#Pamela Dorman Books

[wellesleybooks]

A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Coming Tuesday, September 17th from bestselling author Richard Osman- a new mystery series.

We Solve Murders pre-order your copy today.

[bargainsleuthbooks]

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal #BookReview #Minnesota #HistoricalFiction #AudiobookReview #SupperClubs

A story of a couple from two very different restaurant families and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them. #Saturdaynightatthelakesidesupperclub #bookreview #Minnesota #historicalfiction #JRyanStradal

A story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them. Mariel Prager needs a break. Her husband Ned is having an identity crisis, her spunky, beloved restaurant is bleeding money by the day, and her mother Florence is stubbornly refusing to leave the church where she’s been holed…

[macrolit]

By Elisabeth Egan May 18, 2024

“You’d be shocked by how many books have women chained in basements,” Reese Witherspoon said. “I know it happens in the world. I don’t want to read a book about it.”

Nor does she want to read an academic treatise, or a 700-page novel about a tree.

Sitting in her office in Nashville, occasionally dipping into a box of takeout nachos, Witherspoon talked about what she does like to read — and what she looks for in a selection for Reese’s Book Club, which she referred to in a crisp third person.

“It needs to be optimistic,” Witherspoon said. “It needs to be shareable. Do you close this book and say, ‘I know exactly who I want to give it to?’”

But, first and foremost, she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves. “Because that’s what women do,” she said. “No one’s coming to save us.”

Witherspoon, 48, has now been a presence in the book world for a decade. Her productions of novels like “Big Little Lies,” “Little Fires Everywhere” and “The Last Thing He Told Me” are foundations of the binge-watching canon. Her book club picks reliably land on the best-seller list for weeks, months or, in the case of “Where the Crawdads Sing,” years. In 2023, print sales for the club’s selections outpaced those of Oprah’s Book Club and Read With Jenna, according to Circana Bookscan, adding up to 2.3 million copies sold.

So how did an actor who dropped out of college (fine, Stanford) become one of the most influential people in an industry known for being intractable and slightly tweedy?

It started with Witherspoon’s frustration over the film industry’s skimpy representation of women onscreen — especially seasoned, strong, smart, brave, mysterious, complicated and, yes, dangerous women.

“When I was about 34, I stopped reading interesting scripts,” she said.

Witherspoon had already made a name for herself with “Election,” “Legally Blonde” and “Walk the Line.” But, by 2010, Hollywood was in flux: Streaming services were gaining traction. DVDs were following VHS tapes to the land of forgotten technology.

“When there’s a big economic shift in the media business, it’s not the superhero movies or independent films we lose out on,” Witherspoon said. “It’s the middle, which is usually where women live. The family drama. The romantic comedy. So I decided to fund a company to make those kinds of movies.”

In 2012, she started the production company Pacific Standard with Bruna Papandrea. Its first projects were film adaptations of books: “Gone Girl” and “Wild,” which both opened in theaters in 2014.

Growing up in Nashville, Witherspoon knew the value of a library card. She caught the bug early, she said, from her grandmother, Dorothea Draper Witherspoon, who taught first grade and devoured Danielle Steel novels in a “big cozy lounger” while sipping iced tea from a glass “with a little paper towel wrapped around it.”

This attention to detail is a smoke signal of sorts: Witherspoon is a person of words.

When she was in high school, Witherspoon stayed after class to badger her English teacher — Margaret Renkl, now a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times — about books that weren’t part of the curriculum. When Witherspoon first moved to Los Angeles, books helped prepare her for the “chaos” of filmmaking; “The Making of the African Queen” by Katharine Hepburn was a particular favorite.

So it made sense that, as soon as Witherspoon joined Instagram, she started sharing book recommendations. Authors were tickled and readers shopped accordingly. In 2017, Witherspoon made it official: Reese’s Book Club became a part of her new company, Hello Sunshine.

The timing was fortuitous, according to Pamela Dorman, senior vice president and publisher of Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, who edited the club’s inaugural pick, “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.” “The book world needed something to help boost sales in a new way,” she said.

