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Book Club Giveaways
November 1- December 1, 2007 |
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Dear Member,
Our Top 10 Book Club Selections List is now updated weekly, and this week has 2 new books on the list! Check it out.
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The Master of Verona by David Blixt
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Article by David Blixt
I hated Shakespeare.
They made me read him but, seriously, the Bard and I were not friendly.
So how did I end up writing a novel based on his work?
It started in high school, when I was cast as Mercutio in the school production of Romeo & Juliet. Somewhere in the middle of rehearsals I realized that the teachers had been holding out on me. Shakespeare didn't write literature - he wrote words meant to be spoken by living, breathing people, up on stage!
Since then I've become a professional classical actor, something I would never have believed twenty years ago. Out of the blue I was asked to direct R&J. It was my first time directing Shakespeare, and I took it quite seriously. Reading it over, I noticed something - a line of Lord Montague's, right near the end of the play. It revealed the cause of the feud.
The idea wouldn't let go of me, so eventually I sat down and started writing. The result is THE MASTER OF VERONA, a novel set at the dawn of the Renaissance, combining Shakspeare's Italian characters with the real people of Dante's Italy. A story of intrigue, romance, warfare, and a star-crossed scoundrel.
I've read that when Alan Alda met Donald Sutherland, he simply took the other man's hand and said, "Thank you for my life." If Shakespeare were alive today, I'm sure that's what I'd have to say. But I'd start by telling him how I'd always hated him.
David would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. Email the author to set up a date and time. |
The End of the Alphabet by C S Richardson
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Article by C S Richardson
The inspiration for the kind of novel The End of the Alphabet is came from simply wanting to write a novel I would want to read. I am a devotee of the fable, the parable, the touch of magic, the grown-up fairy tale if you will. Picture somewhere between Le Petit Prince and The Old Man and the Sea and there I am, completely engrossed. As to the inspiration for "Alphabet" as a story, that came by way of upending the common parlour quiz: what you do if you won the lottery? The novel in essence spins the question on its ear: what would you do if you were given thirty days left to live?
The concept I'm exploring in The End of the Alphabet is what is important in one's life. Is it putting paid to a laundry list of acquisition and experience before one dies? Or is it something more fundamental yet far less tangible? Love? Certainly. And home. And, simply, living life to its fullest.
Author Bio
CS would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. Email him to request a call.
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On Wings of the Morning
by Marie Bostwick
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Article by Marie Bostwick
When I read that, prior to his history-making flight across the Atlantic, the then-unknown Charles Lindbergh barnstormed in Texas and Oklahoma, the plot for my debut novel, Fields of Gold, ignited in my mind. After he lands his plane in a wheat field in the Oklahoma panhandle, his chance meeting with a beautiful and intelligent farm girl changes her life, and Lindbergh's, forever. That book was a finalist for the prestigious Oklahoma Book Award, and though the story of Lindbergh, Eva Glennon and their illegitimate child, Morgan, was completely fictional, it seemed to touch a chord of truth with readers. I received an amazing amount of mail from readers who wanted to know what happened to young Morgan, the child who didn't know the identity of his father, only that he shared his passion for soaring through the clear blue skies.
I answer that question in On Wings of the Morning, a November trade paperback that is being featured in the October 1 issue of Library Journal, a dream come true for this author.
In On Wings of the Morning, Morgan enlists in the Navy and becomes a World War II fighter pilot in the Pacific. For the second time his mother watches a man she loves climb into the cockpit of a plane and take off, not knowing if she'll ever see him again. Having three sons of my own, two grown and gone, this story really hit home for me. I shed buckets of tears when I wrote this book.
Before Morgan leaves the States, he befriends divorcee' Georgia Carter, a remarkable Women's Air Service Pilot (WASP), who shares his passion for flying-and a lot more. I think you'll like Georgia-a strong woman-and I know you'll enjoy learning about the WASP, the women who helped pave the way for the many female fliers to follow, and whose selfless contributions to the war effort deserve to be celebrated. I know you'll come to love and respect these women as I have.
Enjoy your reading!
Marie would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. Email her to request a call or visit.
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The Animal Girl by John Fulton
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Article by John Fulton
It's difficult to talk about what inspires my work or why I write what I write. I can safely say, however, that I don't sit down, decide what to write, and then write it. The novellas and stories in The Animal Girl came slowly over a five-year period. And as with my previous two books, the material seemed to choose me rather than the other way around.
