New release: The End of Wasp Season

 

Today marks the release of Denise Mina’s newest book, The End of Wasp Season.  About the book:

When a notorious millionaire banker hangs himself, his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of selfishness is widespread, and the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family.

Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered. The community is stunned by what appears to be a vicious, random attack. When Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, heavily pregnant with twins, is called in to investigate, she soon discovers that a tangled web of lies lurks behind the murder. It’s a web that will spiral through Alex’s own home, the local community, and ultimately right back to a swinging rope, hundreds of miles away.

The End of the Wasp Season is an accomplished, compelling and multi-layered novel about family’s power of damage-and redemption.

About the author:

Denise Mina is a “fearless” (GQ) writer “of stunning talent and accomplishment”(Publishers Weekly) and “the crown princess of crime” (Val McDermid). She is the author of Garnethill, which won the John Creasey Memorial Prize for best first crime novel, Exile, and Resolution. She lives in Glasgow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started Early, Took My Dog read-along

We’re excited to be featuring STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG, by Kate Atkinson, as our first read-along book.   We’ll start out with the publisher’s synopsis of the book and then get the conversation going with a few discussion questions.  Feel free to answer our questions, pose a few of your own, or react to someone else’s comments.

Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life as a retired police detective-a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Both appear miserable and better off without each other-or so decides Tracy, in a snap decision that surprises herself as much as Kelly. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge.

Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective of novels such as Case Histories, is embarking on a different sort of rescue-that of an abused dog. Dog in tow, Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished.

Some general questions — quick and easy!

• What did you think of STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG?

• Have you ever read any other Jackson Brodie books?  If so, how did STARTED EARLY compare? If not, do you think the book worked well as a stand-alone novel?

I thought the discussion guide for this book was outstanding and I’m not sure we can improve much upon it! Here are some questions which caused us to pause and reflect a bit and we’d love to hear what you think….

• At the beginning of the novel, Tracy offers a handful of cash for possession of Courtney. What were her motives and do you think her actions were justified?

• While STARTED EARLY is definitely a mystery, it is also a fine example of literary fiction. In fact, critics and booksellers have both classified the Jackson Brodie books as mystery and literary fiction. What are some of the elements of this novel that make it “literary fiction?”

• It was very interesting how the story went back and forth between present day and the 1970s. This format worked extremely well to not only present clues into Hope’s mysterious childhood, but it also demonstrated a great deal about the basic nature of human’s needs and desires. What were some of the themes about people’s behavior that struck a chord with you?

• Unlike the resolution we get at the end of the novel concerning Hope background, the reader never really discovers the truth behind Courtney’s story. Why do you think Ms. Atkinson chose to leave this story open-ended? Did you think it was effective? Or, did it bother you?

• One of the themes that was apparent throughout this novel (and other Jackson Brodie books) is lost or abandoned children. What was the role of “lost girls” in this story? And if you’re read any other Jackson Brodie books, how did this theme relate to other lost girls in Jackson’s life?

• Another discussion topic that really stood out to me (and definitely caused me to think) was the difficulty associated with becoming a mother. In STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG, the reader sees a number of women who have issues when they discover themselves facing pending motherhood as well as the loss of a child .  Discuss some of the characters’ different actions in this story as they relate to motherhood.

• The title of the novel STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG is taken from an Emily Dickinson poem. The novel also ends with another Emily Dickinson poem called “Hope” (Interesting that it was also the name that Hope’s new family chose for their “adopted” daughter.) Why do you think Ms. Atkinson ended the novel on this note?

And here’s a fun one:

• What do readers find Jackson Brodie so appealing? If a movie was being made of STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG, who do you see playing Jackson?

We can’t wait to see what everyone thought of the book. Thanks so much for participating!

New Release: Bossypants

Bossypants, by Tina Fey, is out today!  The publisher describes the book this way:

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update,” before “Sarah Palin,” Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon — from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

(Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

New Release: Black Hills

The newest book from the Reagan Arthur imprint is being released today, February 24, 2010.  BLACK HILLS is a new title from a familiar author, Dan Simmons.  Check out this great video where Dan talks about his latest book:

Patterns of Paper Monsters

PATTERNS OF PAPER MONSTERS by Emma Rathbone will be published on August 9, 2010.

About the author:

Emma Rathbone is a graduate of New York University and the MFA Fiction Program at the University of Virginia. She currently lives in Charlottesville and is beginning work on a second novel.

The Messenger of Athens

THE MESSENGER OF ATHENS by Anne Zouroudi will be published on July 19, 2010.  Here’s the publisher’s description:

Idyllic but remote, the Greek island of Thiminos seems untouched and untroubled by the modern world.  So when the battered body of a young woman is discovered at the foot of a cliff, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident.

Then a stranger arrives, uninvited, from Athens, announcing his intention to investigate further.  Hermes Diaktoros’s methods of investigation are unorthodox, and before long, he’s uncovering a tale of passion, corruption, and murder.  But Hermes brings his own mystery into the web of dark secrets and lies.  Who has sent him to Thiminos, and on whose authority is he acting?  And how does he know of dramas played out decades ago?

About the author:

Anne Zouroudi was born in England and has lived in the Greek islands. Her attachment to Greece remains strong, the country is the inspiration for much of her writing. She now lives in northern England.

The Island

THE ISLAND by Elin Hilderbran will be published on July 6, 2010.

About the author:

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, PA, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her eight previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English

MR. ROSENBLUM DREAMS IN ENGLISH by Natasha Solomons will be published on June 21, 2010.

About the author:

Natasha Solomons is a 29-year-old screenwriter. She based this story on her own grandparents’ experience.

The Rehearsal

THE REHEARSAL by Eleanor Catton will be published on May 17, 2010.  Here’s the publisher’s description:

A teacher’s affair with his underage student jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own power.  As the girls vent to their saxophone teacher while practicing for an upcoming recital, they voice their own longings in ways that, in time-honored adolescent tradition, involve heavy emotion and high drama.  And, in truth, the scandal’s notoriety seems to have turned every act into a performance, every platform into a stage.

But when the local drama school turns the story into their year-end show, the real world and the world of the theater are forced to meet.  With both performances approaching, the boundaries between dramas real and staged, private and public, begin to dissolve.

The Rehearsal is a provocative novel about the complications of human desire and marks the arrival of a boldly inventive and extraordinarily accomplished new voice in contemporary fiction.

About the author:

Born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, Eleanor Catton, 23, is the recipient of the 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship to study at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Iowa City, where she now lives.

Still Midnight

STILL MIDNIGHT by Denise Mina will published on March 22, 2010.  Here’s the publisher’s description:

Alex Morrow is not new to the police force-or to crime-but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men have slipped from a van into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems, or something much more unexpected?

As Alex falls further into the most challenging case of her career, Denise Mina proves why “if you don’t read crime novels, Mina is your reason to change” (Rocky Mountain News).

About the author:

Denise Mina is the author of Slip of the Knife, The Dead Hour, Field of Blood, Deception, and the Garnethill trilogy, the first installment of which won her the John Creasey Memorial Prize for best first crime novel. She lives in Glasgow.