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The Hold List: Sophomore stunners

Feature by the editors of BookPage

We’re turning our attention to successful sophomore titles that soared over the high bars set by their authors’ first books.

The Lawrence Browne Affair

Cat Sebastian‘s first romance novel, The Soldier’s Scoundrel, had a pitch-perfect sense of the English Regency period and the dangers of being a gay man in that era. But in her second book, The Lawrence Browne Affair, Sebastian takes the queerness that has always lurked behind within gothic fiction and thrusts it fully into the light. Lawrence Browne, Earl of Radnor, is convinced that he’s going insane due to his difficult family history, his attraction to men and the panic attacks he experiences. When a well-meaning vicar hires him a secretary, Lawrence thinks it will be easy to scare him away with his supposedly “mad” behavior. But Georgie Turner is not a normal secretary: He’s a con man looking for a place to lie low, and the only thing that scares him about Lawrence is the horrendous state of his financial accounts. Sebastian’s wry wit is on full display, and her ability to make the thrills of initial attraction palpably real gives this romance all the wonder of an unexpected second chance.

—Savanna, Associate Editor

Transcendent Kingdom

As a book review editor, to admit that you haven’t read that novel that everyone else and their mother have raved about—well, it doesn’t feel great. For a time, Yaa Gyasi’s bestselling, universally heralded 2016 debut novel, Homegoing, was the source of one of my primary shame spirals. But then September 2020 rolled around and with it her follow-up, Transcendent Kingdom, a tremendous novel of heart, mind and soul. It’s about Gifty, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants who grows up in an all-white evangelical Christian community in Alabama, and grapples with the complexities of her family alongside her own experience of moving from the mysteries of faith to the vast, limitless discourse presented by her career as a neuroscientist. As widely as these questions range, the novel is extremely tight, even tidy, and that kind of storytelling is precisely the way to my heart. It sent me hurrying to Homegoing, finally ready for anything and everything Gyasi has to offer.

—Cat, Deputy Editor

Stray

Stephanie Danler’s debut novel, Sweetbitter, became a bestseller and was adapted into a television series, launching her career into the stratosphere. Her second book, Stray: A Memoir, published in May 2020, after the U.S. had gone into lockdown but before the publishing world had pivoted to remote book events, so it didn’t receive the same attention as Sweetbitter—despite being emotionally potent, beautifully written and gripping to boot. As Stray opens, Danler has moved back to California, where she grew up with parents who were beautiful, unstable addicts. The treacherous landscape of Laurel Canyon kicks up memories of her painful past while an affair dissolves in the present, and as she weaves between the two, trauma takes on a dreamy, phantasmagoric quality, as ubiquitous as the heat. As far as second books go, this one is a mature achievement. And if you have a thing for devastating dysfunctional family memoirs, Stray can hang with the best of them.

—Christy, Associate Editor

I’ll Give You the Sun

The first thing to know about I’ll Give You the Sun is that it was published four years after Jandy Nelson‘s debut, which is an eternity in YA publishing, where authors typically write a book a year. The second is that, perhaps because Nelson took that time, it’s extraordinary on every level. It’s full of sentences that seem as though Nelson came to an intersection while writing and instead of deciding to turn or go straight, she levitated her car and flew to the moon. And then there’s its structure: two narrators, twins Noah and Jude, and two timelines, when they’re 13 and when they’re 16, before and after a tragedy that altered the paths of their lives. Breathtaking is a word critics like, and it comes close to describing the experience of reading this book. But it’s more like the way a roller coaster feels once your stomach is back where your stomach belongs and you’re careening down the track, relieved and ecstatic to still be alive, nearly weightless, almost in flight.

—Stephanie, Associate Editor

The Days of Abandonment

In the decade between Elena Ferrante’s first and second novels, her debut was made into a movie, and still no one knew her identity. During that time, certain literary circles obsessed over knowing who Ferrante really was, but perhaps if they gave The Days of Abandonment a closer reading, they would discover how irrelevant and destructive such a question is. Following a woman, Olga, in the aftermath of her husband’s desertion and infidelity, this sophomore novel shows how closely and precariously identity and reality are linked. We see Olga’s life crumble until she finally reaches a nadir from which the only way forward is up. Being confined inside a narrator’s thoughts during a time of such catastrophe and despair is a specialty of Ferrante’s, and here her powers reach a goosebump-inducing, worldview-shattering peak. While the Neapolitan novels might be considered her masterpiece, The Days of Abandonment has everything one could get from Ferrante.

—Eric, Editorial Intern

The editors of BookPage recommend successful sophomore titles that soared over the high bars set by their authors’ first books.

The (good and bad) luck o’ the Irish

Feature by Michael Sims

Many Irish women and men probably tire of the official version of themselves that is packaged for export nowadays. From the hammering heels of Lord of the Dance to the manic comedy of Waking Ned Devine, books, films and Broadway extravaganzas portray the children of the Emerald Isle (both natives and their descendants) as devout but hard-drinking, sentimental but hard-bitten and colorful to the point of gaudiness.

Several new books alternately confirm and refute this national stereotype. Among the more comprehensive recent accounts is Patrick Bishop's The Irish Empire: The Story of the Irish Abroad. The stories range through the Dromberg stone circle in Cork, New York politicians, the English invasion and oppression of Ireland, lyrical poetry, prison uprisings, shipboard squalor, urban exploitation, religion and political activism. The scope is surprising, for such a brief and comprehensible and well-illustrated book. It's beautiful to look at, but also rich in anecdotes.

Bishop tells, for example, the fascinating Bonnie-and-Clyde epic of Ned Kelly, an Irishman in Australia. Kelly imbibed stories of oppression and outrage at his mother's knee and grew up contemptuous of authority and particularly scornful of Irish policemen, whom he considered traitors. Inevitably he clashed with the abusive, nationalist, class-obsessed rulers. Next, turn to two books that address the American experience. A good place to start is Greatest Irish Americans of the 20th Century, edited by Patricia Harty. At one point the Irish made up 10 percent of all immigrants into the United States. In these 200 oversized pages, you find out some of the consequences of that influx. Included are labor and religious leaders, actors, writers, politicians, gangsters. Everyone is here: Michael Flatley and Grace Kelly, Margaret Bourke-White and Georgia O'Keeffe, John McEnroe and Mark McGwire. No other designation besides "fellow Irish" would corral both Dorothy Day and Andrew Greeley in the same subset.

