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April 19, 2024

Through the years, I have met hundreds of authors in person, and others via their social media or virtual events. I have seen more speak in front of audiences at award shows or festivals. For some, I know lots about their lives --- their children, their spouses, their pets. For others, much less. For every author who I have read, there is a connection to them via the printed page.

Recently, two authors shared peeks inside their lives with unsettling information about their health.

Interview: Steven Hale, author of Death Row Welcomes You: Visiting Hours in the Shadow of the Execution Chamber

Apr 18, 2024

In the vein of WAITING FOR AN ECHO and DEAD MAN WALKING, DEATH ROW WELCOMES YOU is a deeply immersive look at justice in America, told through the interwoven lives of condemned prisoners and the men and women who come to visit them. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, award-winning journalist Steven Hale talks about his inspiration for the book and the challenges he faced during the writing process, the lessons he has learned from befriending death row inmates, and his thoughts on the fate of capital punishment.

Genevieve Kingston, author of Did I Ever Tell You?: A Memoir

Genevieve (Gwen) Kingston was just 11 years old when her mother passed away, leaving behind a chest filled with gifts and letters to celebrate the milestones of Gwen’s life and each of her birthdays until age 30. When DID I EVER TELL YOU? opens, just three packages remain: engagement, marriage and first baby. Tracing Gwen’s coming-of-age, the book reveals a treasure hunt, with each gift and letter unveiling more about her mother, her family and --- ultimately --- herself. Like CRYING IN H MART by Michelle Zauner and THE LAST LECTURE by Randy Pausch, DID I EVER TELL YOU? is a riveting book filled with unexpected twists and powerful life lessons. Through her mother’s fierce and courageous love, Gwen was granted the tools not only to move through grief but to cherish life.

April 16, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 15th and April 22nd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our special contest for Ann Hood’s upcoming novel, THE STOLEN CHILD. This future Bookreporter.com Bets On title is about an unlikely duo who ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate. In anticipation of the book’s May 7th release, we are awarding an advance copy to 25 readers. The deadline for your entries is Friday, April 26th at noon ET.

April 16, 2024

My book group is celebrating six years this month, and we are really proud to hit this number. Except for me, my book club is made up of women in their 40s. When we started, many of their children were in nursery school or just starting school. I love hearing stories about their children, as well as their thoughts about books. We typically talk about what we are reading outside the group as well. Many of them, myself included, have said that it is their favorite night of the month.

April 16, 2024

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this spring. Read more about it, and enter our Spring Preview Contest by Wednesday, April 17th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of DID I EVER TELL YOU?: A Memoir by Genevieve Kingston, which is now available and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Leif Enger, author of I Cheerfully Refuse

Set in a not-too-distant America, I CHEERFULLY REFUSE is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure and a lawless society. As his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.

Percival Everett, author of James

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, who recently has returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN remain in place, Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Megan Miranda, author of Daughter of Mine

When Hazel Sharp, the daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town --- and people --- she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel is not the only relic of the past to return. A drought has descended on the region. And as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

Editorial Content for The Familiar

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Whether you are a longtime fan of bestselling author Leigh Bardugo’s young adult novels or have only discovered her work through her adult debut, NINTH HOUSE, you know this to be true: a new Bardugo book is a gift, an excuse to drop everything, suspend your disbelief and rush unflinchingly into whatever magical world she has crafted for you next. Read More

Teaser

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers that the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position. What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. The king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen --- and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain his favor. As Luzia's notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath.

Promo

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers that the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position. What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. The king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen --- and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain his favor. As Luzia's notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath.

About the Book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen --- and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive --- even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

Audiobook available, read by Lauren Fortgang