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Editorial Content for Queen Bee

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Teaser

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank’s Carolina Lowcountry in this evocative tale that returns at long last to her beloved Sullivan’s Island.

Promo

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank’s Carolina Lowcountry in this evocative tale that returns at long last to her beloved Sullivan’s Island.

About the Book

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank’s Carolina Lowcountry in this evocative tale that returns at long last to her beloved Sullivan’s Island.

Beekeeper Holly McNee Jensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivan’s Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she’s a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted hypochondriac, might be unaware that she’s quite ill, but that doesn’t stop her from tormenting Holly. To escape the drama, Holly’s sister Leslie married and moved away, wanting little to do with island life. Holly’s escape is to submerge herself in the lives of the two young boys next door and their widowed father, Archie.

Her world is upended when the more flamboyant Leslie returns and both sisters, polar opposites, fixate on what’s happening in their neighbor’s home. Is Archie really in love with that awful ice queen of a woman? If Archie marries her, what will become of his little boys? Restless Leslie is desperate for validation after her imploded marriage, squandering her favors on any and all takers. Their mother ups her game in an uproarious and theatrical downward spiral. Scandalized Holly is talking to her honey bees a mile a minute, as though they’ll give her a solution to all the chaos. Maybe they will.

QUEEN BEE is a classic Lowcountry Tale --- warm, wise and hilarious, it roars with humanity and a dropperful of whodunit added for good measure by an unseen hand. In her 20th novel, Dorothea Benton Frank brings us back to her beloved island with an unforgettable story where the Lowcountry magic of the natural world collides with the beat of the human heart.

Stephanie Scott

Stephanie Scott is a Singaporean-British writer who was born and raised in South East Asia. She read English Literature at the Universities of York and Cambridge, and holds an M.St in Creative Writing from Oxford University. She was awarded a British Association of Japanese Studies Toshiba Studentship for her anthropological work on WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS and has been made a member of the British Japanese Law Association as a result of her research. She has won the A.M.

Win 12 Copies of ASK AGAIN, YES by Mary Beth Keane for Your Group

Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.

Our latest prize book is ASK AGAIN, YES by Mary Beth Keane, an extraordinary novel that is now available in paperback. This Bookreporter.com Bets On pick is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness, as two families try to stay afloat amid a resounding tragedy. To enter, please fill out the form below by Wednesday, June 3rd at noon ET.

- Click here to watch our "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Mary Beth Keane.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
 

Kelly Rimmer

Kelly Rimmer is the worldwide and USA TODAY bestselling author of BEFORE I LET YOU GO, ME WITHOUT YOU and THE SECRET DAUGHTER. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, two children and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Dete Meserve

Dete Meserve is the award-winning, bestselling author three novels in the Kate Bradley mystery series: GOOD SAM, PERFECTLY GOOD CRIME and THE GOOD STRANGER (coming May 19, 2020), and a fourth stand-alone mystery/suspense novel, THE SPACE BETWEEN. Her first nonfiction book, RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS, co-authored with journalist Rachel Greco was published in March 2019.

April 30, 2020

So what has your book group been up to? Are you meeting remotely? Are you still reading and emailing each other about the books you are reading? Are you postponing your discussions? Shoot me a note at [email protected]. PLEASE use the subject line (so I can find your comment) “My Group,” and in our next newsletter I will let you know what we are hearing from people around the country. If you are not reading the same book for discussion, I am going to recommend that you all share what you are reading in emails to each other. You know your fellow members' tastes, so your recommendations can be golden!

Megan Miranda

Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of ALL THE MISSING GIRLS, THE PERFECT STRANGER and THE LAST HOUSE GUEST, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. She has also written several books for young adults, including COME FIND ME, FRAGMENTS OF THE LOST and THE SAFEST LIES. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children.

Editorial Content for Circe

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Teaser

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, CIRCE is a triumph of storytelling --- an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

Promo

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, CIRCE is a triumph of storytelling --- an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

About the Book

"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times).

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child --- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power --- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, CIRCE is a triumph of storytelling --- an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

Editorial Content for The German Heiress

Teaser

For readers of THE ALICE NETWORK and THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS, Anika Scott's novel is an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany.

Promo

For readers of THE ALICE NETWORK and THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS, Anika Scott's novel is an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany.

About the Book

For readers of THE ALICE NETWORK and THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS, an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany.

Clara Falkenberg, once Germany’s most eligible and lauded heiress, earned the nickname “the Iron Fräulein” during World War II for her role operating her family’s ironworks empire. It’s been nearly two years since the war ended, and she’s left with nothing but a false identification card and a series of burning questions about her family’s past. With nowhere else to run to, she decides to return home and take refuge with her dear friend, Elisa.

Narrowly escaping a near-disastrous interrogation by a British officer who’s hell-bent on arresting her for war crimes, she arrives home to discover the city in ruins, and Elisa missing. As Clara begins tracking down Elisa, she encounters Jakob, a charismatic young man working on the black market, who, for his own reasons, is also searching for Elisa. Clara and Jakob soon discover how they might help each other --- if only they can stay ahead of the officer determined to make Clara answer for her actions during the war.

Propulsive, meticulously researched and action-fueled, THE GERMAN HEIRESS is a mesmerizing page-turner that questions the meaning of justice and morality, deftly shining the spotlight on the often-overlooked perspective of Germans who were caught in the crossfire of the Nazi regime and had nowhere to turn.

Editorial Content for Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

Teaser

HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD is the heartrending story of a mid-century American family with 12 children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.

Promo

HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD is the heartrending story of a mid-century American family with 12 children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.

About the Book

The heartrending story of a mid-century American family with 12 children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins --- aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony --- and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the 10 Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope.