You are here: Home / Archives for Book Club Announcements

September Book Club Announcement: The Bloodletter’s Daughter by Linda Lafferty

September 13, 2012 12 Comments
The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty

The Bloodletters Daughter by Linda Lafferty

For our second September book club selection, we’re headed to early 17th century for a fictional account of the Bohemian Hapsburg Court in Linda Lafferty’s The Bloodletter’s Daughter (A Novel of Old Bohemia).  Read more and find out how you can win 1 of 5 copies of the book!

Inspired by a real-life murder that threatened to topple the powerful Hapsburg dynasty, the novel follows Marketa, a young woman who can only dream of being a bloodletter. Women were not allowed to become a bloodletter or a doctor, but as her father’s assistant Marketa studied as much as she could.

More about the book:

 Within the glittering Hapsburg court in Prague lurks a darkness that no one dares mention…

In 1606, the city of Prague shines as a golden mecca of art and culture carefully cultivated by Emperor Rudolf II. But the emperor hides an ugly secret: His bastard son, Don Julius, is afflicted with a madness that pushes the young prince to unspeakable depravity. Desperate to stem his son’s growing number of scandals, the emperor exiles Don Julius to a remote corner of Bohemia, where the young man is placed in the care of a bloodletter named Pichler. The bloodletter’s task: cure Don Julius of his madness by purging the vicious humors coursing through his veins.

When Pichler brings his daughter Marketa to assist him, she becomes the object of Don Julius’s frenzied–and dangerous–obsession. To him, she embodies the women pictured in the Coded Book of Wonder, a priceless manuscript from the imperial library that was his only link to sanity. As the prince descends further into the darkness of his mind, his acts become ever more desperate, as Marketa, both frightened and fascinated, can’t stay away.

Are you intrigued? Grab a copy of The Bloodletter’s Daughter (A Novel of Old Bohemia) and join our book club members on September 25 when we discuss the novel.

Want to win your own copy?  We’re giving away FIVE copies of the book (US addresses only).  Just use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Book Club Announcement, Giveaways, Novels Tagged With: , , ,

September Book Club Announcement: January First by

September 2, 2012 1 Comment
January First by Michael Shofield Book Cover

January First by Michael Shofield Book Cover

Can you believe it’s September already? We’re swinging right into fall with our next book club selection, January First by Michael Schofield. In this memoir, readers see firsthand Schofield’s frustration, hopes, and dreams for his daughter.

Michael Schofield’s daughter January is at the mercy of her imaginary friends, except they aren’t the imaginary friends that most young children have; they are hallucinations. And January is caught in the conflict between our world and their world, a place she calls Calalini.  Some of these hallucinations, like “24 Hours,” are friendly and some, like “400 the Cat” and “Wednesday the Rat,” bite and scratch her until she does what they want.  They often tell her to scream at strangers, jump out of buildings, and attack her baby brother.

At six years old, January Schofield, “Janni,” to her family, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, one of the worst mental illnesses known to man.  What’s more, schizophrenia is 20 to 30 times more severe in children than in adults and in January’s case, doctors say, she is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake. Potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her.

The memoir is an intense and gripping read that you won’t be able to put down. Many of our book club members read it in a couple of days. So grab your copy of January First by Michael Schofield. Then come back this Thursday, September 6 and join us as we discuss the book.

Learn more about Michael’s family and Jani on his blog, Jani’s Journey.

See you Thursday!

Filed Under: Book Club Announcement, Memoirs Tagged With: , , , ,

August Book Club: The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy

August 1, 2012 2 Comments
The Bakers Daughter by Sarah McCoy

The Bakers Daughter by Sarah McCoy

We took a book club hiatus for July, but now we’re back to our regularly scheduled program. This month, our book club  members are reading The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy. In this novel we visit Germany during World War II and see the war unfold from a German teen’s perspective.

More about the book:

In 1945, Elsie Schmidt is a naive teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she is for her first kiss. She and her family have been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger.

Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. Reba is perpetually on the run from memories of a turbulent childhood, but she’s been in El Paso long enough to get a full-time job and a fiancé, Riki Chavez. Riki, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, finds comfort in strict rules and regulations, whereas Reba feels that lines are often blurred.

Reba’s latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town. The interview should take a few hours at most, but the owner of Elsie’s German Bakery is no easy subject. Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story. For Elsie, Reba’s questions are a stinging reminder of darker times: her life in Germany during that last bleak year of WWII. And as Elsie, Reba, and Riki’s lives become more intertwined, all are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.

The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy is currently available in hardcover but will be released in paperback on August 14. So grab your copy, in whatever format you prefer, and join our From Left to Write members on August 29 as we discuss the book.

In the mean time check out Sarah McCoy’s website or follow her on Twitter. She loves chatting with her readers and is super nice. Tell her we sent you!

Filed Under: Book Club Announcement, Novels Tagged With: , , ,

June Book Club: Getting Married and Other Mistakes by Barbara Slate

June 18, 2012 1 Comment
Getting Married and Other Mistakes by Barbara Slate

Getting Married and Other Mistakes by Barbara Slate

We’re kicking off our summer reading with our very first graphic novel Getting Married and Other Mistakes by Barbara Slate (Other Press).   A prolific comics artist, Slate takes a raw, yet humorous look at what happens after a surprise divorce.

Here’s the description from the publisher:

Jo, the author’s stand-in protagonist, is a successful wedding photographer (of all things) who has been dumped by her husband and desperately needs to get on with her life. She follows her friends’ advice to get laid, see a shrink, go out more, and live a little. Nothing works. Eventually she realizes that she must stop listening to what everybody else tells her and follow her own voice instead. Jo’s struggle with female guilt and her quest for self-awareness, told in a series of hilarious panels, is the perfect book for any woman needing to take back control of her life, or remembering when she did.

For a peek of the first few pages, head over to the Getting Married and Other Mistakes Facebook page. You can find more of Barbara Slate’s work on her website.

Pour yourself a glass of lemonade, pull up a chair next to the pool and grab Getting Married and Other Mistakes. Then join us on June 28 as From Left to Write members discuss our first graphic novel.

Filed Under: Book Club Announcement, Graphic Novel Tagged With: , ,

June Book Club: Girl Gone by Gillian Flynn

May 31, 2012 Leave a Comment
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

 

It’s not quite June yet, but I can’t wait to share with your our first June book club selection. For June, From Left to Write members are reading Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.  This psychological thriller isn’t just about a possible murder, but examines how well we know our significant others.

For fear of spoilers, here’s the synopsis from the publisher:

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Gone Girl (Crown) by Gillian Flynn will be released on June 5, but pre-order it now. You won’t regret it. Then come back on June 12 as our From Left to Write bloggers discuss the book.  Because it’s going to be awesome. We want to hear your thoughts too.

Filed Under: Book Club Announcement, Suspense Thriller Tagged With: , ,

May Book Club: I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits

April 30, 2012 1 Comment
I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits

For our May book club selection, our members are reading I Am Forbidden, a new novel by Anouk Markovits.  Raised in France in a Satmar home (a sect of Hasidism), Markovits broke from the fold when she was nineteen to avoid an arranged marriage.  I Am Forbidden shows its readers what life in a Hasidic society is life. We then find out what can happen when a young woman decides to live her life differently.

Here’s the synopsis from publisher Hogarth Press, a new imprint from Random House based on the ideals of Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf’s press of the same name:

 Sweeping from the Central European countryside just before World War II to Paris to contemporary Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I Am Forbidden brings to life four generations of one Satmar family.
Opening in 1939 Transylvania, five-year-old Josef witnesses the murder of his family by the Romanian Iron Guard and is rescued by a Gentile maid to be raised as her own son. Five years later, Josef rescues a young girl, Mila, after her parents are killed while running to meet the Rebbe they hoped would save them. Josef helps Mila reach Zalman Stern, a leader in the Satmar community, in whose home Mila is raised as a sister to Zalman’s daughter, Atara. As the two girls mature, Mila’s faith intensifies, while her beloved sister Atara discovers a world of books and learning that she cannot ignore. With the rise of communism in central Europe, the family moves to Paris, to the Marais, where Zalman tries to raise his children apart from the city in which they live.
When the two  girls come of age, Mila marries within the faith, while Atara continues to question fundamentalist doctrine. The different choices the two sisters makes force them apart until a dangerous secret threatens to banish them from the only community they’ve ever known.

Join our bloggers on May 8, when I Am Forbidden is released, as From Left to Write members discuss religion, family, marriage, or any of the themes from Markovits’ novel.

Pre-order your copy of I Am Forbidden. It will be one of the best novels you read this year.

Filed Under: Book Club Announcement, Novels Tagged With: , ,

Submit a Book

Are you an author or publisher? Submit your book for consideration as a From Left to Write book club selection.

Grab a Button

Code to put a From Left to Write Book Club Member button on your blog: <p><a href="http://www.fromlefttowrite.com"><img  src="http://www.fromlefttowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/badge.png"/> </a></p>


To the Top