June 2014

I have this Paul Simon line stuck in my head these past few weeks --- “slow down you move too fast” --- but there has been no time for that though I am “feeling groovy.” The last month was veeerrrrry busy with the run up to BookExpo America (BEA), the four whirlwind days of the conference and an amazing number of big books releasing in the past few weeks.

In our “On Sale This Week” newsletter for last week, there were 120(!) titles listed that were releasing last week and this week. This calls for some speed reading and means that the pace at the office has been really brisk! I am very lucky to have a great team working with me to keep things moving ahead! Above you can see a photo of Nicole, Greg and Emily.

At BEA, we had a chance to meet some of our readers at the Book Group Speed Dating session that we sponsored on Friday, May 30th. There were close to 200 people in the audience to hear from 21 publishers; talk about a BIG event! Many attendees noted both in person --- and in emails --- that this was their favorite event of BEA, which made us all smile and “feel groovy.”

We know that most of you were not able to join us this year in New York, but you still are curious about fall/winter 2014 books that will be perfect for book group discussions. Emily coordinated the materials for the slideshow and leavebehind at the event, and she also pulled together a slideshow with all the titles that were presented during the BEA program for you! You can find it here. To give you an easy way to mark what you want to suggest at your future meetings, she also created a spreadsheet with all the featured titles that you can share with your other book group members that you can find here. Here’s to these materials helping you with your book group selections.

You can see photos from the event above and later in this newsletter --- and a photo gallery of photos is here.

We kick things off this month with a new Special Contest. We're giving away 40 copies of New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs' THE BEEKEEPER'S BALL, the second story in the Bella Vista Chronicles following THE APPLE ORCHARD. Each winner will also receive a special prize package, which includes book-themed goodies! In THE BEEKEEPER’S BALL, Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school --- a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista’s rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel’s project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. You can read more about this book later in this newsletter!

Our contest for THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman continues, and we are excited as once again we are offering a very special opportunity for our readers. One-hundred (100) readers have the chance to win a copy of THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE and then share 3-5 questions that they have for Neil. Selected questions from those submitted will become part of a video that will be made available for book groups. It's a nice way for our readers to get to interact with an author!

In THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, which is a groundbreaking --- and highly praised --- work from a master, a man returns to his childhood home and discovers an unremembered past of danger, sacrifice and love. As we said, winners will be asked to read the book and come up with 3-5 questions for Neil by Thursday, July 31st, so please consider this deadline as you offer to read the book and participate; we need a solid commitment from you for this. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, June 20th at noon ET. A copy of the book will be sent to each winner in early July to give you plenty of reading time for the July 31st deadline.

Coincidentally, Sue, one of our readers, reached out to me looking for a guide for discussing this title. She noted that because it’s a fantasy title, it lies outside the realm of her group’s typical discussion books, but she has had a lot of success and good response with books like this in the past. Here’s a blog piece where we talked to Sue about her book group and their thoughts on reading fantasy --- and THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE.

We had a terrific response to our “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” Contest last month. The three groups who won copies of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS for their entire group are Michelle from "Chips and Dip" in Fairfield, CT; Nancy and her group in Brookfield, CT; and Shelley from "Parchement Perusers" in Centennial, CO. The most popular book group titles read by groups last month were THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green, THE FORTUNE HUNTER by Daisy Goodwin, ORPHAN TRAIN by Christina Baker Kline, and THE HUSBAND'S SECRET by Liane Moriarty.

By the way, both Emily and I saw the movie adaptation of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS and enjoyed it. I did like the book more, but realize that is typically the case with book to screen adaptations. With this book, the suspense as the story unfolded on the page left me wondering what was coming next; with the movie, it was all about anticipation of how scenes would play out. Emily said this about it: "It was sweet and funny and devastating, and Ansel Elgort [who plays Augustus Waters] is so cute!" This would be a great outing with your book group!

For this month, to celebrate its paperback release, we’re featuring AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED in our “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” Contest. From Khaled Hosseini, the internationally bestselling author of THE KITE RUNNER, AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED is a moving tale about the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. We’re giving three groups the opportunity to win 12 copies. All you need to do is tell us what YOUR BOOK GROUP is reading this month. Enter here by Tuesday, July 8th at noon ET for a chance to win. I selected this book as a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection last year; I think it’s Khaled’s best. We have a discussion guide here.

This month we have three featured guides to share with you. The first is SIGHT READING by Daphne Kalotay. It’s the story of three friends --- Remy, an ambitious conservatory student; Nicholas, a wunderkind on the cusp of success and its challenges; and the beautiful and fragile Hazel --- whose lives, have crisscrossed, diverged and interlaced since they first met 20 years ago, each discovering how the quest to create something real and true can lead to profound personal revelations --- and the unearthing of long-held secrets. Click here for the guide and here for the Bookreporter.com review.

