Fascinating World War-era historical novels for your spring reading pleasure

March brought the release of two fascinating World War-era historical novels that have received stellar praise: The Empire of the Senses by Alexis Landau, a novel about passion and family in volatile Berlin, and Mademoiselle Chanel by C.W. Gortner, chronicling the turbulent life of the iconic fashion designer.

The Empire of the Senses (Pantheon) was one of Booklist's Top 10 Historical Fiction titles for 2015. In a starred review, Booklist called the novel a "top-notch literary saga with a gripping plotline" and wrote, "the characters’ actions and thoughts are so three-dimensionally human that readers may forget they’re reading fiction and not experiencing their real lives alongside them."

The book also received a full-page feature spread in Jewish Book World, complete with an interview with Landau and a glowing review.  Reviewer Becca Kantor called The Empire of the Senses a “riveting debut,” a “sweeping yet intimate portrait of pre-World War II Berlin,” full of “evocative prose, attention to detail, and meticulous research." She ended with the assertion, “The Empire of the Senses is sure to establish Alexis Landau as a masterful new literary voice.”

In her interview with Jewish Book World, Landau discusses the influence of art and Jewish identity on the book. She also offers some writerly tips. Below is a brief excerpt of Landau discussing how she honed the time period details so they were just right; read the full interview here.

One of my best friends, who is an editor, told me, "The most important thing is tone, and getting the tone right, and not having your contemporary voice barge in." When I was writing, especially in the beginning, I was really conscious of that. I can't write well unless I understand every aspect of a person. Not just what they're experiencing psychologically, but also their body in time and space."

Internationally bestselling author C.W. Gortner's Mademoiselle Chanel (William Morrow) recently made the ABA National Indie Bestseller list!

Gortner was also featured in Glamour as a Best New Novel out in March. The Glamour book editor offered glowing praise, saying, “Mademoiselle Chanel sucked me in by the pearls and never let go. Gortner’s imagining of the ultimate fashion icon is equal parts grit and glamour, painting a portrait of a woman who was hugely inspiring but by no means perfect. Oh, and if you can’t afford to visit Paris in peak springtime season, reading this book with a glass of wine is a decent substitute.”

Mademoiselle Chanel was also...

...featured in USA Today (#1 under “New and Noteworthy”)...

...named a March Book Club pick in Style Bistro (the editors paired the book with a little black dress as an inspired fashion find, and they assert that “Mademoiselle Chanel isn't like other things you've read” about Chanel; it “tell[s] Gabrielle Chanel's history in her own imagined voice and perspective”)...

...and chosen as the Editor's Choice Title from the Historical Novel Society (their review is brimming with praise: “Gortner giv[es] us a complex story in which Chanel shines through as human, understandably prideful, blind when it served her purpose, vulnerable, and always chic and elegant. Beyond the effortless and easy flow of the narrative, there's a lot to love about this story...This novel...breathes Chanel's style and panache in every sentence”).

Don't miss these amazing books for your spring reading!

2014's "Top Ten"s and "Best Of"s, a NYT bestseller, and a winner of the most "Best Of"s prize!

This year, JVNLA had seven books on a huge breadth of year-end “Top Ten” and “Best Of” lists! Including one book that topped lists ABOUT the top lists of the year: The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

Below is the round-up of these phenomenal books:

Lost in Translation by Ella Frances Sanders (Ten Speed Press, September 2014)

Amazon chose this gorgeous book of illustrations that depict untranslatable words for its Best Books of the Year: Art and Photography list!

Lost in Translation also recently hit the New York Times bestseller list in the Travel section! It reached #6 in December and climbed to #4 in January. Congrats, Ella!

Songs Only You Know by Sean Madigan Hoen (Soho Press, April 2014)

In its list of 10 Best Music Books of 2014, Rolling Stones spotlighted Hoen's “gritty, gripping punk-rock memoir” (as they called it), and heaped praise on it: "It's funny at times, always brutally honest; a half-healed bruise, tender and multi-colored. Few books convey the fever-pitch intensity of youth with such vividness and so little glamorization, or as deeply explore the heartbreaking complexity of family—both those we're born into and the ones we choose."

This Is a Moose written by Richard Morris and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, May 2014)

Morris and Lichtenheld's picture book collaboration is about a moose being filmed in a nature documentary who just wants to be an astronaut (to the chagrin of the director). Kirkus named it to its Best Children's Books of 2014 list, calling it “a humorous—make that hysterical—homage to movies and big dreams.”

Booklist named it to its Editors' Choice: Books for Youth 2014 list, raving that “this rambunctious picture book is stuffed with delightfully absurd chaos.”

This Is a Moose was also featured in ABC's Best Books for Children 2014 catalog!

And Amazon picked it for its Best Books of the Year: Ages 3-5 list!

The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert (Riverhead, February 2014)

The Kansas City Star named The Swan Gondola, a "love story set at a steampunk carnival in turn-of-the-century Omaha, with a clever take on The Wizard of Oz" to their Best Books of 2014 list!

