Displaying articles for: February 2012
"[P]erhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today.”
-Washington Post
Our Spotlight program takes a Medieval turn with the latest $0.99 featured title—Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling The Last Kingdom.
This first book in Cornwell’s Saxon Tales series offers a sweeping story of the epic 9th-century battle between the forces of King Alfred and the Vikings who are quickly dismantling the Anglo Saxon empire. Caught in the complex crosshairs of this historic struggle is Uhtred, who was captured in an earlier battle and trained in the Viking ways of battle and turned against his homeland. Not only is Cornwell one of our greatest contemporary storytellers, his books are filled with incredible historical detail that brings the bloody Middle Ages to life on the page.
This irresistibly priced title is a great introduction to a thrilling six-book series.
A free sample excerpt from this book is available for download on the product page now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Bernard Cornwell” to download his bestselling historical adventures.
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Last year, I highlighted Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Malice-award winning novel In the Bleak Midwinter—introducing mystery readers to one of the genre’s finest writers. Today, I’m happy to let you know that the second book in her Clare Fergusson mystery series, A Fountain Filled with Blood, is just $2.99 for a limited time.
Once again, Army helicopter pilot-turned- Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson is drawn into a complex and dangerous investigation in her small Adirondack town. When a gay developer begins construction on a new resort, a series of brutal homophobic attacks follow, culminating in a murder. Clare is determined to expose those responsible for the hate crimes, but feels pressure from the local police chief, Russ Van Alstyne, to downplay the controversy surrounding the attacks. Spencer-Fleming’s plot explores complex issues with nuance and respect, and ratchets up the forbidden attraction between Clare and Russ as they once again team up to bring a sense of calm to the town.
A free sample excerpt from this book is available for download on the product page now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Julia Spencer Fleming” to download her award-winning series.
Fans of smart, sophisticated international thrillers will be immediately drawn into today’s Free Fridays selection: A World I Never Made by James LePore. LePore dives straight into the action with an intriguing premise: Pat Nolan, an American man, gets word that his estranged daughter Megan has committed suicide in Paris, and he immediately travels to identify her body. But when he arrives, the dead woman is not Megan, and it’s clear that she must have staged this disturbing scene as a way to send a vital message to her father.
What follows is a fascinating adventure—as Pat quickly realizes that his daughter is in grave danger thanks to her ill-advised relationship with a Saudi businessman, and he’ll need to dig deep and rely on his protective instincts to bring her to safety.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what James recommends:
I am a huge Alan Furst fan, and Spies of the Balkans is my favorite of his novels. Set primarily in Greece, with the incredible pre-WW2 tension looming over the country, we get the story of a cop who agrees to help Jews escape the Nazi's death machine, and there's a great love story as well.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “James LePore” to download his thrilling novels.
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What young girl hasn’t dreamed of owning her own horse? There’s something irresistible about the thought of taking off on a trail ride, dressed in the latest riding gear, and leaving your ordinary life behind.
Jessica Burkhart’s Canterwood Crest series will capture young readers’ imaginations with tales from a prestigious riding academy. The fourteen books in this equestrian series are available for a limited time for just $2.99 each. In the first book, Take the Reins, readers meet Sasha, a new student at Canterwood who earns accolades for her riding skills, but attracts her fair share of jealousy as well. Gossip Girl meets Black Beauty in this hit YA series.
Free sample excerpts from these books are available for download on the product pages now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Jessica Burkhart” to download this value-priced series.
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Young readers have fallen head over paws for the wildly popular Warriors series. The newest Spotlight title, Into the Wild, offers a chance for new readers and longtime fans to own the first book in this feline-centric series for just $0.99.
Erin Hunter’s epic Warriors saga is comprised of 34 titles—including the newest title, The Forgotten Warrior—and features a cast of warrior cat clans who have ruled the forest for generations, maintaining a tenuous peace. In the series debut, an ordinary housecat named Rusty is pulled into the clans’ feud, and finds that he has powerful skills that make him a formidable warrior.
