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A Dazzling DON QUIXOTE for the Modern Age

Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman, falls in impossible love with a television star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand.

In ELEVATOR PITCH, a Series of Disasters Paralyzes New York City with Fear

Linwood Barclay's new edge-of-your-seat thriller does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach.

THE SECRETS WE KEPT is September's Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick

Lara Prescott's much-buzzed-about debut novel is a thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice.

A Teenage Pregnancy Pulls Together Two Families from Different Social Classes

In RED AT THE BONE, this unexpected event exposes the private hopes, disappointments and longings that can bind or divide us from each other.

Walt Longmire is Attempting to Recover from His Harrowing Experiences in Mexico

In LAND OF WOLVES, the Wyoming sheriff is neck deep in the investigation of what could be the suicidal hanging of a shepherd.

Latest Features and Contests


Bookreporter.com's Fall Preview Contests and Feature

Fall is known as the biggest season of the year for books. The titles that release during this latter part of the year often become holiday gifts, and many are blockbusters. To celebrate the arrival of fall, we are spotlighting a number of outstanding books that we know people will be talking about in the days and months to come.

We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days in September and October, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.

Our next prize book will be announced on Tuesday, September 24th at noon ET.


Nonfiction Author Spotlight: MOTHERHOOD SO WHITE: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America,
by Nefertiti Austin

When Nefertiti Austin, a single African American woman, decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster-care system, she was unprepared for the fact that there is no place for Black women in the “mommy wars.” Austin set off on her path without the ability to seek guidance from others who looked like her or shared her experience. She soon realized that she would have to navigate skepticism not only from the adoption community, who deal almost exclusively with white women, but surprisingly, from her own family and friends as well. MOTHERHOOD SO WHITE is the story of Nefertiti’s fight to create the family she always knew she was meant to have and the story of motherhood that all American families need now.


New Release Spotlight: YALE NEEDS WOMEN: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant, by Anne Gardiner Perkins

In the winter of 1969, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. YALE NEEDS WOMEN is the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future.


Bookreporter.com Bets On: THE NANNY by Gilly Macmillan

Gilly Macmillan’s latest book, THE NANNY, is set on an estate called Lake Hall. Jo, along with her young daughter, has reluctantly moved back there from California following the sudden death of her husband. Her mother, Virginia, is called Lady Holt, and she stands fast on principles. Their world is rocked as Jo's nanny, Hannah, who had disappeared from their home 30 years ago, resurfaces, as does a skull on a beach near the house. Why is the nanny back? Whose skull is it? From these questions, Gilly delivers answers in a really well-plotted, character-driven thriller told from multiple points of view.


Newly Released Biographies of Three Football Coaching Legends

Stuart Shiffman reviews two books that focus on three football coaching legends. SHULA: The Coach of the NFL's Greatest Generation, Mark Ribowsky's biography of Don Shula, spans seven decades, the notorious loss of Super Bowl III, and a historic undefeated season with the Miami Dolphins. Lars Anderson's CHASING THE BEAR: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time is a dual biography of Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, who built the Alabama Crimson Tide into a true football dynasty.

Bookreporter Talks To...

As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.

We are happy to share our latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview with Linwood Barclay, whose new thriller, ELEVATOR PITCH, will be a Bets On title. Linwood and Carol talk about the kinds of people with whom they would like to get stuck in an elevator, his model train setup, and how they first met.

Carol enjoyed meeting and chatting with Gilly Macmillan, whose latest psychological thriller, THE NANNY, is a Bets On pick. She had never read Gilly's work before, but now is looking forward to delving into her backlist.

Carol sat down with Marjan Kamali to talk about her second novel, THE STATIONERY SHOP, which is one of Carol's favorite books of 2019 and a Bets On selection. Here, among many other topics, you will learn all about Iran in the 1950s, which is at the heart of this story.

» See more video interviews on The Book Report Network YouTube channel here, featuring Fiona Davis, Shari Lapena, Mary Beth Keane, Sally Hepworth, Jean Kwok, Wendy Walker and Melanie Benjamin.

