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Books in the Media – Salinger

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

Featured on Morning Edition, October 24, 2013 – Salinger by David Shields (Find this book in our catalog).  Based on eight years of exhaustive research and exclusive interviews with more than 200 people—and published in coordination with the international theatrical release of a major documentary film from the Weinstein Company—Salinger is a global cultural event: the definitive biography of one of the most beloved and mysterious figures of the twentieth century.

 

This is what it says about this new book in our catalog:  “Raised in Park Avenue privilege, J. D. Salinger sought out combat, surviving five bloody battles of World War II, and out of that crucible he created a novel, The Catcher in the Rye, which journeyed deep into his own despair and redefined postwar America.

For more than fifty years, Salinger has been one of the most elusive figures in American history. All of the attempts to uncover the truth about why he disappeared have been undermined by a lack of access and the recycling of inaccurate information. In the course of a nine-year investigation, and especially in the three years since Salinger’s death, David Shields and Shane Salerno have interviewed more than 200 people on five continents (many of whom had previously refused to go on the record) to solve the mystery of what happened to Salinger.

Constructed like a thriller, this oral biography takes you into Salinger’s private world for the first time, through the voices of those closest to him: his World War II brothers-in-arms, his family, his friends, his lovers, his classmates, his editors, his New Yorker colleagues, his spiritual advisors, and people with whom he had relationships that were secret even to his own family. Their intimate recollections are supported by more than 175 photos (many never seen before), diaries, legal records, and private documents that are woven throughout; in addition, appearing here for the first time, are Salinger’s “lost letters”—ranging from the 1940s to 2008, revealing his intimate views on love, literature, fame, religion, war, and death, and providing a raw and revelatory self-portrait.

Salinger published his last story in 1965 but kept writing continuously until his death, locked for years inside a bunker in the woods, compiling manuscripts and filing them in a secret vault. Was he a genius who left the material world to focus on creating immaculate art or a haunted recluse, lost in his private obsessions? Why did this writer, celebrated by the world, stop publishing? Shields and Salerno’s investigation into Salinger’s epic life transports you from the bloody beaches of Normandy, where Salinger landed under fire, carrying the first six chapters of The Catcher in the Rye . . . to the hottest nightclub in the world, the Stork Club, where he romanced the beautiful sixteen-year-old Oona O’Neill until she met Charlie Chaplin . . . from his top-secret counterintelligence duties, which took him to a subcamp of Dachau . . . to a love affair with a likely Gestapo agent whom he married and brought home to his Jewish parents’ Park Avenue apartment and photographs of whom appear here for the first time . . . from the pages of the New Yorker, where he found his voice by transforming the wounds of war into the bow of art . . . to the woods of New Hampshire, where the Vedanta religion took over his life and forced his flesh-and-blood family to compete with his imaginary Glass family.

Deepening our understanding of a major literary and cultural figure, and filled with many fascinating revelations— including the birth defect that was the real reason Salinger was initially turned down for military service; the previously unknown romantic interest who was fourteen when Salinger met her and, he said, inspired the title character of “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor”; the first photographs ever seen of Salinger at war and the last known photos of him alive; never-before-published love letters that Salinger, at fifty-three, wrote to an eighteen-year-old Joyce Maynard; and, finally, what millions have been waiting decades for: the contents of his legendary vault—Salinger is a monumental book about the cost of war and the cost of art.” (Simon and Schuster)

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Death of a Nightingale by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis

Monday, October 28th, 2013

Death of a Nightingale (Find this book in our catalog).  I read this mystery as a Reader’s Advance Copy (or ARC) from the publisher and could not put it down.  At this time of writing the book is not out yet, but it will be shortly and it’s in our catalog.  All you fans of Nordic crime fiction, get your pre-pub holds down on this one!

Natash, an Ukranian woman who has been arrested for the murder of her Danish fiance, escapes police custody and flees to go to her daughter.  She feels her eight-year-old is in sudden danger.  We don’t know why, but she saw something outside the court where she was going that made her flip out.

Meanwhile her daughter is in safe custody at a refugee camp, watched over by Red Cross nurse Nina Borg, who we quickly learn has her own issues.  Nina has taken charge of Natasha’s eight-year-old as though she were her own daughter.  Nina recognizes that she is compensating for the alienation of her own family due to her propensity for putting herself in harm’s way in war zones.