Young adults with active imaginations—and cat fanciers of all ages—will delight in the charms of this exciting fantasy series.
A free sample excerpt from this book is available for download on the product page now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for "Erin Hunter" to download this Spotlight offer.
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In honor of Presidents’ Day, we’re highlighting great deals on some fantastic Presidential NOOK Books. In fact, each of these nine books can be yours for less than a Lincoln – that is, for under $5! Whether you’re an early-American history buff, or prefer reading about the trials and triumphs of more recent office-holders, we have a great value-priced title that you’ll want to add to your collection.
To be honest, I cannot tell a lie—these are some can’t-miss deals.
Giants by John Stauffer: $1.99
Revolutionaries by Jack Rakove: $3.99
Everything American Presidents Book by Martin Kelly & Melissa Kelly: $3.99
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter by E. Stanly Godbold, Jr.: $1.99
The Founding Fathers Reconsidered by R.B. Bernstein: $1.99
Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson by Irving Bernstein: $2.99
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer: $2.99
Free sample excerpts from these books are available for download on the product pages now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search by author name to download these Presidential reads.
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Today's Free Friday's book, Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins, is a captivating and uplifting novel about a town on the brink of disaster that finds a very unlikely savior.
Bernadine Brown's husband may have thought he could pull one over on her - but when she finds out he's cheating on her, the $275 million divorce settlement she gets is a nice consolation prize. Now in her fifties, with plenty of money to burn, Bernadine looks for a worthy way to spend her sudden windfall.
Enter Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. After falling on hard times, the town is now for sale on the internet, and Bernadine jumps at the chance to buy, and rebuild, this historic community. Bernadine, the town's mayor, and some enthusiastic residents join hands to bring a new vision to the town, and in the process, our heroine finds new strength and determination to rebuild her life as well.
Bring on the Blessings is a perfect read for Black History Month - a chance to explore an interesting era of post-Civil War history through the lens of a wonderful modern story.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Beverly recommends:
Buy Black Gun, Silver Star by Art T. Burton! US Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves is one of America's unsung heroes. Art T. Burton's research is stellar!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Beverly Jenkins” to download her bestselling books.
Read more...With books—as in life—anticipation is half the fun. Waiting days, months, years (we’re looking at you, George R.R. Martin) for your favorite author’s next book helps build excitement until publication day.
With that in mind, here are some upcoming NOOK Books that we can’t wait to read—perfect titles to pre-order now.
NOOK-reader favorite H.P. Mallory is back with a new paranormal romance featuring the sassy, self-deprecating witch Jolie Wilkins: Witchful Thinking.Jolie thinks she’s seen it all, but life continues to spring surprises. The latest shocker? She’s just been crowned Queen of the Underworld. Jolie may possess a rare gift for reanimating the dead, but she doesn’t know the first thing about governing disparate factions of supernatural creatures. She can barely maintain order in her own chaotic personal life, which is heading into a romantic tailspin. Jolie’s adventures continue on February 28!
Theodore Roosevelt is a biographer’s dream—hence, the many fascinating books that have explored every aspect of his life. In Island of Vice, available March 13, author Richard Zacks highlights Roosevelt’s adventures as the quixotic police commissioner of New York City.
When a young Roosevelt was appointed commissioner, he had the astounding gall to try to shut down the prevalent brothels, gambling joints, and after-hours saloons. This is the story of how TR took on Manhattan vice . . . and vice won.
Fans of ancient mythology will be captivated by The Song of Achilles, on-sale April 3 . Built on the groundwork of the Iliad, Madeline Miller’s page-turning, profoundly moving, and blisteringly paced retelling of the epic Trojan War marks the launch of a dazzling career.
Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. “The best of all the Greeks”—strong, beautiful, and the child of a goddess—Achilles is everything the shamed Patroclus is not. Yet despite their differences, the boys become steadfast companions. Their bond deepens as they grow into young men and become skilled in the arts of war and medicine—much to the displeasure and the fury of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.
When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece, bound by blood and oath, must lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search by author name to pre-order these highly-anticipated titles.
