Booklist Interviews Debut Author Casey McQuiston

Booklist Interviews Debut Author Casey McQuiston

Romance + Comedy + LGBTQ + Debut = Casey McQuiston’s delightful RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE! This big-hearted rom-com follows the First Son as he falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends. Already a darling of the Macmillan Library department […]

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Maximum Shelf: THE DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE HOBBS

Maximum Shelf: THE DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE HOBBS

This week’s featured Maximum Shelf Awareness pick is the bewitching and eagerly-awaited THE DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE HOBBS by Katherine Howe! New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe returns to the world of THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE with a bewitching story of a New England history professor who must race against time to free […]

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Maximum Shelf: THE GUEST BOOK

Maximum Shelf: THE GUEST BOOK

Yesterday’s featured Maximum Shelf Awareness pick was the long-awaited and hotly-anticipated THE GUEST BOOK. THE GUEST BOOK follows three generations of a powerful American family, a family that “used to run the world.” And when the novel begins in 1935, they still do. Kitty and Ogden Milton appear to have everything—perfect children, good looks, a […]

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Celadon Interviews JOCO Library’s Gregg Winsor

Celadon Interviews JOCO Library’s Gregg Winsor

First things first: if you haven’t checked out Celadon Books‘s gorgeous new website, do so NOW. They’ve got all sorts of interesting things there, particularly in the TBR (To Be Read) section, where we saw this great interview with Johnson County Library’s Gregg Winsor! “Good librarians are like ninjas – we come in every day […]

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PW Spotlight on Araminta Hall

PW Spotlight on Araminta Hall

We know you love Araminta Hall—her new book, OUR KIND OF CRUELTY, is a May 2018 LibraryReads pick (available now from MCD/FSG and Macmillan Audio), and so does Publishers Weekly. In a fascinating interview, Hall discussed her decision not to tell both sides of the story between her two young lovers… “Switching perspectives almost would […]

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Library Journal Debut Spotlight – L. Penelope

Library Journal Debut Spotlight – L. Penelope

L. Penelope, author of SONG OF BLOOD & STONE (available now from St. Martin’s Press), was interviewed in last month’s issue of Library Journal. In the interview, Penelope discussed her writing process… “I’m a plotter, but my road map is very loose and allows for plenty of detours along the way.” …her favorite books from […]

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Stars for WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS

Stars for WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS

Last year Anna-Marie McLemore broke out on the literary YA scene with her debut novel, THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS, which was a finalist for the 2016 YALSA William C. Morris Award. Now McLemore is back with WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS, a second stunning novel tinged with magic, about a girl with roses that grow from […]

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Barbara Taylor Bradford on Secrets from the Past and Audiobooks

Barbara Taylor Bradford on Secrets from the Past and Audiobooks

SFTP audiobook#1 New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford has written everything from contemporary suspense to historical intrigue covering class, friendship, and forbidden love.

In her latest and in many ways most intimate novel, SECRETS FROM THE PAST, thirty-year-old American photojournalist Serena Stone is working on a biography of her celebrated father when she discovers that a former lover is in trouble overseas. Her travels take her back into her own past and into the past of her mother where she'll uncover family secrets long buried. 

Barbara was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about SECRETS FROM THE PAST (the book that is, not her personal secrets from the past... I'm not publishing an exposé here!).

BTBAli: You’ve been publishing with us for about 10 years and you’ve written almost 30 novels, what makes SECRETS FROM THE PAST special for you and your readers?

Barbara: What makes SECRETS special for me and my readers is that I've used the first person narrative. But this is only the third time in my writing career that I have done so. However, I believe writing in Serena Stone's voice gives great intimacy to the book, and therefore to the reader. I always give my female protagonist a job and I've never written about a war photographer before. So this is something else that's new. I am told by my earliest readers that the book has an enormous amount of immediacy and is very NOW.

Ali: Speaking of "now"... when a library patron returns SECRETS FROM THE PAST to his or her local branch and inevitably says, "I loved it! What do I read now?" Which books, audiobooks, and films would you want Readers' Advisory librarians to recommend?

Barbara: Of course I would always recommend A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE as a book, an audiobook, and a movie. The movie stars Liam Neeson, Jenny Seagrove, Deborah Kerr and a cast of other great actors. It is available now on DVD from Acorn Video. The miniseries runs for 6 hours. Also available are the two sequels, HOLD THE DREAM and TO BE THE BEST. Other books I would recommend of mine are HER OWN RULES, REMEMBER, THE WOMEN IN HIS LIFE and LETTER FROM A STRANGER.

Ali: Fantastic. That sounds like a formidable stack of excellent stories. You mentioned audiobooks so let's talk briefly about the audiobook for SECRETS FROM THE PAST. The narrator Stina Nielsen has narrated everything from Chuck Palahniuk's RANT to Sarah Dessen's KEEPING THE MOON to Shannon Hale's MIDNIGHT IN AUSTENLAND. She did a particularly wonderful job with SECRETS FROM THE PAST (listen to a clip from chapter one here!). Tell us a little bit about your relationship with audiobooks. What's your ideal situation for listening to books read aloud?

Barbara: I always enjoy listening to the audiobooks. It's a wonderful way to relax, just sitting on a sofa and imagining all of the characters enacting the story.

Ideal, indeed! Thank you so much for your time, Barbara!  [...]

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The Wisdom of James Patterson

The Wisdom of James Patterson

Mark Sullivan, the internationally bestselling author and bestselling co-author with James Patterson, tells all! 

...Or at least he tells us a lot of really great stuff, like what he learned about commerical fiction while working with Powerhouse Patterson.

Sullivan told Publishers Weekly,

"I thought I knew what I was doing when it came to commercial fiction. Working with Patterson, however, I discovered quickly that I didn’t. [...] What I’ve learned from the global bestselling author could fill a book, but here are some of the lessons that have changed my writing life." 

Read about those lessons at PublishersWeekly.com!

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Starred Reviews for The Survivor

Starred Reviews for The Survivor

In Gregg Hurwitz' own words, his latest thriller, THE SURVIVOR, is the story of "a man forced to step up, willing to do anything to protect those he loves, even as his body begins to betray him." More specifically... 

One morning Nate Overbay—a divorced former solider suffering from PTSD and slowly dying from Lou Gehrig’s disease—goes to an eleventh-floor bank and climbs out a window onto the ledge, ready to end it. But when a crew of robbers bursts into the bank viciously shooting employees and customers, Nate confronts the robbers, taking them out one-by-one. 

Nate is then kidnapped by Pavlo, a savage Russian mobster who planned the failed heist. Pavlo gives Nate an ultimatum—break back into the bank and get what he needs or watch Pavlo slowly kill the ex-wife and teenaged daughter Nate lost when he came back from Iraq.

"Hurwitz’s writing is crisp and economical, and he steers clear of hackneyed phrases and one-dimensional characters. [...] A fine thriller that succeeds on every level." 
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Surely Hurwitz can’t keep this up forever. Lately, each new book he publishes is his best so far, and this one’s no exception. [...] Nate is the kind of character who, if not handled just right, might quickly become unbelievable, but there’s no danger of that with Hurwitz at the controls. It’s hard to imagine that he can top this one, but, based on past performance, don’t bet against it." —Booklist (starred review)

Publisher's Weekly ran an interview with Gregg in June. Read their Q&A here.

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