When someone tries to abduct Natasha’s daughter from the camp, Nina tries to get her back and find out why she was taken.  In so doing she discovers that Nina’s first husband was also murdered.  It was his death that sent Natasha fleeing from Ukraine.  In her effort to discover the truth in order to protect the child, Nina realizes there is much she did not know about Natasha’s past.  The mystery has long and bloody roots, going back to a famine that devastated Ukraine in 1934.

This story will appeal to readers who like complex mysteries with roots in tragedies or secrets from the past.  I particularly liked the way the story switched from present day to 1934.  This did not in any way detract from the fast pace of the story: clues from the past just made me want to read on to see if my hunch about the present was correct.  I got emotionally involved in the outcome.  The characters are terrific and the plot is great:  each storyline is woven in , and no character is what we think!

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National Book Award Finalists

Friday, October 25th, 2013

The National Book Foundation has named finalists for this year’s National Book Awards. The winners will be named November 20. Here are this year’s shortlisted titles.  Click on a title to go straight to our catalog.

Fiction – The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Nonfiction – The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore

Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer

The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief  by Lawrence Wright

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Longbourn : a novel by Jo Baker

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

Longbourn: a novel by Jo Baker (Find in our catalog).  “If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.”  Thus thinks the housemaid at Longbourn to herself as she watches Miss Elizabeth Bennet set off on her muddy walk across the park to Netherfield.  This delightful and absorbing story is much more than a clever twist on the classic, Pride and Prejudice; it is, according to its editor,  “a beautiful, fully realized work of fiction that casts its spell on its own terms.”  The new novel gives back to Jane Austin fans beloved figures such as Elizabeth and Jane and Mr, Darcy, and also delightfully echoes Pride and Prejudice with well-remembered Austin epigrams.  The plot of Pride and Prejudice runs all the while in the background; however, Longbourn is an entirely new story.

Longbourn takes us into the gritty particulars of the life faced by the lower classes in Regency England, particularly the people in domestic service.  Sarah, the housemaid is our heroine.  She is just out of her teens and increasingly restless.  She feels the injustices of her position keenly and longs to escape by travelling off into the world.  The rest of the domestic help is made up of the cook-housekeeper, Mrs. Hill and her husband, the butler.  There is a maid of all work, Polly, who is a mere child hired from the poorhouse.  Into their settled life of drudgery comes James, a mysteriously reticent footman.  Just as the coming of the Militia to the town raises longings in the breasts of the young ladies of the house, so the coming of James to below-stairs raises complex and secret emotions, not only in Sarah but all the staff.  We see that the lives of the staff are dramatically different from their masters’, and yet the aspirations of  masters and servants remain the same.  It’s when the two worlds cross one into the other that life gets messy.

This is not merely a pastiche of Austen.  The characters are new, genuine and engaging, the the observation is true, the setting absorbing.  The reader plunges in to the book - almost literally into a boiling copper of lye soap suds for the Monday wash-day.  We come to know very quickly what a life of drudgery it is to be a maid, as Sarah’s chilblains crack under the assault of the scalding water and the cold pump handle.  And yet we see that even in these circumstances humanity wins through: in the kitchen there is laughter to be had, and love.

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Zombies, Zombies, Zombies!

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

Zombies! zombies! zombies! edited and with an introduction by Otto Penzler.  “Zombies ain’t what they used to be. Not so long ago, they were safely ensconced on Haiti so the rest of the world could merely scoff at the bizarre myth of the living dead on one relatively small Caribbean island. Well, they have proliferated at an alarming rate, invading the rest of the world, and it seems unlikely that they have any intention of going away anytime soon. W.B. Seabrook, in his 1929 book, The Magic Island, recounted “true” tales of voodoo magic on Haiti bringing the recently dead back to life as slow-moving, virtually brain-dead creatures who would work tirelessly in the fields without pay and without complaint. These stories introduced the zombie to much of the world, though most national folklores have similar tales and legends. A decade after Seabrook’s groundbreaking volume, Zora Neale Hurston researched Haitian folklore and told similar stories of eyewitness accounts of zombies, as have subsequent anthropologists, sociologists, and others not prone to imaginative fancies. If zombie literature began with the reportage of Seabrook, it had powerful ancestral works on which to draw”– Provided by publisher.