Read more...To help celebrate February’s Black History Month, today we’re featuring a guest blog post by Peggielene Bartels—the author of the unique and inspiring memoir King Peggy—available now for pre-order. Bartels has led a storybook life that’s almost too surreal to believe. She grew up in Ghana, went to school in London, became a U.S. citizen while working in the Ghanian embassy, and finally, returned home to Ghana to serve as king of her village. I’ll turn this post over to King Peggy to expand on this improbable story.
As a child, I never knew I would grow up to become a king. I had hoped to become a caterer.
But life has a way of twisting and turning you into surprising paths, causing you to end up in places you never imagined. I studied catering, to be sure, leaving my family in Ghana to attend school in London. Then I had an opportunity to work in the Ghanaian embassy in Washington, DC, which I planned to do for a year or two before returning home to my sauce pans and measuring cups. But somehow, a year or two became almost thirty, and I was still there working as a secretary. I had found love in that time, and lost it when my husband realized I couldn’t have children and returned to Ghana.
I wasn’t unhappy, to be sure, and I was grateful to be a naturalized American citizen with reliable work, excellent health care, hot and cold running water, a car, all those things out of reach for most Africans. Yet having grown up in a large African family, I never imagined I would be living alone, with no husband, no children, and working seven days a week to pay bills. Sometimes I wondered if my life had a purpose. Did I, as so many Americans seemed to do, exist only to pay bills? Is that really a life’s purpose? I had an intense spiritual yearning to connect with something greater than myself and thought perhaps I could be a religious leader of some sort. But that sure didn’t look like it was going to happen.
The phone call that changed my life came at 4 a.m. in August 2008. It was a cousin from Ghana who informed me that my ninety-two-year-old uncle, who for 25 years had been king of a fishing community called Otuam, had died. The elders had taken the names of the late king’s relatives to a sacred shrine, conducted rituals, and determined that I was the next king!
I nearly hung up the phone, thinking my cousin was playing a weird joke on me. But what he said was true. When I went to my new kingdom three weeks later, I found that there was no running water, no ambulance, poor schools, a rutted bone-rattling road, thieving elders who pocketed the taxes to buy themselves whiskey, and a falling-down royal palace that I was expected to rebuild.
It was a mind-boggling challenge. But I have two great advantages that are helping me transform my kingdom. For one thing, my decades in the United States have given me a Yankee can-do attitude that cuts through the corrupt, chauvinistic nonsense that plagues so much of Africa and, quite frankly, most of the world.
Secondly, the fact that I am a woman king is a tremendous bonus. Women have a unique power to gather resources for the less fortunate. We usually have great compassion, rectitude, and selflessness. The world has been run by men for thousands of years and now it’s time to let the women have a chance.
In the three years since I became king, I’ve found in myself qualities I never knew I had: strength, resilience, unbeatable determination, and utter devotion to my people. My life has a purpose now, one that will last me to my dying day, and I feel strongly connected to a higher power.
Though I am an anointed king, with a real gold crown, and a palace, and a town where my word is law, I will never forget where I came from. On the contrary, I feel very humble that kingship was bestowed on an ordinary person like me, who as a girl had dreamed of being a caterer.
I had also dreamed of having many children. And now, by God’s grace, I have 7,000 of them, and I have to take care of them the very best I can.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for "Peggielene Bartels" to pre-order this one-of-a-kind memoir.
Read more...Our Valentine's Day author guest blog comes courtesy of blogger Sarah Wendell, author of Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels. Her charming book is a smart, heartfelt collection of life lessons that she and fellow fans and writers have learned from romance books over the years. In honor of this most romatic of holidays, Sarah's offering NOOK Blog readers a summary of her top 5 lessons. Enjoy!
It's Valentine's Day, when every available retail surface is red and pink and chocolate all over, when thoughts turn to plans and gestures to demonstrate affection, and romance novels get a slight uptick in consumer attention. They are the books of love, after all. You might think you know what romance novels are about, but unless you've read some, you're likely harboring some out of date ideas. Romances contain powerful messages about relationships, including the many different ways to achieve a happily ever after.
In Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels , I, along with many romance readers and bestselling authors, outline the lessons we've learned from reading a marvelous number of romance novels. Here, in condensed format, are the top 5 lessons romance novels can teach you about achieving real-life happy endings.
5. Know yourself. Know what you want and what you like. Be the heroine of your own life. You can't find what makes you happy if you don't know what it is. It sounds really easy and obvious, but there can be a world of separation between what you want and enjoy, and what you might think you're supposed to want and enjoy.
4. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want! No romance novel featuring a psychic (and there are many!) ever featured a scene where the hero could telepathically determine the heroine's every wish and desire. How boring would that be? There's risk and danger in asking frankly for what you want, but there's ample reward and enjoyment when you get it.
3. Happy ever afters take work, attention, time, and caring. Happiness is not easy, but the effort is worth it. There's a reason many romances are 300+ pages long: the happy ever after is earned a thousand times over. The characters have to overcome conflict and fix a few pesky issues. That's true in real life, too. Author Teresa Medeiros said it best: never stop courting your spouse.
2. Value every relationship in your life, not just the romantic ones. Romance characters that readers love have more than just a romantic relationship: they have friends. Siblings. Parents. People who love them. Valentine's Day can be an overwhelming message about romance and couplehood, but it's also important to celebrate and value the people who love you, and the people who you love, every day - including Valentine's.
1. Happy endings are not about perfection. No romance character says, "I'd love you if you could change all these little things about yourself" - not without learning the error of that demand by the end of the story! Romance is about loving someone for who they are, right then, and knowing that you are loved in return, not in spite of but becauseof who you are.
Happily ever afters are not something that happens someday. They happen right now - to you. No matter what relationships you're celebrating this Valentine's Day, I hope we all live happily ever after.
Since Valentine's Day is a time to share your love with your kids as well, don't forget to explore our NOOK Kids' collection, with holiday books featuring Elmo, Dora the Explorer, Snuggle Puppy and more here.
A free sample excerpt from Sarah's book is available for download on the product page now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for "Sarah Wendell" to download her inspiring book.
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“Harvey's debut, launching the Drake Chronicles, is a refreshing take on the familiar teenage vampire drama.”
-Publishers Weekly
Nothing says Valentine’s Day like vampires in love. Right? In today’s Free Fridays selection, Alyxandra Harvey’s Hearts at Stake, 16 year-old Solange is facing even more stress than your average teenage girl. On top of the usual high school pressures, she’s turning into a vampire. While she joins her family’s centuries’-long feud with a band of vampire hunters, she’s also trying to blend in with her peers, with help from her supportive best friend Lucy. Whether you’re planning to spend Valentine’s Day at home with your NOOK, or planning to read Hearts at Stake right away, this is the perfect romantic adventure.
Once you fall in love (okay, I promise that’s my last Valentine’s reference) with the Drake Chronicles, watch for a series of three digital-only novellas available soon for NOOK. The first, A Killer First Day, will be available on February 14.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Alyxandra recommends:
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins because it made me laugh and I really, really love a good snarky heroine!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Alyxandra Harvey” to download her bestselling books.
Read more...Our NOOK First program—a chance for NOOK readers to be the first to get access to some hot new books—is off to a great start. I’m excited to introduce the next eight titles in the program, available now only for NOOK readers.
Badlands Bride tells the story of Lily Highfill, who’s spent long years in Denver, exiled from her wealthy, high-society family in Boston. With a betrothal to a titled Englishman nearly in her pocket and an invitation to return home to Boston in hand, Lily thinks her future is set and decides to spend her final month out West at her grandfather’s fossil dig in the Colorado badlands. Then a famous frontier journalist enters the bone hunters’ camp and stirs up trouble—and her heart.