Reese’s Book Club was that something: “Eleanor Oliphant” spent 85 weeks on the paperback best-seller list. The club’s second pick, “The Alice Network,” spent nearly four months on the weekly best-seller lists and two months on the audio list. Its third, “The Lying Game,” spent 18 weeks on the weekly lists.

“There’s nothing better than getting that phone call,” added Dorman, who has now edited two more Reese’s Book Club selections.

Kiley Reid’s debut novel, “Such a Fun Age,” got the nod in January 2020. She said, “When I was on book tour, a lot of women would tell me, ‘I haven’t read a book in four years, but I trust Reese.’” Four years later, on tour for her second novel, “Come and Get It,” Reid met women who were reading 100 books a year.

Witherspoon tapped into a sweet spot between literary and commercial fiction, with a few essay collections and memoirs sprinkled in. She turned out to be the literary equivalent of a fit model — a reliable bellwether for readers in search of intelligent, discussion-worthy fare, hold the Proust. She wanted to help narrow down the choices for busy readers, she said, “to bring the book club out of your grandma’s living room and online.”

She added: “The unexpected piece of it all was the economic impact on these authors’ lives.”

One writer became the first person in her family to own a home. “She texted me a picture of the key,” Witherspoon said. “I burst into tears.”

Witherspoon considers a handful of books each month. Submissions from publishers are culled by a small group that includes Sarah Harden, chief executive of Hello Sunshine; Gretchen Schreiber, manager of books (her original title was “bookworm”); and Jon Baker, whose team at Baker Literary Scouting scours the market for promising manuscripts.

Not only is Witherspoon focused on stories by women — “the Bechdel test writ large,” Baker said — but also, “Nothing makes her happier than getting something out in the world that you might not see otherwise.”

When transgender rights were in the headlines in 2018, the club chose “This Is How It Always Is,” Laurie Frankel’s novel about a family grappling with related issues in the petri dish of their own home. “We track the long tail of our book club picks and this one, without fail, continues to sell,” Baker said.

Witherspoon’s early readers look for a balance of voices, backgrounds and experiences. They also pay attention to the calendar. “Everyone knows December and May are the busiest months for women,” Harden said, referring to the mad rush of the holidays and the end of the school year. “You don’t want to read a literary doorstop then. What do you want to read on summer break? What do you want to read in January?”

Occasionally the group chooses a book that isn’t brand-new, as with the club’s April pick, “The Most Fun We Ever Had,” from 2019. When Claire Lombardo learned that her almost-five-year-old novel had been anointed, she thought there had been a mistake; after all, her new book, “Same As it Ever Was,” is coming out next month. “It’s wild,” Lombardo said. “It’s not something that I was expecting.”

Sales of “The Most Fun We Ever Had” increased by 10,000 percent after the announcement, according to Doubleday. Within the first two weeks, 27,000 copies were sold. The book has been optioned by Hello Sunshine.

Witherspoon preferred not to elaborate on a few subjects: competition with other top-shelf book clubs (“We try not to pick the same books”); the lone author who declined to be part of hers (“I have a lot of respect for her clarity”); and the 2025 book she’s already called dibs on (“You can’t imagine that Edith Wharton or Graham Greene didn’t write it”).

But she was eager to set the record straight on two fronts. Her team doesn’t get the rights to every book — “It’s just how the cookie crumbles,” she said — and, Reese’s Book Club doesn’t make money off sales of its picks. Earnings come from brand collaborations and affiliate revenue.

This is true of all celebrity book clubs. An endorsement from one of them is a free shot of publicity, but one might argue that Reese’s Book Club does a bit more for its books and authors than most. Not only does it promote each book from hardcover to paperback, it supports authors in subsequent phases of their careers.

Take Reid, for instance. More than three years after Reese’s Book Club picked her first novel, it hosted a cover reveal for “Come and Get It,” which came out in January. This isn’t the same as a yellow seal on the cover, but it’s still a spotlight with the potential to be seen by the club’s 2.9 million Instagram followers.

“I definitely felt like I was joining a very large community,” Reid said.