Our featured second guide is Emma Healey’s darkly riveting debut, ELIZABETH IS MISSING. It’s a sophisticated psychological mystery that is also a heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory, identity and aging --- an elderly woman descending into dementia embarks on a desperate quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared. Her search for the truth will go back decades and have shattering consequences. Click here for the guide.

Our last featured guide this month is THAT NIGHT by Chevy Stevens, the New York Times bestselling author of STILL MISSING. It’s about Toni Murphy, who is finally leaving prison after 15 years after being jailed for a crime she didn't commit --- the murder of her sister. Toni just wants to get on with her life, but her ex-boyfriend Ryan, who was also set up for the murder, is determined to clear their name and get revenge on those who wronged them. Click here for the guide. STILL MISSING will be available in hardcover on June 17th. We will have our review then, and I am selecting this as a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. We had a group of early readers read THAT NIGHT a few months ago. You can see their comments here; we noted spoilers!

The official start of summer is just around the corner, though over at Bookreporter.com, summer already is in high gear with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We will be spotlighting a different title on select days throughout the summer, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter. We also will be sending a special daily newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here. Click here to see today’s giveaway title and enter to win.

In anticipation of Father’s Day coming up this weekend, we're giving you the opportunity to win a number of books and assorted goodies for yourself or the special man in your life. From now through Friday, June 13th at noon ET, 10 readers will be awarded a prize package that includes nine of the titles in this year’s feature, along with a "Best. Dad. Ever." T-shirt, a $10 Starbucks gift card and some dark chocolate with toffee. Click here to check out some of the dad-friendly titles, and enter to win.

Make sure to check out our “Rate Books for Book Groups” feature. As always, we encourage you to share books you think would be good for books groups, and check out books other readers suggest. Please note that these don’t necessarily need to be books that you have read with your book clubs --- they can simply titles that you think would be great for discussion! All entries will be posted shortly after the July 8th deadline.

Last but not least is this month’s poll question. In honor of National Audiobook Month, we want to know if you listen to audiobooks! Let us know by taking the poll here. We are thinking about doing more audiobook coverage at Bookreporter.com, and I welcome your suggestions about this!

You can see why we have not slowed down this month! WHEW! We’ll be back to you the week of July 7th with our next update. If your group is registered, you will see another newsletter from us in two weeks! Not registered? You can register your group here.

Read on…and here’s to a great discussion with your book group this month. And have a firecracker 4th!

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

 

We're giving away 40 copies of New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs' THE BEEKEEPER'S BALL, the second story in the Bella Vista Chronicles following THE APPLE ORCHARD. Each winner will also receive a special prize package, which includes book-themed goodies. To enter, please fill out this form by Tuesday, July 8th at noon ET.

THE BEEKEEPER'S BALL by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
THE BEEKEEPER’S BALL is the second story in the Bella Vista Chronicles. It follows THE APPLE ORCHARD (Harlequin MIRA, 5/2013).

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school --- a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista’s rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel’s project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past.

But Isabel’s carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O’Neill arrives to dig up old history. He’s always been better at exposing the lives of others than showing his own closely guarded heart, but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing sensuality of Isabel’s kitchen coax him into revealing a few truths of his own.

The dreamy sweetness of summer is the perfect time of year for a grand family wedding and the enchanting Beekeeper’s Ball, bringing emotions to a head in a story where the past and present collide to create an unexpected new future.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
 

We're giving 100 readers the chance to win an advance copy of #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE --- now available in paperback --- a stirring, terrifying and elegiac fable about a man who returns to his childhood home and discovers an unremembered past of danger, sacrifice and love. Winners will be asked to read the book and come up with 3-5 questions for Mr. Gaiman by Thursday, July 31st. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, June 20th at noon ET.

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman (Fantasy)
Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie --- magical, comforting, wise beyond her years --- promised to protect him, no matter what.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
 

SIGHT READING by Daphne Kalotay (Fiction)
On a Boston street one warm spring day, Hazel and Remy spot each other for the first time in years. Under ordinary circumstances, this meeting might seem insignificant. But Remy, a gifted violinist, is married to the composer Nicholas Elko --- once the love of Hazel’s life. It has been 20 years since Remy, an ambitious conservatory student; Nicholas, a wunderkind on the cusp of success and its challenges; and the beautiful and fragile Hazel, first came together, tipping their collective world on its axis. From Europe to America, from conservatory life to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, their lives have crisscrossed, diverged and interlaced, each discovering how the quest to create something real and true can lead to profound personal revelations --- and the unearthing of long-held secrets.