On the same theme is Maureen Dezell's Irish America: Coming Into Clover, with the second subtitle "The Evolution of a People and a Culture." A staff writer for the Boston Globe, Dezell writes entertainingly and provides rather more historical perspective than Harty does in her browser book. She also goes further back than the recently departed century. Dezell gets into some surprising and fascinating topics. These even include an analysis of the ways the Irish rib each other about everything, comparing the habit to certain aspects of humor among African Americans. She also looks at how female purity and passivity were drilled into the new young Irish Americans after the Famine, and how stereotypes became scapegoats in all sorts of situations. She even thoughtfully critiques anti-Irish attitudes in E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime.

Not surprisingly, Ireland has produced an array of wonderful writers. You can find the ultimate sampler of them in a new book edited by Susan Cahill, For the Love of Ireland: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers. In a nice original touch, these poems, essays, stories and excerpts from novels are grouped by county and province. Naturally, you will find Sean O'Faolain and James Joyce, William Butler Yeats and Samuel Beckett. But you may be surprised to run across Lorrie Moore, Edna Buchanan and Joyce Cary. There are fine later poets such as Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland, too, providing an almost musical accompaniment to the beautiful, textured prose around them. For the Love of Ireland has the virtue of following each author's contribution with a note entitled "For the Literary Traveler." These detailed asides get you out to the sites described, warn you about ways in which they have changed and provide lovely cultural footnotes to the main entries.

By now, of course, you will have called your travel agent. Before you go to Ireland yourself, however, read Pete McCarthy's first book, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in the West of Ireland. Then take it with you. McCarthy is a journalist and performer well known on radio and TV in Britain. His book is along the lines of Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island. To discover the roots and test the validity of his fascination with his mother's homeland, McCarthy travels throughout Ireland. One of his travel rules is Never Pass a Bar That Has Your Name on It. This is a smart and funny book, and not just because McCarthy learns that there are a great many pubs in Ireland named McCarthy's Bar. He has to plan elaborate strategems to escape the convivial habitués. Along the way he encounters, and recreates for us, some hilarious conversations. Consider this response to his desire to eat an actual meal rather than continue to subsist on fermented liquids: "You're on holiday. You can eat when you're at home. Have a bag of nuts, why don't ya?"

And now for the dark side of this famously hospitable land. Ireland's critically acclaimed and popular novelist Patrick McCabe is back with a scary new book, Emerald Germs of Ireland. No quaint, cheerful volume, this although McCabe is certainly darkly humorous, in a Hitchcockian way. The author of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto tells the story of Pat McNab, who definitely murders his mother and who possibly, just possibly, becomes a serial killer. This particular Irish outing is unlikely to become a dance anytime soon, although it would make a good movie. Although this book is in helpfully distancing third-person, its dark psychology may remind you of the twisted narrators of McCabe's fellow Irishman John Banville.

If, after this survey course, you'd like to get in touch with your own Irishness, you can turn to a helpful book by Dwight A. Radford and Kyle J. Betit, A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors. While not exactly sparkling with scintillating prose, it supplies advice, methods and highly specific references, including a number of fruitful research avenues you would never think of on your own. Replete with case studies and bibliographies, this book seems like the last word on its topic.

Like most history books, these new volumes remind us of the quirks of fate that shape the daily lives of future generations. As a historian once pointed out, if not for the potato famine of the 1800s, John F. Kennedy would have been born an Irishman, not an American.

Michael Sims is fond of Irish coffee and greatly admires redheads.

 

Many Irish women and men probably tire of the official version of themselves that is packaged for export nowadays. From the hammering heels of Lord of the Dance to the manic comedy of Waking Ned Devine, books, films and Broadway extravaganzas portray the children…

RomanceWomen's Fiction

God is in the details

Feature by Joanne Collings

So what makes a novel a Christian novel? There's no quick answer. The four novels considered here are but a small taste of the wide variety now available in Christian fiction. Each fills the category's basic requirements: good and evil are clearly defined, and characters are tested by real-world temptations and aware of what their choices mean in religious terms.

For suspense fans
Sinner is part of author Ted Dekker's Paradise series, which, along with the Circle Trilogy and the Lost Books, makes up his Books of History Chronicles. Dekker describes them as "circular, not linear," and has created a world readers can really dive into. This fast-paced tale is a thriller involving characters with very special powers, a series of lynchings and a constitutional amendment limiting free speech in order to prevent hate crimes. One of the amendment's results is the National Tolerance Act, which "opens the doors to laws that could make the teachings of Christ a hate crime" because they include claiming that Christ "is the only way to enter the Kingdom, [implying] that another's path is wrong."

Dekker is especially adept at examining the way people can be seduced into thinking that their talents give them rights others don't deserve. Sinner is thought-provoking; it left me feeling uncomfortable, but that may have been Dekker's intention.

The dangers of tolerance are also part of the plot of James David Jordan's Forsaken. Former Secret Service agent Taylor Pasbury, a woman who is haunted by her loss-laden past and who drinks and avoids relationships, gets a big client for her new security firm: televangelist Simon Mason, who's been getting threats from Muslim extremists and is especially concerned about the safety of his daughter and only child. Simon, too, has had a large personal loss to shoulder in the death of his wife, but his faith has buttressed him. Taylor is drawn to Simon, who is not without flaws and secrets, and who can be extraordinarily thick when it comes to women.

Simon's faith is tested in a terrible way when his daughter is kidnapped. The drama then moves to another stage, and some last-minute surprises are sprung. Forsaken is a highly readable book, and Taylor is a character who is worth another visit—Jordan is hard at work on the sequel, Double-Cross.