While working on this book, I knew I didn't want to write the same sort of story-fast-paced, loud, and about family dysfunction-that appeared in my first collection. What's more, my earlier mode of writing no longer worked for me. Whenever I started in that vein, the story petered out and died on the page within a few days. I got bored. I recognized the same characters making familiar mistakes. In my reading, I was becoming receptive to a different kind of work. Whereas Denis Johnson, early Richard Ford, and Raymond Carver had shaped my first story collection, I was now looking to the quieter, more patient approach I found in Jumpa Lahiri, Amy Bloom, and Alice Monroe's stories. These writers work with beautiful, if unassuming sentences that gradually coalesce into stories that amount to more than the sum of their parts. That's what I set out to accomplish in The Animal Girl.
To an extent, these stories come from my own experience, if obliquely and in a way I don't fully understand. Before I wrote the title novella, for example, I'd been haunted for years by my experience as an adolescent working in a biomedical laboratory in which sheep and dogs were killed for the sake of science. But that story failed every time I tried to write it until I discovered Leah, a teenage girl working in such a lab and at the same time struggling with her mother's recent death and her father's new girlfriend. While the experience of the lab was mine, Leah was a mystery to me and fueled my writerly compulsion to explore lives vastly different from my own.
Similarly, I know too well the vulnerability, awkwardness, and excitement of beginning a romantic relationship. But when I set out to write "Hunters," I had only a vague notion of what this experience might be like for Kate, the central character, a middle-aged, terminally ill woman. What made this love story interesting for me to write is what I hope will make it interesting to read. While Kate is slowly dying and relinquishing her life, she is also absorbed in the humorous and awkward entanglements of new love. What happens when the emotions of love are mixed with those of loss and grief? The story allowed me to see a new way to frame a romance.
The closing novella, "The Sleeping Woman," also frames a romance with loss. When Evelyn meets Russell, she's not sure why he hesitates to begin a relationship with her. As the story develops, she learns that Russell is married to a woman who's been in a vegetative state for three years. While the darkness of this past nearly destroys their relationship, Russell and Evelyn begin to see a way to move forward.
Though all the stories in The Animal Girl explore loss, they also, as Booklist writes about my collection, "offer glimpses into all that is hopeful and human."
 Author Bio
John would be happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. Email him to request a phone call. |
Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills
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 The concept for this book-the destruction of the world's oil supply-actually started out as a component of my previous book, The Second Horseman. The idea was that someone was trying to force peace on the Middle East by destroying Israel and cutting off the flood of money derived from the sale of petroleum.
As I worked through the outline, though, it seemed like one idea too many. Instead of enhancing the story, it kind of muddled it and was leading me into an 800-page epic that I didn't want to write and you probably wouldn't want to read. In the end, I decided the Israel angle was enough. My scheme to wipe out the Middle East's oil went into the dreaded 'deleted' folder, never to be seen again.
Or so I thought. I just couldn't completely shake the idea and the more it festered in the back of my mind, the more entrenched it became.
The ramifications of America's dependence on oil are so much more dire than you'd realize from casual thought. When I first considered the scenario, I figured a serious drop in oil availability would be a nightmare, but a more or less manageable one. Deeper thought brought up some disturbing questions. How would I feed myself? I'm not a farmer, I rely entirely on the trucks that stock our local grocery store. What if the shelves of that store were suddenly empty? The obvious answer is that I'd drive to a more distant store. But what if there was no gas to fill my tank? The more I thought about it, the easier it became to picture a cascade effect that would descend the country into violence and anarchy.
Initially, the problem with the idea was that I didn't think there was anything that could cause this kind of a sudden, catastrophic shortage. Oil is pretty resilient and the supply is reasonably diversified.
Enter bacterial contamination.
I had never really heard of hydrocarbon-eating bacteria before I started my research, but not only do they exist, they're actually pretty common and pose a constant threat to drilling operations. Quickly the scenario went from ridiculously implausible to frighteningly simple
Jon would be delighted to call-in to your book group via speakerphone Email him to set up a chat. He also would be happy to meet with book clubs in the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming |
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| From the Last Newsletter...in case you missed it |
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Abraham's Children
The Secret Cardinal
Lasting Contribution
Doesn't She Look Natural?
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| Winners! |
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Winners--please email me the information below. Otherwise, you do not need to do anything. You will receive your books within 30 days. Please click on the "review this book" link in the reading guide to submit your review and don't forget that you can email the author to request a call-in. The author email link is below the book title in the reading guide for the book.