Latest Reviews

When a popular high school cheerleader dies of a suspected heroin overdose, it becomes clear that the opioid epidemic has spread even to the idyllic town of Paradise. It will be up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it, and the investigation has a clear epicenter: Paradise High School. But when it comes to drugs, the very people Jesse is trying to protect are often those with the most to lose. As he digs deeper into the case, he finds himself battling self-interested administrators, reluctant teachers, distrustful schoolkids and overprotective parents. At the end of the line are the true bad guys, the ones with a lucrative business they'd kill to protect.

The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger - Psychological Thriller

Twelve-year-old Rain Winter narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not as lucky. Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity before managing to escape. Their abductor was sent to prison but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice --- and killed him in cold blood. Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, her dark childhood buried deep. But when another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case. Eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor force Rain to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind.

Nine-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; now he's alone in the darkness of vast Caddo Lake. A sudden noise distracts him, and all goes dark. Darren Matthews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness. After the events of his previous investigation, his marriage is in a precarious state of re-building, and his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother. She now holds the key to his freedom, and is not above a little maternal blackmail to press her advantage. Levi's disappearance has links to Darren's last case, and to a wealthy businesswoman --- the boy's grandmother --- who seems more concerned about the fate of her business than that of her grandson.

What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr - Mystery/Thriller

Rose Dennis has been committed to the Alzheimer's Unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she's "not making it through the week," Rose is convinced that if she is to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication and then stages her escape. The only problem is: How does she convince anyone that she's not actually demented? But any lingering doubt Rose herself might have had is erased when a would-be killer shows up in her house in the middle of the night. Now she knows that someone is determined to get rid of her.

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup - Mystery/Thriller

A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man” --- a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts --- which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery --- a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago. A tragic coincidence, or something more twisted? To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues. Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over. And no one is safe.

The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States. Eric Foner’s history traces the arc of these pivotal amendments from their dramatic origins in pre-Civil War mass meetings of African-American “colored citizens” and in Republican party politics to their virtual nullification in the late 19th century.

It’s the spring of 1917, and change is in the air. American women have done something remarkable: they’ve banded together to create military-style training camps for women who want to serve. These so-called National Service Schools prove irresistible to the Kopp sisters, who leave their farm in New Jersey to join up. When an accident befalls the matron, Constance reluctantly agrees to oversee the camp --- much to the alarm of the Kopps’ tent-mate, the real-life Beulah Binford, who is seeking refuge from her own scandalous past under the cover of a false identity. Will she be denied a second chance? And after notoriety, can a woman’s life ever be her own again? 

Gallows Court by Martin Edwards - Historical Mystery

A spate of violent deaths has horrified London, and Rachel Savernake --- the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge --- is on the killer’s trail. Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion's crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He's certain there is more to Miss Savernake's amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He's not the only one. Flint's pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder by murder, he'll be swept ever closer to its dark heart --- an ancient place of execution. Twisted family relationships add to a trust-no-one narrative positively reeking with atmosphere.

29 Seconds by T. M. Logan - Psychological Thriller

Sarah is a young professor struggling to prove herself in a workplace controlled by Alan Hawthorne, whose inappropriate treatment of female colleagues behind closed doors has gone unchallenged for years. And Sarah is his newest target. When Hawthorne's advances become threatening, Sarah is left with nowhere to turn. Until the night she witnesses an attempted kidnapping of a young child on her drive home, and jumps in to intervene. The child’s father turns out to be a successful businessman with dangerous connections --- and her act of bravery has put this powerful man in her debt. He gives Sarah a burner phone and an unbelievable offer. A once-in-a-lifetime deal that can make all her problems disappear. All it takes is a 29-second phone call.

The Nobodies by Liza Palmer - Fiction/Humor

If there's one thing Joan Dixon knows about herself, it's that she is a damn good journalist. But when she is laid off from yet another soon-to-be-shuttered newspaper, and even the soulless, listicle-writing online jobs have dried up, she is left with few options. So she goes to work as a junior copywriter at Bloom, a Los Angeles startup where her bosses are all a decade younger. For once, Joan has a steady paycheck and a stable job. She befriends a group of misfit coworkers and even begins a real relationship. But once a journalist, always a journalist, and as Joan starts to poke beneath Bloom’s bright surface, she realizes that she may have accidentally stumbled onto the scoop of her lifetime. Is it worth risking everything for the sake of the story?