starred review - Macmillan Library

Download The Bone Season Now!

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Librarians, the Bloomsbury USA team is eager to approve your NetGalley requests for Samantha Shannon's epic futuristic debut, THE BONE SEASON! This is book one in a seven part saga that will appeal to both teen and adult Fantasy readers.

In the year 2059 several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others' minds. When Paige is arrested and sent to the prison for clairvoyants she is assigned to a Rephaite keeper who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master and her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

Check out the book trailer on YouTube.

"Not only has Shannon dynamically and shrewdly imagined every element of this spooky yet earthy world-at-war, from its unforgiving hierarchy to vile if essential herbal concoctions, encounters with monstrous predatory creatures, and the terror of 'spirit combat,' she has also tapped into the timeless wellsprings of fear and prejudice, repression and resistance. The result is a dazzlingly brainy, witty, and bewitching tale of outrageous courage, heroic compassion, transcendent love, and the quest for freedom." —Booklist (starred review)

Download the e-galley:

Request THE BONE SEASON from its NetGalley page (link). So long as you have your title and current employer in your profile bio, you will be approved. Please contact me if you have any trouble!

While you're waiting for approval you can start by reading an excerpt on THE BONE SEASON Facebook page.

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Starred Reviews for Massacre Pond

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Ali Fisher

In MASSACRE POND, Barry Award-winner Paul Doiron's latest suspense novel featuring Game Warden Mike Bowditch, a wealthy animal rights activist is buying up huge parcels of timberland to create a new national park. When seven moose are found butchered on her estate and a shocking murder is discovered, it's Mike's job to solve the controversial case.

"This series follows Bowditch from the start of his warden career, and his evolution creates a constantly fresh perspective paired with solid procedural details and an outdoors education, to boot. MASSACRE POND, arguably the best yet, boasts fair-minded exploration of Maine’s conflicting environmental and economic interests and marks a turning point for Bowditch, who questions his fit with a career that constantly requires suppressing his instincts." —Booklist (starred review)

"An unusual lead investigator, thoughtful plotting, and lyrical prose add up to a winner" —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Update: MASSACRE POND has been selected as an August 2013 Indie Next Pick!

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Meet Ava Lee the Forensic Accountant, Martial Arts Master, & Sleuth

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Ava Lee, martial arts master and unflappable forensic accountant, is back in her second outing, THE WILD BEASTS OF WUHAM, and this time she's unraveling a financial scandal in the art world to the tune of $100 million. From Denmark to the Faroe Islands, New York to London, Ava tracks down the provenance of a series of meticulously forged paintings.

Booklist is of the first to review THE WILD BEASTS OF WUHAN and they said, "You haven’t seen cold and calculating until you’ve double-crossed this number cruncher. Another strong entry from Arthur Ellis Award–winner Hamilton."

Library Journal gave the first Ava Lee novel, THE DISCIPLE OF LAS VEGAS, a starred review and said, "This financial mystery echoes Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series heroine, but Ava is edgier and computer savvy; she is as resourceful as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander but without the emotional baggage and extreme violence. Highly recommended."

The Ava Lee Series has been sold in more than twenty countries, and has been optioned for film by Strada Films/Union Pictures.

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Starred Reviews for Mortal Sins

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Part history, part journalism, and part true-crime thriller, MORTAL SINS by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael D'Antonio reveals a long and ferocious battle for the soul of the largest and oldest organization in the world, the Catholic church. It already has three starred reviews!

"[MORTAL SINS] will be widely regarded as the definitive history of the Catholic Church’s 'most severe crisis since the Reformation': the revelations of endemic sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States and Europe." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The author weaves a captivating tale of legal drama set against the backdrop of an intransigent ecclesiastical hierarchy. [...] Riveting and fascinating—sure to serve future generations well as they look back on this era." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Doyle and Anderson are the two most prominent heroes of D’Antonio’s superlatively readable overview of the ongoing, now-global crisis of priestly sex abuse. [...] this landmark work of recent history remains gripping and affecting to the last word." -Booklist (starred review)

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Starred Reviews for Flora

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Book clubs, take note! Reviewers are giving Gail Godwin's latest, FLORA, high praise. Here's a quick summary to get you familiar:

Ten-year-old Helen and her summer guardian, Flora, are isolated together in Helen's decaying family house while her father is doing secret war work during the final months of World War II. At three, Helen lost her mother, and the beloved grandmother who raised her has just died. Flora, who cries at the drop of a hat, is ardently determined to do her best for Helen. Their relationship and its fallout will haunt Helen for the rest of her life.