Archetype by M.D. Waters (Dutton, February 2014 hardcover, June 2014 paperback)

Pop Sugar featured this futuristic suspense novel reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale on its Best Books for Women 2014 list!

The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson (Knopf Books for Young Readers, February 2014)

Kirkus named The Tyrant's Daughter to its Best Teen Books of 2014 list, calling this YA about a girl whose family relocates to the US after her father is killed in a coup "smart, relevant, required reading."

Amazon also named it to its Best Books of the Year: Teen and Young Adult list!

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (Riverhead, September 2014)

In a unique “Top Ten” approach, The Wall Street Journal decided to look at ten “Best Of” lists to find the books most often at the top. They named the “suspenseful and sensual” The Paying Guests as the winner who appeared most often! The Paying Guests is about a widow and her spinster daughter who must take in lodgers in 1922--though things are not nearly as simple as they seem. It won by appearing on the six below lists:

The New York Times's Notable Books of 2014

The Washington Post's Best Books of 2014

The Guardian's Best Books of 2014, chosen by various writers; Ruth Rendell chose The Paying Guests.

Kirkus's Best Fiction Books of 2014; The Paying Guests was also a finalist for 2014's Kirkus Prize.

The Telegraph's Best Books of 2014

Barnes and Noble's Words of the Year: The Best Things They Read in 2014, chosen by various writers; Michael Dirda chose The Paying Guests. Barnes and Noble also included The Paying Guests among its Top Fiction Books for the Holiday list.

Beyond these, there is an incredibly lengthy list of places that included The Paying Guests as one of their “top ten” or “best of” books! Below is just a very brief sampling of some of the rest:

People Magazine's Ten Best Books of 2014

Pop Sugar's Best Books for Women 2014, the #1 pick!

Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Fiction Books of 2014

NPR Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan's Favorite Books of 2014; The Paying Guests was also front and center on NPR's Book Concierge, their Guide to 2014's Great Reads.

Slate's Best Books of 2014

The Seattle Times's Best Books of 2014

The Kansas City Star's Best Books of 2014

Amazon's Best Books of the Year: Literature and Fiction

Congrats to all!

A gorgeous gala for former Vogue editor turned OAfrica founder, Lisa Lovatt-Smith

Published this month from Weinstein Books, the memoir Who Knows Tomorrow tells the extraordinary, true story of Lisa Lovatt-Smith, who was handpicked by Anna Wintour to work at Vogue, rose quickly through the ranks as an international editor, then gave everything up to volunteer with orphans in rural Ghana. Finding the orphanage conditions appalling and abusive, Lisa founded OAfrica and dedicated her life and resources to improving conditions for hundreds of Ghanian children.

Lisa recently held a charity gala for OAfrica to coincide with her book launch at the Pierre Hotel in New York. It was full of celebrities, Vogue insiders, and fashion! All proceeds went directly to OAfrica (as do a portion of the book profits). OAfrica's mission, per its website, follows:

OAfrica empowers children and young people in need of care and protection because of institutionalization, abandonment, discrimination or abuse to become productive members of their communities. We accomplish this by strengthening families and reintegrating separated or at-risk children whose rights have been compromised due to poverty, violence, trafficking, and HIV/AIDS into safe, stable and loving environments. We work to keep families together, send children to school, keep mothers alive and protect children by transforming systems.

Gala Chair, actress Rosario Dawson opened the event, which was sponsored and hosted by Valentino. An auction followed, and all guests received copies of Who Knows Tomorrow. In her speech, Lisa Lovatt-Smith spoke movingly about her work, and about having battled the HIV/AIDS epidemic and now facing the looming threat of Ebola.

Rosario Dawson
Courtesy of www.avenuemagazine.com

Guests in attendance included actor Ben Stiller, model and actress Selita Ebanks, Nylon magazine Style Director Dani Stahl, fashion photographer Kelly Klein, DJ and model Leigh Lezark, Vensette founder Lauren Remington Platt, Valentino brand ambassador Carlos Souza, and many more.

The New York Post's Page Six featured the event, as did Avenue Magazine. To view the celebrities in attendance and the stunning designers they wore, check out the photos here:

Pictured left to right, Valentino Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri, Ben Stiller, Lisa Lovatt-Smith, and Valentino Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli
Courtesy of www.avenuemagazine.com

Newly minted NYT bestseller Sarah Waters's THE PAYING GUESTS is a "tour de force"

We are so excited that Sarah Waters's The Paying Guests (Riverhead, October 2014) is a New York Times bestseller! It debuted at #12 last week, hits #7 this week, and will be #9 next week! This marks the first time one of Waters's novels--perennial bestsellers in the UK--has hit the US bestseller lists. Congratulations, Sarah!

The Paying Guests is also a finalist for the inaugural Kirkus Prize (winners to be announced October 23) and is an Indie Next and Library Reads pick. It's hit #8 on the Indie Bestseller List and debuted at #3 on the UK Sunday Times bestseller list. The regional US has been taken by storm as well, with The Paying Guests recently reaching #4 on the New England list, #8 on the Southern list, #13 on the Mountains and Plains, #7 on the Pacific NW, #7 on the Heartland, #6 for SoCal, #8 for NoCA, and #9 for New Atlantic.

