Tuesday, December 10th, 2024

Top Five Books of 2024

 
2024 is almost over, and that means it’s time for LibraryThing staff to share our Top Five Books of the Year. You can see past years’ lists HERE.

We’re always interested in what our members are reading and enjoying, so we invite you to add your favorite books read in 2024 to our December List of the Month, and to join the discussion over in Talk

>> List: Top Five Books of 2024

Note: This is about what you read in 2024, not just books published in 2024.

Without further ado, here are our staff favorites!

 


Abby

cover image for In Memoriam cover image for Mott Street cover image for The Bright Sword cover image for The Light Pirate cover image for Brooklyn

In Memoriam by Alice Winn. Public school boys discover Having Feelings during WWI. This book utterly consumed me. Ate me up, spat me out, and I am better for it.

Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming by Eva Chin. Ava Chin’s Mott Street is a memoir but it’s also a history of Chinese people in the United States, from workers on the transcontinental railroad, to the holding center at Angel Island in San Francisco, to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. Exactly the Arthurian book I didn’t know I needed but now will be pushing on all my friends.

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Climate change devastates the state of Florida, and we follow Wanda throughout her life in this small town that goes under water. For the amount of loss in this magical realism book it’s astonishing how hopeful it also manages to be.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. I’m late coming to Eilis Lacey, but it meant I got to read Brooklyn and Long Island back to back. Brooklyn is quiet and precise and a treasure of words.

Honorable mentions go to: The Mars House by Natasha Pulley, Real Americans by Rachel Khong, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, Bear by Julia Phillips, and Bellies by Nicola Dinan.

Tim

cover image for Challenger cover image for There Is No Antimemetics Division cover image for Piranesi cover image for Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World cover image for On the Edge

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham. I’m a glutton for doom. I responded to COVID by reading Higginbotham’s Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster, so I responded to Trump’s election by reading his book on the Challenger explosion. There was doom and gloom indeed—in the decline of NASA and in the organizational breakdowns that produced the accident—but it turned out to be surprisingly inspirational too. The Challenger astronauts were the best of us.

Related: The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh. Not as compellingly written.

Further wallowing in doom, I picked up Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. I agree with nvblue’s review: “It has also been a little while since I’ve read a book this aggressively stupid.”

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. I’m not sure what to do with this bonkers book about “antimemetic” entities—entities you can’t notice or remember, and therefore can’t communicate to others—but I can’t stop thinking about it. It is in any case a fresh idea.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Piranesi is no Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. But it’s weird and wonderful in its smaller way.

Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World by Parmy Olson. Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI has exploded across technology and culture. But not books. Or at least not good ones. (Amazon and Audible bristle with “Make money with ChatGPT” titles.) Olson’s is the first major account—and it’s a good one.

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver. It’s fashionable to hate Silver these days. After all, he got the election wrong. (In fact, a Trump battleground sweep was his most likely outcome.) On the Edge isn’t as focused as The Signal and the Noise—he needs an editor, or more probably to listen to his editor!—but if you enjoy his dry, nerdy, contrarian brain, you’ll enjoy the book.

Honorable mentions go to: Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher, Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach, In God’s Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire by Robert G. Hoyland, and The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond (in progress).

Kate

cover image for Say Nothing cover image for The Unseen World cover image for The Rachel Incident cover image for Intermezzo cover image for Priestdaddy: A Memoir

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. I’m obviously years late to this one, but it was just as captivating as everyone said it would be. I recommend reading this while visiting married friends in Boston who hail from Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively, so they can share their very different perspectives.

The Unseen World by Liz Moore. I read this on a recommendation from the poet Kate Baer and later discovered that LibraryThing’s own Abby Blachly put it on her Best of 2017 list.

I don’t have the words to describe how much I love Liz Moore’s work. She’s such a skilled writer, adept at bringing you into her worlds and forging bonds between characters and readers. I thought about this book for some time after finishing it.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue. I recommended this book to a number of friends in reading ruts and it did the trick every time. I want to say it’s like a warm cup of tea, but it’s not without conflict or heartbreak. It’s a wonderful book which I wish I could read again for the first time.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. While I consider myself a Rooney Tune (h/t to Brandon Taylor), I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to spend 450 pages exploring the inner thoughts of two men. Perhaps my low expectations are what led to me loving this book as much as I did? And I did love it. Very, very much. It’s a story of family and miscommunication, of trying & failing to let go of hurt and of attempts to move forward. It was relatable and beautiful and I (of course) cried.

Priestdaddy: A Memoir by Patricia Lockwood. Patricia Lockwood is a national treasure. She is SO funny and irreverent and just such a clever writer. I originally picked up this book because she wrote about her childhood in St. Louis (my current home), and I fell in love with her writing while reading it.