Matrimony (3 clubs)
1. Nancee Marquez and the Albuquerque Book Club of Albuquerque, NM (8 members)
Nancee, we will be mailing 8 books to the address in your account info. Joshua would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email him. If you have more/less members, please email me
2. Nicole Boser and the Women With Minds Book Club of Elk River, MN (12 members)
Nicole, we will be mailing 12 books to the address in your account info. Joshua would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email him. If you have more/less members, please email me3. Anne Clancy and the Wonderful Book Club of Houston, TX (8 members)
Anne, we will be mailing 8 books to the address in your account info. Joshua would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email him. If you have more/less members, please email me The Secret Cardinal (5 clubs)
1.Gina Johannsen and the 3FC Readers Book Club of Raleigh, NC (10 members)
Gina, we will be mailing 10 books to the address in your account info. Tom would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. email him to request a call. If you have more/less members, please email me
2.Fran Goets and the 8th Street Coffeehouse Book Club of Gladstone, MI (9 members)
Fran, we will be mailing 9 books to the address in your account info. Tom would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. email him to request a call. If you have more/less members, please email me
3.Jacqueline Chatmon and the A Novel Idea Book Club of Houston, TX (11 members)
Jacqueline, we will be mailing 11 books to the address in your account info. Tom would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. email him to request a call. If you have more/less members, please email me
4.Rachel Frisbie and the Northtown Starbucks Book Club of Chatham, NJ (10 members)
Rachel Frisbie, we will be mailing 10 books to the address in your account info. Tom would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. email him to request a call. If you have more/less members, please email me
5.Mary Shaw and the ANBC Book Club of Tyrone,GA (9 members)
Mary, we will be mailing 9 books to the address in your account info. Tom would be happy to call in to your book club via speakerphone. email him to request a call. If you have more/less members, please email me
Ultraviolet (Jane Kelly Mysteries) (1 clubs)
1.Annie Hasselhan and the Afterwords Book Club of Livingston, MT (16 members)
Annie, we will be mailing 16 books to the address in your account info. Nancy would be delighted to call-in via speakerphone. email her to set up a chat. If you have more/less members, please email me
1.Andrea Arnold and Colville Book Club of Colville, WA (8 members)
Andrea, we will be mailing 8 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
2.Michelle Widener and the Cottage Girls Book Club of Rola, MI (8 members)
Michelle, we will be mailing 8 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
3.Lisa Kessel and the We are Book Nerds and We Don't Care Book Club of Minneapolis, MN
(8 members)
Lisa, we will be mailing 8 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
4.Susan Gaston and the We Love Books Book Club of Fort Worth, TX (12 members)
Susan, we will be mailing 12 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
5.Nicole Boser and the Wine is bottled poetry Book Club of Mesa, AZ (10 members)
Nicole, we will be mailing 10 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
6.Kim Stone and the Wive's Night Out Book Club of Aurora, CO (4 members)
Kim, we will be mailing 4 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
7.Sharon Waters and the Zion Book Lovers Book Club of Strasburg, VA (8 members)
Sharon, we will be mailing 8 books to the address in your account info. Laurie is happy to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to set up a phone. If you have more/less members, please email me
Singled Out (6 club)
1.Maureen Lovejoy and the Babes and Books Book Canton, CT (7 members)
Maureen, we will be mailing 7 books to the address in your account info. Bella would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to request a phone chat. If you have more/less members, please email me
2.Aime Easton and the Books and Beans Book Club of Algonac, MI (5 members)
Aime, we will be mailing 5 books to the address in your account info. Bella would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to request a phone chat. If you have more/less members, please email me
3.Kay Moody and the East Memphis Book Club of Memphis, TN (5 members)
Kay, we will be mailing 5 books to the address in your account info. Bella would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to request a phone chat. If you have more/less members, please email me
4.Cheryl Rozier and the Laid Back Book Club of Phillipsburg, NJ (10 members)
Cheryl, we will be mailing 10 books to the address in your account info. Bella would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to request a phone chat. If you have more/less members, please email me
5.Stefanie Applegate and the Jersey Girls Book Club of Beachwood, NJ (5 members)
Stefanie, we will be mailing 5 books to the address in your account info. Bella would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to request a phone chat. If you have more/less members, please email me
6.Nina Robertson and the Literary Gliterati Book Club of Fair oaks, CA(4 members)
Nina, we will be mailing 4 books to the address in your account info. Bella would be delighted to call-in to your club via speakerphone. email her to request a phone chat. If you have more/less members, please email me | |
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Best Wishes,
Pauline Hubert
Book Movement |
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