Traditional romance
Cathy Marie Hake's Whirlwind is well named: it's a traditional historical romance that moves from England to Texas without a hitch. After Millicent Fairweather loses the two little girls she's been nanny to for years when their father unaccountably decides to send them to boarding school, she sets off for America with her sister and brother-in-law. When widower Daniel Clark discovers his young son's nursemaid has fled the ship, Millicent finds herself employed. Millicent is something of a super nanny who soon wins over her young charge and, unbeknownst to her, his father. Although they end up marrying for the sake of appearances, each is hiding romantic feelings for the other. This is classic Christian fiction: the characters are devout, and it is common for them to talk with and about God. It is tempting to complain about the too-neat ending, or to find Daniel too perfect. But this frothy tale will entertain fans of inspirational fiction and romance.

Women's fiction
In Heavenly Places, the affluent African-American residents of P.G. County, Maryland, also talk to God regularly, even the not-entirely-saved Treva Langston. In Kimberly Cash Tate's charming debut, Treva has reluctantly returned to the place where she unhappily grew up and the mother who caused her misery. She can't find a new job (she was a lawyer in the Washington, D.C., area), and now has to stay at home with her three daughters, something she's never done. Treva can't get out of joining her sister's prayer group for stay-at-home mothers, but she doesn't feel at home with the women in the group.

Readers will identify with Treva, berate her for her lack of appreciation for her husband (who is on a level with Whirlwind's Daniel in terms of perfection) and her inability to see how great her daughters are, all the while admiring her for her honesty. Treva is not guilty of wanting it all, because she only wanted the career, not the children; and like most of us she's never had it all because something has always had to be sacrificed in order for her to have something else. In the end, she finds balance and discovers what Heavenly Places are.

So what makes a novel a Christian novel? There's no quick answer. The four novels considered here are but a small taste of the wide variety now available in Christian fiction. Each fills the category's basic requirements: good and evil are clearly defined, and characters…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Stories to share: New books bring African-American history to life

Feature by Julie Hale

Black History Month is the perfect time to acquaint youngsters with the traditions and accomplishments of African Americans. To help celebrate this period of observance, BookPage has rounded up a group of standout picture books—beautifully illustrated titles that will teach young readers about some of the seminal events and individuals that make the African-American legacy so rich. The history makers and groundbreakers featured in the books below helped shape our identity as a nation. Their stories are truly worth sharing.

Remembering a baseball legend
Spinning a treasured childhood memory into a winning story for children, Sharon Robinson presents a loving portrait of her famous father in Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson. This warm-hearted tale is set in rural Connecticut, where the Robinsons have a home on a beautiful lake. Young Sharon and her friends swim and dive all summer long; Jackie, meanwhile, refuses to go near the water. The youngsters don’t understand his reluctance to enjoy the lake until he bravely ventures out onto its icy surface one winter day. With this act of courage, the reason for Jackie’s fear becomes clear to Sharon and her friends, and their adoration for the great ball player grows. Focusing on her father’s life after sports, Robinson gives readers a glimpse of what Jackie was like away from the baseball diamond, as he assumed the roles of author, businessman and civil rights spokesperson. Author of a number of acclaimed books, including Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America, Robinson reveals the human side of a star athlete with this poignant story. Featuring playful illustrations by Coretta Scott King Award-winner Kadir Nelson, Testing the Ice is a touching memorial to a man of integrity.

Finding salvation in song
Sisters and music fans, Ann Ingalls and Maryann MacDonald became intrigued by the story of Mary Lou Williams when they lived in Kansas City, Missouri, former home of the jazz queen. Inspired by the sisters’ interviews, research and immersion into Williams’ music, The Little Piano Girl: The Story of Mary Lou Williams, Jazz Legend is a spirited tribute to a remarkable artist. Growing up in Atlanta in the early 1900s, Mary Lou learns early on that music will save her. At the age of four, she’s able to play her mama’s organ, and the experience is revelatory. But when the family moves to Pittsburgh to look for better-paying jobs, they leave the organ behind. The jeering and loneliness Mary Lou experiences as the new kid in town make music extra-meaningful to her: “Even without a keyboard she could do it. Tapping on the tabletop, she beat back the bad sounds and sang out her sadness.” After a kind-hearted neighbor hears about Mary Lou’s talent, she invites the little girl into her home and lets her practice on her piano. Mary Lou proceeds to enchant everyone around her with her marvelous playing. By the age of seven, she’s performing in public—showing signs of the jazz queen she’ll become. Giselle Potter provides the book’s beautifully detailed paintings, giving the story a vintage feel: The women wear dainty, printed dresses, the gents sport jaunty hats and everybody shimmies to Mary Lou’s music. This is a true story of triumph.

Taming the Wild West
A terrific way to introduce young readers to the Old West, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall tells the story of a legendary lawman. Big Bass Reeves sits proud in the saddle and cuts a forbidding figure, but he’s as honest as they come. A man of integrity and courage, he’s also an expert shot. Bass spends his early years as a slave in Texas, but after the Civil War, he becomes a free man. He settles in Arkansas and soon gets hired on as a deputy to assist Judge Isaac C. Parker in bringing justice to the Indian Territory. Bass is resourceful and successful at his job, using his wits as well as his gun to bring in 3,000 outlaws over the course of a 32-year career. He also stands tall in the face of racism, defying white men who dislike the idea of a black deputy. Author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson brings impressive authenticity to this story of bandits and cowboys, using folksy metaphors and slang words from the Old West. Beloved artist R. Gregory Christie captures the essence of Texas in his illustrations. Stark desert landscapes contrast with expanses of deep blue sky, and Bass himself appears immense and dignified, with a wide mustache, a dark, stately suit and a gleaming deputy badge. Nelson rounds out the tale with a bibliography, a timeline and supplementary information about the Indian Territory, making Bad News an irresistible history lesson.