Honorable mentions go to: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, and The Wedding People by Alison Espach.

Lucy

cover image for A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World cover image for The Martian cover image for Mania cover image for Stories of Your Life and Others cover image for Fail-Safe

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher. Sometimes a book is so charming and full of heart that you’re willing to overlook its imperfections; this was that type of book for me. The character of Griz was immediately so likeable and compelling. I always love a post-apocalyptic book, and it was nice to read one that was not as bleak.

The Martian by Andy Weir. This book was so much fun to read, just like Project Hail Mary. Such an enjoyable narrator that was funny and intelligent. I learned so much reading this book! Definitely worth reading even if you’ve seen the movie.

Mania by Lionel Shriver. This book was intense. Similarly to Shriver’s book The Mandibles, I found myself thinking that I was living in the world of the story. Overall, this book made me very sad for the characters living in that world.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. The stories in this book are fascinating sci-fi/speculative fiction. I’ve always loved short story collections. Even if not all the stories are great, there is always the next one!

I particularly enjoyed “Understand” – the story of a person whose intelligence has been enhanced; “Division by Zero” – the story of a woman who inadvertently proves that all of known mathematics is false; “Hell is the Absence of God” – the story of a man who has lost his wife and tries to find God; and “Liking What You See: A Documentary” – the story of an attempt to eradicate “lookism”.

Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. Wow! This book is intense! I knew it was going to be since I saw the movie first, and it was also incredibly intense.

I was surprised I’d never heard of this movie or book, since Red Alert/Dr. Strangelove came out at nearly the same time and that movie definitely overshadowed the film for this book, but I think this one is actually better. It is a great character study and really relates the fears and anxieties of the time.

Honorable mentions go to: This Book is a Planetarium by Kelli Anderson, Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore, John Dies at the End by David Wong (AKA Jason Pargin), Fractured Fables by Alix E. Harrow, and The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi.

Kristi

cover image for We Are All the Same in the Dark cover image for Under the Whispering Door cover image for The Best of Me cover image for This Book Can Read Your Mind cover image for The 5am Club

We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin. I have not loved a book this much in a long time. Excellent writing, plot, character development; I was fully invested the whole way through. There was a unique sense of place, and you could tell the characters were well-researched. I’ll definitely be reading more by Julia Heaberlin!

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. This story has a very similar feel to The House in the Cerulean Sea: the problematic main character has a life—or, in this case, death—changing experience, becomes a better person, and has a sweet and happy ending. There’s a few endearing characters, a few ugly ones, and at least one catalyst for climactic effect. An easy, enjoyable read!

The Best of Me by David Sedaris. I needed a lot of easy, light reads this year. If you enjoy snort-laughing and a spot of dark humor, look no further.

This Book Can Read Your Mind by Susannah Lloyd, illustrated by Jacob Grant. I try to give a nod to my son Finnegan’s collection each year, and this SantaThing pick from 2023 was a great one! Downright silliness, in the best way. My son couldn’t wait for the part about the pink elephants wearing underpants. Written in a style that speaks to the reader, your little ones will love this.

The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. by Robin Sharma. Dishonorable Mention. Sorry, Robin: while your formulas for success seem simple and straightforward enough, your delivery could really use some work. This self-improvement book was written through a fictional story, which I simply couldn’t get past. It was a distraction of cheesy lines and unbelievable plot, making light of the actual strategies he was trying to get across to the reader. I just couldn’t take this one seriously. Get the Cliff’s Notes version, and call it a day.

Abigail

cover image for The Dark Is Rising cover image for The Unicorn Treasure cover image for Midsummer Magic cover image for 'Round the Yule-Log: Christmas in Norway

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. Opening on Midwinter Eve, this immensely powerful and intensely engaging children’s fantasy, the second in Susan Cooper’s five-volume Dark Is Rising Sequence, is a book I read again and again as a girl. This year I undertook a reread of the entire series, together with some friends, and found all of the books as beautiful and engrossing as ever. With its magical Christmas setting, exciting time travel and fascinating Buckinghamshire folklore, this may be my favorite of the lot, although The Grey King comes a close second.

The Unicorn Treasury: Stories, Poems and Unicorn Lore edited by Bruce Coville. Prolific children’s author and fantasist Bruce Coville presents eighteen poems, short stories and novel excerpts in this unicorn-themed anthology from 1988, enhanced by the beautiful artwork of illustrator Tim Hildebrandt. Wondrous, exciting, poignant, humorous—these selections explore the enchantment of this magical creature. Contributors include such authors as Madeleine L’Engle, Jane Yolen, Ella Young, C.S. Lewis, Nicholas Stuart Gray, and Patricia C. Wrede.