So just how did The Paying Guests explode across the literary scene?

Part of its success has had to do with Riverhead's publishing team, which garnered extensive national coverage (see below) and completely repackaged Waters's five-book backlist to echo The Paying Guests's gorgeous cover. But, really, their efforts have only served to illuminate for the nation something anyone who reads Waters's books already knows: Sarah Waters is immensely talented and writes amazing, haunting, heart-stoppingly good novels.

Slate's review describes Waters's particular talent perfectly:

Her six novels, beginning with Tipping the Velvet in 1998, could be called historical fiction, but that doesn’t begin to capture their appeal. It is closer to say that she is creating pitch-perfect popular fiction of an earlier time, but swapping out its original moral engine for a sensibility that is distinctly queer and contemporary, as if retrofitting a classic car.

While Waters's previous books have taken place in Victorian- or 1940s-era England, The Paying Guests marks her first foray into the 1920s. It was a particularly rich and complex time in England, as Waters explains in her New York Times interview:

“It’s that shift, that moment of modernity," Ms. Waters said. "The impact of the First World War was to shake things up enormously, loosening up old mores, fashions and behaviors. The early ’20s were like the waist of an hourglass. Lots of things were hurtling toward it and squeezing through it and then hurtling out the other side.”

In The Paying Guests, as with all her books, Waters captures historical details so precisely it feels like you're living and breathing the 1920s the moment you open the book. Waters describes how she achieves this in a recent Out Magazine interview:

“Just as we’re sitting here, the way our clothes feel, the things we can hear, all the food we’re eating—we don’t notice because it’s just a part of the fabric of our lives,” she says. “You have to think about those things that are so much a part of the fabric of your characters’ lives that they cease to notice them, and yet try to convey them to a reader quietly.”

While a central plot point in The Paying Guests revolves around a crime, the book is about so much more. “I wanted to write a love story that’s complicated by a crime, not a crime story complicated by love,” Waters told Vogue in her recent interview.

It's smart choices like this, combined with her retrofitting talent, historical precision, and more that have contributed to a simply must-read book. For a taste, check out the Wall Street Journal excerpt.

And if, somehow, you still need convincing, here are only a portion of the glowing reviews:

"Some novels are so good, so gripping or shattering that they leave you uncertain whether you should have ever started them. You open The Paying Guests and immediately surrender to the smooth assuredness of Waters’s silken prose. Nothing jars. You relax. You turn more pages. You start turning them faster. Before long, you resemble Coleridge’s Wedding-Guest: You cannot choose but read. The book has you in thrall. You will follow Waters and her story anywhere. Yet when that story ends, you find yourself emotionally sucked dry, as much stunned as exhilarated by the power of art." --The Washington Post

“Will keep you sleepless for three nights straight and leave you grasping for another book that can sustain that high.” --Entertainment Weekly, "A" rating

The Paying Guests was also ranked #3 on Entertainment Weekly's “Must” list; they called it “one of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels…a love affair, a shocking murder, and a flawless ending."

“The Paying Guests is a knockout… As alert as Waters is to historical detail, she's also a superb storyteller with a gift for capturing the layered nuances of character and mood….Spellbinding…The Paying Guests is one of those big novels you hate to see end.” --NPR

"Perhaps Waters’s most impressive accomplishment is the authentic feel she achieves, that the telling—whether in its serious, exciting, comic or sexy passages—has no modern tinge. ..The story appears not merely to be about the novel’s time but to have been written by someone living in that time, thumping out the whole thing on a manual typewriter." --The New York Times Book Review

“[A] tour de force of precisely observed period detail and hidden passions.” --Wall Street Journal

“An exquisitely tuned exploration of class in post-Edwardian Britain—with really hot sex...Waters is a master of pacing, and her metaphor-laced prose is a delight...As life-and-death questions are answered, new ones come up, and until the last page, the reader will have no idea what’s going to happen. Waters keeps getting better, if that’s even possible after the sheer perfection of her earlier novels.” --Kirkus, starred review

“Dazzling. [Waters] can, it seems, do everything: the madness of love; the squalor of desire; the coexistence of devotion and annoyance; 'the tangle of it all'...At her greatest, Waters transcends genre...The Paying Guests is the apotheosis of her talent.” --The Financial Times

“Waters seems to revel in 19th and 20th century British history as a dolphin does in water: Her literary depictions of domestic life, manners, architecture, class structure, the weight of war and the volatility of love all appear as effortless as they are beautifully executed…Moving and delicately wrought.”--Los Angeles Times

“Waters turns to the 1920s and delivers what feels like three novels for the price of one…a meticulously observed comedy of awkward manners… a story of torrid, forbidden trysts conducted behind a facade of conventional feminine respectability…[and] a tense tale of crime, mystery and suspense that culminates in a nail-biting courtroom drama…Exceedingly difficult to put down, The Paying Guests should scratch the same big-novel itch that Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch satisfied last year.” --Salon