In the Ring with Ali
Sure to have a magnetic effect on young readers, Muhammad Ali: The People’s Champion is a vibrant biography of one of America’s most outstanding athletes. Written by award-winning author Walter Dean Myers, the book provides a fascinating overview of Ali’s career. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942, the future champ starts boxing at the age of 12. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he wins a gold medal—the first in a string of triumphs that will eventually include three world heavyweight titles. In 1964, Clay joins the Nation of Islam and changes his name to Muhammad Ali. Outspoken on race and religion, he quickly becomes one of the most controversial figures of his generation. “I am America,” he says. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky.” Fighting until the age of 39, he retires with a record of 56 wins and three losses. Ali’s career is dynamically chronicled by Myers, who concludes the book with a helpful timeline of the boxer’s life. Adding wonderful energy to the narrative, Alix Delinois’ fluid crayon and pastel drawings swirl with kaleidoscopic color. A compelling little biography of an uncompromising athlete, this is a book that will interest readers of all ages.

Words to Live By
A stirring tribute to African-American history and to the important role religious faith has played in it over the centuries, The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights by Carole Boston Weatherford takes readers on a lyrical journey through the past. Using the Beatitudes from the Bible as a platform for her extended free-verse poem, Weatherford traces the arc of African-American history, starting with the slave era and ending with the swearing-in of President Barack Obama. Along the way, Weatherford alludes to a host of notable African-American figures, including Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks and Marian Anderson—individuals whose determination and endurance helped make freedom a reality. Tim Ladwig’s beautifully realistic renderings of U. S. Colored Troops, Freedom Riders and civil rights organizers give the book a documentary feel. With The Beatitudes, Weatherford—winner of the Caldecott Honor forher book Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom—offers an inspiring review of black history and the ways in which spirituality has guided its leaders. The book includes brief biographies of the famous figures who appear in Weatherford’s poem. This is a special testament to the legacy of a people—a book that’s sure to be treasured by future generations of readers.

Black History Month is the perfect time to acquaint youngsters with the traditions and accomplishments of African Americans. To help celebrate this period of observance, BookPage has rounded up a group of standout picture books—beautifully illustrated titles that will teach young readers about some of…

Fiction

New takes on classic authors

Feature by Carla Jean Whitley

They’ve been on countless reading lists over the years, and now the lives and works of three classic English writers have inspired intriguing new novels.

Syrie James’ interest in classic literature led to extensive research on beloved authors like Austen and Brontë. Though the stories resulting from her studies aren’t quite nonfiction, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë is based on fact. James adapts Brontë’s voice, telling Brontë’s story as though it came straight from the great writer. Living with an alcoholic, drug-addicted brother and a deeply eccentric father, Brontë—and her sisters—still managed to write some of the most famous novels of their time. With The Secret Diaries, James offers a satisfying—if partly imagined—history of the real-life experiences that inspired Brontë’s classic novels.

In Girl in a Blue Dress, Gaynor Arnold weaves a narrative based closely on the real-life marriage of Charles and Catherine Dickens. Estranged at the time of Dickens’ death, Catherine left a collection of letters she had received from Charles over the years, so that the world would know the truth about her role in his life. In Arnold’s account, the great writer Alfred Gibson is dead. After 20 years of marriage, Dorothea Gibson is excluded from her husband’s passing and his will. Through recollections of their history together and dealing with the aftermath of his death, Dorothea finally faces the hard truths of being married to her generation’s most beloved writer. Though we’ll never know for sure what went on in the Dickens’ marriage, this fictional account helps us to better understand the woman behind the talented man.

Courtney Stone, a self-proclaimed Jane Austen addict, was mysteriously transported to the early 19th century in Laurie Viera Rigler’s debut, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. In that book, Courtney traded places with English girl Jane Mansfield, and was abruptly forced to abandon her modern ways and adapt to the life of a lady in 1800s England. In Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, Jane awakens in Courtney’s 21st-century American life, completing Viera Rigler’s clever switch-a-roo. As Jane aims to untangle Courtney’s problems and understand modern society, she finds that the girls and their time periods aren’t as different as they may seem. 

They’ve been on countless reading lists over the years, and now the lives and works of three classic English writers have inspired intriguing new novels.

Syrie James’ interest in classic literature led to extensive research on beloved authors like Austen and Brontë. Though the stories resulting…

Walmart and BookPage launch new book publication

Feature by BookPage staff

BookPage, America’s Book Review, partners with Walmart to create an all-new book publication distributed in Walmart stores.

Nashville, TN — March 2, 2011–BookPage, the monthly book review publication distributed in public libraries and bookstores nationwide, is partnering with Walmart to create an all-new book-focused publication to be distributed exclusively in Walmart stores.

The new Walmart edition of BookPage is a monthly publication that will be distributed free to customers in more than 2,000 U.S. Walmart stores. With a starting circulation of 500,000 copies per month, the publication will include author interviews, seasonal features, gift ideas, book reviews and book news. Walmart’s BookPage will cover a wide range of books that are sold in Walmart stores–fiction, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, cookbooks, self-help, bibles and more. BookPage staff will provide all editorial content.

"We are thrilled to be a part of a publication that will bring timely and informative coverage of books to a whole new audience," says Michael Zibart, president and publisher of BookPage. "We think our partnership with Walmart and our new publication will be a great opportunity for publishers and readers, and we are excited about this new venture." 

The first issue of Walmart’s BookPage, a 16-page preview edition, will be available in stores on March 28, 2011. Going forward, it will be a full 32-page monthly book review publication. 

BookPage is a national book review publication distributed to more than 400,000 readers each month through more than 3,000 subscribing public libraries and bookstores in 48 states. Founded in 1988 by book industry veteran Michael Zibart, BookPage is a general interest review with a focus on new releases. For more information on BookPage, visit bookpage.com.

 

Contact:

 

Abby Plesser, Editor
abby@bookpage.com
615-292-8926 ext. 19

BookPage, America's Book Review, partners with Walmart to create an all-new book publication distributed in Walmart stores.