“Alum” writers tend to stay connected with one another via social media, swapping woot woots and advice. They’re also invited to participate in Hello Sunshine events and Lit Up, a mentorship program for underrepresented writers. Participants get editing and coaching from Reese’s Book Club authors, plus a marketing commitment from the club when their manuscripts are submitted to agents and editors.

“I describe publishing and where we sit in terms of being on a river,” Schreiber said. “We’re downstream; we’re looking at what they’re picking. Lit Up gave us the ability to look upstream and say, ‘We’d like to make a change here.’”

The first Lit Up-incubated novel, “Time and Time Again” by Chatham Greenfield, is coming out from Bloomsbury YA in July. Five more fellows have announced the sales of their books.

As Reese’s Book Club approaches a milestone — the 100th pick, to be announced in September — it continues to adapt to changes in the market. Print sales for club selections peaked at five million in 2020, and they’ve softened since then, according to Circana Bookscan. In 2021, Candle Media, a Blackstone-backed media company, bought Hello Sunshine for $900 million. Witherspoon is a member of Candle Media’s board. She is currently co-producing a “Legally Blonde” prequel series for Amazon Prime Video.

This month, Reese’s Book Club will unveil an exclusive audio partnership with Apple, allowing readers to find all the picks in one place on the Apple Books app. “I want people to stop saying, ‘I didn’t really read it, I just listened,’” Witherspoon said. “Stop that. If you listened, you read it. There’s no right way to absorb a book.”

She feels that Hollywood has changed over the years: “Consumers are more discerning about wanting to hear stories that are generated by a woman.”

Even as she’s looking forward, Witherspoon remembers her grandmother, the one who set her on this path.

“Somebody came up to me at the gym the other day and he said” — here she put on a gentle Southern drawl — “‘I’m going to tell you something I bet you didn’t hear today.’ And he goes, ‘Your grandma taught me how to read.’”

Another smoke signal, and a reminder of what lives on.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Pineapple Street | Author: Jenny Jackson | Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (2023)

[famdontendwithblood]

Recensione - "Io prima di te" di Jojo Moyes

Titolo originale: “Me Before You” Data pubblicazione: 2012 Pagine: 384 Editore: Pamela Dorman Books Genere: Romanzo sentimentale Voto del pubblico: 4.3/5 su Goodreads Io prima di te” di Jojo Moyes è un romanzo emozionante e coinvolgente che ho apprezzato molto. La storia mi ha catturato fin dalle prime pagine e mi ha fatto sentire una vasta gamma di emozioni, dalla tristezza alla felicità, dallo…

[pagesandpothos]

Book of the Month February Predictions

I love Book of the Month. I have found so many of my favorite books thanks to them and I genuinely look forward to choosing my book(s) at the beginning of each month.

Here are a few new releases that I think might be Book of the Month selections for February:

Romance

From the clues posted in their app, I think Book of the Month is choosing two romances this month and I think they are:

Bride by Ali Hazelwood: Releases February 6, 2024 by Berkley

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone: February 13, 2024 by Dial Press Trade Paperback

If there are any more romance (possibly as add-on options), I think How You Get The Girl by Anita Kelly and A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams are both a possibility (especially if they want to include more diversity).

Historical Fiction

The third clue posted in their app, points to a historical fiction with romance and mystery elements. I also think the new novel by Kristin Hannah is very likely to be a pick or, at least, an add-on.

The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham: Releases January 30, 2024 by Hyperion Avenue

The Women by Kristin Hannah: Releases February 6, 2024 by St. Martin’s Press

If there are any other historical picks, I think The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo and The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang are options.