Midsummer Magic: A Garland Of Stories, Charms, and Recipes edited by Ellin Greene, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Storyteller and author Ellin Greene gathers folk and fairy-tales set during midsummer in this lovely anthology, pairing the stories from various sources with brief descriptions of folk practices related to this time of year, as well as midsummer recipes. The latter include such delicacies as Swedish creme, fruit soup, Irish currant cake, heart-shaped cookies and Midsummer cake, while the former covers customs such as the Midsummer tree, various forms of divination (usually to determine a future husband or wife) done at that time, love charms, and magical herbs and flowers.

‘Round the Yule Log: Christmas in Norway by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen. A young military lieutenant, recently ill and unable to travel to his childhood home in the country, looks forward to his first Christmas without his family in this holiday story from Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, the noted Norwegian author and folklorist who, together with Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, is celebrated for his role in collecting Norwegian folklore in the 19th century. I enjoy tales with inset stories, and this one was particularly well done. I was tickled to see that one of the stories related by the lieutenant was The Cat on the Dovrefell, which I have encountered in picture book form at least three different times. The book is part of the late 19th/early 20th-century Christmas in Many Lands series, presenting holiday stories for young people set in diverse locales.

The Mightiest Heart by Lynn Cullen, illustrated by Laurel Long. I have loved this picture book retelling of the traditional Welsh folktale concerning that faithful canine Gelert since its first publication in 1998, and once owned a copy of my own, now lost in a flood. I recently reread it, and it is just as gorgeous a book as ever, pairing a heartbreaking but intensely involving narrative with breathtakingly beautiful illustrations from Laurel Long. I always have a lump in my throat when I think of Gelert wandering lonely in the wilderness, driven off by the one who should have most protected him.

Honorable mentions go to: East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon by Sir George Webbe Dasent, illustrated by P.J. Lynch; and The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola.

Zeph

cover image for Piranesi cover image for Fire and Hemlock cover image for Light from Uncommon Stars cover image of The Dispossessed cover image for Big Swiss

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Clarke has a knack for inciting intense feelings about her characters in subtle, surprising ways. I almost threw the book out the car window when I finished because I felt too much for these characters. Mysterious, poetic, heartbreaking.

Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. The ballad Tam Lin is a tricky one to relay because it’s dense with folk customs and magical imagery, while also being a mire of moral discomfort. Jones uniquely captures this, and reshapes the ballad format so that a modern reader can see through the fairy glamour to the human tensions therein.

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. This unlikely collision of beings, personalities, identities, and values is special. I fell in love with everyone a little bit, and I want the very best for them – no matter how many demons, intergalactic wars, or awkward concerts they need to conquer in the process.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. She makes you think.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. I had never read a book with so many unlikeable characters that I enjoyed so thoroughly. They all suck, but it’s great. Made me laugh loudly many times in awkward places at awkward times. Warning: high crass.

Honorable mentions go to: Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski, The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, Slewfoot by Brom, A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

Lauren

That’s it!

Come record your own Top Five Books of 2024 on our December List of the Month, and join the discussion over in Talk.

Labels: top five

Thursday, December 5th, 2024

Author Interview: Lori B. Duff

Lori B. Duff

LibraryThing is pleased to sit down this month with author and attorney Lori B. Duff, who had a thirty-year career as a lawyer and municipal court judge before turning to writing. A blogger and columnist as well, she has served as president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Her humorous essays have appeared in newspapers, on blogs, and in published collections such as The Armadillo, the Pickaxe, and the Laundry Basket (2015), You Know I Love You Because You’re Still Alive: Confessions of a Middle Aged Working Mom (2016) and If You Did What I Asked in the First Place (2019). She has now turned to fiction writing, and her debut novel, the courtroom drama Devil’s Defense, was published last month by She Writes Press. Duff sat down with Abigail to answer some questions about this new book.

Devil’s Defense follows a small-town lawyer who finds herself drawn into a case representing a client she doesn’t particularly admire. How did the idea for the story first come to you? Were there specific social or legal themes you wanted to explore, or did they develop naturally?

I was watching the confirmation hearings of a politician who shall remain nameless. This guy was an arrogant, entitled guy with only a passing understanding of consent. Several thoughts struck me at once while I was watching this, including— 1) I was tired of arrogant, entitled guys like that getting positions of leadership and I wanted to understand why; 2) Probably this guy had handlers who had prepped him for this hearing and he was too egotistical to follow their advice. I pictured them watching this at home cussing him up and down and I thought of how many times I’d coached a client and they refused to listen to my advice to their own detriment; 3) What goes on in the head of these guys? What makes them tick? So the character of Coach stood in for this guy, and Jessica is the one trying to make heads or tails of him. In addition to exploring those issues, I wanted to portray what happens behind the scenes in these situations. How you can’t necessarily blame the lawyer for what they’re being paid to say, and how the system only works when everyone has adequate representation.