Nashville, TN -- March 2, 2011--BookPage, the monthly book review publication distributed in public libraries and bookstores nationwide, is partnering with…

YA FictionYA

Rich, beautiful . . . and bloodthirsty

Feature by Kate Pritchard

The market for teen books just continues to grow, and though we can’t cover them all in these pages, we want to let our loyal readers know about a few new titles in some of the hottest teen series out there.

From the hills of Hollywood to the private grounds of elite schools, there are plenty of books set in the exclusive world of privilege and money. Scandal, by Kate Brian (latest in the long-running Private series), reunites readers with Reed Brennan as she returns to the prestigious—and dangerous—Easton Academy. Meanwhile, those who enjoy stories about the fabulously rich and famous will be happy to know about Jen Calonita’s Broadway Lights, the newest title in her Secrets of My Hollywood Life series. And of course, don’t forget about Lauren Conrad’s sequel to L.A. Candy, Sweet Little Lies.

For those whose tastes run more toward the scary or supernatural, there’s a wealth of exciting new titles, like Lisa McMann’s Gone—third in the series that began with 2008’s Wake, about a girl who unwillingly experiences other people’s dreams—or the chilling post-zombie-apocalypse story The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan, sequel to last year’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

And on March 16th, L.J. Smith will release The Return: Shadow Souls, the latest in the Vampire Diaries series, now the basis for the TV show of the same name.

Finally (and also on March 16th), the last book in Garth Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series will be released. Lord Sunday will follow 12-year-old Arthur Penhaligon as he comes to the end of his quest for the seven Keys that began with 2003’s Mister Monday. Teens who love fantasy and adventure won’t want to miss any of the books in this exciting series!

The market for teen books just continues to grow, and though we can’t cover them all in these pages, we want to let our loyal readers know about a few new titles in some of the hottest teen series out there.

From the…

Romance

‘Tis the season. . . for icy hot romance books

Feature by Lois Dyer

Celebrate the holidays with three marvelous stories from four best-selling authors. Angel Lane returns readers to Sheila Roberts’ much-loved community of Heart Lake while Linda Howard’s Ice adds the thrill and chill of danger to a reunion tale of high school friends. Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter combine their talents to transport readers to paranormal worlds populated with vampires, valkyries and handsome alien warriors in Deep Kiss of Winter.

Take a well-deserved break from gift shopping and settle into your favorite chair with Angel Lane. Whether you’ve enjoyed earlier visits to the town of Heart Lake or you’ve only recently discovered Sheila Roberts’ charming books, you’re in for a treat with the latest title from this talented author. Angel Lane features three interesting, talented and warm women, each of whom has her own reasons for feeling ambivalent about the upcoming holiday celebrations.

Jaime is a successful chocolatier who’s recovering from a bad marriage; bakery owner Sarah is an empty-nested grandmother struggling to fill the emotional hole left in her life after her grandchildren move far away. Their friend Emma is fighting to keep her quilt shop afloat while wishing destiny would hurry up and deliver her long overdue, one-and-only love. When Emma starts a movement to encourage the town’s residents to commit random acts of kindness, Jaime and Sarah agree to help. None of the women could have foreseen the impact the plan to “put the heart back in Heart Lake” would have on their small town—or their own lives. Roberts’ trademark humor and memorable characters wrestling with real-life issues add up to a novel that will make readers smile and wish for more.

Those who love a bit of danger with their romance are in for a few shivers while reading Ice, Linda Howard’s tale of romantic suspense. During an ice storm in wintry Maine, Gabriel McQueen races against time to bring Lolly Helton down from her mountain home to the safety of town. But unfortunately, the dangerous weather isn’t the only threat to their lives. A pair of drug addicts are chasing them, and it’s anyone’s guess whether Gabe and Lolly will freeze to death or be shot in the ice-coated woods. They’re determined to survive, even if it means their stalkers have to die. Howard does a stellar job of turning up the heat between Gabe and Lolly despite the icy-cold setting in this dangerous tale of high school friends rediscovering the sparks that once drew them together.

For a change of pace, ask Santa to wrap up your own personal copy of Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter. These two acclaimed paranormal romance authors join forces to bring readers two stories in this sizzling holiday collection.

An Ice Queen and a vampire warrior come together in Cole’s “Untouchable.” Daniela (Danii) is a valykrie who is part ice fey, and her cold skin will freeze anyone who touches her. Centuries-old and incredibly powerful, vampire Murdoch Wroth knows at first sight that Danii is his mate, but even his phenomenal physical and mental strength is stymied by her body’s ability to prevent contact. While desire ratchets higher with each second, Murdoch and Danii’s sexual frustration is matched only by the danger that threatens their very lives. Fans of Cole’s “Immortals After Dark” series will love this story and its connection to prior books, while readers new to the author’s valkyries and vampires will surely be hooked by this addition in the popular paranormal series.

Showalter’s “Tempt Me Eternally” stars a woman who can change her features and shape to assume any identity and a man from another world. Aleaha Love’s adopted persona as a government agent has her crossing paths with Breean, commander of a group of interplanetary travelers determined to build new lives on Earth. The two are clearly made for each other, but they’re on opposite sides of a war . . . or are they? With deception and danger all about them, the two will have to combine forces if they’re to survive and become life mates. Showalter has a reputation for writing hot and steamy paranormal romance, and she doesn’t disappoint in this tale of otherworldly adventure.

Lois Dyer writes from Port Orchard, Washington

Celebrate the holidays with three marvelous stories from four best-selling authors. Angel Lane returns readers to Sheila Roberts’ much-loved community of Heart Lake while Linda Howard’s Ice adds the thrill and chill of danger to a reunion tale of high school friends. Kresley Cole and…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Baseball’s original sins

Feature by John C. Williams

The towering baseball book of the season is a revisionist treatment of the sport’s earliest days. Other titles suggest the continuing relevance of this past to baseball’s present.