As Remy and Hazel find themselves once more linked by shifting fate, SIGHT READING explores mysteries of intuition and perception while unspooling a transporting story of marriage, family and the secrets we keep, even from ourselves.

-Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
 

ELIZABETH IS MISSING by Emma Healey (Psychological Thriller)
Despite Maud’s growing anxiety about Elizabeth’s welfare, no one takes her concerns seriously --- not her frustrated daughter, not her caretakers, not the police and especially not Elizabeth’s mercurial son --- because Maud suffers from dementia. But even as her memory disintegrates and she becomes increasingly dependent on the trail of handwritten notes she leaves for herself in her pockets and around her house, Maud cannot forget her best friend. Armed with only an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth --- no matter what it takes.

As this singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud’s rapidly dissolving present, the clues she uncovers lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: that of her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II. As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more than 50 years ago come flooding back, Maud’s search for Elizabeth develops a frantic momentum. Whom can she trust? Can she trust herself?

A page-turning novel of suspense ELIZABETH IS MISSING also hauntingly reminds us that we are all at the mercy of our memory. Always compelling, often poignant, and at times even blackly witty, this is an absolutely unforgettable novel.
 

At BookExpo America (BEA), we at ReadingGroupGuides.com had a chance to meet some of our readers at the Speed Dating session that we sponsored on Friday, May 30th. We know that many of you were not able to join us this year in New York, but you still are curious about what fall/winter 2014 books are perfect for book group discussions. Click here for a PDF of the slideshow with all the titles that were presented at the event. To give you an easy way to mark what you want to suggest at your future meetings, we are providing a spreadsheet with all the featured titles here.
 

Rate the books you have read to let us know if you think they would be good selections for book groups. You can add books that you have read personally or with your book group. Share the title and the author, and please pay attention to proper spelling. Capitalize words as appropriate! All submissions will be reviewed before they are posted on Tuesday, July 8th, thus your post will not appear immediately.
 

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR by Joël Dicker (Thriller)
I am crazy about THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR. As I was reading, I became addicted to it. I had a whole other stack of books calling my name for projects and pleasure reading, but I could not put this one down. Around our house, it was not just me who felt like this. My son, Greg, got back from a trip to Europe, and though he was wickedly jetlagged one night, he stayed up until the wee hours to finish the last 300 pages, proving that my addiction to reading it was not singular. In fact, it’s been a bestseller in Europe, and the last time I checked, it was translated into 32 languages.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.

THE HIDDEN CHILD by Camilla Lackberg (Psychological Thriller)
I was not familiar with Camilla Läckberg, though she is an international bestselling author, which clearly means I have some “reading catching up” to do. In her latest novel, THE HIDDEN CHILD, Erica Falck is a crime writer who has discovered a Nazi medal and some diaries among the things left behind by her late mother. She brings the medal to a local history teacher, who was her mom’s childhood friend, to see what he knows of it. He reveals few details, and more questions evolve when he is murdered two days later. Her husband, Patrik Hedstrom, is on paternity leave but finds himself drawn into this case. When he wheels the stroller into the police station, Erica becomes enraged as she fears Patrik is putting their child in harm’s way. She also resents that he is not parenting the way she feels it would be expected of her, which layers in an interesting social commentary storyline to the novel.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.
-Click here to read a Q&A with the author.

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart (Fiction)
I read WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart in four hours. For those four hours, I blocked out everything else that was going on. And since I read it in manuscript back in October, I have thought about it and looked forward to sharing it with readers. For those who like taut prose, you have it here.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.
 

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr (Historical Fiction)
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr is oh so beautiful. Set during World War II, Marie-Laure is a young blind girl living in Paris with her father, who is a master of locks at the Museum of Natural History. His job has him in charge of some of their most valued works. He constructs a miniature model of the streets of Paris for Marie-Laure to study so she can navigate the world around her. When she is 12, the Germans move into the city, and they are forced to flee to the town of Saint-Malo, where a reclusive uncle lives by the sea. And Marie-Laure must learn to navigate a whole new world. In a parallel story, a young orphan boy named Werner lives with his sister in Germany and is tapped to be part of the Hitler Youth, eventually given a role to breach the Resistance.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.


THE BLESSINGS by Elise Juska (Fiction)
My immediate family is small. Growing up, we lived across the street from a family of nine, and some of my grammar school and high school friends came from large families, thus I got to know these families from afar. Their houses fascinated me with large tables in the kitchen, children of various ages spilling from room to room, and people pegging where they were in the family pecking order. Reading THE BLESSINGS by Elise Juska reminded me of these families, where alone time is hard to come by and everyone lives in and out of each other’s pockets.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.


THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL by Nadia Hashimi (Fiction)
While I read a lot, a book like THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL by Nadia Hashimi is one that will stay with me and also made me feel grateful for where I live. It opens in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007, where Rahima lives with her mother, sisters and opium-addicted father. The only way that she can leave the house is by adopting the bacha posh custom of dressing like a boy, which she can do until her body matures. In this way, she attends school and moves freely around their village. But eventually she must become a girl again. At that point, she and her two sisters are married off to give the family some much-needed money, as well as a pipeline to opium for their father. What happens to Rahima is not new to her family. A century before, her great-aunt Shekiba, who was orphaned, also adopted a disguise as a man to survive. Their stories are intertwined, and it makes for a very compelling read.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.


DELICIOUS! by Ruth Reichl (Fiction)
I started my career at Condé Nast working at a magazine, so books set in the magazine world always capture my attention, as I like to see how authentic they are. With Ruth Reichl, I did not expect to be let down, as she was the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine before it folded, so her stories about Delicious! the magazine are spot on. Many know Reichl for her memoirs and her food writing, but she takes a new direction here with her debut novel, DELICIOUS!

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review.
 

Summer is just around the corner! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We will be hosting a number of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days throughout the summer, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also will be sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.

This year's featured titles include:

• ALL GOOD THINGS: From Paris to Tahiti: Life and Longing by Sarah Turnbull
• ALL THOSE VANISHED ENGINES by Paul Park
• THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB by Lily Koppel
• BIG LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty
• THE CURSED by Heather Graham
• FAIR PLAY by Deeanne Gist
• THE FAMILY BEACH HOUSE by Holly Chamberlin
• FLYING SHOES by Lisa Howorth
• THE FORTUNE HUNTER by Daisy Goodwin
• THE GLASS KITCHEN by Linda Francis Lee
• GOOD AS GONE by Douglas Corleone
• THE GOOD GIRL by Mary Kubica
• GUESTS ON EARTH by Lee Smith
• HEADHUNTERS ON MY DOORSTEP: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story by J. Maarten Troost
• THE IDEA OF HIM by Holly Peterson
• MY ACCIDENTAL JIHAD: A Love Story by Krista Bremer
• NECESSARY LIES by Diane Chamberlain
• NO RIVER TOO WIDE by Emilie Richards
• THE PARIS ARCHITECT by Charles Belfoure
• SAVE THE DATE by Mary Kay Andrews
• SCARED SCRIPTLESS by Alison Sweeney
• THE STORIES WE TELL by Patti Callahan Henry
• SUMMER DAYS by Lisa Jackson, Elizabeth Bass, Holly Chamberlin and Mary Carter
• THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY by Adriana Trigiani
• The Tangled Series (TANGLED, TWISTED, TAMED) by Emma Chase
• THAT NIGHT by Chevy Stevens
• THE THIRD SON by Julie Wu
• THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR by Joël Dicker
• WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? In anticipation of the big day, we're giving you the opportunity to win a number of books and assorted goodies for you or the special man in your life. From now through Friday, June 13th at noon ET, 10 readers will be awarded a prize package that includes nine of the titles in this year’s feature, along with a "Best. Dad. Ever." T-shirt, a $10 Starbucks gift card, and some dark chocolate with toffee.

This year's featured titles are:

• AMERICAN GUN: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms by Chris Kyle with William Doyle
• BLACKLIST by Jerry Ludwig
• THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
• A CASE FOR REDEMPTION by Adam Mitzner
• CRY FATHER by Benjamin Whitmer
• A DAD'S PRAYERS FOR HIS DAUGHTER: Praying for Every Part of Her Life by Rob Teigen and Joanna Teigen
• ENDURING COURAGE: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed by John F. Ross
• GOOD CALL: Reflections on Faith, Family, and Fowl by Jase Robertson with Mark Schlabach
• GUY ON FIRE: 130 Recipes for Adventures in Outdoor Cooking by Guy Fieri with Ann Volkwein
• THE HOUR OF THE INNOCENTS by Robert Paston
• THE KILL SWITCH: A Tucker Wayne Novel by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood
• NATCHEZ BURNING by Greg Iles
• THE SERPENT OF VENICE by Christopher Moore
• STARFIRE by Dale Brown
• THINK LIKE A FREAK by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR by Joël Dicker
• WARRIORS: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ted Bell
• WHEN I FIRST HELD YOU edited by Brian Gresko

The following guides are now available on ReadingGroupGuides.com:

THE BEEKEEPERS BALL by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
From “one of the best observers of stories of the heart” (Salem Statesman Journal), THE BEEKEEPER’S BALL is an exquisite and richly imagined novel of the secrets that keep us from finding our way, the ties binding us to family and home and the indelible imprint love can make on the human heart.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S BASTARD by Sally Cabot (Historical Fiction)
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S BASTARD by Sally Cabot is an absorbing and compelling work of literary historical fiction that brings to life a little-known chapter of the American Revolution --- the story of Benjamin Franklin and his bastard son, and the women who loved them both.

