Reviews and Publicity - Macmillan Library

Starred Reviews for Former People

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Your Russian history buffs will be delighted to hear that we have an dramatic non-fiction title coming soon on the final days of the Russian aristocracy, FORMER PEOPLE, and it's getting starred reviews!

FORMER PEOPLE is the first book to recount the history of the aristocracy caught up in the maelstrom of the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of Stalin’s Russia. Filled with chilling tales of looted palaces and burning estates, of desperate flights in the night from marauding peasants and Red Army soldiers, of imprisonment, exile, and execution, it is the story of how a centuries’-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the Tsar and Empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia.

"This is an anecdotally rich, highly informative look at decimated, uprooted former upper-class Russians." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Sobering stories about the politics of power—its loss, its gain—and the deep human suffering that inevitably results." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Beware of stampedes! Your patrons will be Russian to get at this one!

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Starred Review for The Paris Review’s Object Lessons

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Writers and short story enthusiasts, rejoice! The Paris Review is out to celebrate the power of brief stories with their new compendium, OBJECT LESSONS: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story.

The exceptionally cool thing about this anthology is that the contents (all originally printed in The Paris Review) were selected and are introduced by twenty contemporary authors. It's an excellent resource for writers, students, or any of your patrons who want to understand fiction from a writer’s point of view.

"This anthology of short stories selected by some of the great practitioners of our time is bound to be read and studies for years to come." -Library Journal (starred review)

"The editors call this a guide for young writers and readers interested in literary technique, and the book achieves that purpose while also serving as a tribute to the role the Paris Review has played in maintaining the diversity of the short story form. The collection reminds us that good stories are always whispering into each other’s ears." -Publishers Weekly

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Tuesday Fun Day! (9/25/2012 Edition)

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Happy Tuesday, all!

- Tupelo Hassman's debut GIRLCHILD has been shortlisted for the 2012 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize! This prize, awarded by The Center for Fiction and the American Booksellers Association, is awarded to the best debut novel of the year. The winner will be announced on December 11th, 2012 at the Center for Fiction Annual Benefit & Awards Dinner. See all of the nominees here.

Raisin 20 years banner

- We're celebrating 20 years of small-town Mysteries starring feisty amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin! Reviews for M.C. Beaton's latest (ehem, twenty-third!) Raisin Mystery, HISS AND HERS, praise Beaton for continued quality and fun in her long-running cozy series.

"Kudos to 20 years of sleuthing for Agatha Raisin, a standard-bearer for the cozy." -Library Journal

"This well-written series is still going strong and will appeal to fans of Sue Ann Jaffarian and Mary Daheim." -Booklist

Sign in to our Mystery community site CriminalElement.com to read an excerpt and enter to win the entire twenty-two volume set of Agatha Raisin Mysteries!

- Looking for the next 50 SHADES OF GREY read-alike? Try ANYTHING HE WANTS from from self-published phenomenon Sara Fawkes! The popular e-series will be available in a single paperback in November from St. Martin's Press. Read about the acquisition.

- There's news on the e-book lending front: "Macmillan Poised to Test Library E-book Model." (via Publishers Weekly)

- And your cat needs one of these:

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The 2012 Shamus Award Nominees!

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Ali Fisher

pwa logo The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) shortlisted two excellent Minotaur mysteries and a great Forge mystery for the 2012 Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover! See our nominees below:

BYE BYE, BABY
by Max Allan Collins

THE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DETECTIVE CROSSES THE LINE
by Richard Yancey

A BAD NIGHT’S SLEEP
by Michael Wiley

Michael Wiley is a previous Shamus Award finalist for his first novel, THE LAST STRIPTEASE. Sign up for CriminalElement.com to read excerpts from A BAD NIGHT'S SLEEP and BYE BYE, BABY. You'll also get access to a lot of exciting material for mystery lovers!

See all of the 2012 nominees here!

The winner will be announced on October 5th, 2012 during the PWA banquet at Bouchercon in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Monday Fun Day! (9/17/2012 Edition)

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Happy Monday, librarian buddies!

I'm back from my mini-vacation to the West Coast (photo on the right from Seattle's Chihuly museum) and I'm so ready to talk about Fall titles.

- You're invited to the AAP's annual Librarians' Sneak Peek Book Preview on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 at Random House in NYC! See the official invitation for more details and a reservation link (RSVP by October 5th).

- Two very different novels of ours made Kirkus Reviews' list of 10 Must-Read September Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books:

JANE: THE WOMAN WHO LOVED TARZAN by Robin Maxwell

"In this centennial celebration of Edgar Rice Burroughs' original TARZAN story, Maxwell retells the classic from the perspective of Jane Porter. [...] JANE is the first version of the Tarzan story written by a woman and authorized by the Burroughs estate."

THE RAPTURE OF THE NERDS by Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross

"What do you get when you cross the tech-savvy minds of Doctorow and Stross? You get the mind-warping, near-future THE RAPTURE OF THE NERDS, where a group of humans known as the Tech Jury Service are tasked with assessing whether new, possibly disruptive inventions should be released to the general public."

See their full SF/F recommendation list here. Also, there's a #TorChat on Twitter this Wednesday at 4pm Eastern. Moderator @pnh will be chatting with Cory @doctorow and Charlie Stross @cstross! Details here.

- We updated our Man Booker Prize shortlist post to include SWIMMING HOME by Deborah Levy which will be published in the U.S. by Bloomsbury USA in October! We also added links to MediaBistro's Man Booker Prize longlist excerpt "playlist" and downloadable posters for libraries.

- And finally: ARCTIC FOX PUP!

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Man Booker Shortlist Includes Bring Up the Bodies!

