Today I come to you with open ears (well, eyes) and an open heart. I have a problem and am in need of your help.
I. am in. a reading. rut.
Tragic, I know.
The books I’ve picked up the last couple of nights just aren’t doing it for me and I’m kind-of, sort-of know what I’m in the mood for but nothing I grab off the shelves satisfies me. Don’t you hate that? So I figured I would lean on you, my one-stop circulation specialist shop, to see what you recommend I delve into next.
Last week I was reading something fairly modern with a mystery twist to it. And it lost me. For now anyway. I want something rooted a bit more in history but not too historical fiction-y (Read – no Tudors, princesses, or queens right now. I love them but they can wait.) Perhaps I want a contemporary classic? I do love coming-of-age stories. Or since we are flirting with Spring here in New York City, maybe I’m in the mood for something light and airy but not too fluffy? It is hard to say.
So, please give me the best you got and I promise I will take all your wonderful suggestions to heart. Also, if you are in the same boat I am, unburden your heart and perhaps someone can throw you a line.
Thanks in advance!
-Marie
PS – Don’t worry about crossing publisher lines. We have been known to cheat a little here. I won’t tell if you won’t!
If not, you should. Read it Forward is the monthly book group focused e-newsletter produced by our friends up in the Crown Publishing Group. In this month’s newsletter is a wonderfully original feature on the “editor-model hybrid.” Yes, you read right. And I thought meeting authors and going to ALA were a cool job perks. Click here to find out how an editor landed on a book cover!
Random House, Inc. has announced that Knopf is publishing former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s memoir, out in September.
“Tony Blair:The Journey will break new ground in prime ministerial memoirs just as Blair himself broke the mould of British politics,” said Gail Rebuck, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Random House Group. “His book is frank, open, revealing, and written in an intimate and accessible style. As an account of the nature and uses of power, it will have a readership that extends well beyond politics, to all those who want to understand the challenge of leadership in today’s world.”
Be sure to add this one to your lists for your politically focused patrons!
Knowing about the book and what an incredible story it is, it came as no surprise to me when it was announced today that Wes Moore, the dashing, charismatic, and intelligent author of “The Other Wes Moore,” would be appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on CBS Sunday Morning.
Here is the editorial description for the book:
Two kids with the same name were born blocks apart in the same decaying city within a year of each other. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation.
Don’t be surprised if these appearances result in even more publicity for this great story. This one might just take off.
Just announced yesterday, the Maryland Humanities Council has selected Outcasts United: Outcasts United: An American Town, A Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference as the 2010 One Maryland One Book read.
For more on this exciting common reading adoption, visit the new Common Reads blog, dedicated to connecting schools and communites through one book.
There you will also find feedback from program coordinators; videos, links and other author extras; the latest adoption news within the One Book, One Community and First-Year Experience communities; and FREE giveaways (including this one).
If you, or your colleagues, are a part of your community’s One Book program, you do not want to miss this new resource. You may also request or download the new One Book, One Community catalog.
Perhaps I’m a bit late to the party but I just finished reading Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls last week. I admit I wasn’t too sure about it because the cover, while gorgeous, was so pretty I figured it was going to be a “too pretty”. I should have known better. See wonderfully illuminates the plight of the Chinese American immigrant in 1930’s through the story of May and Pearl, two sisters. And their story reads so realistically at points you can almost see the Angel Island Immigration offices, the streets of Shanghai and the palm trees of Los Angeles.
If you have yet to pick this one up, take a look at the video below and then don’t stress about your tardiness. Paperbacks are sometimes better anyway, right?
The finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award have been announced and two Random House, Inc. books are among them.
Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairsand Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harborjoin literary heavyweight Barbara Kingsolver (The Lacuna) and two others who are nominated for the award, which was founded by writers in 1980 and partially named after William Faulkner.
Previous Random House, Inc. winners in recent years include: Netherlandby Joseph O’Neill (2009), Everymanby Phillip Roth (2007) and The March by E.L. Doctorow (2006).
On sale this April: David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker and one of America’s premier nonfiction authors, takes on the rise of Barack Obama in THE BRIDGE.
From the press release:
NEW YORK, 22-Feb-10 — New Yorker editor and best-selling author David Remnick has written a biography of Barack Obama that will be published by Alfred A. Knopf on April 6th, it was announced today by Sonny Mehta, Chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. THE BRIDGE: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama is a sweeping and deeply reported look at both the life of the 44th President and the complex saga of race in America that led to his historic election.
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Remnick won the Pulitzer Prize for his book LENIN’S TOMB, about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he is also the author of KING OF THE WORLD, a best-selling work on the evolution of Cassius Clay into Muhammad Ali in the midst of the civil-rights movement.
Do you Read it Forward?
There you will also find feedback from program coordinators; videos, links and other author extras; the latest adoption news within the One Book, One Community and First-Year Experience communities; and FREE giveaways (