In Heiress Without A Cause, a disgraced son with a dark reputation, William “Ferguson” Avenel, is content to live in exile – until his father dies in the scandal of the Season. With rumors of insanity swirling around them, his sisters desperately need a chaperone. Ferguson thinks he’s found the most proper woman in England – and he won’t ruin her, even if he secretly desires the passionate woman trapped beneath a spinster’s cap.
Every stolen kiss could lead to discovery, and Ferguson’s old enemies are determined to ruin them both. But as their dangerous passion ignites their hearts and threatens their futures, how can an heiress who dreams of freedom deny the duke who demands her love?
Bestselling author Lucy Kevin is back with a new contemporary romance series. After Julie Delgado's restaurant closes, she temporarily takes over the catering position at the Rose Chalet, a full-service San Francisco wedding venue. In The Wedding Gift, Julie plans to dazzle the bride and groom so the Chalet’s owner will keep her around, but fate has other plans for her when the bride’s brother shows up to the first food tasting, instead.
Andrew Kyle is not only the Cuisine Channel’s Edgy Eats host and chef, but his recent review of Julie’s restaurant was the final nail in her restaurant's coffin. Andrew sees food as passion, and once he meets Julie he’s certain she's playing it safe...and he wants nothing more than to be the one to break her guarded passions loose.
But despite the undeniable sparks between Julie and Andrew - and the fact that he seems to believe in her when no one else does - can she afford to be taking risks with her cooking, with her career…or with her heart?
In Concert collects the collaborative short fiction of Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem, who have worked at the cutting edge of imaginative fiction for over a quarter century. In the twenty-one tales herein, the reader will find fear, joy, and mystery. In Concert showcases the wide range of their collaborative work. The title story tells of a lonely elderly woman who achieves rapport with a lost astronaut through the power of music. In “The Icy Region My Heart Encircles,” an aging Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, keeps the heart of her late husband on the mantel and is haunted by her dead children and the living incarnation of her Monster. And in “The Man on the Ceiling,” the authors take turns telling of the fears and darkness common to all families, while reminding the reader that “everything I tell you is true.”
Kali's Tale is the third full length novel in The DeChance Chronicles. When Kali, a young vampire under the protection of the High Council in San Valencez, decides she must depart on a "Blood Quest," an attempt to kill the vampire who created her, Donovan DeChance is contacted to watch over her. What starts as a simple babysitting mission grows darker as Donovan uncovers secrets about the ancient vampire, George Starkey, alchemist, plague survivor, and much more dangerous than anything the High Council, or even Kali, could imagine. Along the way Donovan and his partner and lover, Amethyst, travel through ancient portals, run afoul of the shade of a blues musician in a Memphis Juke Joint, and finally find themselves in Old Mill, North Carolina, set against an enemy more powerful and devious than any they've encountered, and an evil dark enough to drown the world.
London, 1593. Christopher Marlowe, playwright, spy, and renowned womanizer, is desperately working on what could be his greatest play. But inspiration eludes him, until a chance encounter with a dark temptress rekindles his passion and the words start to flow with that famous passion.
This new occult thriller from bestselling authors Aaron Rosenberg and Steven Savile combines Elizabethan theatre, ancient mythology, and ageless seduction to create a dark, gripping tale that is both as old as time itself and wholly original.
What happens if the husband you've loathed for years suddenly died? In A Rural Affair, Poppy Shilling’s about to find out. But that's not the only thing she'll discover: her husband Phil wasn't the man she thought he was -- and she might not be the woman she thought she was, either. A #1 bestselling author in the UK with 10 bestsellers to her credit, the woman Marian Keyes calls "possibly my favorite writer, " crafts a "what if" read that will make your heart sing as you slip into the English countryside.
From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York’s Central Park is a straight line right through Bill Diehl’s last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.
There are seven basic ways to die. In 1969 Dr. John C. Cavanaugh catalogued them all in his Primer of Forensic Pathology-Cast Studies for the Novice M.E.
