Library Love Fest

Man In The Woods gets the Trifecta!

Scott Spencer delivers the goods in his new novel and receives STARRED reviews in Kirkus and Booklist and Publishers Weekly.

The Washington Post says:
“This is a book to savor and read aloud, a book that is variously wise, funny and heartbreaking...The outcome must not be revealed here, except to say that it is as powerful as everything else in the book... ‘MAN IN THE WOODS’  is one of the three best novels I've read this year... and if you pressed me, I'd put it at the top of the list."

Want to read Man in the Woods?
Send an email to librarylovefest at harpercollins dot come and we’ll send a copy your way – with our compliments!

- Virginia

Starred review for Elizabeth Boyle’s new romance

Hey Romance fans! Check out this Booklist STARRED REVIEW of Mad about the Duke!

Booklist Online, September  20, 2010
Review of the Day   
 
He has to be going mad. That is the only explanation James Lambert St. Maur Thurston Tremont, the Duke of Parkerton, can come up with that would explain why he agreed to work for Elinor Sterling, the second dowager Lady Standon. After mistaking James for the Duke of Hollindrake’s man of business, Elinor proceeds to hire him as her new matchmaker. While Elinor already has come up with her own list of potential husbands ––all dukes and nothing but dukes––she wants James to vet the candidates. For some maddening reason, James finds himself accepting the task, but what is even more vexing is that his name isn’t even on the list. Well, James is just going to have to do something about that! Readers will have to be mad themselves not to fall in love with Boyle’s latest impeccably crafted romance. Featuring a captivating cast of engaging characters, a romance fueled by an abundance of sexy chemistry, and irresistibly witty writing, Mad about the Duke is an absolute delight.— John Charles

Tom Franklin: a star for a star!

BOOKLIST
September 1, 2010

*Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.  Franklin, Tom (Author)
Oct 2010. 288 p. Morrow, hardcover, $24.99. (9780060594664).

Rural Mississippi in the 1970s was rife with racial tension, but skin color didn’t matter to boyhood companions Silas Jones and Larry Ott. Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother, and Larry, the child of white lower-middle-class parents, were both outsiders, Silas because of his color, Larry because he was quiet and a little odd, his nose always buried in horror novels. The young men’s bond strengthened over time, until the night a pretty local girl went on a date with Larry to the drive-in movies and was never heard from again. No body was found and Larry never confessed, but that didn’t keep the townspeople from suspecting him. Estranged from his friend, Silas heads off to college in Oxford, Mississippi, and more than 20 years later, returns to take a job as town constable. He sees no reason to contact Larry, who’s settled into a lonely existence as a mechanic, unable to escape the relentless whispers and dirty looks. The disappearance of another girl brings the two former friends back together, forcing them to come to terms with buried secrets and dark truths. Edgar Award winner Franklin (Hell at the Breech, 2003) renders luminous prose and a cast of compelling characters in this moody, masterful entry.— Allison Block

Congratulations, Tom!

-Virginia

Booklist reviews...This Book is Overdue!

Librarians have been raving about Marilyn Johnson's forthcoming This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.  Now Booklist is joining in--here's their full review. 

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.
Johnson, Marilyn (Author)
Feb 2010. 288 p. Harper, hardcover, $24.99. (9780061431609). 020.92.

Contemporary librarians are morphing into undisputed masters of the information cosmos. An Internetsavvy, database-crunching cohort of multimedia manipulators passionately dedicated to empowering the data-deprived, they democratically distribute all the fruits of the emerging hypertext universe. Johnson’s paean to this new generation of librarians demolishes superannuated myths and stereotypes of fusty librarians filing catalog cards and collecting fines for overdue books, and replaces that with a vision of the profession’s future where librarians serve as guardians and guides to information in cyberspace. These rock-star librarians maneuver their way through a labyrinthine network of glowing computer-terminal screens to retrieve whatever answers patrons may seek. If that’s not high calling enough, librarians stand tall as superhero sentinels bravely beating back every assault on civil liberties and Constitutional government. Johnson offers portraits of American librarians, both institutional and freelance, already achieving fame as cybrarians and informationists, and she affirms and celebrates their conquests. Take that, Nicholson Baker!— Mark Knoblauch

Don't forget, you can read the first chapter here! 

