Way behind on this one but wow. Set in a near-future where an authoritarian American government restricts women and girls to 100 words per day. Dalcher piles disaster after disaster on her main character and the result is a powerful page-turner. If you liked The Power, grab this (and vice versa.)
So the luncheon I spoke at today featured three authors, and I fangirled quite a lot over #3 on the program. Her brief talk about the beginning and the end of her career at Gourmet was, of course, fascinating.
Quick trip to NYC today to talk at a luncheon about Woman 99! Usually I wear my hair back at book events but this time I indulged in a blowout. Something about New York just encourages indulgence, I guess!
So excited to dive into this one! Historical fantasy based on Mayan mythology, set in Jazz Age Mexico.
I mean.
Lives up to the hype! Really enjoyed it on audio. It unfolded more or less as I expected, but I still enjoyed the ride.
Kindle Daily Deal today! $2.99 across all e-book platforms. "Powerful and electrifying, Macallister is at the top of her game." - Fiona Davis
Dark, compelling, dark, charming in its own way, dark. Really enjoyed it but I suspect it's love-it-or-hate-it. Halfway between Single White Female and The Talented Mr. Ripley with a dash of Sex and the City-style Manhattan hijinks.
Louis Bayard talking about the mystery & intimacy of the triangle between Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd and Joshua Speed. #natbookfest
"The reason I write novels is to understand something I don't understand." -Roxana Robinson #NatBookFest
Loving Rebecca Makkai's talk at #natbookfest!
I feel like the cover and the title both do this one a disservice, but when I finally picked it up, really enjoyed it. I find myself thinking about the characters at random moments weeks after finishing it, which is always a sign of a good read.
Delighted to see that little orange flag! Good work, readers! Price is today only on all ebook platforms...
Today only! $2.99 on BookBub! Spread the word to your e-book loving, historical fiction reading friends.
Needed a new audiobook and I've loved nearly everything I've read of Abbott's so this looks just about perfect. Diving in!
Any #Littens in Providence, RI? I'm on my way to the Providence Book Festival and the lineup looks great. I'll be talking about Woman 99 solo and also participating in a historical fiction panel with Lauren Willig, Juliette Fay, and others. Hope to see some of you there! https://www.providencebookfestival.org
As a huge fan of Larkin's first novel Stay, I've really been looking forward to this one -- and absolutely loving it so far. A must for lovers of rescue dogs, especially.
Had a bad run with romances lately -- started and dropped several in a row -- but this one broke the streak. Delightful so far. Hero returns from war to find his former fiancé, who jilted him, working as a governess in his family's home... with a child in tow everyone assumes is his bastard. (More fun than it sounds!)
I always mention The Yellow Wallpaper in my talks about WOMAN 99 since my narrator Charlotte is named in honor of the author. At a recent luncheon event at a women's club in Richmond, guess what color wallpaper they had in the ladies' room?
Book mail is the best mail! Can't wait to dig in.
I'm maybe a third into the audiobook and absolutely adoring it. Great language -- poetic but somehow economical -- and as a lifelong Greek mythology fiend, I'm loving how she weaves all these familiar names (and we haven't even gotten to Odysseus yet) into a single riveting narrative.
Exciting day! My essay on Charlotte Perkins Gilman & her very real experience with institutionalization for mental illness is up on LitHub! https://lithub.com/the-lesser-known-life-behindthe-yellow-wallpaper/
A #womenshistoryreads first today - I've interviewed (many) novelists before, but never a verse novelist, and I'm fascinated by Kip Wilson's chosen format for her story of Sophie Scholl. Read up on this forthcoming novel on my blog at greermacallister.com/blog .
If you're not already a Lauren Willig fan, you will be after reading her #womenshistoryreads Q&Q&Q&A! As you might expect from a professional historian turned practical historian, she has a deep knowledge of the field, name-checking everyone from Lucy Percy Hay to Winnie the Pooh. Check it out at greermacallister.com/blog .
pickThis is the second Tessa Dare I've read, after When a Scot Ties the Knot, and it was even more fun & satisfying. She has a way of combining wildly different plot threads -- storybooks! Ferrets! Knights and handmaidens! Scurrilous solicitors! -- and making it all make a wonderful kind of sense by the end.
Great event with Kate Quinn at the Mt. Airy CCPL last night, just in time to hear the news that her book debuted at #2 on the NYT bestseller list! Well-deserved.