Micah Cody is a 30-something NYPD captain of homicide, who’s founded a special unit known as TAZ with city-wide license to take over any investigation at all, with special focus on serial killers. Now its ultimate challenge is on the loose in Manhattan, with three victims already whose causes of death seem like intentional defiance of TAZ’s existence—and four to go in four deadly days leading up to Halloween. Chronicling it all with great amusement is the Capote-like award-winning crime writer Ward Hamilton who, egged on by his sexually voracious socialite bedmate, is determined to bring TAZ to its knees journalistically.
Seven Ways to Die is a non-stop thrill ride with Diehl doing to the end what he did best throughout his bestselling career.
Free sample excerpts from these books are available for download on the product pages now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search by author name to be among the first to download these new NOOK Books.
Read more...As a baby of the 80s, I’m among the many generations whose early years were shaped by Sesame Street. I learned how to count from The Count, will never forget that C is for Cookie, and can’t pass a garbage can without wondering if Oscar is hiding inside.
So I’m incredibly excited to announce that many favorite Sesame Street books are now available for NOOK readers. In fact, one of my very favorite books as a child—The Monster at the End of This Book starring Grover—is among the new releases.
I hope you’ll have a chance to share these invaluable classic picture books with your kids.
The Monster at the End of This Book
As exciting as it is to announce brand new NOOK Books, some incredibly important classics are also being added every day. Today, Elie Wiesel's Night, one of the 20th Century's most influential and harrowing books, is available for NOOK.
In Night , Nobel laureate Wiesel brings to life the horrors of his teenage years in a Nazi death camp. In this second translation, by Wiesel's wife and frequent translator Marion, the author's poignant prose takes on new life, and captures both the incredible hardship and unrelenting hope that sustained him and the other survivors who lived to tell their tales so that the world would never forget. Millions of readers the world over have been inspired and moved by Wiesel's text, and this new edition offers another chance to revisit his classic memoir, or for new readers to explore it for the first time.
A free sample excerpt from Night is available for download on the product page now.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Elie Wiesel” to download this indispensable book.
Read more...According to B
orn to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives, by Frank Sulloway (Vintage, 1997), which Edmund O. Wilson called “one of the most authoritative and important treatises in the history of the social sciences,” children who are born second tend to be more rebellious, unconventional, creative, concerned about fairness and justice, and interested in travel than first-borns. Since -- like, say, George Soros -- my new novel Wild Thing is a second-born, examining how well it fits this description promises, if not to be interesting, to at least take up some space.
(In terms of birth order, unpublished novels, of which I have written many, don’t count. Anyone who studies intelligence in male Norwegian army conscripts will tell you that second-borns whose older siblings have died display similar birth-order correlations to first-borns. Which is to say they tend to be about one and a half IQ points smarter than “actual” second-borns, something I here choose not to dwell on. [See: Bjerkedal et al, “Intelligence test scores and birth order among young Norwegian men (conscripts) analyzed within and between families,” Science 35:5, 2007.])
Wild Thing is, I believe, more rebellious, unconventional, creative, concerned about fairness and justice, and interested in travel than my previous book, Beat the Reaper. It’s sharply political, it uses various narrative techniques, and it’s set in northern Minnesota. In other words it does some things that, except for the Minnesota part, are somewhat unusual for either a crime novel or a sequel. (For some reason Minnesota has one of the highest crime-novel-per-capita rates of anywhere outside Generic British Village.) And while I’m proud that it does those things, it wrecked a lot of cars and got thrown out of a lot of boarding schools growing up. Which I allowed to happen because I knew I’d go all out to rehab it if I had to.
The most personally gratifying review Wild Thing has received so far is the one by Lev Grossman in Time that, among other nice things, calls me “committed, 100%, in every sentence, to giving you a good time.” I’m committed to trying, in any case. I never know what effect my work will have on readers, so the only thing I can do is plow a ton of hours into trying to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. Doing that is what makes me feel free to take risks. I guess I figure that if the kid ends up with good enough manners, in the meantime it can burn down whatever it wants.
A free sample excerpt from this book is available for download on the product page now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for "Josh Bazell" to download his unique and entertaining books.
