GALLEYCHATTER, Heading into Summer
Each month, our GalleyChatter columnist Robin Beerbower rounds up the favorites from our most recent Twitter chat (#ewgc). Below is her post for February.
Below are links to Robin’s most recent columns, which include other current and forthcoming titles:
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Librarians (and one intrepid bookseller) managed to talk about 125 books during the February chat. Below are a few you may want to move to the top of your TBR piles (all are available as eGalleys). We’ve also noted those that can still be nominated for LibraryReads..
For the complete list of titles, check here .
New Girls
It won’t be available until June, but Emma Cline’s The Girls (PRH/Random House) has already advance attention (see our roundup of titles On Most of 2016’s Most Anticipated Lists) and GalleyChat librarians attest it lives up to the excitement.
Set in Northern California during the late 1960s, the novel is about a lonely teen-ager who becomes obsessed with the older girls surrounding a charismatic cult leader. Collection development librarian Jennifer Dayton (Darien Library, CT) tweeted during GalleyChat, “I liked The Girls a lot. Great examination of how easily a young girl can get caught in a web of evil.” Janet Lockhart (Wake County Library, NC) added, “Cline uses a Manson-like cult to examine the experience of being female. Unsettling, brilliant writing.” LibraryReads deadline: April 20
Another book receiving over-the-top librarian reviews is Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls (PRH/Ballantine, April). Alene Moroni, Information Services Librarian (Forbes Library, MA) said, “I was so engaged with the based-on-real-events story of three women during and after World War II, I found myself calling it unputdownable on Twitter! Well researched, it illuminated details I had never considered and made me want to learn more.” Try this for fans of Kristin Hannah’s book club favorite, The Nightingale. The LibraryReads deadline has passed for this one, but we’re seeing “Much Love” for it from librarians on Edelweiss.
Unsettling Suspense
Readers never get enough of thrillers and February’s chat offered more than enough to keep fans busy. Here are a few titles guaranteed to create a gripping roller coaster ride.
In Gina Wohlsdorf’s Security (Workman/Algonquin, June), readers will experience a creeping sense of dread after reaching the realization that something is terribly wrong in Santa Barbara’s new luxury hotel, Manderley. Chapel Hill’s (SC) Tracy Babiasz said this “amazing” thriller is “clever, all-consuming, and gory. Readers who appreciate a unique point of view and love a race against time to solve the puzzle before the characters do will eat up this fast-paced take on a slasher novel.“ LibraryReads deadline: April 20
Known for the word-of-mouth bestseller, The Girl With All the Gifts, M. R. Carey’s new book, Fellside (Hachette/Orbit, April), has pleased many Edelweiss readers, including Joseph Jones of Cuyahoga County Public Library. After burning down a house while under the influence of heroin, Jess is sent to a brutal female prison on the Yorkshire Moors but is haunted by the ghost of the little boy who was killed in that fire. Joseph said, “I loved Jess as a character and how the creepiness factor kept rising as the story unfolded. Carey continues to grow as a writer and each book is a new joy to read.”
The plot device of a hit-and-run accident involving a child is not new, but Clare Mackintosh takes it a few notches further in I Let You Go (PRH/Berkley, May), adding a heinous villain, twists galore, and an edge-of-the-couch pace that kept me reading nonstop. Because of the well-drawn characters and the multiple viewpoints, this is perfect for those who liked What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan. LibraryReads deadline: March 20. NOTE: This title is part of the EarlyWord/Penguin Debut author program. Join a chat with the author on April 20th, 4 to 5 p.m., ET, here on EarlyWord.
“Crazy, racy, and just demented!” was how Andrienne Cruz (Azusa, CA, City Library) brought our attention to L. S. Hilton’s first in a trilogy, Maestra (PRH/Putnam, April). Andrienne goes on to say, “Judith, recently fired for doing the right thing, decides to go on a trip where she transforms into Lauren and hobnobs with the rich and glamorous. The main character is like a Talented Mr. Ripley [Patricia Highsmith] but much more unabashedly carnal.”
Enchanting and Delightful
To counteract the above chilling novels, The Decent Proposal by Kemper Donovan (HarperCollins/Harper, April), offers an appealing read. Tigard Public Library’s (OR) Ann-Marie Anderson, adult services librarian, wrote, “Lively and entertaining and an ode to the charms of Los Angeles. The lives of a hard-partying, struggling 29-year-old white screenwriter and a buttoned up, high powered, somber 33-year-old lawyer are thrown out of whack when they’re offered the opportunity to split a million dollars from an anonymous benefactor if they meet for conversation for two hours each week, for one year.”
The True Tails of Baker and Taylor: The Library Cats Who Left Their Pawprints on a Small Town (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne, May) by librarian Jan Louch, the felines’ main caregiver, is sure to please anyone who has a B&T shopping bag tucked under their desk or a poster of the Scottish Folds on the wall.
NOTE: The cats are featured on a poster for the book. Talia and Anne at Macmillan Library Marketing are making them available to EarlyWord readers. Just
email them and don’t forget to include your mailing address.
Louch tells the complete story of the famous feline library residents that became the B&T mascots. 
I was smiling the entire time (as you can tell from the photo of me with Baker, at right. I am a fan of the subjects) except when I had to mop a few tears because, well, animals don’t live forever. It is a delightful read for any cat fan and is perfect for readers of Dewey by Vicki Myron and The Cat Who Went to Paris by Peter Gethers. LibraryReads deadline: March 20
Please join us for another rousing GalleyChat this coming Tuesday, March 1, from 4:00-5:00 ET, with virtual cocktails from 3:30-4:00. To learn what I’m anticipating, “friend me” on Edelweiss, and for email notifications and reminders for anything related to GalleyChat, please contact me at galleychatter@earlyword.com to be added to the notification list.