#fridayreads (07/07/17)

#fridayreads (07/07/17)

Today’s #fridayreads are all debuts! South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby A July Indie Next List Selection! “Shelby’s first novel, based on a short story that won the Third Coast Fiction Prize, skillfully weaves science, climate change, politics, sociology, and art. Competing ideas about the origins of the universe are wrapped in the vagaries of […]

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Friday Reads (3/7/14 Edition)

Friday Reads (3/7/14 Edition)

Today's #FridayReads are two fabulous new debuts we're loving:

Talia is totally impressed with THE HOLLOW GROUND by Natalie S. Harnett

Hollow Ground jacket“We walk on fire or air, so Daddy liked to say. Basement floors too hot to touch. Steaming green lawns in the dead of winter. Sinkholes, quick and sudden, plunging open at your feet.”

Inspired by real-life events in now-infamous Centralia and the equally devastated town of Carbondale, PA, THE HOLLOW GROUND tells the coming-of-age story of Brigid Howley, a young girl struggling to keep her family together as underground mine fires force her family to move around—not to mention the family "curse" laid upon them generations earlier. When Brigid makes a grisly discovery in a long-abandoned bootleg mine shaft, secrets from decades past threaten to prove just as dangerous to the Howleys as the burning, hollow ground beneath their feet.

“This cursed Irish-American clan will grab you by the brisket and not let go.” — Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY

DRC button - Hollow Ground 
E-galley available for download

Anne is still enraptured after reading THE SPARK AND THE DRIVE by Wayne Harrison

Spark and the DriveHarrison is an award-winning writer of short fiction, who also worked for six years as an auto mechanic—an experience that's clear in his devastatingly powerful first novel of hero-worship, first love, and betrayal.

Justin Bailey is an out of place seventeen-year-old when he finds comfort and companionship in the shop of legendary muscle car mechanic Nick Campbell and Nick's home with his captivating wife Mary Ann. But when Nick and Mary Ann’s lives are struck by tragedy, Justin’s own world is upended. Suddenly Nick, once celebrated for his mechanical genius, has lost his touch. Mary Ann, once tender and compassionate to her husband, has turned distant. As Justin tries to prop up his suffering mentor, he finds himself drawn toward the man’s grieving wife. Torn apart by feelings of betrayal, Justin must choose between the man he admires more than his own father and the woman he loves.

“There's nothing I enjoy more than entering a fictional world over which an author demonstrates complete mastery. That's exactly what Wayne Harrison offers his lucky readers in THE SPARK AND THE DRIVE.” — Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of EMPIRE FALLS

“This novel vividly renders the cult-like world of muscle car enthusiasts, but the author's ultimate concerns are the sparks and misfires of the human heart. Wayne Harrison is an exciting new voice in American fiction.” — Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of THE COVE

 
E-galley available for download

What are you reading this week? Share your #FridayReads with us @MacmillanLib

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Focus on FRACTURES

Focus on FRACTURES

For fans of sprawling family dramas such as Jonathan Franzen's FREEDOM, Jane Smiley's A THOUSAND ACRES, and Richard Russo's EMPIRE FALLS, Lamar Herrin's new novel FRACTURES is right up your alley. 

FRACTURES centers on the Joyner family whose home sits atop prime Marcellus Shale. When men from natural gas companies begin to lease property all around the family’s hundred acres, the Joyners start to take notice. Undecided on whether or not to lease the family land, patriarch Frank Joyner must weigh his heirs’ competing motivations, thus deciding the fate of his land and children. 

Kirkus Reviews did a feature interview with Lamar Herrin and early reviews for FRACTURES are great: 

“Herrin has long been drawn to morally complex situations (House of the Deaf; The Lies Boys Tell), and he examines another one here with great sympathy, psychological insight, and intelligence. What is so endearing about this book is that even under intense pressure, the members of this clan retain their decency and humanity. There is tragedy here, but there are also inspiring moments of compassion and kindness. A deeply moving novel that is highly recommended for fans of literary fiction.” – Library Journal

“Herrin’s deeply contemplative examination of this contentious topic is less about the environmental fallout from an invasive destruction of the land and more about the emotional fragility of a family who feels all too deeply the loss of a way of life.” Booklist, starred review 

“Novelist, memoirist and short story writer Herrin (Romancing Spain, 2006, etc.) has managed to transform the high profile, politically divisive issue of fracking into a thoroughly human, moving family drama…. Beautifully crafted.”  Kirkus Reviews

 

Fractures tweet

Available on Nov. 12 from Thomas Dunne Books. [...]

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