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Posts by Katie H
Of all the months on the publishing calendar, September might be the most pivotal of the year. Publishers are starting to put out their prestige titles, those works that editors and publicists feel have the best chance at the prizes that garner headlines and sales. On to the (many) highlights:
Exploring true crime seems to be all the rage nowadays, what with the explosion of podcasts, documentaries, and heck even an entire television network (ID) devoted to the topic. But truly, the interest in the worst things that people can do to one another is nothing new.
Ancient Rome could be a tough place for a woman, but it takes a lot to faze Flavia Albia, Rome’s only female private informer. But in The Ides of April, her first case might be her last. Hired by one of the neighborhood’s more detestable characters, Flavia is tasked with defending the woman from charges stemming from a fatal accident with a runaway cart that killed a toddler. Flavia doesn’t relish working for her client, but the daughter of famed informer Marcus Didius Falco doesn’t back away from a challenge—especially when the coffers are running low. But when Flavia’s awful clie
It’s almost August! School is a mere month away, but there’s still some time to squeeze in the last of summer’s big titles. On to the top offerings for this month:
The news of the recent passing of Italian novelist Andrea Camilleri means a great loss to the mystery readers, as Camilleri was particularly known for his Inspector Montalbano series set in contemporary Sicily. Yet the late-blooming Camilleri (he wrote his first novel in his sixties) was remarkably prolific, writing close to a hundred novels in a variety of genres, notably historical fiction. Born in Sicily, Camilleri had a knack for mining the island’s rich history and culture.
Ask anyone about a notorious shipwreck, and they will more than likely respond with the Titanic disaster of 1912. Yet a mere three years later, another grand ocean liner met an equally disastrous fate, the repercussions of which would be felt far beyond those immediately involved. The Lusitania was the giant Cunard liner that many felt could not, would not fall victim to Germany’s submarine warfare against British shipping. It’s an intriguing story, and when told by Erik Larson in Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, it becomes an intensely personal, vivid tale.
July and August always feels a bit like a lull in the publishing calendar, as if the big book pushes of late May and June have exhausted publishers to the extent that they all pull up stakes and head out of town with bags bulging with books. But the upside of all those big May and June releases means midsummer is a great time for the so-called ‘midlist’ author to shine—those books that might not get the fanfare of a bestseller but are gems for the readers willing to seek them out. This July sees some particularly notable authors releasing titles that have strong appeal, but potentially with
It’s nearly (official) summer and with the warmer temps comes OverDrive’s Big Library Read. This year’s selection is L. P. Fergusson’s World War II-set drama A Dangerous Act of Kindness. When Widow Millie Sanger finds downed German pilot Lukas Schiller on her property, she tends to his injuries and shelters him to ensure he isn’t discovered by the authorities. It could be a disastrous decision: England is at war with Germany, and the discovery of an enemy combatant on her farm could mean death for both of them.
It’s official: summer is here. Although the annual deluge of summer titles properly started in May, June sees the arrival of seasonal favorites like Elin Hilderbrand and Mary Alice Monroe, and no shortage of thriller titles. But if a beach read isn’t your thing, there is no shortage of other crisp new options hitting shelves this month.
--It’s a very good month to be a Wisconsin author. This May sees the release of three titles with ties to the Badger State. Longtime local favorite Jennifer Chiaverini continues to explore the lives of real women through a historical fiction lens with Resistance Women. Her central character, Mildred Fish-Harnack, was raised in Milwaukee before moving to Germany where she worked as a spy against the Nazis. It’s on shelves mid-month. Madison-based author Kelly Harms scored recent hits with The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay and The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane.
