After reading the book in 10 minutes, comedian Jo Firestone gives a report on Charles Dickens’s OLIVER TWIST. Please sir, we’d like some more time to study.
Actually, learning to read a book in 10 minutes is an excellent skill to have when you just want some broad information about a bunch of titles. I have taught this over the years and use it myself – not to review books, but to have an idea about new books and sometimes I find a book I was to actually read. Check it out, courtesy of the American Library Association and Jessica E. Moyer:
They may be nameless actors in generic stock footage, but there is no doubt that Stock Video Women love to read. Let them show you 11 of their favorite reading methods. Can you dig the funky jams?
Comments Off on 11 Ways to Read (Women’s Edition) | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
In high school, author John Grisham (THE WHISTLER) was assigned a book by Steinbeck, who he appreciated for the clarity of his writing. Later, John le Carré’s THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL became an important influence.
THE WHISTLER
From John Grisham, America’s #1 bestselling author, comes the most electrifying novel of the year, a high-stakes thrill ride through the darkest corners of the Sunshine State.
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We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity and impartiality are the bedrock of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the orderly and efficient flow of justice.
But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe? It’s rare, but it happens.
Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption.
But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout U.S. history.
What’s the source of the ill-gotten gains? It seems the judge was secretly involved with the construction of a large casino on Native American land. The Coast Mafia financed the casino and is now helping itself to a sizable skim of each month’s cash. The judge is getting a cut and looking the other way. It’s a sweet deal: Everyone is making money.
But now Greg wants to put a stop to it. His only client is a person who knows the truth and wants to blow the whistle and collect millions under Florida law. Greg files a complaint with the Board on Judicial Conduct, and the case is assigned to Lacy Stoltz, who immediately suspects that this one could be dangerous.
Dangerous is one thing. Deadly is something else.
THE WHISTLER by John Grisham. Doubleday (October 25, 2016). ISBN: 978-0385541190. 384p.
kick-a** characters – Claire Fraser from OUTLANDER… time traveling British combat nurse, sassy Sassenach, and so much more. Dig into her story with this stop-motion tribute.
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Author Graham Moore (THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT) talks about how he was inspired to start his first novel, THE SHERLOCKIAN… by telling a story no one else was writing about.
THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A thrilling novel based on actual events, about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America—from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and author of The Sherlockian
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING EDDIE REDMAYNE
New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country?
The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it?
In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.
Praise for The Last Days of Night
“A satisfying romp . . . Takes place against a backdrop rich with period detail . . . Works wonderfully as an entertainment . . . As it charges forward, the novel leaves no dot unconnected.”—Noah Hawley, The New York Times Book Review
“This captivating historical novel illuminates a fascinating American moment.”—People
“A fascinating portrait of American inventors . . . Moore crafts a compelling narrative out of [Paul] Cravath’s cunning legal maneuvers and [Nikola] Tesla’s world-changing tinkering, while a story line on opera singer Agnes Huntington has the mysterious glamour of The Great Gatsby. . . . Moore weaves a complex web. . . . He conjures Gilded Age New York City so vividly, it feels like only yesterday.”—Entertainment Weekly
“A model of superior historical fiction . . . Graham Moore digs deep into long-forgotten facts to give us an exciting, sometimes astonishing story of two geniuses locked in a brutal battle to change the world. . . . [A] brilliant journey into the past.”—The Washington Post
“Mesmerizing, clever, and absolutely crackling, The Last Days of Night is a triumph of imagination. Graham Moore has chosen Gilded Age New York as his playground, with outsized characters—Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse—as his players. The result is a beautifully researched, endlessly entertaining novel that will leave you buzzing.”—Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
“It’s part legal thriller, part tour of a magical time—the age of wonder—and once you’ve finished it, you’ll find it hard to return to the world of now.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City
THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT by Graham Moore. Penguin Books (September 13, 2016). ISBN: 978-0143128229. 272p.
Comments Off on Author Graham Moore on how he began writing his first novel | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Author James Dashner (THE FEVER CODE) talks about life before his writing career… when he was an accountant.
THE FEVER CODE
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Maze Runner, Book Five; Prequel
All will be revealed in the fifth book in James Dashner’s #1 New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series. This is the story that fans all over the world have been waiting for—the story of how Thomas and WICKED built the Maze. You will not want to miss it.
Once there was a world’s end.
The forests burned, the lakes and rivers dried up, and the oceans swelled.
Then came a plague, and fever spread across the globe. Families died, violence reigned, and man killed man.
Next came WICKED, who were looking for an answer. And then they found the perfect boy.
The boy’s name was Thomas, and Thomas built a maze.
Now there are secrets.
There are lies.
And there are loyalties history could never have foreseen.
This is the story of that boy, Thomas, and how he built a maze that only he could tear down.
All will be revealed.
A prequel to the worldwide Maze Runner phenomenon, The Fever Code is the book that holds all the answers. How did WICKED find the Gladers? Who are Group B? And what side are Thomas and Teresa really on? Lies will be exposed. Secrets will be uncovered. Loyalties will be proven. Fans will never see the truth coming. Before there was the Maze, there wasThe Fever Code.
Don’t miss The Maze Runner and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, now major motion pictures from Twentieth Century Fox, starring Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, and Aidan Gillen. And look for James Dashner’s new bestselling series the Mortality Doctrine: The Eye of Minds, The Rule of Thoughts, and The Game of Lives.