“[A] delicious hothouse of a novel…There's palpable tension from page one, so buckle up and prepare for a wild ride--one that's under perfect authorial control…Somehow, Waters pulls off this improbable feat with fine-tuned prose that's by turns crisply cool and pressure-cooker hot. The Paying Guests channels the past via E.M. Forster, Dickens and Tolstoy, quickened with a dollop of contemporary Dennis Lehane noir…This is a fever dream of a novel—Waters' best—that will leave you all wrung out.” --USA Today

“[A] pulse-pounder of a novel that feels…personal and raw…even while it delivers the genre goods…Waters remains a master of her genre, the historical novel rewritten as a dissection of the individual conscience…Undeniably fascinating.” --The Chicago Tribune

“The new Sarah Waters novel, which finds the author at the height of her powers, weaves her characteristic threads of historical melodrama, lesbian romance, class tension, and sinister doings into a fabric of fictional delight that alternately has the reader flipping pages as quickly as possible, to find out what happens next, and hesitating to turn the page, for fear of what will happen next.” --Boston Globe

“If you haven’t already embraced the novels of Sarah Waters, now is the moment. Don’t think twice. Collect all six and devour them with the same feverish abandon of the lovers who can be found between their covers…[The Paying Guests]  is no romance novel or mere thriller, but a well-wrought, closely observed drama of a tumultuous period in British history… Herein lies the deliciousness of this book, and the others Waters has written: As much as Frances longs to give her heart to someone who will cherish it, we can never be sure, when she opens the final door, whether she will find the lady or the gallows.” --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“It's been a while since a book kept me up until 3:30 a.m., but The Paying Guests grabbed me and would not let me go until I turned page 566 and closed the cover with a sigh. The wonderfully melodramatic plot, the brilliant characterization of protagonist Frances Wray, the vivid depiction of the zeitgeist in post-WWI London--each of these elements was equally responsible for the kidnapping of this unsuspecting reader.” --Newsday

“A singular novel of psychological tension, emotional depth and historical detail.” --BookPage

“An absorbing character study [and] expertly paced and gripping psychological narrative...Readers of Water’s previous novels know that she brings historical eras to life with consummate skill, rendering authentic details into layered portraits of particular times and places...Breathtaking.” --Publishers Weekly, starred review

“So brilliantly unexpected, and so nerve-shreddingly tense, that it keeps the reader guessing until the very last paragraph.” --The Bookseller

“A beautiful and turbulent novel about the complexity, and often futility, of personal and social change…With The Paying Guests, Waters has not only crafted a vivid portrait of class dissolution in post-WWI London, but also a look at the achingly human need for a sense of purpose and, if we’re lucky, a little intimacy.” --AV Club

OUR PICNICS IN THE SUN is "a psychological dazzler," "a stunner," "transcendent"

Award-winning mystery author Morag Joss's latest, Our Picnics in the Sun, came out from Delacorte Press/Random House a few weeks ago. Already it's been receiving simply stellar reviews!

Entertainment Weekly called Our Picnics in the Sun a “psychological dazzler” and named it to their “Must Read” list.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently featured the book in a glowing review. The below excerpt gives you a taste of the book, as well as a sense of how stunning it is:

Told in multiple voices, Joss' novel is a stunner. It's crime fiction the way Kate Atkinson is crime fiction — a novel cleverly plotted around a single event that reaches out across the story in mysterious and menacing ways. Set in an isolated farm in the English moors, Picnics in the Sun examines the lives of Howard and Deborah after Howard has had a debilitating stroke. Their marriage is in decay; their lives, like their farmhouse, are crumbling. The plot becomes increasingly suspenseful as a festering event in their past infects their present and a stranger inserts himself cruelly into their lives.

Don't miss the full review here.

NPR book critic Maureen Corrigan featured Our Picnics in the Sun on Fresh Air. She said, “In addition to her uncanny powers of storytelling, Joss can capture a world in the space of a few charged words.”

You can listen to the full review below, in which Joss's book is paired up with some other recent reads that came out around the time of that one-in-every-78,000-years holiday, Thanksgivukkah.



Last but certainly not least, WBUR, Boston's NPR news station, featured Joss and Our Picnics in the Sun in its arts column, The Artery. Other books praised in the same article were Ruth Rendell's No Man's Nightingale and Jayne Anne Phillips's Quiet Dell.

In the article, critic Ed Siegel calls Rendell “the greatest living mystery writer,” but he argues that Joss's work is just as good. “Like Rendell,” he writes, “she's more interested in the psychological framing of her characters than in creating and then solving crimes. [Alice] Munro and William Trevor are more her literary heroes than Agatha Christie or P.D. James.”

Here's an excerpt of some of his other praise:

Our Picnics in the Sun is [Joss's] gutsiest book yet as there seemingly isn’t a likable character in it...Yet it turns out to be every bit as much of a pageturner, and a search for grace, as Quiet Dell. Much of that is due to Joss’s artful writing — the psychological depth of her characters, the description of the English countryside and the trust that one has in her, given the richness of her previous books...I’ve been re-reading parts of the book and I’m agape at what Joss pulls off here. These are two books [Our Picnics in the Sun and Quiet Dell] that not only transcend their genres, they’re just plain transcendent.

