During these cold winter months I love to curl up with a book and escape to other worlds between the pages. I bet you do, too. Finding more time to enjoy reading for pleasure is the best gift you can give yourself this year. When I think about the books I’ve read during the last year there are some which stayed with me a long time. I thought I’d share this list with you. If you’re looking for a good book to read or one to give as a gift, these may please you as much as they did me. Fiction: Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart. This sequel to her first novel, Girl Waits With Gun, continues the escapades of Constance Kopp as one of the nation’s first deputy sheriffs. Based on a true story, this second installment has me begging for more. I first became a fan of Amy Stewart’s writing when she was a nonfiction author. I loved The Drunken Botanist and you’ll find the anthology she edited this year under my nonfiction book recommendations. She has successfully crossed over from nonfiction to fiction with critical and popular acclaim. Barkskins: A Novel by Annie Proulx. Not many writers can sustain my interest on a history of the timber industry. Even more beautifully than she did in Shipping News, Annie Proulx pulled off a masterpiece. Every sentence breathes life into this incredible multi-generational family saga. As Europeans arrived in the New World in search of old growth timber…
August is reading month and if you’re looking for something to take to the beach or enjoy at the cabin, consider these current titles the team at Swenson Book Development LLC is reading now. Samantha Kolb: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Alanna Rieser: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway Mother… [Read More]
Filed Under: A Court of Thrones and Roses, Esther the Wonder Pig, Fawaz Gerges, Hope Jahren, ISIS, Lab Girl, LaRosa, Louise Erdrich, Sarah J. Maas, The Hatching
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The world is coming to an end. At least, that’s what it feels like. In contemporary fiction, apocalyptic stories have captured the attention of young adult readers. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave, and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series—these novels found millions of fans and have become immortalized on the silver screen. But why? One answer that comes to mind involves the stories… [Read More]
There is a new book out from Shambala Publications: On Being Stuck: Tapping into the Creative Power of Writer’s Block by Laraine Herring. Her approach is one of “making friends with your stuck places,” with a great tag line, “We will see windows where we once saw only walls.” I love to write. There are other activities that make me happy, but when I am able to… [Read More]
1) Emma Donoghue, Frog Music: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company, April 2014) From the author of the bestselling novel, Room, Emma Donaghue penned this novel based in San Francisco during the summer of 1897 in which the city suffered a smallpox epidemic and a record-breaking heat wave. The story begins when a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead through the window of… [Read More]
When I mentor interns, I often spend time thinking about what advice might be helpful to those who pursue career goals in the world of publishing. This month I’ve had the good fortune to have two interns working with Swenson Book Development LLC. They’ve both seen many of their friends and classmates graduate this June but both of them completed their third not final year… [Read More]
Filed Under: bookseller, career in publishing, college graduation, internships, jobs, library volunteer