World War Z: an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks.  “An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors–soldiers, politicians, civilians, and others–who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival. By the author of The Zombie Survival Guide.” (Baker & Taylor)

 

 

Fiendby Peter Stenson.  “When Chase Daniels first sees the little girl in umbrella socks tearing open the Rottweiler, he’s not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he’s no stranger to horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations.

But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived.

The funny thing is, Chase’s life was over long before the apocalypse got here, his existence already reduced to a stinking basement apartment and a filthy mattress and an endless grind of buying and selling and using. He’s lied and cheated and stolen and broken his parents’ hearts a thousand times. And he threw away his only shot at sobriety a long time ago, when he chose the embrace of the drug over the woman he still loves.

And if your life’s already shattered beyond any normal hopes of redemption…well, maybe the end of the world is an opportunity. Maybe it’s a last chance for Chase to hit restart and become the man he once dreamed of being. Soon he’s fighting to reconnect with his lost love and dreaming of becoming her hero among civilization’s ruins.

But is salvation just another pipe dream?

Propelled by a blistering first-person voice and featuring a powerfully compelling antihero, Fiend is at once a riveting portrait of addiction, a pitch-black love story, and a meditation on hope, redemption, and delusion—not to mention one hell of a zombie novel.” (Random House, Inc.)

Zone Oneby Colson Whitehead.  “In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.

Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuild­ing civilization under orders from the provisional govern­ment based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One—but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.

Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams work­ing in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz’s desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.

And then things start to go wrong.” (Random House, Inc.)

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Eleanor Catton Wins Man Booker Prize

Monday, October 21st, 2013

New Zealand author Eleanor Catton won the Man Booker Prize for her novel The Luminaries (Find this book in our catalog).

Chair of judges Robert Macfarlane described The Luminaries as a “dazzling work, luminous, vast…. a book you sometimes feel lost in, fearing it to be ‘a big baggy monster’, but it turns out to be as tightly structured as an orrery…. We read it three times and each time we dug into it the yields were extraordinary, its dividends astronomical.”

This is what it says about the book in our catalog:  “Publishers Weekly Reviews - With a knack for conveying robust detail in an economy of straightforward language, Catton (The Rehearsal) untangles a dazzling knot of interwoven lives to explain how the town hermit, Crosbie Wells, wound up dead and the town whore, Anna Wetherell, drugged and disoriented. Her chosen setting—the New Zealand gold rush, and central figure—the fish-out-of-water Walter Moody, contribute to an atmosphere ripe for storytelling. And, from the beginning, this is the heart-pounding sport of the manifold suspects, witnesses, and possible accomplices. The shipping merchant Balfour tells of receiving politician Lauderback’s tale of mischief, of involvement with one Lydia Wells…or Carver…or Greenway, she who is supposedly the wife of both the hermit Wells and his purportedly murderous brother, Francis Carver; and she who represents the planetary force of desire. Lauderback’s recounting of lascivious involvement with her gives way to the story of the thug Carver overtaking Lauderback’s vessel the Godspeed and setting the politician up for a fall, which gives way to an Irish Free Methodist minister overhearing the divulgence and adding his bit: he attended to both the whore and the deceased hermit. His story opens onto another, which inspires another, and so forth. With a calculated old-world syntax by which the tamest of swear words are truncated, Catton artfully restrains her verse, and she occasionally breaks the fourth wall—reminding readers that this story is about, above all things, the excitement of storytelling.”

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Top Horror Fiction of 2012 – 2013

Friday, October 18th, 2013

Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan (Find in our catalog).  “”Forget the cud. They want blood. It began with a cow that just wouldn’t die. It would become an epidemic that transformed Britain’s livestock into sneezing, slavering, flesh-craving four-legged zombies. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the fate of the nation seems to rest on the shoulders of three unlikely heroes: an abattoir worker whose love life is non-existent thanks to the stench of death that clings to him, a teenage vegan with eczema and a weird crush on his math teacher, and an inept journalist who wouldn’t recognize a scoop if she tripped over one. As the nation descends into chaos, can they pool their resources, unlock a cure, and save the world? Three losers. Overwhelming odds. One outcome . . . Yup, we’re screwed”– Provided by publisher

Hitchers by Will McIntosh (Find in our catalog).  “Two years ago, on the same day but miles apart, Finn Darby lost two of the most important people in his life: his wife Lorena, struck by lightning on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Tom Darby, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip Toy Shop. Against his grandfather’s dying wish, Finn has resurrected Toy Shop, adding new characters, and the strip is more popular than ever, bringing in fan letters, merchandising deals, and talk of TV specials. Finn has even started dating again.

