the iconic Hôtel Ritz in Paris.
THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger (Historical Fiction)
THIS TENDER LAND is the unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.
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