A Trick of the Light - Macmillan Library

Once Again Louise Penny Wins the Anthony Award for Best Novel!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Ali Fisher

This past weekend at Bouchercon, Louise Penny was awarded the Anthony Award for Best Novel for the third year in a row with another exquisite Chief Inspector Gamache novel, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT! In 2011 she won for BURY YOUR DEAD and in 2010 she won for THE BRUTAL TELLING.

If you haven't joined the Penny party, it's about time! Robin Nesbitt of the Columbus Metropolitan Library admitted on the library's blog that she only just picked up the first book in the series and very much enjoyed it!

"This is a great read for fans of Agatha Christie. Great characters, great writing, and good plot - if you haven't read this series yet, give it a try."

A word to new readers: the character and relationship development in these books is beautifully done, but they are all stand-alone mysteries so start with which ever book you can get your hands on!

See the rest of the Anthony Award winners here.

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Our 2011 Agatha Award Nominees!

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Malice Domestic has nominated quite a few excellent traditional mysteries for the Agatha Awards this year. We are especially excited about all of the fantastic Minotaur titles!

Best Novel:

THE REAL MACAW
Donna Andrews (author of the 2002 Best Novel and the 1999 Best First Novel)

WICKED AUTUMN
G. M. Malliet (author of the 2008 Best First Novel)

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT
Louise Penny (author of the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 Best Novel)

Best Historical Novel:

TROUBLED BONES
Jeri Westerson

The winners will be announced at the 2011 Agatha Awards banquet to be held on April 28, 2012. We'll have our fingers crossed until then!

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Monday Fun Day! (1/30/2012 Edition)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Well, well, well; if it isn't Monday. You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here again, Monday...

Only kidding! It's going to be a GREAT week, I can feel it in my bones (or maybe that's just the lingering post-Midwinter exhaustion). Either way, we've got a few fun tidbits to kick things off for you.

- Minotaur swept the 2012 Dilys Award nomination list boasting four out of the five nominated titles! The Minotaur nominees are:

WICKED AUTUMN by G.M. Malliet
TAG MAN by Archer Mayor
A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Louise Penny
GHOST HERO by S.J. Rozan

See the full list of nominated titles here.

- I mentioned it last week, but I'm still tickled to see Talia and her librarian buddies pictured in Library Journal's recap of the RUSA awards ceremony. If you haven't seen it, take a look!

- Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, was featured in The New York Times on Sunday. Read the article, "Contradictions of the Heart," now.

- We're loving blogger Tiffany Gibert's literary outfits. So far she's recreated the cover looks from SMUT by Alan Bennett and SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray. I wonder what's next up her sleeve (or on it)!

And if you made it here from Unshelved, welcome! Feel free to poke around. We recommend our Books for Teens page and the About Us section. Also we would love it if you introduced yourself in the comments section.

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RUSA’s 2012 Notable Books & Reading List

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Ali Fisher

The 2012 RUSA reading list is in!

Between the noshable hors d'oeuvres, the wine, and the charming company, we had a riotous time at the announcement ceremony in Dallas. Yes, we were whooping and hollering when they listed books we love!

Don't believe me? Boom: proof.

Library Journal reported, "Some of the announcements were greeted by quite a bit of excitement, especially from Robin Nesbitt (on Twitter, @robnesb) of Columbus Metropolitan Library; Alene Moroni (@surlyspice) of King County Library System, WA; Talia Sherer (@macmillanlib) of Macmillan Library Marketing; and Stephanie Chase (@acornsandnuts) of Mutnomah County Library." So, yeah, we were excited.

Now, on to the books!

2012 Reading List

ADRENALINE
Shortlisted:

NOW YOU SEE ME by S. J. Bolton
YOU'RE NEXT by Gregg Hurwitz

MYSTERY
Winner:

THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X by Keigo Higashino

Shortlisted:

KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT by Colin Cotterill
A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Louise Penny

SCIENCE FICTION
Shortlisted:

THE QUANTUM THIEF by Hannu Rajaniemi

See the complete list of RUSA winners, short lists, and read-alikes here.

2012 Notable Books List

NONFICTION:

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman

See RUSA's complete list of Notable Books here.

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A TRICK OF THE LIGHT Signed Book Giveaway!

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Enter to win a copy of A TRICK OF THE LIGHT, the latest Chief Inspector Gamache novel, signed by Louise Penny!

UPDATE: This contest is closed. Congratulations to winner Cindy Stiever, Librarian at Eden Prairie High School!

At the end of December, brilliant librarians Robin Beerbower (Salem Public Library) and Stephanie Chase (Multnomah County Library) asked librarians to tweet their favorite reads from 2011 (#libfavs2011).

