Reviews and Publicity - Macmillan Library

Salvage the Bones Wins the 2011 National Book Award in Fiction!

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Ali Fisher

Major congratulations are due to Jesmyn Ward, author of the 2011 National Book Award in Fiction winner: SALVAGE THE BONES.

Ward's gritty yet tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina is both beautiful and brutal. Pregnant fourteen-year-old Esch, her brothers, and their mostly absent father are preparing for the storm, but are unprepared for the aftermath.

When she accepted the award, Ward said,

nba logo

"I understood that I wanted to write about the experiences of the poor, and the black and the rural people of the South, so that the culture that marginalized us for so long would see that our stories were as universal, our lives as fraught and lovely and important, as theirs."

You can re-watch the full National Book Award ceremony hosted by John Lithgow at NationalBook.org.

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Amazon’s Best Books of 2011:

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Ali Fisher

It's that time of year again when we get the annual round-ups of top titles. Today we're highlighting Amazon's Best Books of 2011:

From the Top 20

THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenides
THE LOVER'S DICTIONARY by David Levithan

(Fun fact: THE LOVER'S DICTIONARY was picked for both the Literature & Fiction category and the Quirky & Strange category!).

From the Top 100

THE SUBMISSION by Amy Waldmann
THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman
ORIENTATION: AND OTHER STORIES by Daniel Orozco
RIVER OF SMOKE by Amitav Ghosh
PULPHEAD: ESSAYS by John Jeremiah Sullivan
MY KOREAN DELI by Ben Ryder Howe
ONWARD by Howard Schultz
THE LEFTOVERS by Tom Perrotta
HARK! A VAGRANT by Kate Beaton

UPDATE: In my rush to post this, I missed a few titles! All set now.

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We’ve Got Books for You, Dudes

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Ali Fisher

The latest issue of Library Journal's BookSmack! drew our attention to Douglas Lord's wickedly funny and brutally honest Books for Dudes column. We love candid book bloggers and Doug tells it like it is.

In his latest column, "Adventures with Frontlist Thrillers, Memoirs & Mysteries," he takes a look at a handful of our books from a dude's perspective:

HARD KNOCKS by Howie Carr
ASHES TO DUST by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
GYPSY BOY by Mikey Walsh
TRIGGERED by Fletcher Wortmann

As Doug says himself, "Eligibility in BFD's Pantheon of Recommended Works requires titles to show a certain something, a certain je ne sais quoi." Well, whatever it is, we're proud to be publishing books with it!

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KILLING LINCOLN and Bringing History to Life

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Ali Fisher

Bill O'Reilly's thrilling narrative history, KILLING LINCOLN, brings the assassination of our 16th president into vivid clarity.

In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end. Former Confederates are reintegrating into American society, but one man and his band of murderous accomplices are not appeased.

In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—-charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—-murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre.

A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government.

Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

MSNBC has posted an excerpt from the book on their site. Read the full excerpt here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44976606.

Also, listen to an excerpt of the audiobook here.

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FOUR STARS for Caroline Bock’s LIE!

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Ali Fisher

We are blown away by the reviews for Caroline Bock's LIE, a sensitive and complex YA novel about a small town hate crime. Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist have all given LIE a starred review!

Kirkus Reviews calls LIE, "unusual and important," and says, "This effective, character-driven, episodic story examines the consequences of a hate crime on the teens involved in it. [...] Realistic and devastatingly insightful, this novel can serve as a springboard to classroom and family discussions."

Publishers Weekly says, "Avoiding preachiness, Bock handles the novel's multiple viewpoints exceptionally well, rotating among the painfully believable voices of high school students and adults. Her characters may keep the truth inside, but their story reads like a confessional."

Library Journal says, "Bock’s debut will grip readers searching for complete realism in their fiction."

Booklist has yet to publish their full review, but we'll update when they do!

This is an excellent read for all Americans, teen and up.

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Word of the Day: Economics Cont’d

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Ali Fisher

Two weeks ago, we offered you a few nonfiction suggestions to cultivate a more nuanced understanding of the Occupy Wall Street discussion.

Today, we have another excellent reading recommendation for patrons interested in learning more about America's economic condition, in this case, as it relates to law.

WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR SOME
How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
by Glenn Greenwald

Over the past four decades, the principle of equality before the law has been effectively abolished. Instead, a two-tiered system of justice ensures that the country's political and financial class is virtually immune from prosecution, licensed to act without restraint, while the politically powerless are imprisoned with greater ease and in greater numbers than in any other country in the world.

Cogent, sharp, and urgent, this is a no-holds-barred indictment of a profoundly un-American system that sanctions immunity at the top and mercilessness for everyone else.

"Greenwald lets no one off the hook in demonstrating the vast differences in legal recourse between rich and poor, powerful and weak." -Kirkus Reviews

"Greenwald, called one of the '25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media' by Forbes and a 'blogosphere superstar' by Mother Jones, is just the guy to write this book. Not for legalists only." -Library Journal

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He’s Just Not That Into Books: Video Games Cont’d

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Ali Fisher

A few weeks back we did a series of posts on recommendations for the ever elusive teen male reluctant reader. We talked about video game tie-ins, specifically BioShock and Halo, and now we have a new installment to throw into the mix:

HALO: GLASSLANDS
by Karen Traviss

The Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and her colonies. For the first time in decades, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting's stopped, the war is far from over.

Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartans, and now she's broken some more to save them.

Marooned with Chief Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, she finds that the shield world has been guarding an ancient secret – a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind.

Check out all of the He's Just Not That Into Books posts.

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Word of the Day: Economics

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Ali Fisher

That's right! We're still on our Word of the Day kick and today we're talking economics.

With the Occupy Wall Street discussion on everyone's minds, your patrons might be coming to you for some nonfiction reading guidance. We have a few suggestions for you.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Barbara Ehrenreich

In this Alex Award winning book, Ehrenreich, a sharp and original social critic, goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity.

How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
John Cassidy

In this Pulitzer Prize finalist, Cassidy describes the rising influence of "utopian economies"—the thinking that is blind to how real people act and that denies the many ways an unregulated free market can bring on disaster.

The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World
Michael Spence

Spence, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, explains what happened to cause a dramatic shift after World War II between massive growth in the industrialized West to explosive growth in the developing world.

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The National Book Award Finalists!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Ali Fisher

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to bring you the National Book Award-finalists from Macmillan!

Fiction:
SALVAGE THE BONES by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury USA)

Nonfiction:
THE CONVERT by Deborah Baker (Graywolf Press)

Poetry:
THE CHAMELEON COUCH by Yusef Komunyakaa (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
DOUBLE SHADOW by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

See the full list of NBA-nominees at Publishers Weekly.

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The Word of the Day: Crafts

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Ali Fisher

We're getting pretty serious about this whole "Word of the Day" theme. Let's see if I can keep it up for the rest of the week!

Monday's Word of the Day: Teens

Tuesday's Word of the Day: Chocolate

And today's Word of the Day: Crafts!

THE VERY EASY GUIDE TO KNITTING SCARVES
Step-by-Step Techniques, Easy-to-Follow Patterns, and 22 Projects to Get You Started
Marie Connolly

Sew you think you can knit, huh? Prove it with a cozy scarf. A scarf is where many knitters start and often return. Scarves never lose their appeal. For the beginner, this book offers basic stitches paired with beautiful yarns to create gorgeous scarves, from cozy winter warmers to delicate evening wraps. The more advanced can choose from cable patterns, lace stitches, Fair Isle patterns, and many other inspiring ideas.

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