You can find the full review in The Artery here.

Clearly, this suspenseful, gripping read isn't one to miss!

Delacorte Press/Random House, November 2013

Pie Perfection: Adventures in baking with the perfect cookbook for the holiday season

By Elizabeth Evans

Of the many milestones in a book’s publication, my favorite is opening the delivery box and picking up a finished copy of my client’s book for the first time. I recently opened the delivery box to find Linda Hundt’s charming retro cookbook, Sweetie-licious Pies, published last month by Skirt! Books.

Sweetie-licious Pies is the first cookbook I’ve represented, and I couldn’t wait to see how the photographs, text and recipes had come together. The final product exceeded my expectations--I am so proud of this beautiful package!

Featuring fifty-two original recipes, accompanied by gorgeous photos of Linda’s farm in Michigan and mouth-watering images of the pies themselves, Sweetie-licious Pies is the most heavily designed book I’ve worked with yet. I spent a solid hour pouring over the images and re-reading the heart-warming stories behind the creation of each pie. I was so inspired that by the time I set the book down, I vowed to do something I’d never attempted before--bake.

I do not exaggerate when I tell you I don’t have a sweet tooth. In the epic battle of sweet vs. savory, savory always wins in my book. As a kid, I’d turn over my Halloween candy to my brother and sister with a nonchalant shrug and watch them fight over the spoils. To this day, I’ll take a bag of potato chips over chocolate every time. All of which might make you wonder--why does someone who doesn’t like dessert have a pie cookbook on her list? I’ll tell you--it’s all about the crust. I love pie crust. It’s the perfect savory balance to a sugary dessert, the salty yin to fruit’s sweet yang. On a restaurant menu, pie is the one dessert that tempts me, but I’d never tried to bake my own--until the other Sunday.

With sixteen-time national pie-baking champion Linda Hundt’s beautiful cookbook to guide me, I figured I had a good shot at success. I enlisted the help of my in-house photographer/husband to document my baking adventure.

Here’s a little photo show of how it all went down:

To take advantage of the autumn’s delicious apples, I decided to make “Mom Hundt’s Apple Almond Pie” (p88). I lined up all my ingredients and set to work.

This pie calls for a homemade cream cheese crust. Following Linda’s easy recipe (p2), I used my standing mixer for the first time ever and later shaped the dough into a disk to cool in the fridge.

After the dough cooled in the fridge, I rolled it out and carefully placed it over the pie pan. Then into the freezer it went! Linda always recommends working with a frozen crust.

Next step was preparing the apple almond filling. The smells of cinnamon-apple goodness coming from this pot were incredible! After I assembled the pie and popped it in the oven, my trusty sidekick Finn helped me by licking some of the measuring utensils clean.

Voila--Mom Hundt’s Apple Almond Pie!

Baking this pie was a blast, but the final result didn’t last long. Between a little slice here and a tiny bite there, we polished off the pie in just a few days. Luckily, we had extra apples from our trip to the farmer’s market and most of the ingredients needed to bake another.

Behold Round Two: Grandma Ferrell’s Caramel Apple pie (p146)!

Apparently I’m not the only one who’s had apple pies on the brain. Food and Wine Magazine just named Linda’s “Laura’s Sticky Toffee Pudding Caramel Apple Pie” as one of America’s Best Apple Pies. Check out the mouth-watering slide show in which Linda’s pie has top billing here.

Midwest Living also recently featured Linda and Sweetie-licious Pies. The cookbook is featured as a Midwest favorite in the magazine's Holiday Gift Guide.

So this holiday season, whether you're planning what to give for holiday gifts or what to make for holiday dessert, look no further than Sweetie-licious Pies!

Below are some of the great things people have been saying about Sweetie-licious Pies:

“Linda Hundt brings you the sweetness of pie and blends it with tradition, family, nostalgia, and fabulous recipes into one thoroughly all-American pie cookbook.” --Debbie Macomber, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Starting Now and The Inn At Rose Harbor

“Linda Hundt is like the world's greatest pie librarian and Sweetie-licious is a colorful, approachable, pie-lover's dream. It's as if Linda collected the best possible pie recipes from the world's coolest grandmothers, vintage church supper cookbooks, and route 66 diners, then sprinkled them with her own unique and talented voodoo. Get ready to put this book in your 'most frequently used' part of your kitchen library.” --Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, authors of Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients

“With the glide of a rolling pin, Sweeti-Licious Pies transports you to Small Town America, where pies cool on the windowsill, there's a watering can in the garden, and everyone gathers for family dinner. Linda Hundt is truly changing the world, one pie at a time. Make mine a slice of The Farmette's Blueberry Basil Cream Pie!” --Judith Fertig, author of Heartland: The Cookbook

Two books at the forefront of the busy fall publishing season

Fall is the one of the busiest times of the year in the publishing world (if not the busiest time). It's not only when agents are busy submitting to editors who are busy buying books after the lull of the summer, it's also when publishing houses are busy publishing! Many publishers release their lead titles in the fall, and so the season is marked by numerous great reads hitting bookshelves—physical and virtual—for the first time.

