My favorite panel at BEA each year is the one geared to book clubs.
For the second year, the Reading Groups Guides panel has been set up in a
speed-dating format. Attendees sit at round tables, and the publicity
and marketing people from various publishing houses move from table to
table to tell us about their hottest titles that will prompt the best
discussions. Here is Part 1 of my recap of that event, covering four of
the eight publishers that stopped by my table. (Come back on tomorrow for
BEA Book Group Speed Dating Session: Part 2.)
Here
are the books I learned about at the session, plus my top pick from
each publisher. Titles in boldface are books that made it to my wish
list.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Man Alive! by Mary Kay Zueavleff: a contemporary novel of family and values
Someone by Alice McDermott: a woman scorned in the 1930s; we are all fools for something
Tinderbox by Lisa Gornick: contemporary novel about how a nanny disrupts a family's dynamics
Hild by Nicola Griffith: historical novel; a seer in 7th-century Britain, just as Christianity is taking hold in the kingdom
All
it takes is a quarter to change pediatric psychiatrist Dr. Owen
Lerner’s life. When the coin he’s feeding into a parking meter is struck
by lightning, Lerner survives, except that now all he wants to do is
barbecue. What will happen to his patients, who rely on him to make
sense of their world? More important, what will happen to his family?
The
bolt of lightning that lifts Lerner into the air sends the entire
Lerner clan into free fall. Mary Kay Zuravleff depicts family-on-family
pain with generosity and devastating humor as she explores how much we
are each allowed to change within a family—and without. Man Alive!
captures Owen and Toni Lerner and their nearly grown children so
vividly you’ll be looking over your shoulder to make sure the author
hasn’t been watching your own family in action.
What will book clubs talk about?
Family, the importance of money, ambition, the true meaning of success,
marriage and expectations, adapting to change. On sale September 3;
ISBN 13: 9780374202316
Grove / Atlantic
Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly: contemporary novel about a woman whose friend's child disappears while she is in charge
Wash by Margaret Wrinkle: historical novel; effects of slave breeding in early 1800s Tennessee
It's Not Love, It's Just Paris by Patricia Engel: focuses on the inhabitants of a woman's rooming house in Paris
In
this luminous debut, Margaret Wrinkle takes us on an unforgettable
journey across continents and through time, from the burgeoning American
South to West Africa and deep into the ancestral stories that reside in
the soul. Wash introduces a remarkable new voice in American literature.
In
early 1800s Tennessee, two men find themselves locked in an intimate
power struggle. Richardson, a troubled Revolutionary War veteran, has
spent his life fighting not only for his country but also for wealth and
status. When the pressures of westward expansion and debt threaten to
destroy everything he’s built, he sets Washington, a young man he owns,
to work as his breeding sire. Wash, the first member of his family to
be born into slavery, struggles to hold onto his only solace: the
spirituality inherited from his shamanic mother. As he navigates the
treacherous currents of his position, despair and disease lead him to a
potent healer named Pallas. Their tender love unfolds against this
turbulent backdrop while she inspires him to forge a new understanding
of his heritage and his place in it. Once Richardson and Wash find
themselves at a crossroads, all three lives are pushed to the brink.
What will book clubs talk about? Slavery, breeding programs, spirituality, cultural differences. On sale November 9; ISBN 13: 9780802122032
Harlequin Mira
The Sweetest Hallelujah by Elaine Hussey: described as The Help meets Beaches; 1950s Mississippi
The Returned by Jason Mott: contemporary novel; what if your loved ones could return from the dead?
Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel: early 1940s India; unlikely love story at the brink of great social change; the author grew up on a tea plantation in India
The Tulip Eaters by Antionette Van Heugten: contemporary and
historical (World War II); thriller in which the crime has roots in the
Dutch resistance
Harold
and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the
decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth
birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably
into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time. .
. . Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh
and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.
All
over the world people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one
knows how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a sign of
the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is
real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he's
their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave
family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of
collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict
that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.
With
spare, elegant prose and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet
Jason Mott explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and
responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction.
What will book clubs talk about? Death, spirituality, religion, love, hope, what happens when wishes come true. Extra: this has been picked up as a television series, which will be called Resurection. On sale August 27; ISBN 13: 9780778315339
Penguin USA
Margot by Jillian Cantor: contemporary novel with
flashbacks to World War II; what if Anne Frank's sister escaped to the
United States and now must relive past horrors when her sister becomes
posthumously famous
Me before You by Jojo Moyes: contemporary novel; UK setting; love story
A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins: what happens when a man tries to build the first sentient computer using his late-father's journals
The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles by Katherine Pancol: translated from French; two sisters try to help each other out with unexpected results
When
her chronically unemployed husband runs off to start a crocodile farm
in Kenya with his mistress, Joséphine Cortès is left in an unhappy state
of affairs. The mother of two—confident, beautiful teenage Hortense and
shy, babyish Zoé—is forced to maintain a stable family life while
making ends meet on her meager salary as a medieval history scholar.
Meanwhile, Joséphine’s charismatic sister Iris seems to have it all—a
wealthy husband, gorgeous looks, and a très chic Paris address—but she
dreams of bringing meaning back into her life. When Iris charms a famous
publisher into offering her a lucrative deal for a twelfth-century
romance, she offers her sister a deal of her own: Joséphine will write
the novel and pocket all the proceeds, but the book will be published
under Iris’s name. All is well—that is, until the book becomes the
literary sensation of the season.
What will book clubs talk about? Marriage, sisters, motherhood, get-rich-quick schemes, honesty, jealousy. On sale December 31; ISBN 13: 9780143121558
Don't
forget that discussion guides will be available for all these titles.
Check ReadingGroupGuides.com and the publishers' websites for more
information about book club resources, the books, and the authors.
Comments
by Md. Jakaria http://www.blogger.com/profile/05595498163140994920
Book Speed Dating... this the first time I've ... by Leslie (Under My Apple Tree) http://www.blogger.com/profile/17822229389189435951
bummer .. its not in Nook form! by Daryl http://www.blogger.com/profile/08241795455748298624
oh the Crocodile book sounds like my cuppa by Daryl http://www.blogger.com/profile/08241795455748298624
I read Wash for Library Journal and was impressed ... by Laurie C http://www.blogger.com/profile/00177559207735782406
Plus 12 more...
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