INVENTION VS. EVOLUTION
After three decades of research, John Thorn has published a major history on the sport’s origins, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game. It has long been known that Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball, as was once claimed. Now we learn that Doubleday’s more believable replacement, Alexander Cartwright, didn’t have that much to do with it either. Both, it seems, were beneficiaries of posthumous lobbying campaigns. Thorn makes the intriguing suggestion that Doubleday’s ascendance was due to his association with Theosophy, an esoteric spiritual movement that just so happened to claim the allegiance of early baseball magnate Albert Spalding, spearhead of an official commission to discover the national pastime’s origins. As for Cartwright, he played on the Knickerbocker club that is routinely credited with staging the first modern baseball game in 1845; but Thorn argues that his role has been overstated, much to the neglect of other club members who helped develop the rules. What’s more, the rules these Knickerbockers played by in 1845 would have been strange to the modern spectator. Pitches were thrown underhand, bases were not spaced at 90 feet until 1857, and the “first” game did not use a shortstop because the position did not yet exist. Thorn’s argument, then, is one that common sense should dictate, but that we Americans have rejected out of need for a creation myth: No one “invented” the game of baseball, but rather it evolved over a long period of time. By insisting that baseball has one father, we have forgotten all its grandfathers, the different versions of the game played in rural areas, in cities outside New York and, most fascinatingly, in Massachusetts, where the field was 360 degrees and there was no such thing as foul ground.

Thorn is also interested in the game’s development beyond the rules. A major theme of the book is the tension between baseball’s ideal and its reality. This tension was apparent from the earliest days. A key virtue of the sport was said to be its “manliness,” but the Knickerbockers were for the most part fat, citified white-collar workers. Their club was meant to be exactly what that word connotes: a gathering of elites. But a blue-collar element threatened the gentility of the sport. Indeed, Thorn argues that without gambling, baseball would have never become what it is today. Along with fighting and drinking—one actually used to be able to purchase a whiskey at the ballpark—gambling completed early baseball’s trifecta of sin. Owners would continually try to eliminate these vices as various leagues emerged and faltered in the last quarter of the 19th century. But the owners had their own vices, particularly in the way they treated players, and their avarice played no small role in the game’s early struggle for stability.

IN SUPPORT OF LEISURE
In light of Thorn’s history, it is interesting to read the perspective of a much later commissioner, A. Bartlett Giamatti, in the reissue of 1989’s Take Time For Paradise: Americans and Their Games. This slim volume is best described as an academic meditation on leisure (albeit with baseball as Exhibit A): Aristotle, Shakespeare and Milton are cited, but there’s not one mention of any particular player. The book places Giamatti firmly within the idealist rather than the realist school. His particular focus is on baseball’s communal nature, though he does attempt to grapple with technological change and the way it atomizes spectators. Gambling, which so concerned early baseball owners, is not mentioned at all—strange, perhaps, considering that Giamatti was the man who agreed to banish Pete Rose. Giamatti is more concerned here with cheating, which he considers to threaten the integrity of the game. Giamatti died suddenly in 1989, so he did not live to see the era of rampant steroids use. One wonders how he would have dealt with the issue considering his strong words here.

THE BUSINESS OF BASEBALL
Thorn’s early baseball owners come to mind while reading The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First. In telling the story of the Tampa Bay Rays (née Devil Rays), Jonah Keri introduces us to Vincent Naimoli, the team’s original owner. Way back in the deadball days, owners owned multiple clubs and cannibalized the rosters to create one super team and multiple anemic ones. This had a way of depriving the fans of competitive baseball. Naimoli achieved the same result, but in a more modern fashion: He squandered money on overrated talent. Naimoli managed to gain even more detractors by instituting policies seemingly intended to alienate fans. Enter a new team of Wall Street wunderkinds, who used a rebranding effort to change the club’s image, fan-friendly policies to put people in the seats and new statistical metrics to put a winning squad on the field. Voila—the Rays became AL champs. This book will inevitably be compared to Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, but it imparts a broader sense of what it takes to run a successful sports franchise, off the field as well as on, and it is more of a general business primer than Lewis’ book. The Extra 2% might be criticized for a somewhat simplistic good-guy, bad-guy structure—the hapless early management team did develop key players, after all, a fact that Keri doesn’t adequately explain. Nevertheless, the book provides an entertaining case study, as well as an interesting vantage point from which to consider baseball’s business past.

 
John C. Williams has written for the Oxford American, PopMatters and the Arkansas Times.

 

The towering baseball book of the season is a revisionist treatment of the sport’s earliest days. Other titles suggest the continuing relevance of this past to baseball’s present.

INVENTION VS. EVOLUTION
After three decades of research, John Thorn has published a major history on…

Fiction

Winter fiction takes a magical turn

Feature by Julie Hale

At BookPage, we know there’s no better solution to beating the winter blues than escaping into the pages of a magical piece of fiction. So this month we’re spotlighting works by three visionary writers who take experimental approaches to storytelling. Employing elements of fairy tale and fantasy, these authors dispense with the principles of science, turn history on its head and redefine reality—and they make it all seem believable. So suspend your skepticism, dear reader, and get set for an adventure. A little old-fashioned enchantment is the perfect way to keep January’s chill at bay.

Alice, out of wonderland
Although it’s been a almost a century and a half since her first appearance in print, Alice Liddell, the adventuresome girl who provided Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) with the inspiration to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, remains a source of fascination for many a bibliophile. Melanie Benjamin uses her true story as a springboard in Alice I Have Been, her beguiling new novel. Fleshing out historical facts with fictional details to create a full-bodied portrait of Carroll’s heroine, Benjamin traces the arc of Alice’s life, portraying with authority her evolution from a high-strung youngster into a refined wife and mother.

In her 80s when the novel begins, Alice looks back on her past and serves as a lively, wry narrator. Among her memories are the days the Liddell family spent with Dodgson, the picnics and explorations they shared, and the eventual—and controversial—distance that developed between them. The novel passes effortlessly through various eras, moving from the 1930s to Victorian times and back again, and it’s during her mature years that Alice discloses her impatience with fame. The recognition brought to her as a literary character has proven burdensome, and in the end, she feels confined by the role that will ultimately immortalize her. This is an ingenious expansion of Alice’s story, convincingly conceived and meticulously crafted, a delightful bit of literary sleight of hand by Benjamin.