Your career in the law must have been an influence when writing the story. Were there any incidents or aspects of the story taken from real life? Was there anything that was new to you, or that you had to research for the book?

If the adage “write what you know” is true, then that’s exactly what I did. My career was obviously an influence. I know what happens when clients and lawyers interact and clash. I know what happens in a courtroom. I did not use any of my clients’ stories in the book—I want everyone I’ve ever represented to know that I will always maintain their
confidentiality. That said, when you’ve been practicing law for 30+ years like I have, there are going to be things you say and hear all the time. I did have to research the back child support issue. I’ve never had a legitimation case where the child was that old, so I didn’t know how the law would handle it. The cases Jessica cites are real cases. I also looked up some things like the weather on particular dates, and what songs were in the top 40 at a particular moment in time.

Your heroine lives in a small Georgia town, just as you do. What realities about small-town life in Georgia does your story reflect? Do you feel the story would be the same, if set in a different part of the country?

Absolutely not. The fictional Ashton, Georgia is just as much a character in the book as any of the people. There’s a particular way that southerners talk and view the world, there are southern foods and places. I had to argue a lot of it with my editors, who weren’t southern. For example, a number of scenes take place in a Waffle House, which has its own culture. Apparently, the dictionary and style manuals say that fried shredded potatoes are written “hash browns”. But the Waffle House menu has it at one word—hashbrowns. So I insisted that we spell it the southern, Waffle House way. But there’s more to it than spelling. The weather affects the way people act. The expectations that you will speak kindly to people you can’t stand. The way a majority of the population looks at everything through a religious lens.

Devil’s Defense was your first novel, but not your first book. Were there differences between writing a novel, when compared to writing essays or other shorter works? Were there specific challenges, or things you particularly enjoyed about it?

I enjoy a good challenge, so there’s a good bit of overlap between the challenges and what I enjoyed about the process. I can dash off an 800 word essay and be done with it. But a novel requires not only more time but keeping more balls in the air. You’ve got to remember everyone’s height and eye color. You’ve got to remember how many days pass between one event and another. And who knows what and when and how they figured it out. In writing dialogue, you have to keep everyone’s voice and vocal quirks straight. This one cusses a blue streak, this one never would—he always uses slang, her language is more formal. The best thing about it, though, is that you really get to explore a topic. I started out wanting to know what made this kind of arrogant, entitled guy tick, and by the end I understood him. I had to understand him in order to make him three-dimensional. One of Jessica’s big faults is that she sees the world the way she wants to see it instead of the way it is, and it was fun to watch her open her eyes a little.

Tell us a little bit about your writing process. Do you write in a particular place, or at certain times? Do you map out your story ahead of time, or let it develop organically?

The first productive half hour of every day is spent writing. Usually that’s at my desk in my home office (formerly known as my son’s room) or my law office. Sometimes that’s the only writing I get done, and sometimes I manage to sneak in a little more. I type 100 words a minute, so I can get a lot done in a half hour. I ‘write’ a lot while driving or in the shower or standing on line, so by the time I get to my laptop I’m simply transcribing what’s already in my head. I don’t outline. I generally have a broad idea of where I want to go, but the details get filled in as I go. I’ve been a trial attorney for thirty some-odd years, and I think there’s a huge link between the way you tell a story in a courtroom for a jury and the way you tell a story in a novel. I’ve learned in trial work that if I write out my questions, inevitably the witness will answer one in a way I didn’t/couldn’t predict and then the next question on my list makes no sense. So I have a general idea of what I want to get out of a particular witness, but if they make a left turn, I follow them and try to nudge them in the direction I want them to go a different way than I’d planned. A good trial attorney has to be able to think on her feet. Writing is similar. I start out thinking, I want this character in this scene to do X. But if I’ve done a good job in creating the character, they are a person unto themselves and I can hear their voice in my head. When it comes to actually writing the scene, something may happen or someone may say something that provokes them to answer or respond in a way I wouldn’t have planned. So I have to adjust accordingly. Sometimes writing feels like I’m simply transcribing what the voices in my head say.

What can we look forward to next from you? Devil’s Defense is described on the cover as a “Fischer at Law” novel—will there be sequels?

Yes, there will be sequels. The second, Devil’s Hand, is slated for release on October 7, 2025. In it, Jessica represents the abused wife of a county commissioner. She has to deal with the backlash from representing someone who is accusing a muckety-muck of wrongdoing, and also try to understand the values of the religious community around her, which are in great contrast to her own. In the meantime, her estranged father comes for a visit and she has to deal with her own domestic issues.

Tell us about your library. What’s on your own shelves?