Two JVNLA books that have been part of the fall publishing excitement are The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon and Margot by Jillian Cantor. Since their releases earlier this season, glowing reviews have been coming in so fast we've had a hard time keeping up with them!

Now, we're putting the spotlight on both books:

THE BOOK OF SOMEDAY BY DIANNE DIXON is, as one blogger put it, “a novel rich with compelling characters, each haunted by a past riddled with painful, life-altering mistakes” (Jenn's Bookshelves). The novel tells the story of three women whose lives are connected in mysterious ways. As these connections begin converging, each of their lives will change forever.

Dianne Dixon

Dixon credits a recurring nightmare she had as a child as the inspiration for The Book of Someday.  The nightmare was of “a beautiful woman in a silver gown opening her mouth to let out a scream [that Dixon] knew would be the sound of absolute horror.” Read more about how Dixon wove this nightmarish woman into her novel on her website here--and don't forget to check out the rest of the site!

The Book of Someday was Sourcebooks Landmark's lead title for the fall. Per a Publishers Weekly article about the imprint and its acquisition of Dixon's book, Landmark has been aggressively building its fiction list in recent years.  It has focused on women's fiction, writing that blends the literary with the commercial, and reads that make for fantastic book club selections. With The Book of Someday, Landmark knew it had found the perfect book for its fiction list, and hence it bought the novel (plus a second book) in a major pre-empt deal! Read the rest of the article here.

In another piece, Publishers Weekly highlighted Dixon's unique trajectory from Emmy-nominated screenwriter to novelist.  Novels have a particular advantage over screenplays for Dixon, as she explains in this excerpt:

When you write screenplays, says Dixon, you are creating a blueprint of a story others will execute. “Especially in animated television,” she adds, because she is not an animator. No matter how successful Dixon has been in Hollywood—where she never thought she’d end up—she says she feels most at home writing novels because she is creating the whole story herself.

Read more about Dixon's TV-to-books transition here.

Below are some of the extraordinary reviews we've received in for The Book of Someday:

“This haunting tale is an excellent piece of escapism that will put a pang in your heart and, sometimes, a chill in your bones.” --Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Compelling, emotionally driven...Reminiscent of Jodi Picoult, Kristin Hannah, and Carol Cassella...Enchanting.” --Booklist

“Unusual, suspenseful.” --Library Journal

“A real page-turner.” --Kirkus

“The reader quickly becomes enmeshed.” --BookPage

“Dixon creates beautifully broken characters whose stories are as touching as they are invigorating...A stunning and heartbreaking story.” --San Francisco Book Review


MARGOT BY JILLIAN CANTOR, a lead fall fiction title from Riverhead, tells a unique “what if” story: What if Anne Frank's sister, Margot Frank, had survived? In Cantor's sensitive imagining of this possibility, Margot has escaped to America and is living as a secretary in 1950s Philadelphia. Yet when The Diary of Anne Frank comes to movie theaters, her past and present collide.

Jillian Cantor

Cantor chose to write about Margot Franklin in part because, as an older sister herself, Cantor identified quite a lot with Margot when she read The Diary of Anne Frank as a child.

An exclusive Time feature article and interview with Cantor explores more about Cantor's inspiration, her sensitive subject matter, and her writing process:

Was she worried about treading on what many readers consider sacred text? Only after the fact, it seems. "There’s been so much written about Anne over the years...." [Cantor] says. "...But really nothing has been written about Margot...So I felt like I wanted to tell her story and when I was writing, I didn’t think about anybody reading it. I didn't think about what other people would say. I just sort of thought 'well this is a story that I need to tell. And this'd be a book I would want to read.'"

Read the rest of the article here.

The New York Times Book Review and USA Today also featured Margot in write-ups. O Magazine did a piece on it, too, calling Margot “an ode to the adoration and competition between sisters who were once so close.” O Magazine's piece is below:

But Margot hasn't only caught the eyes of the press.  Each month Library Reads compiles the top ten books librarians across the country have loved most. Margot was one of their September picks.

Below are more of the fabulous reviews Margot has received since its publication:

“Cantor's re-imagining of Margot's life is believable and wistful...A heartbreakingly masterful corollary, ultimately commemorating the abbreviated life of this remarkable young woman.” --Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Daring...This story of sisterly rivalry, sacrifice, and love survives and thrives.” --Booklist

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Margot since I finished this book. Highly recommended.” --Historical Novel Society

“Intriguing...Compelling sensitivity.” --USA Today

“A convincing, engaging might-have-been.” --People

“Ingenious...Will have you smiling--and fighting off tears.” --Ladies Home Journal, October 2013 Book Club Pick

“Magnetic characters and the book’s exploration of the complexities of identity and memory make Margot a compelling read.” --Jewish Book Council

“Cantor brings Margot to life with a beautifully raw sense of immediacy.” --Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Words and color: Republished memoirs and art exhibition offer new opportunities to explore Anne Truitt's life and legacy

This month saw the re-release of Anne Truitt's memoir series, The Journey of an Artist!

