February

Okay, ’fess up. Who else like me switched to “Downton Abbey” when the lights went out at the Superdome during the Super Bowl? At our house we had been sipping tea with the Downton folks when my son Greg looked at his smartphone and told us that the game score was 28-23. Well, we exited the genteel land of Downton as the credits were rolling and shifted right over to beer and football mode. Yes, the beverage menu does need to match the viewing. Of course, with books I am sometimes inspired to cook a meal or shake up a cocktail from what I am reading, but there typically is no reading menu or beverage accompaniment. I joke that it’s a good thing that I do not pair wines with reading as I would be drinking bottles all day!

Now that football has ended, winter weekends go something like this --- fire in the fireplace and reading on the couch. It’s like nestling in a cozy spot with a book is the smartest thing (no pun intended) to do! And with the storm drama forecasts for the weekend, forget stocking up on eggs, bread and milk, it's time to get your reading in order. By the way, I write about what I am reading each week in the Bookreporter.com newsletter, which you can read here; it allows me to focus here on the opportunities we have for book clubs. And this month we have FIVE great ways for you to win books for your groups.

First up, we have another BIG contest where 250 book clubs will have the chance to win up to 12 advance copies each of Barbara Delinsky’s forthcoming novel, Sweet Salt Air, which releases on June 18th. In the book, we are introduced to Charlotte and Nicole, who were once the best of friends but have since grown apart. They eventually reunite, but what both women don't know is that they are each holding a secret that may change their relationship forever. Barbara is a huge fan of book groups. Longtime readers of the site may remember that about seven or eight years ago, she created a DVD for book groups that she shared with our readers. Thus I approached reading the book with book groups in mind, and knowing what drives a great discussion, I think Sweet Salt Air is a winner. It’s going to be a great summer beach book as well.

Just as we did when we held similar giveaways recently for Kristin Hannah’s Home Front and Jane Green’s Another Piece of My Heart, readers who enter must indicate that their book groups would make Sweet Salt Air their selection in April, May or June. Please only enter if this can be planned. Also, we will be looking for the winning group to email friends and tell them about the book; and post comments or feedback about the book and/or their discussion on Barbara’s Facebook page, their personal Facebook pages, Twitter accounts or blogs. Thus far, the response from readers to these contests has been so positive, and your enthusiasm for these books for discussion has been great to see. Thus we’re thrilled to be able to offer this kind of contest again. To enter, please fill out this form by Tuesday, March 5th at noon ET.

We’re celebrating the release of The Good Daughter, the second installment in Jane Porter’s Brennan Sisters trilogy (following The Good Woman), with a contest that we have never done before. Here, Jane will fly to meet with one book group and take them to dinner to discuss The Good Daughter. You’ll select a mutually acceptable date in May, June or July, and Jane will host an evening with you at a restaurant local to your group. Also, each member of the group will be awarded a copy of the book, which will be shipped in early March once the contest ends. Three other groups will win 12 copies of the book, along with an opportunity to chat with Jane via phone or Skype at a mutually convenient time. Jane and I get together whenever we are in the same city --- and she is just a delight. She’s so very generous to her readers, and I know this will be a fun evening for whatever group wins! To enter, please fill out this form by Tuesday, March 5th at noon ET.

Oh, and here’s more on the book. Kit Brennan has always been the most grounded of her sisters. A Catholic school English teacher for 17 years, Kit's decisions have always been sound --- but not too satisfying. When a girls' weekend away gives Kit a much-needed reprieve, she meets a dangerous man who challenges everything she thought she was --- or should be. Now Kit must decide: will she finally let her desires take flight, or will she continue to be the good daughter?

Can’t wait to get your hands on a copy? Well, it’s in stores now. And also on Bookreporter.com, we’re awarding copies of both The Good Woman and The Good Daughter to 25 readers. Click here for all the details.

The Promise of Stardust by debut novelist Priscille Sibley is this month’s featured title in our “What Are You Reading?” contest. We’re giving away 12 copies of the book, which is now in stores, to three groups. Matt Beaulieu and Elle McClure share a lifelong love, but after an accident leaves her with severe brain damage and no hope of recovery, he agrees to take her off life support until he finds out that she is pregnant. Not everyone believes it is possible to save the baby Elle is carrying, and some believe it is morally wrong to keep her on the ventilator because she has an advanced health care directive that states that she would never want extraordinary measures taken to extend her life. Matt still wants to try. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, March 4th at noon ET.

In July, readers in our Sneak Peak: An Early Look at an Upcoming Book feature on Bookreporter.com won copies of The Promise of Stardust --- and it was a hands-down winner. We’re pleased to share some of their comments. Please note that ALL of the readers who participated in this project (there were MANY more comments than those we are featuring here) gave the book high marks. And pre-publication book club events that Priscille has done with readers have been huge successes. You literally can talk about this book for hours. Click here to read more about why I'm betting you'll love it.

While these contests are open to all of our readers, we do have two contests running this month that are exclusive to our Registered Book Groups. And BOTH happen to be with books that I selected as Bookreporter.com Bets On titles when they released in hardcover last year!

Three groups will win up to 12 copies each of the paperback edition of Rules of Civility and an opportunity to chat with the author, Amor Towles. On the last night of 1937, 25-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society --- where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

In our second Registered contest, five groups will win up to 12 copies each of the paperback edition of The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont. When his best friend commits suicide during their junior year at Kensington Prep, Jason Prosper is devastated by the loss and transfers to Bellingham Academy. There, he meets Aidan, a fellow student with her own troubled past. When a major hurricane hits the New England coast, the destruction it causes brings with it another upheaval in Jason’s life, forcing him to make sense of a terrible secret that has been buried by the boys he considers his friends.