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics by Daniel James Brown (Sports History)
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT is an irresistible, true story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times --- the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant.

ELIZABETH IS MISSING by Emma Healey (Psychological Mystery/Thriller)
In this darkly riveting debut novel, a woman descending into dementia refuses to accept that her elderly best friend Elizabeth has simply disappeared --- and, as her mind retreats to a frightening place where the past and present collide, she embarks on a desperate quest for the truth that will have shattering consequences.

EYRIE by Tim Winton (Fiction)
Australia’s most decorated literary novelist Tim Winton brings to light the corners of humanity where hope prevails in even the most trying circumstances --- episodes that are by turns tough and tender, captured in scenes of unflinching realism.

THE FORTUNE HUNTER by Daisy Goodwin (Historical Fiction)
A beautiful empress, a handsome horseman and a bluestocking heiress form a passionate love triangle in this historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of THE AMERICAN HEIRESS.

HOTEL FLORIDA: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill (History)
From the raw material of unpublished letters and diaries, official documents and recovered reels of film, Amanda Vaill has created a narrative of love and reinvention, which traces the tangled wartime destinies of three couples against the backdrop of a critical moment in history.

MY STRUGGLE: Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Memoir)
With an uncanny eye for detail, Karl Ove Knausgaard breaks down his own life story to its elementary particles, reliving memories, reopening wounds and examining with candor the turbulence and the epiphanies that emerge from his own experience of fatherhood, the fallout in the wake of his father’s death and his visceral connection to music, art and literature (book one of three).

MY STRUGGLE: Book 2 by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Memoir)
This nerve-striking, addictive piece of hyperrealism by the Norwegian Critics’ Prize-winning author of A TIME FOR EVERYTHING has become a phenomenon throughout Scandinavia (book two of three).

MY STRUGGLE: Book 3 by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Memoir)
Karl Ove’s dilemmas strike nerves that give us raw glimpses of our particular moment in history as we witness what happens to the sensitive and churning mind of a young man trying --- as if his very life depended on it --- to find his place in the disjointed world around him (book three of three).

THE NEVER NEVER SISTERS by L. Alison Heller (Fiction)
THE NEVER NEVER SISTERS is an absorbing tale of family secrets --- the secrets we keep to protect our loved ones, the ones we rely on to guard ourselves and those from which we learn.

SIGHT READING by Daphne Kalotay (Fiction)
SIGHT READING explores mysteries of intuition and perception while unspooling a transporting story of marriage, family and the secrets we keep, even from ourselves.

THAT NIGHT by Chevy Stevens (Psychological Thriller)
A stunning breakout novel from the New York Times bestselling author of STILL MISSING in which a woman is convicted of her sister's murder.

THE TILTED WORLD by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly (Historical Fiction)
Set against the backdrop of the historic flooding of the Mississippi River, THE TILTED WORLD is an extraordinary tale of murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, and a man and a woman who find unexpected love.

Please note that these titles, for which we already had the guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:

AND THEN I FOUND YOU by Patti Callahan Henry (Fiction)
AND THEN I FOUND YOU gives new life to the phrase “inspired by a true story.” By traveling back to a painful time in her own family’s history, bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act.

BIG BROTHER by Lionel Shriver (Fiction)
BIG BROTHER is a striking novel about siblings, marriage and obesity from Lionel Shriver, the acclaimed author the international bestseller WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN.

CINNAMON AND GUNPOWDER by Eli Brown (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
Here is a gripping adventure, a seaborne romance, and a twist on the tale of Scheherazade --- with the best food ever served aboard a pirate’s ship.

THE LEMON ORCHARD by Luanne Rice (Romance)
Bestselling author Luanne Rice gives us an affirming story about the redemptive power of compassion, set in the sea- and citrus-scented air of the breathtaking Santa Monica Mountains.

SWEET SALT AIR by Barbara Delinsky (Fiction)
A woman has a secret that may save the life of her best friend's husband --- or destroy him. Filled with real, gut-wrenching emotion as well as a strong romantic storyline, SWEET SALT AIR is a new offering from a beloved storyteller guaranteed to make you laugh and cry.