Truitt, who was born in Baltimore, MD, in 1921 and passed away in 2004, became famous across the art world for her art that united shape and color to make statements about reality. Her art took the form of wooden constructions painted in subtle layers of color, fabricated in accordance with scale drawings.

During her lifetime, Truitt received fellowships from the Guggenheim and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work continues to be showcased in major museums throughout the U.S.--including The National Gallery of Art, The Whitney Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art—as well as throughout the world.

The Matthew Marks Gallery in New York City is the exclusive dealer of Truitt's works. When the gallery planned a new Truitt exhibition for September and October 2013, we at JVNLA knew Truitt's memoir series needed to be put back into publication!

Daybook was Truitt's first memoir exploring her life as an artist. Originally published by Pantheon in 1982, it was followed by Turn (Viking 1986) and Prospect (Scribner 1996). In each, Anne used journal entries to take readers through her world as her relationships to her family and art evolved.

Among other widespread praise Truitt's memoirs received after their publication, Art in America called her writing “unflinching and at every moment, possessed of the inevitable dignity that attends a genuine commitment to telling the truth about oneself.”

Last year, Scribner bought rights to the previously out-of-print series, and they brought Audrey Niffenegger on board to write an introduction.

Daybook was released in print paperback this month, with the full three books in the series released as an e-book omnibus at the same time. Audible also re-released each book in audio, with Daybook and Turn narrated by Truitt herself and Prospect narrated by Alice Rosengard.

Print re-release

E-book omnibus re-release

Truitt's art--and her life--have influenced many.  Several years ago, PBS NewsHour's Art Beat did a video about her lasting influence in the art world. Check it out below!

In the video, Project Runway's Tim Gunn speaks about how Truitt was a huge role model for him—both due to her artwork and her way of living. Filmmaker Jem Cohen notes how Truitt, in her own words, attempted to find “a way to set color free in three dimensions.” And Hirshhorn Museum curator Kristen Hileman speaks about a Truitt exhibition that was going on at the museum at the time of this video's creation.

Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection from Meaghan Wilson on Vimeo.

The Matthew Marks Gallery will continue exhibiting Truitt's work until October 26--so if you're in the New York area, be sure to visit!

JVNLA went to the exhibition opening last month. The event was a roaring success, with many in attendance and much to admire about Truitt's stunning work! Some photos are below--but there's nothing like seeing Truitt's art work in person if you have the opportunity.

Below is a brief sampling of the stand-out reviews Truitt's The Journey of an Artist series has received over time:

“The writing...is clear as a mountain stream, often quite beautiful. Her artist's eye sees the meaning--and she then finds feeling--in ordinary stuff...Prospect is one of those books that reveal what is at total risk of imperceptibility in one's life, lying there, waiting to be discovered.” --The New York Times Book Review

“Each phrase is neatly turned, each idea crafted...You'll find much to ponder here, much to treasure.” --The Washington Post

“Polished...Moving.” --Library Journal

“Truitt's outlook...makes her an optimistic, even exemplary guide through this territory [of old age] that awaits us all.” --The Los Angeles Times

Celebrating 35 years and toasting a new president

The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc., (JVNLA) is delighted to announce that Vice President Jennifer Weltz is succeeding Jean Naggar as President of JVNLA. Naggar will continue playing a role in the agency in the new position of Chair.

The announcement came as JVNLA celebrated its 35th anniversary at Battery Gardens Restaurant in New York City on Monday, September 16.

In attendance at the celebration were approximately 200 guests including authors, editors, international publishers, scouts, and friends and family of Naggar. The party began just as the sun was setting over New York Harbor. Speeches were made in the middle of the evening, backdropped by sun-stained clouds, ferries traveling to Staten Island, and the Statue of Liberty.

In her speech announcing the agency change, Naggar expressed how pleased she was to be passing the torch to her daughter, Weltz, who joined JVNLA in 1994 and became agency partner in 2004. Naggar touched on her experience founding the agency in a corner of her living room in 1978, where work and family intersected. Some of her earliest authors were among the guests in attendance at the party, as were editors with whom she first worked 35 years ago and former agency employees.

Naggar then introduced Weltz as “the architect of JVNLA's future.” She noted that Weltz “has been president in all but name these past few years” and that “her incisive intelligence, energy, marketing acumen, love of books, ready humor, and editorial flair have combined to build and lead JVNLA confidently into a future all of us here are reaching to identify.”

Weltz began by remarking, “Yes, publishing has changed drastically, but no matter how much it grows, shrinks, or morphs, the core is still the wonderful words our authors write.” Thirty to forty books a year are published from the manuscripts JVNLA sells. Weltz underscored the agency's multidimensional role in bringing its authors' manuscripts into print—from helping its authors strengthen their stories, build their platforms, and harness social networking; to match-making its authors with the best possible publishing houses and seizing all opportunities to widen its authors' audiences.