Adventures in time travel
Blending fantasy, history and mystery, Matthew Flaming offers an intoxicating mix of genres in The Kingdom of Ohio, his bold and inventive debut. The novel’s protagonist, a silver miner from Idaho named Peter Force, arrives in New York in 1901 and takes a job excavating tunnels for the city’s incipient subways. Not long after his arrival in Manhattan, he meets the mysterious Cheri-Anne Toledo, who tells him about a forgotten place called the Kingdom of Ohio and insists that she’s the daughter of its monarch. In Ohio, Cheri-Anne claims, she collaborated with the engineer Nikola Tesla on an apparatus that has, in a cosmic accident, carried her into the future and deposited her in New York. Peter doesn’t believe her at first, but when he and Cheri-Anne get caught up in a scheme that’s linked to Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan, he realizes that she may indeed come from another realm—and possess knowledge that could change the course of history. Flaming examines big issues in this book—questions about the nature of reality and the ways in which technology has altered daily life—and his explorations give the narrative a rich thematic foundation. A spirited tale that channels the energy and verve of old New York, Flaming’s novel is fresh, artful and full of surprises.

A frosty fairy tale
Ali Shaw brings an uncommon world into being with his debut The Girl with Glass Feet. Set on a wintry archipelago called St. Hauda’s Land, a distant group of islands where albino beasts inhabit frost-encrusted forests and nature asserts itself in strange ways, the narrative focuses on delicate, melancholy Ida Maclaird. After visiting the archipelago, Ida finds that her body—feet first—is turning gradually into glass. Searching for a way to end this awful metamorphosis, she leaves her home on the mainland and returns to the islands, where she meets an introverted native named Midas Crook. Crook works in a florist shop and takes photographs, and he has a cold, hard exterior of his own. But after he meets Ida, he softens, and the quest to arrest her terrible transformation soon consumes him. Ida’s salvation rests in the hands of the reclusive Henry Fuwa, who knows secrets about St. Hauda’s Land. As Midas and Ida search for Henry—and as Ida’s mutation continues—the two find themselves in a race against time.

Written in the tradition of magical realists like Haruki Murakami and Gabriel García Márquez, The Girl with Glass Feet is a singular, slippery narrative that defies easy categorization. Shaw writes finely honed prose and knows how to wring maximum suspense out of a tightly woven plot. His is an accomplished first novel—a hypnotic book with an atmosphere all its own.

At BookPage, we know there’s no better solution to beating the winter blues than escaping into the pages of a magical piece of fiction. So this month we’re spotlighting works by three visionary writers who take experimental approaches to storytelling. Employing elements of fairy tale…

Readers’ Choice: Best Books of 2009

Feature by bookpagedev

In December we asked readers to tell us the best book they read in 2009 (the book didn’t necessarily have to come out in 2009). The results span genres from literary fiction to fast-paced bestseller to time-traveling romance. Several of these books overlap with our own Best of 2009 picks. The results are in order of votes.

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn/Putnam)
2. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Doubleday)
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial)
4. South of Broad by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)
5. Under the Dome by Stephen King (Scribner)
6. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte)
7. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)
8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)
9. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
10. The Shack by William P. Young (Windblown Media)
11. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson (Little, Brown)
12. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Press)
13. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin's Griffin)
14. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Harper)
15. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (Scribner)
16. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton (Putnam)
17. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
18. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Knopf)
19. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
20. Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult (Atria)
21. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jame Ford (Ballantine)
22. Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Pocket)
23. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (Atria)
24. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Holt)
25. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
26. Ford County by John Grisham (Doubleday)
27. Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
28. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
29. Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster)
30. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
31. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
32. Going Rogue by Sarah Palin (HarperCollins)
33. Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Hyperion)
34. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Knopf)
35. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (Morrow)
36. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
37. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (Penguin)
38. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking)
39. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin)
40. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf)
41. Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts (Berkley)
42. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random House)
43. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
44. Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson (Viking)
45. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruis-Zafrón (Doubleday)
46. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (Hyperion)
47. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin)
48. Black Hills by Nora Roberts (Putnam Adult)
49. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
50. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead)

In December we asked readers to tell us the best book they read in 2009 (the book didn’t necessarily have to come out in 2009). The results span genres from literary fiction to fast-paced bestseller to time-traveling romance. Several of these…

Fiction

New voices enliven the rich tradition of the short story

Feature by Kelly Koepke

"Storytellers may be finite in number, but stories appear to be inexhaustible," Joyce Carol Oates once wrote. The words of one of the genre’s master practitioners have been proven true this summer by the large number of new short story collections lining our shelves. Though it may face stiff competition among readers from its distinguished cousin the novel, the short story form is flourishing, and the best new collections offer a blend of unique voices, styles and characters. A few of our favorites are featured here.

Dan Chaon’s Among the Missing contains stories of families that have stepped off the path to the American dream, with characters left to figure out where and how they stumbled. "Safety Man" tells of a woman haunted by the untimely death of her husband and her reliance on an inflatable doll in making the transition to widowhood. In another story, a pet parrot becomes a vicarious object of hatred for a woman who is convinced that her brother-in-law is guilty of crimes his family refuses to acknowledge. Many of Chaon’s protagonists are missing some key part of their past or future. In "Here’s a Little Something to Remember Me By," Tom’s life stopped during his teenage years when his best friend Ricky disappeared. Now, Ricky’s family latches on to Tom, living their son’s life through his. For Tom, who carries a dark secret, their microscopic observation of his life is oppressive, preventing him from reconciling himself to the disappearance. With his unusually perceptive voice, Chaon brings clarity to the confusion of people’s inner motives.

