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Editorial Content for The Fourteenth of September

Teaser

THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER portrays a pivotal time at the peak of the Vietnam War through the rare perspective of a young woman, tracing her path of self-discovery and a “coming of conscience.”

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THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER portrays a pivotal time at the peak of the Vietnam War through the rare perspective of a young woman, tracing her path of self-discovery and a “coming of conscience.”

About the Book

Inspired by the fact that so little was known of the female stories of the Vietnam War years and determined to give voice to the women of her generation, debut novelist Rita Dragonette drew upon her personal experiences as a student on an army scholarship in 1969-1970 and crafted this compelling, coming-of-age historical novel.

Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her 19th birthday by secretly joining the antiwar movement on her college campus. As the recipient of an army scholarship and the daughter of a military family, Judy has a lot to lose. But her doubts about the ethics of war have escalated, especially after her birthdate is pulled as the first in the new draft lottery. If she were a man, she would have been among the first off to Vietnam with an under-fire life expectancy measured in seconds. The stakes become clear for Judy as she is propelled towards a life-altering choice as fateful as that of any lottery draftee, yet also finds herself down a path of self-discovery and, ultimately, a “coming of conscience."

Kirkus Reviews called this debut “an often fresh take on the collegiate anti-war movement in small-town America.”

» Click here to read a Q&A with Rita Dragonette.

Editorial Content for Homeland Elegies

Teaser

A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, HOMELAND ELEGIES blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made.

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A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, HOMELAND ELEGIES blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made.

About the Book

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of DISGRACED and AMERICAN DERVISH: an immigrant father and his son search for belonging --- in post-Trump America, and with each other.

A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, HOMELAND ELEGIES blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son and the country they both call home.

Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation’s unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one --- least of all himself --- in the process.

Editorial Content for The Last Story of Mina Lee

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A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.

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A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.

About the Book

A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.

Margot Lee's mother, Mina, isn't returning her calls. It's a mystery to 26-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother's life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.

Interwoven with Margot's present-day search is Mina's story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she's barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.

Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets and what it truly means to belong.

Editorial Content for One by One

Book

Teaser

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE TURN OF THE KEY and IN A DARK, DARK WOOD returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.

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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE TURN OF THE KEY and IN A DARK, DARK WOOD returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.

About the Book

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE TURN OF THE KEY and IN A DARK, DARK WOOD returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.

Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers...each with something to gain, something to lose and something to hide.

When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.

As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder and the group dwindles further...one by one.

Editorial Content for Transcendent Kingdom

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Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national bestseller HOMEGOING is a powerful, raw, intimate and deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

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Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national bestseller HOMEGOING is a powerful, raw, intimate and deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

About the Book

Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national bestseller HOMEGOING is a powerful, raw, intimate and deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression, addiction and grief --- a novel about faith, science, religion and love. Exquisitely written and emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

Editorial Content for When We Were Vikings

Teaser

WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS is an uplifting debut novel about an unlikely heroine whose journey will leave you wanting to embark on a quest of your own...because, after all, we are all legends of our own making.

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WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS is an uplifting debut novel about an unlikely heroine whose journey will leave you wanting to embark on a quest of your own...because, after all, we are all legends of our own making.

About the Book

For Zelda, a 21-year-old Viking enthusiast who lives with her older brother, Gert, life is best lived with some basic rules:

1. A smile means “thank you for doing something small that I liked.”
2. Fist bumps and dabs = respect.
3. Strange people are not appreciated in her home.
4. Tomatoes must go in the middle of the sandwich and not get the bread wet.
5. Sometimes the most important things don’t fit on lists.

But when Zelda finds out that Gert has resorted to some questionable --- and dangerous --- methods to make enough money to keep them afloat, Zelda decides to launch her own quest. Her mission: to be legendary. It isn’t long before Zelda finds herself in a battle that tests the reach of her heroism, her love for her brother, and the depth of her Viking strength.

“A most welcome and wonderful debut” (Tyrell Johnson, author of THE WOLVES OF WINTER), WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS is an uplifting debut about an unlikely heroine whose journey will leave you wanting to embark on a quest of your own...because, after all, we are all legends of our own making.

Bookaccino Event on October 14th

September 17, 2020

Thanks to all of you who answered our recent ReadingGroupGuides.com survey where we looked at what your book groups have been doing during the pandemic. 59% of you are now meeting on Zoom (a platform that I am sure 99% of you had never heard of before March), while another 4% are using other online platforms. 24% are meeting in person, practicing social distancing. Only 13% noted that they had suspended all group activities for the moment.

For those 13% not meeting, 57% said that they only want to meet in person when the pandemic is “under control” to do this, but they do not require there to be a vaccine. 12% want to meet in person only after a vaccine is available. 17% need to get more comfortable with technology.

Interview: Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies

Sep 16, 2020

Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play “Disgraced” and whose debut novel, AMERICAN DERVISH, was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012. His highly anticipated second work of fiction, HOMELAND ELEGIES, is about an immigrant father and his son who search for belonging --- in post-Trump America, and with each other. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com reviewer Harvey Freedenberg, Akhtar talks about one of the book’s most powerful scenes --- Ayad’s description of his experience in Manhattan on 9/11 --- and how he went about recreating the terrible sights and overwhelming emotions of that day; what he thinks it will take for those who harbor suspicions about Muslims to view them with less hostility; and the pivotal role that dreams play in the novel.

Author Talk: Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September

Sep 14, 2020

Perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Heather Morris, Rita Dragonette’s debut novel, THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER, is based upon her personal experience on campus during the Vietnam War and is told through the rare perspective of a young woman who traces her path to self-discovery. In this interview, Dragonette talks about how what she lived through in 1969-1970 parallels the activism that is occurring right now in the United States; why she calls her book a coming-of-conscience novel; what she hopes readers will take away from the story; and her future writing projects.