When a terrorist attack decimates Atlanta, killing half a million souls, Finn begins blurting things in a strange voice beyond his control. The voice says things only his grandfather could know. Countless other residents of Atlanta are suffering a similar bizarre affliction. Is it mass hysteria, or have the dead returned to possess the living? Finn soon realizes he has a hitcher within his skin… his grandfather. And Grandpa isn’t terribly happy about the changes Finn has been making to Toy Shop. Together with a pair of possessed friends, an aging rock star, and a waitress, Finn races against time to find a way to send the dead back to Deadland… or die trying!” – (Perseus Publishing)

Monster: a novel of Frankenstein by Dave Zeltserman (Find in our catalog).  “The supernatural, unmissable new novel by the ALA Best Horror award nominee. In nineteenth-century Germany, one young man counts down the days until he can marry his beloved. Until she is found brutally murdered, and the young man is accused of the crime. Broken on the wheel and left for dead, he awakens on a lab table, transformed into an abomination. Friedrich must go far to take his revenge –only to find his tormentor, Victor Frankenstein, in league with the Marquis de Sade, creating something much more sinister deep in the mountains. Paranormal and gripping in the tradition of the best work of Stephen King and Justin Cronin, Monster is a gruesome parable of control and vengeance, and an ingenious tribute to one of literature’s greatest “– Provided by publisher.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (Find in our catalog).  Summary:  “Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things like a misplaced bracelet, a missing photography or answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country. Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing and terrifying playground of amusements he calls Christmasland. Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up Vic’s own son.”

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Find in our catalog).  “Sussex, England.  A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.” -(HarperCollins)

Red Moon by Benjamin Percy (Find in our catalog).  Summary:  “They live among us. They are our neighbors, our mothers, our lovers. They change. When government agents kick down Claire Forrester’s front door and murder her parents, Claire realizes just how different she is. Patrick Gamble was nothing special until the day he got on a plane and hours later stepped off it, the only passenger left alive, a hero. Chase Williams has sworn to protect the people of the United States from the menace in their midst, but he is becoming the very thing he has promised to destroy. So far, the threat has been controlled by laws and violence and drugs. But the night of the red moon is coming, when an unrecognizable world will emerge…and the battle for humanity will begin.”

Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Find in the catalog).  “Total - For 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.

World - All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.

Destruction - With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it’s too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide. With wildly inventive imagination and white-knuckle suspense that rivals Stephen King at his very best, James Patterson’s ZOO is an epic, non-stop thrill-ride from “One of the best of the best.” (TIME)” – (Hachette Book Group)

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Books in the News – Sister, Mother…

Thursday, October 17th, 2013

Delia Ephron, author of Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc. (Find in our catalog) has been in the news, including MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

We have this book in our catalog together with book descriptions and reviews.  Go to the catalog to place a hold.

“In Sister Mother Husband Dog, Delia Ephron brings her trademark wit and effervescent prose to a series of autobiographical essays about life, love, sisterhood, movies, and family. In “Losing Nora,” she deftly captures the rivalry, mutual respect, and intimacy that made up her relationship with her older sister and frequent writing companion. “Blame It on the Movies” is Ephron’s wry and romantic essay about surviving her disastrous twenties, becoming a writer, and finding a storybook ending. “Bakeries” is both a lighthearted tour through her favorite downtown patisseries and a thoughtful, deeply felt reflection on the dilemma of having it all. From keen observations on modern living, the joy of girlfriends, and best-friendship, to a consideration of the magical madness and miracle of dogs, to haunting recollections of life with her famed screenwriter mother and growing up the child of alcoholics, Ephron’s eloquent style and voice illuminate every page of this superb and singular work.” (Penguin Putnam)

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Jen’s jewels with Molly McAdams

Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

The do’s and don’ts of lying is a precarious dilemma. If we always try to tell the truth, then we are setting ourselves up for imminent failure. Despite our best intentions, it simply doesn’t work. For instance, telling Aunt Sara her new recipe is a flop on Thanksgiving Day would certainly crush the woman’s heart, not to mention cause a family rift. A little white lie never hurt anyone, right? But, what if your lie included hiding your true identity from the one you loved? Would it be possible to ever trust that person again?