What isn’t on my shelves? I think that’s a shorter list. Nothing is more attractive to me than a well- organized bookshelf, and I have them all over my house, organized by genre, then author, then chronologically. I know there’s a trend now to organize books by color, and while that looks nice, I don’t know how you’d ever find a book again. I am a voracious reader. I keep track of what I read, and I just finished my 111th book of the year (I’m writing this on November 19th). I refuse to be pigeonholed by genre. I’ll read anything that is interesting and well-written. Fiction, non-fiction, biography/memoir, science fiction, fantasy, romance, literary fiction, horror, young adult, you name it. I also try to make sure I read authors who fit into categories I don’t fit into, whether that’s race or religion or culture or sexual orientation or neurodiversity or anything else. One of the greatest things about reading is that it can help you understand the world around you. If I’m only reading things by people who have the same perspective I do, then I haven’t learned much. I also love a good series. There’s nothing better than falling in love with a character and/or a world and then being able to visit them again.

What have you been reading lately, and what would you recommend to other readers?

I just started reading Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier. That’s my ‘bedtime book’ that I keep on my nightstand. I’ve got an advance reader’s copy of What is Wrong with You by Paul Rudnick open on my Kindle. And my audiobook du jour belongs to a series I’m re-reading—the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, which is one of my favorite pieces of mind candy, and I’m going through it this time for craft purposes, because I’m learning how she picks up story lines from past books without being tedious. The book I’m up to is Dead Reckoning which I think is the 11th in the series. Anyway, all three of those books are great, which is nice. I don’t always get the trifecta. As for recommendations, lately I’ve been recommending The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton and the Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett to everyone. Love those books.

Labels: author interview, interview

Monday, December 2nd, 2024

December 2024 Early Reviewers Batch Is Live!

Win free books from the December 2024 batch of Early Reviewer titles! We’ve got 173 books this month, and a grand total of 3,262 copies to give out. Which books are you hoping to snag this month? Come tell us on Talk.

If you haven’t already, sign up for Early Reviewers. If you’ve already signed up, please check your mailing/email address and make sure they’re correct.

» Request books here!

The deadline to request a copy is Thursday, December 26th at 6PM EST.