Praise for the Maze Runner series: A #1 New York Times Bestselling Series
A USA Today Bestseller
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of the Year
An ALA-YASLA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book
An ALA-YALSA Quick Pick
“[A] mysterious survival saga that passionate fans describe as a fusion of Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, and Lost.“—EW.com
“Wonderful action writing—fast-paced…but smart and well observed.”—Newsday
“[A] nail-biting must-read.”—Seventeen.com
“Breathless, cinematic action.”—Publishers Weekly
“Heart pounding to the very last moment.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Exclamation-worthy.”—Romantic Times
THE FEVER CODE by James Dashner. Delacorte Press (September 27, 2016). ISBN: 978-0553513097. 384p.
Comments Off on James Dashner’s career before he was an author | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
MysteriousPress.com is pleased to announce the winner of the $25,000 MysteriousPress.com Award: An action-packed heist novel by Mike Cooper, The Downside.
“We got some incredible manuscripts but in the end, Mike’s story was everything we were looking for: Fast, exciting, and well-written,” said Otto Penzler, President and CEO of MysteriousPress.com.
The contest solicited unpublished manuscripts from both established authors and newcomers, with the promise of a $25,000 award—an advance against royalties—as well as guaranteed worldwide publication. The book will be available sometime next year.
The final determination of the winner was made by votes from MysteriousPress.com’s publishing partners: Open Road Integrated Media, in North America and numerous countries around the world; Head of Zeus in the British Commonwealth; Hayakawa Publishing (Japan, Singapore, and South Korea); Bonnier (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland); Dutch Media Books (Holland and Belgium), and Bastei Lubbe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Greece, and selected Eastern European countries).
About The Downside:
In an age of cyber-crime, Finn is the last hardhat: He’s never stolen anything weighing less than five tons. Now fresh out of prison and flat broke, he’s got a line on his biggest job ever.
Cracking the most heavily guarded private vault in North America? No problem. Hauling $50 million of precious metal out past guards, dozens of policemen, and an armored SWAT battalion? Even easier. But navigating the betrayals of double-crossing partners, the machinations of a hedge-fund billionaire gone bad, and the ambiguous proposals of a woman with her own agenda?
Finn has only begun to figure out the downside.
About the author
Mike Cooper grew up in Missouri. After college he lived and worked in Asia for a number of years. Jobs back home have included ambulance medic, food co-op president, and VP at Fidelity Investments. He has a masters in finance from MIT, and lives with his family outside Boston. For over a decade he has been the stay-at-home parent, which is when he began writing more seriously. Literary recognition includes a Shamus Award, a Thriller nomination, and inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories. His most recent novel is Full Ratchet (Viking), sequel to the widely hailed Clawback.
I live in Palm Beach County, Florida and as you can see on this map, we are expecting to be at the epicenter of the storm.
I’ve lived through more hurricanes than I care to think about, starting with David in 1979, Andrew in 1992, Wilma in 2005 and many more in between all those.
We took a direct hit from Wilma eleven years ago, also an October storm. Lost our roof, which landed on our cars – lots of damage, and the landscape of the community was forever changed. Lost our electricity for over a week. That one hit towards the end of the month and it was cool and lovely afterwards. It’s still pretty hot now, high 80’s, low 90’s.
But we were safe. And that is all I wish for this storm, too.
Hurricane Matthew is expected to hit as a Cat 4; Wilma was a Cat 3 so I admit to being a little bit scared. Plus the fact that it will making its presence known around midnight and it is always more frightening to hear that ruckus during the night.
My husband has been working on making us safe since yesterday. The hurricane shutters are up. He’s bringing in the patio furniture now. We have enough water and chemically laden food to last at least a week. And lots of comforting snacks, too. Last load of laundry is in the drier. We are as ready as we can be.
Mara Wilson (author of WHERE AM I NOW? and star of the films Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire) talks about her ideal writing environment—it involves lots of tea.
WHERE AM I NOW?
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True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame
“Growing up, I wanted to be Mara Wilson. Where Am I Now? is a delight.” —Ilana Glazer, cocreator and star of Broad City
“Genuine and authentic, funny and heartbreaking.” —Jenny Lawson, author of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy
Named a best book of the month by GoodReads and Entertainment Weekly
A former child actor best known for her starring roles in Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire, Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and out of place: as the only kid on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, a Valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and a grown-up the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from what she learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to discovering in adolescence that she was no longer “cute” enough for Hollywood, these essays chart her journey from accidental fame to relative (but happy) obscurity. They also illuminate universal struggles, like navigating love and loss, and figuring out who you are and where you belong. Candid, insightful, moving, and hilarious, Where Am I Now? introduces Mara Wilson as a brilliant new chronicler of the experience that is growing up female.
WHERE AM I NOW? by Mara Wilson. Penguin Books (September 13, 2016). ISBN: 978-0143128229. 272p.
Comments Off on Author Mara Wilson’s ideal writing environment | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Brad Meltzer in a Lucille Ball wig with Barbara Bush recreating the famous I Love Lucy chocolate conveyor belt scene, to raise awareness for family literacy. From Brad: “And God bless her, she let me eat 300 chocolates in the President’s office.” Need I say more? Enjoy!
If you would like to share this book with someone you love, click on the cover below.
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Ordinary People Change the World
“We can all be heroes” is the message of this picture-book biography series from #1New York Times Bestselling author Brad Meltzer.
“Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it,” Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography—for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a vivacious, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was biography series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Lucille Ball could make any situation funny. By making people around the world laugh, she proved that humor can take on anything.
This engaging series is the perfect way to bring American history to life for young children, providing them with the right role models, supplementing Common Core learning in the classroom, and best of all, inspiring them to strive and dream.
I am Lucille Ball by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. Dial Books; First Edition/First Printing edition (July 14, 2015). ISBN: 978-0525428558. 40p.
Posted by Stacy Alesi 
ive in Palm Beach County, Florida and as you can see on this map, we are expecting to be at the epicenter of the storm.