"Unsparing yet compassioante; a fine addition to Godwin's long list of first-rate faction bringing 19th-century richness of detail and characterization to the ambiguities of modern life." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[A] stirring and wondrous novel from Godwin…. [her] thoughtful portrayal of their boredom, desires, and the eventual heartbreak of their summer underscores the impossible position of children, who are powerless against the world and yet inherit responsibility for its agonies." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Godwin’s under-your-skin characters are perfectly realized, and the held-breath plot is consummately choreographed. But the wonder of this incisive novel of the endless repercussions of loss and remorse at the dawn of the atomic age is how subtly Godwin laces it with exquisite insights into secret family traumas, unspoken sexuality, class and racial divides, and the fallout of war while unveiling the incubating mind of a future writer." —Booklist (starred review)

FLORA was also on the May 2013 Indie Next List!

FLORA by Gail Godwin.Poignant story of loss of innocence in 1940s North Carolina mountains. #ewgc

— Janet Lockhart (@HartGami) May 7, 2013

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Starred Review for See Now Then

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Talia and I have a girl crush on Jamaica Kincaid. We spent a little time with her before the Freedom to Read Foundation's Banned/Challenged Author event at Seattle Town Hall during ALA Midwinter. She completely won us over in, oh, approximately four minutes.

Kincaid joined us in Seattle to talk about her journey as a reader and a writer and the experience of having her book, LUCY, challenged in a Pennsylvania high school as "most pornographic." More on that event here.

We're excited to see that SEE NOW THEN, Kincaid's first novel in ten years, has some great press already. The New York Times ran a piece called "Never Mind the Parallels, Don’t Read It as My Life" in which Kincaid clarifies how much of her new book is autobiographical (spoiler: only some). And Publishers Weekly interviewed Kincaid in "The Age of a Mountain: PW Talks with Jamaica Kincaid" about the phrase "see now then" and her experience creating characters of all ages.

"Kincaid has created a measured, bewitching, and metaphysical fable, as well as a venomous, acidly comic, and plangent tale of love, betrayal, and loss that is at once slashingly personal and radiantly universal in its mystery, passion, and catharsis." -Booklist (starred review)

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Starred Reviews for A GOOD DEATH

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Award winning journalist Christopher Cox has delivered a nail-biting debut mystery that will take your patrons through the side streets of Bangkok and across violent Lao hill county and the reviews are spectacular.

Damon is a sharp-witted and likeable though down-on-his-luck Boston PI who catches an intriguing case. Linda Watts is a beautiful, talented Lao immigrant with a promising career—or she was, until she turns up dead in a cheap Bangkok guest house. Her death seems like a straightforward overdose to the Thai authorities, but her insurance company isn’t buying it. They hire Sebastian to travel halfway around the world to investigate.

"Cox’s action-packed debut is perfect for armchair travelers who will be amazed by the author’s ability to make gaudy Bangkok and the remote hill country of Laos come alive." -Library Journal (starred review)

"A GOOD DEATH is another example of the only positive to emerge from the Vietnam War—fine writing." -Booklist (starred review)

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Starred Review for Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Fine! I'll admit it. I've watched both trailers for Baz Luhrmann's new adaptation of The Great Gatsby a solid million times each.

Those cars! That champagne! Those jewels! Those jams! And, of course, literature's favorite billboard featuring the creepy gaze of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg!

As anticipation for the film rises I'm sure your copies of the original material will get more use than ever, but what stands up next to a novel like THE GREAT GATSBY? What read-alikes do you recommend to roaring readers that can't get enough of flappers and foul play?

We recommend Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, the story of beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre and her scandalous adventures with Scott in the Jazz Age.

"Fowler has given us a lovely, sad and compulsively readable book." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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Best. Title. Ever. After.

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Ali Fisher

White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony.

Let's talk about SNOW WHITE MUST DIE by German mystery writer Nele Neuhaus. It's the beginning of a spell-binding new contemporary mystery series, it's already huge international bestseller, and it has the most wicked title!

On a rainy November day police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: A woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation quickly turns into a small town witch hunt and Pia and Oliver will have to work fast to solve the case before anyone else dies.

"Again and again, Neuhaus inserts the old Grimm fairy tale refrain—'White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony'—that describes Snow White [...] to underscore the grimmest of human emotions: white for icily plotted revenge, red for raging jealousy, black for homicidal madness." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With more than three million copies already in print worldwide(!), your patrons will happily be the next victims of this exciting new series!

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Featured Review: Little Known Facts

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Ali Fisher

We're excited to see that the featured fiction review in the most recent American Libraries Direct newsletter (10/24) is LITTLE KNOWN FACTS, a debut by Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist Christine Sneed!

lkf

The verdict of the review says it best,

"As Sneed illuminates each facet of her percussively choreographed plot via delectably slant disclosures––overheard conversations, snooping, tabloids, confessions under duress, and journal entries, among them—she spotlights 'little known facts' about the cost of fame, our erotic obsession with movie-star power, and where joy can be found." -Booklist (starred review)

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