This month’s Jen’s Jewels Molly McAdams addresses this very topic in her latest release, Forgiving Lies. It’s the story of Rachel Masters, a college girl scorned by love. When she meets her hot, new neighbor Kash Ryan sparks immediately ignite between these two opposite souls. Yet despite Rachel’s reluctance, she can’t help being drawn into Kash’s world, complete with a tempting tattooed body and sexy lip ring. Will this relationship prove to be another mistake, or has she finally found her one true love?     

As part of this interview, William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers has generously donated five copies for you, my readers, to try to win. So, don’t forget to look for the trivia question at the end of the column. Good luck! Be sure to keep up-to-date by visiting my website www.jennifervido.com, follow me on Facebook jennifervido.com, Twitter @JenniferVido, and Pinterest Jennifer Vido. And as always, thanks for making Jen’s Jewelsa part of your fall reading adventure.       

Jen: As a bestselling author, your path to publication is a story within itself. So that my readers may catch a glimpse into the life of the woman behind the words, please briefly share with us your educational and professional background.

Molly: Ha ha, umm … probably not what you’re expecting? After I graduated high school, I went to a Christian college in Los Angeles; minored in Bible, started majoring in Intercultural Studies for the first year, switched to Elementary Education with an emphasis in Math for the next year, and then I moved to Texas and did a year of majoring in Psychology before I finally dropped out of college. And I was horrible at anything English related. In high school, I failed the grammar portion, and in college, I failed out of my Creative Writing class. I worked at Starbucks for a long time before going into an Administrative Assistant position with a private security company that I worked at until I left to be a full-time writer.

Jen: Please describe for us your “Aha!” moment when you decided to take the plunge and pursue a career as a writer.

Molly: I’d been writing out my dreams, and expanding on them, for about a year and a half before I realized I was writing a story that I didn’t have an option in writing. It was like I had to. It was kind of like I realized these weren’t just dreams anymore, the characters and everything about them were so incredibly real to me, and I couldn’t go more than a handful of hours without pulling out a piece of paper (if I was at work) or grabbing my laptop so I could get lost in their world again. The actual moment I decided to publish my own books, was kind of a few weeks in the “what do I do now?” process. But, it was in the middle of TAKING CHANCES that I realized even if no one ever saw it, I would write as long as I had characters talking to me.

Jen: In terms of nuts and bolts, approximately how long does it take for you to write a novel? And, what is the most rewarding part of the writing process?  

Molly: Anywhere from a month to four months. It just depends on what’s going on in my life at the moment, and how long I can stay attached to my laptop. Ha ha. On average, though, about two months. The most rewarding part is being able to give my characters a voice. Once their story is finished, no matter how difficult that story may have been, I sit back and I’m just happy that their story was heard. I love that feeling.

Jen: Forgiving Lies is a sizzling romantic drama about a straight-laced college student Rachel Masters and a smokin’ hot undercover cop Logan “Kash” Ryan.  How did you arrive at the premise?

Molly: Like all my books, the story started with a dream; and when I sit on these dreams, eventually one day the characters just kind of lay out most of the story for me. It’s hard to describe, I don’t sit there and decide what will happen, its like suddenly I just know, and I need to get to my laptop as soon as possible.

Jen: Candice, Rachel’s best friend and roommate, is gung-ho about the budding romance between her cousin Blake and Rachel. When things go awry, why does she refuse to believe Rachel’s side of the story or even choose to remain neutral for both parties involved?

Molly: It’s almost as if Candice lives life through rose-colored glasses. Or, maybe that’s just how she sees her cousin, Blake. Even later in the story, you’ll see Eli—Candice’s older brother—say how Blake was a guy he’d always looked up to. Same for Candice. Blake can do no wrong in people’s eyes: he’s smooth, he’s likable, he’s attractive, and very persuasive. And for a year, Rachel has been avoiding him and letting him and Candice know how much she can’t stand him. Candice already knows that Rachel is not enjoying the dates with Blake, and is trying to avoid him again, and then the next thing Candice knows, her cousin is taking care of her best friend after being attacked … and the next day her best friend is saying her cousin attacked her. Candice thinks Rachel is using this as a way to get out of dating Blake. Which, of course, seems horrible since she and Rachel are so close, but we have to remember Blake is Candice’s family.