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"An author who can bring historical happenings so vitally back to life and made all the more impressive by being historically accurate in every respect."
- Times of London
Few historical periods were as drama-packed as the lead-up to World War II. In today’s Free Fridays selection, Winston's War: A Novel of Conspiracy, author Michael Dobbs recreates the rise of Winston Churchill as his country faced its biggest challenge ever.
While Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain clung to appeasement as the country’s only hope for peace, Churchill was among the brave dissenters who saw the true danger lurking in Hitler’s Germany. Dodd’s impeccably-researched novel follows Churchill’s brave campaign to change the minds and hearts of his countrymen, and face one of history’s greatest foes head on. The result is, “an intriguing tale of espionage and treason…this is a work to enthrall," (Daily Mail).
Once you’ve been entertained and informed by Winston’s War, sate your appetite for more historical fiction with Dodd’s other fascinating books: Churchill’s Hour, Churchill’s Triumph and Never Surrender.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Today, however, Michael's editor at Sourcebooks, Shana Drehs, Editorial Manager,is stepping in to offer one of her favorite historical novels.
I’m a big fan of Howard Fast’s The Immigrants. Growing up in the Midwest, my knowledge of American history on the west coast was somewhat lacking, to say the least. The Immigrants brings to life the vibrant and diverse mix of cultures that converged on San Francisco at the start of the 20th century. Fast juxtaposes the freedom offered to self-made men in the quickly developing new frontier with the jarring discrimination and prejudice against Asian-American immigrants. I just love The Immigrants and if you’re looking for great historical fiction, Fast is second to none.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Michael Dobbs” to download his evocative historical novels.
Read more...While everyone else is fixated on the meteorological prognostications of Punxsutawney Phil and his rodent brethren today, my memory strays to the unparalleled Bill Murray film Groundhog Day. The always-reliable Murray is at his cantankerously charming best playing a local weatherman who wakes up day after day, doomed to relive the day before. In his case, tomorrow never comes.
Last year, our blogger Paul Goat Allen introduced a fun list of Groundhog Day reads—books that you’ve read many times, and still can’t get enough of. A devoted science fiction and fantasy reader, Paul’s entries unsurprisingly included Dune and Treason, among others. This year, I’m adding my own addition, and I hope you’ll share some Groundhog Day books of your own.
My pick:
With such melancholy subject matter, it’s a bit surprising that I keep finding myself drawn to Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea . When a theater director retires to a seaside cottage, he quickly embroils himself in a real-life drama of Shakespearean proportions. As he single-mindedly pursues a married former flame, without regard for propriety or common sense, you both empathize and despise his single-minded mission.
Please add your Groundhog Day reads to the comments below, and share on Twitter, using #groundhogdaybook as well!
A free sample excerpt from The Sea, The Sea is available for download on the product page now.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Iris Murdoch” to download her many award-winning novels.
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Our newest Spotlight author—P.B. Ryan—will have historical mystery readers hitting the ‘buy’ button as soon as they read this post. The first book in her Nell Sweeney Mysteries series, Still Life With Murder, is now available for just $0.99.
Like the irresistible television series Downton Abbey, Still Life with Murder offers an insider’s look at a high society family and the domestic servants who work for them. Protagonist Nell Sweeny is a poor Irish immigrant who lands a coveted job as a governess for the wealthy Hewitt family in 1860s Boston. When one of the Hewitt sons—whom the family thought had been killed in the Civil War—turns up in prison, accused of murder, Nell quickly realizes that money and status can’t insulate you from life’s troubles. Now Nell’s distraught employer implores her to use her connections to the Boston underworld to help prove her son’s innocent, before the young man is marched to the gallows. Nell’s resourcefulness and plucky resolve make for an irresistible mystery with wonderful historical detail.
Once you’ve devoured Ryan’s charming first book, you’ll be ready to move right on to the rest. Find out more about her five additional Nell Sweeney books, including the newest—A Bucket of Ashes—here.
A free sample excerpt from this book is available for download on the product page now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “P.B. Ryan” to download her irresistible mysteries.
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