Groups that have registered with us by Tuesday, February 19th will have the chance to win these two books. If your group is not registered with ReadingGroupGuides.com, click here to register.

Among our featured guides this month is the aforementioned Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green, which will be available in paperback on February 12th. The book introduces readers to Andi, who has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man; at 37, she's finally found him. Ethan --- divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia --- is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. Click here for the guide.

Pam Jenoff has written The Ambassador’s Daughter, which is a prequel to her debut novel, The Kommandant’s Girl. In 1919, Margot Rosenthal is brought to Paris by her father, a German diplomat. Resenting a city where she is viewed as the enemy, Margot realizes that life back in Berlin with her wounded fiance to whom she can hardly relate anymore may not be so much better. Torn between duty and a desire to be free, Margot must make alliances and decide where her loyalties truly lie. Click here for the guide. We’re also featuring The Ambassador’s Daughter in our Women’s Fiction Author Spotlight on Bookreporter.com, where you can read our review and interview with the author.

Baker Towers author Jennifer Haigh returns to the world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town rocked by decades of painful transition, with her latest book, News from Heaven, a collection of interconnected short stories. From its heyday during two world wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding --- sometimes cruelly --- succeeding generations to the place that made them. A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-absent brother makes a sudden and tragic homecoming. And a solitary middle-aged woman tastes unexpected love when a young man returns to town. Click here for the guide.

Finally, we are featuring the guide for Crystal Cove, the third book in Lisa Kleypas’s Friday Harbor series. Justine Hoffman has made a comfortable life for herself on the island of Friday Harbor. But in spite of everything she has achieved, there is still something missing. Love. And after years of waiting and dreaming, she is willing to do whatever it takes to change her destiny. What Justine soon discovers is that someone cast a spell on her when she was born, with the result that she will never find her soul mate. Determined to change her fate, Justine finds a way to break the enchantment, never dreaming of the dangerous complications that will follow. Click here for the guide.

You may have noticed that our poll has been down for the last week or so. Tech gremlins snuck in, and our tech crew is trying to unravel what happened there. We’re hoping to have it back up soon with a new question!

Many thanks to all of you who participated in our "Share Your 2012 Picks" feature! We look forward to sharing the results with you later this month.

And in more news…

In case you missed it, The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin was my first Bookreporter.com Bets On selection of 2013. Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she’s wrong. Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. Click here to see why this book captivated me!

We’ve extended the deadline for our Valentine’s Day contests on Bookreporter.com and Teenreads.com to give you until Monday to enter. On Bookreporter.com, we’re giving five people the opportunity to win 10 love-themed books along with some delicious Ghirardelli chocolate. All you have to do is click here and let us know which character from a book you’d like to share a Valentine moment with. You now can enter by Monday, February 11th at noon ET for your chance to win.

If you know any teenagers, please spread the word to them about the Valentine’s Day Contest on Teenreads.com. Like the promotion on Bookreporter.com, teens can enter for their chance to win some great titles, plus a "Story Crush" coffee mug, heart-shaped Peeps, and Dove chocolates. Have them click here to enter by Monday, February 11th at noon ET and let us know which character from a book they would like to share a Valentine moment with.

Jamie Ford, the author of one of the best-loved book group novels of the past few years, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, stopped by our office on Wednesday. You can see us pictured above where we were trying to capture a photo not just of the two of us, but also of the view from my office, which Jamie loved. (This clearly did not work!) Of course, I had a copy of Hotel on my shelf to hold for our photo op. It was wonderful to catch up with him and learn that his next novel, Songs of Willow Frost, will be published on September 10th. We'll have much more about this book leading up to its publication date! By the way, Jamie told me that book groups still frequent the Palace Hotel in Seattle after they read the book. He tries to stop by there when he is in town, and inevitably there are book groups milling around. It brought back fond memories of my visit there a few years ago.

I am heading back to the couch for more reading…and I hope you are doing the same. And here’s to great book group discussions this month!

Read on….

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

PS. When you use the links below to purchase books, you also support ReadingGroupGuides.com as we have affiliate arrangements with each of them. Please consider this when shopping for books online!

• All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps by Dave Isay
• The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin
• Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday by Jordan Matter
• The Love Dog by Elsa Watson
• Mistress of My Fate: Book One of The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot by Hallie Rubenhold
• One Month to Love: Thirty Days to Grow and Deepen Your Closest Relationships by Kerry and Chris Shook
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
• S.E.C.R.E.T. by L. Marie Adeline
• Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them by Betsy Prioleau

• Catherine by April Lindner
• City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster
• The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron
• Kiss Me Again by Rachel Vail
• The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd
• Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
• Splintered by A.G. Howard
• Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg
• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

The Good American by Alex George
In Germany in 1904, music sparks the love of Frederick Meisenheimer and Jette Furst. After an unplanned pregnancy, the couple flees to America. Their journey takes them from Hanover to New Orleans to St. Louis and finally to the town of Beatrice, Missouri, where they search for the American dream.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Typically in our Paperback Spotlights, we feature either paperback originals or paperback reprints of hardcovers that recently released. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah doesn't fall into either category as it was published in paperback in 2009. But we wanted to bring this book to your attention in anticipation of the April 23rd release of its follow-up, Fly Away, where readers will have a chance to revisit the characters from Firefly Lane --- or meet them for the first time. The backstory is so well-told that Fly Away can easily work as a stand-alone, but if you haven't read Firefly Lane yet, we suggest you do so before the new novel's publication.

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith
Leo Demidov is no longer a member of Moscow's secret police. But when his wife and daughters are invited on a "Peace Tour" to New York, he is immediately suspicious. Forbidden to travel, Leo watches helplessly as his family is pulled into a web of conspiracy and betrayal that will end in tragedy.

Quiet by Susan Cain
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so.