While a number of our favorite books came up, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT was mentioned often enough to warrant this giveaway!

One (1) Grand Prize Winner will win a hardcover copy of A TRICK OF THE LIGHT signed by author Louise Penny.

Librarians, enter to win this prize by sending your name, your library, and your full mailing address to Library-at-MacmillanUSA.com (Subject: A Trick of the Light Giveaway) by Wednesday, January 18th. UPDATE: contest is now closed.

This sweepstakes is open to librarians in the United States. More eligibility details below!

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Publishers Weekly’s Best Books 2011:

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Ali Fisher

Let's kick off a new week with a look at all of the excellent Macmillan titles from Publishers Weekly's Best Books from 2011.

Top 10:

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina

Mystery/Thriller:

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Poetry:

Touch by Henri Cole
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Comics:

Hark! A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton
Big Questions by Anders Nilsen

Nonfiction:

One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina
The Convert by Deborah Baker
The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cerca
The Beautiful and the Damned by Siddhartha Deb
Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso
A Book of Secrets by Michael Holroyd

See Publishers Weekly's full list of best books here.

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The Great Louise Penny Read-A-Like

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Ali Fisher

The latest Chief Inspector Gamache novel by Louise Penny, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT, is available today and if you or your patrons are as thrilled as we are, you might already be worried about what to read next. Well, worry not!

We were inspired by the excellent librarians on The Great Read-a-Like panel at BEA to offer a read-a-like of our own: a Louise Penny read-a-like. We've picked three books sure to offer the Penny fix you'll need.

1. WICKED AUTUMN by G. M. Malliet, available September 2011 from Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books.

Library Journal made WICKED AUTUMN Debut of the Month and in their starred review said, "Malliet’s hero shows his dogged determination to bring justice to his people. You’ll marvel at the author’s low-key humor and crystal-clear depictions of small-town life. Yes, this is a true homage to Agatha Christie, but Malliet, like Louise Penny, brings a contemporary freshness to the traditional mystery."

2. A MURDER IN TUSCANY by Christobel Kent, now available from Minotaur Books.

Publishers Weekly gave A MURDER IN TUSCANY a starred review and said, "Kent combines rich atmospherics and fully realized characters with a deceptively simple puzzle in her outstanding second mystery featuring Italian PI Sandro Cellini (after 2010's THE DROWNING RIVER). [...] The sleuth's ingenious detection of evidence pointing toward foul play portends a long and successful series run. Louise Penny fans will find a lot to like."

3. DEADLY THREADS by Jane Cleland, now available from Minotaur Books.

Kirkus Reviews introduces their review to DEADLY THREADS as follows: "The coastal town of Rocky Point, N.H., would be a perfect site for a thriving antiques business if it weren’t for the sky-high homicide rate." Sound a little like Three Pines to anyone else? And yes, I may have really wanted to post the cover for this book again, but this small-town cozy by two-time Agatha Award-finalist Jane Cleland will have you curled up and lost in the story before you turn the first page.

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Monday Fun Day! (8/29/2011 Edition)

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Ali Fisher

Well, folks, we made it to Monday. I hope your weekend was relatively uneventful. To those of you who experienced flooding and property damage, we're thinking of you and crossing our fingers for a smooth recovery.

- Amidst all the bad news, we have great news: we're delighted to welcome Kym Giacoppe--former member of Penguin's rockin' library and academic marketing team--to Macmillan! She's now working with the St. Martin's Press trade marketing team and we're thrilled she's in the building!

- A TRICK OF THE LIGHT comes out tomorrow and if you're as excited as we are, you might want to check out this insightful interview with Louise Penny.

- Did you know that Library Journal has a Tumblr? Now you do: http://libraryjournal.tumblr.com/.

- The Beach Pack Giveaway is now closed and we'll have a winner for you in the next few days, so keep an eye on your inbox.

- Finally, we're still coveting these totally ridiculous tees from Unshelved. "Much Ado About Kittens" might as well be the tagline for this department.

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Our Top ALA Galley Picks

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Ali Fisher

Yesterday was The Day of the Box.

Thankfully Talia and I are experts at boxing and unboxing. In fact, as I once told Talia, I'm so good at boxing they named Muhammad Ali after me (true story).

Well, the boxes are gone now and we've transformed a sad, empty booth into an overstuffed cornucopia of literary joy. As we unpacked Talia and I reacquainted ourselves with all the wonderful books we brought.

When discussion turned to fisticuffs over which galleys we most wanted to see in the hands of librarians, we settled the score by bringing our thoughts to you. So here are our top ALA galley picks, come and get 'em!

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