Prepping for tonight's In Conversation event with Kate Quinn in Mt. Airy, MD. I've found the best way to guarantee a good seat at my favorite authors' events is to be the one on stage interviewing them. Can't wait!
Reposting this from fellow author Kerri Maher's Instagram because today's the big day! WOMAN 99 is out in audiobook, e-book & hardcover. Publishers Weekly called it "a riveting tale of love, loyalty & sacrifice." More at Greermacallister.com/books
Listened to this on Overdrive because 1) I needed something new and 2) Julia Whelan narrates & I almost stopped in the middle because parts are so. Freaking. Scary. But glad I pushed through. Genuinely unsettling, but that's Flynn for you. (May be too much sexual content for some but you'll be able to tell that from the very first line.)
Went to the bookstore to buy The Huntress so I can interview the author next week & Fate saw fit to put a table of Girl Scouts in my path. My destiny tastes like Samoas.
My list of recommendations for Women's History Month is up at BookBub! Check out new releases (some aren't even out yet) inspired by women of the past, from movie star inventors to 17th-century Dutch painters to an all-female Korean diving collective. So much to stack! https://www.bookbub.com/blog/2019/03/01/books-for-womens-history-month-editorial...
Kicking off this year's #womenshistoryreads interview series with the incomparable @AmyStewart (who, incidentally, introduced me to Litsy!) http://www.greermacallister.com/blog/2019/2/28/womenshistoryreads-interview-amy-...
Lots of awesome recommendations for March on the Professional Book Nerds Podcast from @OverDrive - I'm particularly excited about Daisy Jones & the Six. (And of course I'm thrilled to see Woman 99 on the list.) Any of these you're looking forward to? https://professionalbooknerds.com
Fairly early on in this but really digging it so far. Very possible the world of books needs more dodgy-former-Pinkerton-turned-criminal female protagonists in it.
Listening to an audiobook (not the one tagged here) and getting constantly distracted by the author's deep unwillingness to use "said" as a dialogue tag. People in this book whisper, titter, gossip, whine, explain, question... even expostulate. Expostulate! It's distracting.
Woman 99 comes out in the US & Canada in less than a week (!?!?) and I promise not to post constantly, but would love to see #Littens at these March book launch events!
Love the Hollywood quotes Fay uses as chapter headings. Naturally, as a writer, this one in particular spoke to me.
The Peru-related puns in the OPI nail color collection at this salon are... quite something.
Halfway through and hooked!
Ooh, lucky me! Can't wait to dig into Lauren Willig's newest. Set in Barbados, due out in June 2019.
Overdrive popped up with an #audiobook category called "Read By a Celeb" and as a Gilmore Girls fan from way back, of course I had to jump on this novel written & read by Lauren Graham, about a young actress trying to make it in New York City. Semi-autobiographical, if I remember right. Just starting. #fridaylistens #litsylistens
Our "in conversation" event for Jane Harper's new book was a smashing success! 100+ attendees (!), great energy and engagement. And Jane's unflagging enthusiasm & warmth were especially amazing when you consider she literally crossed the US this past week (Seattle to DC) on tour. Awesome.
On my way to a book appearance (interviewing Jane Harper, so excited!) and couldn't resist this finishing touch. Writer powers, activate!
Fellow Veronica Mars fans, rejoice! Listening to Kristen Bell narrate this audiobook while you drive is like having Veronica ride shotgun. Great to tide us over while we wait for the new miniseries (or "TV event" or whatever they call it.) #fridaylistens
Are you on Goodreads? Love feminist historical fiction? Do you want to win a copy of WOMAN 99, an Editor's Pick from Library Journal that Publisher's Weekly calls "a riveting tale of loyalty, love and sacrifice"? You know what to do!
If you've been waiting for Susan Gloss's followup to VINTAGE, wait no more! I was lucky enough to read an advance copy, and blurbed it thusly:
“The Curiosities is a stained glass window of a novel: lovely, glowing and precise. Set in a community of artists who are outwardly coming together and inwardly coming apart, Susan Gloss‘s writing brims with insight into grief and joy, love and regret.”
The Virginia Festival of the Book posted this on Instagram & I totally agree! It's a great event, held annually in March in Charlottesville. Any #Littens planning to attend?
This & other new/upcoming #historicalfiction recommended for book clubs by Kate Quinn on BookBub! https://www.bookbub.com/blog/2019/01/25/kate-quinn-books-editorial-blurbs
If you've been waiting for Pam Jenoff's follow-up to THE ORPHAN'S TALE (I know I have!), wait no more! It's out today.
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