Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Hello 2010!


Goodbye to 2009 and hello 2010! Writers, editors, publishers and booksellers are all skittish about what the future holds for us. Will technology save the industry or be the death of it? With books digitized will people be willing to pay for them or snatch them free like they did with music? We're about to find out.

I'm choosing to focus on what I can control, which is letting people know about good books. And, of course, writing. Working on your next book is always the best medicine to worrying about your current one(s).

In addition, I'm lucky to have something special to look forward to next year. "Sins of the Mother" the TV movie version of my novel Orange Mint and Honey will air on LMN February 21st! Stay tuned for more details (a contest!)

Forgive my little personal commercial break. Back to doing what I do here. I'm also lucky to be able to come to this blog and hear from readers who are hungry for good books! Thank you for all your support last year!

Following are a few of the new books that I've heard about. Many more can be found on APOOO Book Club's site. Remember, pre-orders really help writers! And check the authors' websites for tour dates. They might be in your neck of the woods and you could meet them in person!

January


Searching for Tina Turner by Jacqueline E. Luckett. I'm currently reading the advance copy, and I sure hope this book makes a big splash. All those ladies who rushed out to see "It's Complicated:" you'll love this book too! Want a taste? Here's Chapter 1.

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. This book is getting all kinds of advance pub (watch for it in the February issue of O Magazine!), and for good reason: it's about a resort (which actually existed) where slave-holders took their slave mistresses. Publishers' Weekly says: In her debut, Perkins-Valdez eloquently plunges into a dark period of American history . . . Heart-wrenching, intriguing, original and suspenseful, this novel showcases Perkins-Valdez's ability to bring the unfortunate past to life." If you're on Facebook, join Dolen's fan page


February


The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow. This novel won the Bellwether Prize for "fiction for social change," which Barbara Kingsolver created. I've mentioned this here before, but soon it's out! Have you pre-ordered? DENVER FOLKS: Heidi will be at the Tattered Cover Colfax on March 11!


March


Uptown by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant. These ladies stay on the "ripped from the headlines" tip. Their last book was about a woman laid off from her job. This one is about "money, power and real estate" and I happen to know they had to deal with the crash of the real estate market. DENVER FOLKS: Donna and Virginia will be at Tattered Cover Colfax on March 12!


What Mother Never Told Me by Donna Hill. On Donna's website she calls this, "A story of healing, hope, love and forgiveness" and says "WHAT MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME is a book for every daughter, every mother, every family." News flash about Donna: she's celebrating 20 years of publishing in 2010. That's TWENTY YEARS! Congratulations Donna!

Author J.D. Mason is back with Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It, a story about three women who were friends in high school and meet again at their reunion thirty years later. Promises to be a great story about women's relationships, secrets and lies!

April

The great Pearl Cleage is back with Till You Hear From Me.

May

In May I'll be singing glory, glory because Glorious, Bernice McFadden's latest literary novel will be out! Author Susan Straight calls it "Intense and sweeping."

Not to jump too far ahead, but a couple of friends of the blog have pub dates in 2011 too. Look for The Silver Girl by Tayari Jones from Algonquin Books and Act of Grace by Karen Simpson from Plenary Publishing. Watch here for more about these and other upcoming releases!

Happy New Year everybody!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ok yes! to this list. Maybe I can convince Ev & Chris to follow along and create bookclubs for each one.

February 7th I must mark on my calendar!

(TW, I don't think digitized books will make the content free. At least I hope not. I guess I'm old school.

I still prefer an actual book then the glow of a monitor/Nook/Amazon/Crackberry all that stuff.

I can't get with it. Hell my eyes are getting to the point where I prefer hardback large fonts already.

Pamala Knight said...

Thanks Carleen! I appreciate you keeping us up to date on what's in the pipeline. You do an excellent job of condensing into one succinct blog post, what would take multiple trips through many newspaper and magazine reviews.

susan said...

Love the new look, Carleen. I just a request for OMH and I need to read Searching, too.

I don't have cable. Going to ask my mother or sister to tape it for me.

Shalema said...

Thanks for the the early notice on these interesting books Carleen. I received a B&N giftcard for Christmas and I'm looking forward to putting it to good use. Website looks great by the way.

Shelia G said...

I look forward to all of the books you mentioned. I'm reading Searing for Tina Turner now.