Jen: When Rachel starts hanging out with the new neighbor Kash, how does their mutual attraction change her preconceived notions concerning his edgy, bad boy persona?

Molly: I’m not sure if it’s their mutual attraction, or if it’s just Kash. He’s funny, has a no-nonsense attitude, is still sweet … and is the only person to ever push back. Rachel keeps a lot to herself, and as a result, pushes people away. Kash doesn’t let it happen, and I think that’s just another thing that changes her original assumption of him.

Jen: Is Rachel’s involvement with Kash solely a way to get back at Candice for her unforgivable betrayal? And, how does Kash and Rachel’s romance affect the girls’ relationship?  

Molly: Definitely not, she actually stays away from a relationship with Kash for so long because of what happened with Blake, and she’s afraid to talk to Candice about her attraction to him because of what happened. Uh – it makes their relationship strained, but I can’t go into detail about that.

Jen: How does Kash’s love for Rachel cloud his judgment in terms of him performing his job? 

Molly: To be honest, it clouds his judgment in how he should handle their relationship more than it does his job. I would love to elaborate, but it will give away too much.

Jen: A question I must ask, will there be a sequel? And if so, what may you share with my readers?

Molly: There is definitely a sequel, and all I can tell you, is you’re not going to be expecting what happens in that book J It threw me for a loop even, totally not where I thought it was going.

Jen: Let’s switch gears now and talk about your promotional plans. Please take us on a brief tour of your website highlighting points of interest.  

Molly: www.mollysmcadams.com I have tabs for all my books that are out (or coming soon), along with the links to buy or pre-order the e-books. I have tabs for my readers, one with frequently asked questions, and another showing where I’ll be going for upcoming events. Another tab, if readers like getting sneak peeks, I have teasers for my upcoming books J

Jen: Are you present in social media? And, what is the best way for my readers to keep abreast of your latest news?

Molly: Facebook and Twitter: www.facebook.com/mollymcadams www.twitter.com/mollysmcadams are the BEST way to keep in touch with what’s going on with my books! I always keep my readers up to date as much as possible on there.

Jen: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with my readers. I think Forgiving Lies is a true gem. I highly recommend it to all of my Jen’s Jewels readers. Best of luck in all of your future projects!

Molly: THANK YOU SO MUCH! I enjoyed it! Xo

I hope you have enjoyed my interview with Molly McAdams. Please stop by your favorite bookstore, online retailer, or library branch and pick up a copy of Forgiving Lies today. Better yet, how would you like to win one instead? Okay, be one of the first five readers to email me at jensjewels@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following trivia question and you’ll win!

What is the name of Rachel’s best friend in Forgiving Lies?

In November, I will be bringing you my interview with Lorraine Zago Rosenthal, author of New Money. You won’t want to miss it. Until next time…Happy Halloween!

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The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

(Find this book in our catalog)  This international bestseller is a fun & funny satire that begins when Allan Karlsson climbs out of the window at the Old Folk’s Home where he lives. He is escaping the 1ooth birthday party planned for him by the home’s director. Still wearing his slippers, he makes his way to the bus station where, by stealing a suitcase, he sets in motion a series of events that will include a number of murders, some new friends, a whole pile of money, an elephant, and a trip to Bali. He will also reveal to his new friends the many episodes of his life, including that he was an explosives expert with a taste for vodka. Author Jonasson, cleverly ties Allan to historic events from his birth in 1905, to his present predicament in 2005. Allan is loveable, his friends are unusual, & the characters he meets are mostly unaware that both he & the author are making fun of them. Brilliant, unique & with a fresh take on history, this is a novel that will interest & amuse anyone.

With over 3 million copies sold worldwide, Swedish author Jonasson has a debut hit. He is a former journalist and had his own production company until he felt the need for a change & decided to write his first novel. As he says of Allan, It’s Never Too Late to Start Over. Jonasson lives in Sweden with his son, a cat & some chickens. His second book, The Illiterate Who Could Count, will be published in 2013.

Click here for article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9386562/Jonas-Jonasson-My-100-year-old-hero-and-the-secret-of-happiness.html

http://jonasjonasson.com/  is the author’s website.

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