Eligibility: Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the UK, the US, Canada, Portugal, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Italy and more. Make sure to check the message on each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost FamiliesLife: How to Make Sense of the World and YourselfSundays at the Track: Inspiring True Stories of Faith, Leadership, and Determination from the World of NASCARThe Anatomy of ExileHeavenly TyrantHow to Sell Out: The (Hidden) Cost of Being a Black WriterMidnight on the Scottish ShoreStorm WarningHow to Get along with Anyone: The Playbook for Predicting and Preventing Conflict at Work and at HomeThe Uncharted Self: Identity, War, And The Limits Of PsychologyThe Pharaoh's CatFrom Megabat with LoveEverlasting Spring: 101 Poems for Every Season of LifeBuilding a Story Brand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will ListenSilver ThroatWhat the Seahorse Told MeSummer League LoveMy Chicano Heart: New and Collected Stories of Love and Other TransgressionsThe Writings of Norman Maclean: Seeking Truth amid TragedyLeft Without a TraceDark & DangerousWhispers of FortuneThe Nature of LoveAn Overdue MatchTo Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorized Unauthorized History of Billy ChildishHunters in High HeelsRunning Wild Novella Anthology, Volume 8: Book 1EverQuestThe Evolution of Nora O'Brien PachecoA Kingdom of Deceit and DesireThe Mirror in the MountainThe Worried WellGreen Harts ForeverThe Nemesis ResolutionCode Peking DuckLoose Limericks 2Ash Valley: The Promise of the LandIn Motion: Around the World in Love and HeartbreakDoggie Haiku: A Novella in Haiku for Dog-LoversPoems Momma Never Read MeWords Into Elephants: Tiny PoemsBreaking Up with the Cobalt Blues: Poems for HealingCampfiresStress-Free Patterns: Adult Coloring Book with Mandalas, Animals, Flowers and More for Instant RelaxationMajestic Animals: Ultimate Stress Relief Adult Coloring Book with Lions, Horses, Wolves, and Many MoreRelaxing Journey: Adult Coloring Book - Stunning Designs with Landscapes, Gardens, Animals, Flowers, Homes and More for Instant Stress ReliefNotes from a Deserter: A Soldier's Journey HomeLoveNotes! Real Stories. Real People. Real Love: America's Best Love Stories & More!The Greatest Stuff on Earth: The Amazing Science of Sunlight, Smartphones, Microphones, Mushrooms and Everything In-BetweenSome Things in This World: PoemsReservation HighWhat If We Were All Friends!A Christmas to RememberThe JourneyBluebird DayHappy to Help: Adventures of a People PleaserCoyote RunBurned Over!Fanny Fitzpatrick Meets the SirensBiblical Feminism Devotional: The ProphetessesSilence1950s Nostalgia Activity Book for Seniors: 50 Retro Themed Word Search Puzzles with Illustrated Fun Facts and Trivia for a Fun Walk Down Memory LaneNostalgic Trivia for Seniors: Relive Your Favorite Memories of 5 Decades of Americana (1950s-1990s) with 500 Multiple-Choice Questions and Illustrated ThemesThe Girl with The Mark of FireNorth of OrdinaryThe Bard’s TrailBefore and BeyondAfterthoughtsHope Evermore: Quotes, Verse, & Spiritual Inspiration for Every Day of the YearTracks of Terror3 By 3 Personal Productivity and Goal SettingArming the Warship: Naval Weapons Technology and Gunnery from the Spanish Armada to the Cold WarThe Twisted Tree DigLincolnDouble TakedownMy Buddy Bali: A Tourist in Kisses and TearsAmok the PowerfulShikareeThe Adventures of the Flash Gang : Episode Three: Berlin BreakoutFoothills Fae Academy: Book FourAstral Seeds: Eclipse of the Celestial WarHappy Bunny and Other MischiefsDebt Collectors in LoveThe LindensSoaked: StoriesThe Romantic Ideal: The Highest Standard of Romance for a Man: A Hopeless Romantic's Exploration of Masculine Intimacy, Sex, and LoveLouis Vuitton: The Story of a Great EntrepreneurThe Smart Investor: Leveraging Blockchain Development for Financial SuccessBound By DarknessGetting My GoatTemporary Beauty: A Memoir about Panic Disorder and Finding Purpose Through Art and MeditationTreasures of Castle RowleyLife After DuskPoems From the End of Eternal SpaceWho's in Charge of My Mind?The Point Man and the Peacenik: America in 1968KianolaTwice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and SisterhoodHodie Mihi, Cras TibiHuntress: Embers of RedemptionBellosio: An Age of MiraclesThe Spirit of InnovationPortrait of Love: A Short StoryAngel Diaries / Babylonian SpellABC's of Faith: Learning Alphabets and Words for Young ChildrenThank You For The DaysFractured DreamerMiracle BoyAssertiveness for Women... and Artisanal Cheese: 33 Strategies to Transform Your Relationships and Unleash the Powerful Woman WithinChosen Of The Dark RealmThe ImmaculateSoulThe Consensus of BeingsAlien NationOff the GridWho Put the Bots in the Tort$?: A Legal FarceHumdrumAn Instrument for FlorendaThe Red Island: The Gatekeeper52 Weeks A Party of OneStart a Religion, Stay Out of Jail and Other Absurd TalesGetting Hired Faster for a Remote Job: Accelerate the Process with a Targeted SearchCollapseI'm Talking to a Dead ManA Chance On UsCrown Colony 2Light LockedThe QuietRunnin' No MoreChild Protection In Minnesota: Losing IsaiahScars & SpiritsThe Flame FlowerThe Christmas Camel Who Couldn't Stop SneezingA Deception on Cold HillBend, Don't BreakFearfully, Wonderfully Made: A MemoirThe History of Meadowbridge, Volume I: A General SurveyThe Luck of ElfbonesThe Immigrant QueenL'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish)Wishstone: Maladies That BindPersonal DemonsLittle BrotherThe Ghost Wife JournalNordic Shadows: The ArchitectThe Making of Brio McPrideAliens Versus FootballBlood on the Blue Ridge: Historic True Crimes in Appalachia 1808-2004BookwormBackupRampartPostcards to Hitler: A German Jew's Defiance in a Time of TerrorPrioritize Us: Unlock Lasting Love with One Simple, Proven TestToo Big to Rig: Democracy in a Digital AgeThe Midnight Pact: A Werewolf CEO RomancePull The Veil: The Untaught PhilosophyCall Her LibertyLove, Lies and TakebacksClockwork Constellation: Chrono ChaosThe Happy Hunting Ground of All MindsSamuel Ash and the Grasshoppers of DoomThe Heart of the Mind-GardenA Home for ChristmasHunting Hearts: PoetryBrothers, Blades, and Bugging OutTiita's DaughterTiita's DaughterThe Shattered TruceThe Complete Guide on PreterismTime Finders: 3 Book SeriesDelitti NegatiPreserving the PresentViews

Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!