How we fail to understand those who mean the most to us is one of the messages delivered in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s collection The Unknown Errors of Our Lives. Borrowing from her rich Indian heritage and experience as a newcomer to America, Divakaruni writes about young people learning to accept the errors of their parents and immigrants who are adjusting to the wild, unimagined wonders of a foreign land. Suffused with magical realism, these stories convey the seduction of memory, the exoticism of the East and the struggle to fit in with a new culture. "Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter," chosen for The Best American Short Stories 1999 anthology, explores the cherished old ways of a grandmother, which turn into an embarrassment to her daughter-in-law. Whether Divakaruni is writing about the accommodations we make between generations or the eternal pull of home, her storytelling is poetic in its imagery and dynamic in the ebb and flow of its voices.

Dogwalker, Arthur Bradford’s debut collection, assembles its cast of characters from the misbegotten and misunderstood of society. The disabled, disfigured and troubled star in these stories, along with dogs of all shapes and sizes. Some of the protagonists and their adventures seem plucked from the weird and warped headlines of a supermarket tabloid. In wonderfully straightforward prose, Bradford’s nameless narrators reveal an almost banal acceptance of the strangeness of life. His ear for dialogue, along with a sensibility that matches the singularity of his subjects, brings joy and laughter to lighthearted tales (tails?) that wag the mind long after they have been tucked neatly on the shelf. An original newcomer, Bradford shows us how extraordinary and provocative a genre the short story can be.

The Man Who Swam With Beavers, a new collection from Nancy Lord, brings Native Alaskan-inspired myths to life. Lord, who teaches creative writing at the University of Alaska, brings an authentic voice and modern interpretation to the deeply spiritual and enduring legends of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific North- west. The persistent need for contact with the wild plays a key role in the title story, as well as the other dreamlike fables that examine our responsibilities to one another and to the larger environment. Irony rules as the tone of this collection, as protagonists and narrators as diverse as God, a 14-year-old son of lesbians and an enormously fat performance artist illustrate life lessons in unexpected ways. "Afterlife" gives us a man upon whom massacred animals take their vengeance. "Wolverine Grudge" presents a disturbed woman whose bottled anger and need for revenge bring out the feral in her. Ultimately, the characters are on transformative journeys; where they end up is always captivating.

And the first shall be last. Mary Ladd Gavell comes from a short story tradition that forms the basis for the other collections here. Unpublished until after her untimely death in 1967, Gavell was the managing editor of Psychiatry magazine. Her story "The Rotifer" was published by her colleagues as a posthumous tribute. A new collection of Gavell’s work, I Cannot Tell A Lie, Exactly, demonstrates what a true gift she had for dialogue, setting and tone. It also conveys how lucky we are to have her stories more than 30 years after her death. Each one is a perfect gem, sparkling with the irony and guile that make the genre special. "Baucis" introduces a woman whose last words are misunderstood by her family, while the title story describes the preparation for a child’s school play with the humor and good nature that make Gavell’s writing timeless and bewitching. The opening story, a sadly sweet tale called "The Swing," mesmerizes readers with the ghostly visits of an aging woman’s young son. The same sad sweetness bookends the collection in "The Blessing," in which three generations of women fall into familiar roles as they wait for the eldest to die. John Updike selected "The Rotifer" for The Best American Short Stories of the Century, but any of the pieces in the collection could be rightly chosen for this honor.

Kelly Koepke writes from her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

"Storytellers may be finite in number, but stories appear to be inexhaustible," Joyce Carol Oates once wrote. The words of one of the genre's master practitioners have been proven true this summer by the large number of new short story collections lining our shelves.…

Judging a book by its title

Feature by Tom Robinson

In this feature exclusive to BookPage.com, authors are asked a question about the craft of writing to give readers an insight into how their favorite writers think and work. For this month's author forum, BookPage brought together Brian Freeman, Susan Gregg Gilmore and Rosemary Harris to ask: Have you ever judged a book by its title?

BRIAN FREEMAN

Long before I began writing my own novels set in the frozen landscape of northern Minnesota, I came across a slim paperback thriller by Thomas Gifford called The Wind Chill Factor. I knew nothing about the plot, but the title captured the bleakness and ferocity of those below-zero January days. It was easy to imagine lonely rural roads and a bitter blizzard. Years later, I spent most of the winter in Duluth researching one of my books, and I remember seeing Gifford’s novel on the shelf in the cottage where I was staying. The wind was howling like a banshee outside. The title still spoke to me.

Brian Freeman is the author of several mystery novels set in Minnesota. His latest is The Burying Place (Minotaur, April 2010). Read BookPage reviews of Freeman’s novels. Author photo © Martin Hoffsten.

SUSAN GREGG GILMORE

Picking just one of anything is never easy for me. But with that disclaimer out of the way, I’d have to say one title that led me straight to the checkout counter was Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums. Whether I’m writing or reading, I want the words to slide off my tongue like butter and this title does just that. Of course, try saying it 10 times really fast and you may find your tongue-tied. The book was, by the way, just as powerful as the two-word, six-syllable title!

Susan Gregg Gilmore is the author of Looking For Salvation at the Dairy Queen (now in paperback). Read the BookPage review.

ROSEMARY HARRIS

I usually know better than to assume that whatever is on the cover of a book is an accurate reflection of what’s inside. But when I first saw Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, I simply had to pick it up. The title was so evocative. There was a rhythm and languor to it and, of course, the promise that something lovely and tinged with sadness would be found within its pages.

The image, too, was arresting. Who were these people? Why is the woman walking away while the man looks resolutely out to sea? Happily, the book was even better than the cover. One of my favorite books of the last five years.

Rosemary Harris is the author of Dead Head (April 2010) and the Anthony-nominated Pushing Up Daisies from Minotaur Books. Read the BookPage review.

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In this feature exclusive to BookPage.com, authors are asked a question about the craft of writing to give readers an insight into how their favorite writers think and work. For this month's author forum, BookPage brought together Brian Freeman, Susan Gregg Gilmore and Rosemary Harris…

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