-Kayleigh

Jeffrey Ford book giveaway!

Jeffrey Ford, one of my favorite authors here at Harper, won two World Fantasy Awards at this past weekend’s World Fantasy Convention. The Shadow Year won for Best Novel and The Drowned Life won for Best Collection.

The Shadow Year is a terrific coming of age story set in Long island, NY in the 1970s.  It’s quirky, edgy and humorous with just enough fantasy thrown in to keep you turning the pages (I’m not the audience for fantasy fiction and I absolutely loved this book.) The Shadow Year received a starred Kirkusreview (”Properly creepy, but from time to time deliciously funny and heart-breakingly poignant, too...this is not to be missed,”) and Booklist hailed it as “[s]urreal, unsettling, and more than a little weird. Ford has a rare gift for evoking mood with just a few well-chosen words and for creating living, breathing characters with only a few lines of dialogue.”

If you haven’t read Mr. Ford yet, do yourself a favor, start!  In fact, send an email to me at librarylovefest dot harpercollins dot com and I’ll send you a copy of The Shadow Year.  All I ask in return is a brief review of the book!

Check out my interview with Jeffrey Ford on Blog Talk Radio which aired February 2009.

Congratulations, Jeffrey Ford!

For more information, including a complete list of winning titles, please visit: http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/

-Virginia

Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation

Elizabeth Beckwith's Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation is on sale today! To celebrate, we are re-extending our Readers Advisory Book/Review Swap offer.  Want to read the book and review it? We'll send you a free copy.  Just shoot an email to librarylovefest at harpercollins.com for the book Booklist called "saucy" and "laugh-out-loud."

-Kayleigh 

Elizabeth Beckwith: Readers Advisory Book/Review Swap

Sometimes funny people write books that are meant to be funny but aren’t.  Elizabeth Beckwith is as funny on the page as she is on the stage.  Check out this great review in Booklist. Then check out the book itself.  Free copies to 25 lucky people who promise to send in a review – and tell all their friends about this funny writer.  Just shoot us an email at librarylovefest at harpercollins.com.
-Virginia

Beckwith, Elizabeth. Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation. HarperCollins. Oct. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-0-06-175957-4. pap. $14.99. HUMOR
Comedian and actress Beckwith here takes a saucy tongue-in-cheek approach to parenting advice, complete with laugh-out-loud funny chapter summaries, discussion questions, and pseudo letters from readers. Via chapters titled à la "How To Scare the Crap Out of Your Child (in a Positive Way)," readers relive much of Beckwith’s youth in her Italian Catholic family and will chortle at many of her experiences. Covering such topics as raising a nerd, Beckwith advises, "Instead of being cranky that your son didn’t make the football team, breathe a sigh of relief that he is now less likely to be involved in an ill-conceived gang-bang." Touché, Beckwith; well done!

A New Anne Frank Movie

In case you missed it, yesterday Early Word reported that Disney has acquired the rights to a new film version of The Diary of Anne Frank, with David Mamet helming the project.  Our very own Francine Prose was mentioned in the article, as was her forthcoming book Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (9780061578267).  Early Word reports: "One of Prose’s objections to the earlier versions is that they don’t show Anne’s growth as either a person or an artist; 'On the pages, she is brilliant, on the stage, she is a nitwit.' She also points out that they attempted to 'universalize' the story to broaden it’s appeal; few mentions are made of the family’s Jewishness and Anne was made to seem more hopeful. Says Prose about the movie, 'She sounds like an American girl. And why not? It’s an American movie.'" David Mamet is sure to challenge our assumptions about this beloved piece of literature, just as Francine Prose has done with her book.  Be sure to check out Booklist's starred review, in full, after the jump.