71 Street Books Akashic Books Arctis Books USA
Autumn House Press Bellevue Literary Press Bethany House
Boss Fight Books Cinnabar Moth Publishing LLC City Owl Press
Delphinium Books Entrada Publishing eSpec Books
GladEye Press Harper Horizon Heller Verlag
Highlander Press Horned Lark Press HTF Publishing
Liberty in Print Liz Fe Lifestyle Middleton Books
Prolific Pulse Press LLC PublishNation Purple Diamond Press, Inc
Purple Moon Publishing Revell Riverdale Avenue Books
Rootstock Publishing Running Wild Press, LLC Simon & Schuster
Tundra Books University of Nevada Press What on Earth!
Wise Media Group Yorkshire Publishing Zibby Books

Labels: early reviewers, LTER

Monday, November 25th, 2024

LibraryThing’s Holiday Store is Live

holidaystore

It’s that time of year… the annual LibraryThing Holiday Store is now open! Shop now at https://www.librarything.com/more/store.

Everything is on sale through Epiphany1, January 6th. Come and stock up on all of your favorite bookish gifts for the holidays!

Enjoy major discounts2 on everything in the LibraryThing Store, including:

  • CueCat scanners and barcode labels for $5
  • Custom barcode labels starting at $5
  • Gorgeous enamel pins for $3
  • Stickers galore starting at $1
  • $4 off both sticker bundles and pin bundles
  • And more!







1 Epiphany is also known as Little Christmas, the night before Orthodox Christmas or the day after the Twelfth day of Christmas—twelve LibraryThing pins would make the perfect gifts for your loved one, would they not?

2 Prices do not include cost of shipping. Shipping is included on Store pages.

Labels: holiday, sale

Wednesday, November 6th, 2024

Author Interview: Andrea Jo DeWerd

Andrea Jo DeWerd

LibraryThing is pleased to sit down this month with author Andrea Jo DeWerd, who, in addition to her career in publishing and as an independent book marketer, recently saw her debut novel, What We Sacrifice for Magic, released by Alcove Press. DeWerd worked for more than a decade in the marketing and publicity departments of a number of Big 5 publishers, including Crown, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and most recently, the Harvest imprint of HarperCollins. In 2022 she launched her own marketing and publishing consulting agency, the future of agency LLC. Her authorial debut, published in late September, is a fantastical coming-of-age story following three generations of Minnesota witches during the 1960s. DeWerd sat down with Abigail to answer some questions about this new book.

How did the idea for What We Sacrifice for Magic first come to you, and how did the story develop? Did your heroine Elisabeth come first? Was it always a multi-generational family story in your mind, always a witchy tale?

I was trying to write a very different book about the American Dream, and my own family’s experience with it. My grandfather’s family were Dutch immigrants in Minnesota. My great-grandfather and his cousin operated several feed mills and fish hatcheries. The next generation, my grandfather and his brothers, all became doctors. I was fascinated by this story, and by what happens after the American Dream is achieved—what happens to the next generation? But it was too close to home for me to write in the years after my grandfather passed away.

What We Sacrifice for Magic grew out of the question: what were the women doing while the men were building their empire? I started to imagine a world in which the men ostensibly held the power, but beneath the surface, it was really the women pulling the strings; a world in which the women could be running a full-on witchcraft operation out of the side door of the kitchen while the men were off fighting their wars and building their supposed influence.

Elisabeth’s voice came to me first. I started to hear her voice, and the first thing I knew about her was that she was ruled by water. From there, I explored how she would’ve come to be that way, who would’ve taught her about her power, and Magda, her grandmother, her teacher, emerged pretty quickly.

Your book addresses themes of familial history, obligation and conflict, and the individual’s struggle to both belong to and be independent of the family circle. How does the witchy element in your story add to or complicate those themes? How different would your story be if the Watry-Ridder women weren’t witches?

In many books with magic, the magic acts as the deus ex machina that lifts the characters out of their unfortunate situations. Magic breaks oppressive forces in many ways. For Elisabeth, magic is what is holding her back, her burden. Aside from that magical burden, Elisabeth would still need her coming-of-age journey. I believe that even without magic, Elisabeth would’ve always felt separate from her family. She needed to learn who she is on her own, away from the reputation of her family and the name she was born to.

Without magic, this story becomes a much more familiar one. Anyone who has ever dealt with the pressures of a family business knows what it feels like to be torn between wanting to forge your own path and getting pulled back into the family responsibility. Adult children who take care of their aging parents know that tug-of-war as well. I think we all feel family pressure in some way or another in our lives, and beneath the magic, that is what I wanted to explore in this book.

What We Sacrifice for Magic is set in your own home state of Minnesota, and opens in 1968. What significance do the setting and time period have to your story?

The setting came to me first. Elisabeth, ruled by water, was always going to be from a small lakeside town in Minnesota. The town of Friedrich was inspired by my own beloved Spicer, Minnesota, where my family has had a cabin on Green Lake since 1938. The lake felt so integral to this story and this community that the Watry-Ridder family serves.

