Summer Beach Bag of Books Promotion

Eileen Goudge is the author of the bestselling novels GARDEN OF LIES and SUCH DEVOTED SISTERS, as well as over 30 books for young adults. In this interview with Bookreporter.com's Eileen Zimmerman Nicol, Goudge describes the inspiration behind her latest work of adult fiction, WOMAN IN RED, and explains how she was able to realistically portray both alcoholism and prison life. She also discusses the differences between writing for adults and writing for teens, and shares details about an upcoming novel set to be published next summer.

WOMAN IN RED by Eileen Goudge (Fiction)
From New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge comes WOMAN IN RED, a powerful story of love and redemption and what one woman will do to overcome the buried secrets of her past. Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol.

-Click here to read a review of WOMAN IN RED.
-Click here to read an excerpt from WOMAN IN RED.

Our newest featured One to Watch author is Nancy Horan. Her debut novel, LOVING FRANK, is a fictionalized account of Frank Lloyd Wright's relationship with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for her. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank; the two became lovers, even though they were each married with children.

We have 10 advance reading copies of LOVING FRANK to give away to readers who would like to preview the book and comment about it. If you are interested, please fill out this form by Friday, July 20th.

-Click here to read Nancy Horan's bio.
-Visit the author's website, www.NancyHoran.com.

More about LOVING FRANK:
I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.

So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.

In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.

Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably to this novel’s stunning conclusion.

Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, LOVING FRANK is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon and their timeless love story.
 

-For more about Linda Francis Lee, go to www.LindaFrancisLee.com.

MARY MODERN by Camille DeAngelis (Fiction)

Lucy Morrigan, a young genetic researcher, lives with her boyfriend, Gray, and an odd collection of tenants in her crumbling family mansion. Surrounded by four generations of clothes, photographs, furniture and other remnants of past lives, Lucy and Gray’s home life is strangely out of touch with the modern world --- except for Lucy’s high-tech lab in the basement.

Frustrated by her unsuccessful attempts to attain motherhood or tenure, Lucy takes drastic measures to achieve both. Using a bloodstained scrap of an apron found in the attic, Lucy successfully clones her grandmother Mary. But rather than conjuring a new baby, Lucy brings to life a twenty-two-year-old Mary, who is confused and disoriented when she finds herself trapped in the strangest sort of déjà vu: alive in a home that is no longer her own, surrounded by reminders of a life she has already lived but doesn’t remember.

A remarkable debut novel, MARY MODERN turns an unflinching eye on the joyous, heartbreaking and utterly unexpected consequences of human desire.

-Click here to read a review of MARY MODERN.

One of our featured Mystery Mayhem authors is William Kent Krueger, whose book THUNDER BAY --- which releases on July 24th --- is the seventh action-packed suspense novel in his award-winning mystery series featuring Cork O'Connor, the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota, and a man of mixed heritage --- part Irish and part Ojibwe. This is the story of Cork's attempt to piece together the aftermath of a hopeless love affair between a young Ojibwe guide and a white woman, an affair that ended in treachery, betrayal and murder.

-Click here to see our advance copy winners.
-Click here to read an excerpt from THUNDER BAY.
-Click here to read William Kent Krueger's bio.
-Click here to see William Kent Krueger's backlist.
-Click here to read critical praise for THUNDER BAY.

More about THUNDER BAY:
Happy and content in his hometown of Aurora, Minnesota, Cork O'Connor has left his badge behind and is ready for a life of relative peace, setting up shop as a private investigator. But his newfound state of calm is soon interrupted when Henry Meloux, the Ojibwe medicine man and Cork's spiritual adviser, makes a request: Will Cork find the son that Henry fathered long ago?

With little to go on, Cork uses his investigative skills to locate Henry Wellington, a wealthy and reclusive industrialist living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. When a murder attempt is made on old Meloux's life, all clues point north across the border. But why would Wellington want his father dead? This question takes Cork on a journey through time as he unravels the story of Meloux's 1920s adventure in the ore-rich wilderness of Canada, where his love for a beautiful woman, far outside his culture, led him into a trap of treachery, greed and murder.

The past and present collide along the rocky shores of Thunder Bay, where a father's unconditional love is tested by a son's deeply felt resentment, and where jealousy and revenge remain the code among men. As Cork hastens to uncover the truth and save his friend, he soon discovers that his own life is in danger and is reminded that the promises we keep --- even for the best of friends --- can sometimes place us in the hands of our worst enemies.

Three New Contests: Enter by Friday, July 27th for Your Group to be Eligible to Win!

Fifty readers will have the opportunity to each win one copy of THE OFFICE OF DESIRE by Martha Moody, which will be in stores on August 2nd, for their group. Enter here.

Fifty readers will have the opportunity to each win TWO copies of LOTTERY by Patricia Wood, which will be in stores on August 2nd, for their group. Enter here.

Twenty readers will have the opportunity to each win one copy of the New York Times bestselller THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak, which will be in stores in paperback on September 11th for their group. Enter here.

The following guides are now available on ReadingGroupGuides.com:

BAREFOOT by Elin Hilderbrand
THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak
THE BROKEN SHORE by Peter Temple
CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTIN ADDICT by Laurie Viera Rigler
THE DEVIL IN THE JUNIOR LEAGUE by Linda Francis Lee
FOREVER MY LADY by Jeff Rivera
HARPSONG by Rilla Askew
HOW TO TALK TO A WIDOWER by Jonathan Tropper
IT HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS by Catherine Lloyd Burns
LOST AND FOUND by Carolyn Parkhurst
LOTTERY by Patricia Wood
MR. SEBASTIAN AND THE NEGRO MAGICIAN by Daniel Wallace
THE OFFICE OF DESIRE by Martha Moody
THE POE SHADOW by Matthew Pearl
ROOTS by Alex Haley
THE RUG MERCHANT by Meg Mullins
RULES FOR SAYING GOODBYE by Katherine Taylor
WINTER'S BONE by Daniel Woodrell

Please note that this title, for which we already had the guide when it appeared in hardcover, is now available in paperback:

THE GUY NOT TAKEN: Stories by Jennifer Weiner

We have the following new guide for Christian book groups:

CATCH A RISING STAR by Tracey Bateman