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Ali Fisher

BRING UP THE BODIES, Hilary Mantel's rich historical follow up to her previous Man Booker Prize-winning novel, WOLF HALL, has landed her on the shortlist once again!

Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring.

UPDATE:

We actually have two titles on the shortlist; Bloomsbury USA will be publishing SWIMMING HOME by Deborah Levy in the U.S. in October!

As he arrives with his family at the villa in the hills above Nice, Joe sees a body in the swimming pool. But the girl is very much alive. She is Kitty Finch: a self-proclaimed botanist with green-painted fingernails, walking naked out of the water and into the heart of their holiday. Why is she there? What does she want from them all? And why does Joe's enigmatic wife allow her to remain?

See the full 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlist here!

MediaBistro put together a "playlist" of excerpts from the longlist here and you can download library posters of the UK versions of the books here!

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Starred Reviews for The Beautiful Mystery

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Ali Fisher

As the last note of the chant escaped the Blessed Chapel a great silence fell, and with it came an even greater disquiet.

The silence stretched on. And on.

These were men used to silence, but this seemed extreme, even to them.

So begins THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY, the eighth entry in Louise Penny's award-winning and New York Times bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache series.

This mystery brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, deep in the wilderness of Quebec. Between growing vegetables, tending chickens, making chocolate and singing, one of the monks planned and committed a violent murder.

"Traditional mystery fans can look forward to a captivating whodunit plot, a clever fair-play clue concealed in plain view, and the deft use of humor to lighten the story’s dark patches. On a deeper level, the crime provides a means for Penny’s unusually empathic, all-too-fallible lead to unearth truths about human passions and weaknesses while avoiding simple answers." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This heart-rending tale is a marvelous addition to Penny’s acclaimed series. Fans won’t be disappointed." -Library Journal (starred review)

"There is always something mammoth roiling away beneath the surface of Penny’s novels—but this time the roiling is set against the serenity of the chanting, producing a melody of uncommon complexity and beauty." -Booklist (starred review)

Readers' Advisory librarians take note, Kirkus Reviews said, "The most illuminating analogies are not to other contemporary detective fiction but to THE NAME OF THE ROSE and MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL."

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Revenge is a Dish Best Served Baked!

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Ali Fisher

We've drooled over Jessica Beck's Donut Shop Mysteries with you before, and we're (unsurprisingly) back at it.

Yesterday Talia noticed POWERED PERIL, the latest installment in this delicious series featuring a small-town baker turned amateur sleuth, made the New York Times mass market fiction extended bestsellers list!

"An astute sleuth and an appealing smalltown setting help make this a winner, along with tempting donut recipes interspersed throughout." -Publishers Weekly on KILLER CRULLERS

READERS BEWARE:

"This delicious new mystery/recipe series will give readers some serious doughnut cravings." -Publishers Weekly on GLAZED MURDER

You've been warned.

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Tuesday Fun Day! (9/4/2012 Edition)

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Happy Tuesday, librarian cats! I hope your long weekend involved many adventures and much napping in the sun!

We have some winners to congratulate this week, so let's get on with the applause:

The big news from the weekend is that AMONG OTHERS by Jo Walton (a title that I just won't shut up about) won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel! Huzzah! Earlier this year it won the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

See the full list of Hugo Award-winners here.

And now on to our recent contest winners:

The winner of the final Grammar Girl signed-books giveaway is:

Betty H. Lee
Adult and Young Adult Librarian
Rockville Memorial Library

The winner of the A MEMORY OF LIGHT stuffed backpack giveaway celebrating our new SF/F blog, Uncharted Pages, is:

Brianna Glenn
Library Director
De Soto Public Library

Congratulations, Betty and Brianna! Your prizes are in the mail.

And finally, the winner for Best App Ever according to us: CatWang!! Major thanks to Peter from Academic for the recommendation. Here's CatTalia holding a balloon in her office and CatAli holding AMONG OTHERS while wearing wings:

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Publishers Weekly’s Best of Fall 2012

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Ali Fisher

September is almost upon us and that means Fall titles are about to start showing up at your library waiting to be shelved!

At the beginning of August Publishers Weekly posted their list of The Best Books of Fall 2012, let's take another look at the Macmillan titles on that list, shall we?

SEPTEMBER

STORMDANCER by Jay Kristoff

"Kristoff’s imaginative fantasy debut presents the feudal, dystopian Shima Empire, a menacing Japanese-inspired setting in which 'the lotus must bloom' even though it turns all it touches into a toxic wasteland. The innovative setting, fast-moving plot, vivid descriptions, and thrilling action scenes make this a refreshing addition to the steampunk canon."

THE SCIENTISTS: a Family Romance by Marco Roth

"In this powerfully forlorn debut memoir, literary critic Roth mines the silence and shame he experienced growing up on Central Park West in the 1980s and ’90s as his scientist father died of AIDS."

OCTOBER

MASTER OF THE MOUNTAIN: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves by Henry Wiencek

"Written by NBCC-award winnig historian Wiencek (THE HAIRSTONS: An American Epic in Black and White), this meticulous account indicts not only Thomas Jefferson -- who referred to blacks as 'degraded and different' with 'no place in our country' -- but also modern apologists who wish to retain him as a moral standard of liberty. Wiencek’s vivid, detailed history casts a new slant on a complex man."

NOVEMBER

THE FUN STUFF by James Wood

"This collection of 23 essays gathered from the New Republic, the London Review of Books, and the New Yorker offers the latest proof that Wood (HOW FICTION WORKS) is one of the best readers writing today. Devouring these pieces back to back feels like having a long conversation about books with your most erudite, articulate, and excitable friend."

"We've combed through hundreds of books to find our favorites of what's on tap for the season," said Publishers Weekly.

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