Thrillers

Book of the Month almost always chooses at least one thriller per month. It's their most consistent and popular genre. If they choose a thriller this month, I think it may be either:

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander: Releases February 6, 2024 by Minotaur Books

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra: Releases February 6, 2024 by Pamela Dorman Books

Literary/Contemporary

Literary and Contemporary fiction are both frequent choices at Book of the Month. Here are three new releases that I think could be February options:

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange: Releases February 27, 2024 by Knopf

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks: Releases February 13, 2024 by Ballantine Books

The Things We Didn't Know by Elba Iris Pérez: Releases February 6, 2024 by Gallery Books

Fantasy / Magical Realism

Fantasy isn't picked very often by Book of the Month, so they may not have any this month. If they do (outside of Bride by Ali Hazelwood or, possibly, The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo), they might choose:

The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah: Releases February 20, 2024 by Orbit (possible as a mid-month add-on)

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown: Releases February 13, 2024 by William Morrow

Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa: Releases February 20, 2024 by Berkley (If BOTM doesn't select this one, I think it is very possible as an Aardvark Book Club pick in February or March!)

Young Adult

Like fantasy, young adult books are not chosen every month by Book of the Month but they do feature them regularly (sometimes as add-ons). If there are any young adult novels chosen this month, I think it will be Kacen Callender's newest release:

Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender: Releases February 6, 2024 by Tor Teen

Non-Fiction

This is another genre that doesn't feature often, but they recently added the following as an audiobook. I think it's possible the physical book might be added, at least, as an add-on selection:

One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy: Released January 23, 2024 by St. Martin's Press

[scientificinquirer-blog]

THE ABSTRACT: "The Last Devil to Die" is a testament to life's intricate ballet.

The Last Devil to Die (Pamela Dorman Books) unfurls its tapestry in a manner that is ineffably British, tinged with sardonic wit and the acerbic traces of nostalgia. Our cast: a motley group of septuagenarians, sequestered in the bucolic recesses of Cooper’s Chase retirement village in Kent. There’s a murder most foul, and our heroes, with their wrinkles etched by wisdom and tales of yesteryears,…

[otherpplnation]

829. J. Ryan Stradal

J. Ryan Stradal is the bestselling author of the novel Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, available from Viking / Pamela Dorman Books.

Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Granta, The Rumpus, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the American Booksellers Association Indies Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in California with his family.

***

Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.

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[alternativepressreview]

Someone Else's Shoes

Someone Else’s Shoes is a novel by Jojo Moyes, a British author known for her captivating storytelling and ability to tug at readers’ heartstrings. Published on February 7, 2023, by Pamela Dorman Books, the novel falls under the genre of contemporary fiction. It spans 448 pages and follows the lives of two women, Nisha Cantor and Sam Kemp, who find themselves in each other’s shoes quite…

[noisynutcrusade]

The Love of My Life: A Novel

The Love of My Life: A Novel

Price: (as of – Details) From the Publisher Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pamela Dorman Books (March 1, 2022) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593296990 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593296998 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.29 x 1.25 x 9.3 inches

[utah-hiker-pro]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: I’ve Been Thinking.. Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life.

[owlbookworld]

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena [book review]

#bookbloggers Do you guys enjoy family drama thrillers? They are usually hit or miss for me! #bookblogger #bookblogging #amreading #reading #bookreview #thriller #NotA HappyFamily

Book: Not a Happy FamilyAuthor: Shari LapenaPublished: July 27, 2021Publisher: Pamela Dorman BooksGenre: ThrillerPages: 349Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads (more…)

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Couple Next Door | Author: Shari Lapena | Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (2016)

[2ifbyseabrook]

Not a Happy Family

Not a Happy Family- 4 stars

By- Shari Lapena

Not a Happy Family tells the story of the Merton family.  As the title states the family...father, Fred, mother, Sheila, children, Catherine, Dan, and Jenna do not get along very well.  Fred is controlling and has a terrible mean streak.  At Easter dinner the children learn their parents are selling the family home.  Two days later Fred and Sheila turn up dead.  Each child has a motive and no alibi.

Out of all the Shari Lapena books I've read I like this one the most.  Sometimes her books are totally implausible, but I felt like this one was quite realistic.  Each character was well developed and the twists and turns of the story kept me guessing.  The ending felt a little rushed, but all the pieces did fall into place.  The only thing I didn't understand is why the author gave Fred cancer...that didn't add anything to the story, in my opinion.  Overall, though, I enjoyed this book very much.