Moreso, this family had to come from a place that was rural enough for them to fly under the radar, a pastoral community that just accepted their local eccentrics, and even came to depend on them. I was also fascinated by the sort of gossip that happens in a small town. In a closeknit community, it’s impossible to walk down the street without everybody knowing everything about you, who you’re dating, etc. I wanted to see Elisabeth and her younger sister, Mary, engage with that gossip, and it certainly shapes them as they’re growing up in Friedrich with the sometimes unwanted attention.

More broadly, 1968 was a time when many young women were starting to have more choices in their education and the opportunity for careers outside of the home, in many parts due to contraception. Those choices were not available to Elisabeth—she is stuck in this small town, tied to her community, as she watches her high school classmates going off to their next chapters.

What influence has your career in publishing and book marketing had on your storytelling? Have you been inspired by any of the authors whose books you have promoted?

I started writing this book when I was working full-time as a book marketer at Random House. I had been a creative writing minor in college, but I wasn’t really writing in my first 8 years in New York while I was in grad school and volunteering and focused on other things. I was inspired to start writing again in earnest when I would be in meetings with these amazing authors like Catherine Banner and Emma Cline, who were both a few years younger than me. I thought if they found time to do it, why couldn’t I? On the flip side, I was working with Helen Simonson at the time, who said that she didn’t really get to start writing until her kids were grown and out of the house, and I thought, “I’m single, I don’t have kids, what am I waiting for?”

I was also greatly inspired by Laura Lynne Jackson’s books The Light Between Us and Signs. Her first-person account of how close we are to the spirits on the other side very much influenced my own personal spiritual beliefs, some of which are woven into Elisabeth’s outlook and her experiences with her guide from the other side, Great-Grandma Dorothy, and the energy healing work that the family does.

Tell us about your writing process. Do you have a particular place you prefer to write, a specific way of mapping out your story? Did you know from the beginning what the conclusion would be?

I wrote at least 50% of this book long-hand in a journal. I write in the morning in bed before the rest of the world comes crashing in, i.e. before I look at my phone or email. My phone stays in the kitchen until after I’m done writing for the day. Once I got further into the story, though, I switched to drafting on my laptop when I was really building momentum.

I don’t believe you have to write every day. I have a day job! I write maybe a few days a week, and this book came together 100 words at a time. I would write a single paragraph in the morning before hopping in the shower and heading into Random House. My writing group talks often about setting realistic goals because the minute you set a lofty goal and miss that first day of “write every day,” it makes it that much harder to get back on track.

I barely outlined this book. This was very much a discovery writing project, but when I got into revision, I reverse-outlined what had happened so far in the book so that I could confidently write my way through to the end. I didn’t know the exact ending of the book until I was about ⅓ of the way through. I remember emailing my writing group one day to say, “I think I just wrote the last line of my book.”

For revision, the book Dreyer’s English by friend and former Random House colleague Benjamin Dreyer was essential to me. It was very helpful to read books like his as I was enmeshed in the revision process.

What can we look forward to next from you? Do you have other writing projects in the offing?

I am working on something completely different next! I am finishing a first draft this fall of my second novel, a contemporary Christmas rom-com set in southern Minnesota. There’s Christmas cookies, a local hottie, and a girl home from the big city. I’m approaching this book a little differently—starting with an outline!

Tell us about your library. What’s on your own shelves?

I am very much a mood reader and I read just about every genre out there. I love sci fi and fantasy or romance for a quick vacation read. I try to keep up with the new, big literary novels. I have my section of craft books, like Big Magic and Bird by Bird. I have sections of series that I’m hoping to finish one day, like Outlander. I’m always reading our clients’ books for work. I have a celebrity chef’s memoir and a performance and productivity expert to read next for work. But truthfully, my shelves are full of books I haven’t read that have come with me from job to job. I have classics, I have the hot releases dating back to 2010, I have signed copies of books I’ve worked on, like Educated and Born a Crime. I also have an amazing cookbook collection from my time working in lifestyle books, lots of Mark Bittman and Jacques Pépin and Dominique Ansel.

What have you been reading lately, and what would you recommend to other readers?

I just finished the new Louise Erdrich novel, The Mighty Red. She’s my favorite author and as a contemporary Minnesotan author, she has had a huge impact on me as a reader and a writer. I think Erdrich most accurately captures contemporary women—and the myriad ways the world disappoints us—like no one else I’ve ever read. I make a point to buy the new books by Louise Erdrich and William Kent Krueger, another Minnesotan author, in hardcover from indie bookstores when I’m back in MN. If you haven’t read Louise Erdrich before, one of my favorite books is The Round House. I recommend that book to everyone.

Labels: author interview, interview