In her remarks, Weltz emphasized that it has long been, and will continue to be, the agency's priority to stay one step ahead of shifts in the industry, to build communities, and to share strategies in an effort to keep the publishing industry healthy and vital.

She finished with promising words about the future: “Publishing right now is where anything is possible. Having conquered 35 years, we at JVNLA can't wait to champion many, many more wonderful stories to come.”

From Naggar's one-woman agency in 1978, JVNLA has now expanded to eight, including new President Weltz, Senior Agent Alice Tasman, Literary Agent Elizabeth Evans, Agent-at-Large Anne Engel, Contracts Manager and Audio Rights Agent Tara Hart, Literary and Australian Rights Agent Laura Biagi, and Assistant Ariana Philips.

News of the announcement was featured in Publishers Lunch here and Publishers Weekly here.

Some select photos from the 35th anniversary celebration are below, but be sure to visit our Facebook page here to see them all!

Jean Naggar with MacArthur Award-winning author Carl Safina

Publishing veterans

A view of the gorgeous sunset from the restaurant

Take a walk on the blonde side

Last month, It Books released THE NEW RULES FOR BLONDES: Highlights from a Fair-Haired Life by stand-up comedian, storyteller, and writer Selena Coppock.

A natural blonde, Coppock was awarded the “Best Hair” superlative in high school and has since embarked on numerous adventures and misadventures in her navigations through a world in which blondes are often considered ditzy, dumb, and vain. Now she has compiled her hilarious hair-care anecdotes and pearls of wisdom into a laugh-out-loud--and witty--essay collection. As Examiner.com noted, “[Coppock] admits she has benefited from some stereotypes, especially the ones about being fun-loving and young. However, she proves repeatedly [throughout THE NEW RULES FOR BLONDES that] she is not dumb nor does she want to play dumb.”

Coppock's particular brand of humor can perhaps best be sampled in her book trailer below:



Since its publication, THE NEW RULES FOR BLONDES has hit media outlets by storm. It was featured in Time Out New York and Glamour, and it is currently part of a give-a-way with She Knows, lasting until May 23 (so enter now!).

In an interview with Yuletide Snapper, Coppock describes why it was important to her to put together these “new rules” in the first place: “Today...things have changed and blondes have evolved. Just look at bold blondes such as Lady Gaga (naturally a brunette but most often seen with blonde hair now) and Hillary Clinton--blondes are killing it in politics, entertainment, and elsewhere, so I wanted to map out a new pathway for all of us.” Read the full interview here.

Meanwhile, over at Motherhood Moment, Coppock describes her favorite “blonde moment” and blonde hero, and she explains how hair color is like a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. Find out more here.

Coppock lists her do's, don'ts, must haves, bests, lasts, and more regarding all things writing related at Chick Lit Is Not Dead. Learn here the importance of setting boundaries in writing, how Coppock overcomes writer's block, and how she celebrated her book deal.

In a guest post at Fresh Fiction, Coppock describes exactly how she became the author of this book, which originated as the brainchild of her blonde agent and blonde editor. Check it out here.

Lastly, in an interview with Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Coppock gets to the heart of one of the deeper themes in her book: self-esteem. Here's an excerpt below, but be sure to read the full piece here.

...the book is fun and informational, but at its core it’s a book trying to encourage self-love.  Girls and women are socialized to be really hard on themselves and each other--we get a lot of grief for how we look or what shape we are and many of us internalize those toxic messages without even knowing that we are.  With THE NEW RULES FOR BLONDES obviously I’m talking about blondeness, but I’m also encouraging the reader to embrace the fact that she is smart and spunky and unique, and who cares what other people think. 

Below we've compiled some of the exciting reviews the book has received so far:

“Perfect for the summer…The key to recounting stories like these is making them pop off the page...Thanks to Coppock’s writing style, which I would liken to hanging out with a funny best friend..., she manages to do just that and ends up making reading New Rules a breeze.” --Glamour.com

“Her writing is FUN with a capital F!...Whether you are blonde or not, you will love this book!” --Chick Lit Is Not Dead Blog

“A humorous guide to undermining stereotypes and becoming both self-aware and self-assured...Coppock’s book is both fun and informative, whether or not you’re of the golden-haired persuasion.” --Brooklyn Daily Eagle

“Selena Coppock is hilarious!....THE NEW RULES FOR BLONDES is entertaining for anyone of any hair color who wants to laugh.” --Sweeps4bloggers.com

“A must-read for all blondes, those who hate blondes, or anyone with a sense of humor. Otherwise, this is NOT a book for you!” --Kristen Johnston, actress and New York Times bestselling author

“Selena Coppock is a hilarious, sexy bundle of blonde madness. Her willingness to own her magnificent dorkitude is an inspiration to us all. Read this book and fall in weird, awkward love with her.” --Sara Benicasa, author of AGORAFABULOUS!

“Blondes have more fun reading this book, at least this fair-haired broad did. A fresh, fun "lady-guide" that all girls can enjoy...even dumb brunettes. You heard me!” --Jillian Bell, comedian (Saturday Night Live, Workaholics)

It Books/HarperCollins, April 2013