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“PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY on Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show
“This hybrid quest saga, bildungsroman, and grassroots view of Ireland in its post–civil war era is immersive and enjoyable, and it showcases Delaney’s talent for inventive metaphor, which he manipulates with an expert hand.””

“LIBRARY JOURNAL on Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show
“Delaney (Shannon ) is a master storyteller, and this expansive tale of politics, tragedy, and revenge is Irish storytelling at its best. Full of vibrant, well-crafted characters and satisfyingly high drama.”

“She sprang from the womb and waved to the crowd. Then smiled and took a bow.” And so we first meet Venetia Kelly, the beguiling actress at the center of this new, spellbinding, and epic novel by Frank Delaney, the bestselling author of Ireland and Shannon.

January 1932: While Ireland roils in the run-up to the most important national election in the Republic’s short history, Ben MacCarthy and his father watch a vagabond variety revue making a stop in the Irish countryside. After a two-hour kaleidoscope of low comedy, Shakespearean recitations, juggling, tumbling, and other entertainments, Ben’s father, mesmerized by Venetia Kelly, the troupe’s magnetic headliner, makes a fateful decision: to abandon his family and set off on the road with Miss Kelly and her caravan. Ben’s mother, shattered by the desertion, exhorts, “Find him and bring him back,” thereby sending the boy on a Homeric voyage into manhood, a quest that traverses the churning currents of Ireland’s fractious society and splinters the MacCarthy family.

Interweaving historical figures including W. B. Yeats, and a host of unforgettable creations—“King” Kelly, Venetia’s violent, Mephistophelean grandfather; Sarah Kelly, Venetia’s mysterious, amoral mother; and even a truth-telling ventriloquist’s dummy named Blarney—Frank Delaney unfurls a splendid narrative that spans half the world and a tumultuous, eventful decade.

Teeming with intrigue, pathos, and humor, Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show explores two of Ireland’s great national passions: theater and politics. Writing with his signature mastery and lyrical prose, Frank Delaney once again delivers an unforgettable story as big and boisterous as the people and events it chronicles.

About Frank Delaney

Frank Delaney is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels “Ireland,” “Tipperary,” as well as “Simple Courage: The Story of S.S. Flying Enterprise,” which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by the American Library Association. His novel “Shannon” (Random House, March 2009) tells the story of a young and once-brilliant American chaplain, shell-shocked in World War One, who travels in search of his family roots. His next book, “Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show,” will be released February 2010. A former judge of the Booker Prize, Delaney enjoyed a prominent career in BBC broadcasting before becoming a full-time writer. He was born in Tipperary, Ireland, and now lives in New York and Connecticut with his wife, Diane Meier.

For more info on his work, please visit Mr. Delaney’s website.

Frank Delaney’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Tuesday, March 16th: The Literate Housewife Review

Wednesday, March 17th: Luxury Reading

Thursday, March 18th: Tales of a Capricious Reader

Thursday, March 25th: Trish’s Reading Nook

Monday, April 5th: Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-holic

Wednesday, April 7th: My Two Blessings

Thursday, April 15th: Cheryl’s Book Nook

Monday, April 19th: Fizzy Thoughts

Tuesday, April 20th: Rundpinne

Wednesday, April 21st: Worducopia

Thursday, April 22nd: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews

Monday, April 26th: Worducopia

Colum McCann, author of Let The Great World Spin, on tour May 2010

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:17:39 +0000

About Let The Great World Spin

2009 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

About Colum

Colum McCann is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Let the Great World Spin, Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, and Songdogs, as well as two critically acclaimed story collections. His fiction has been published in thirty languages. He has been a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was the inaugural winner of the Ireland Fund of Monaco Literary Award in Memory of Princess Grace. He has been named one of Esquire’s “Best and Brightest,” and his short film Everything in This Country Must was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program. He lives in New York City with his wife and their three children.

Colum McCann’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, May 3rd: Stephanie’s Written Word

Tuesday, May 4th: S. Krishna’s Blog

Wednesday, May 5th: The Literate Housewife Review

Thursday, May 6th: Savvy Verse and Wit

Friday, May 7th: Luxury Reading

Monday, May 10th: She is Too Fond of Books

Tuesday, May 11th: My Friend Amy

Wednesday, May 12th: The Brain Lair

Thursday, May 13th: Diary of an Eccentric

Friday, May 14th: Lit and Life

Monday, May 17th: Book Club Classics

Tuesday, May 18th: Beth Fish Reads

Wednesday, May 19th: Book Chatter

Thursday, May 20th: Evening All Afternoon

Friday, May 21st: Brunette on a Budget

Monday, May 24th: Ready When You Are, CB

Tuesday, May 25th: The New Dork Review of Books

Wednesday, May 26th: Life and Times of a “New” New Yorker

Thursday, May 27th: Nonsuch Book

Friday, May 28th: Caribousmom

Laurie Perry, author of Home is Where the Wine Is, on tour February 2010

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:36:51 +0000

About Home is Where the Wine Is

She’s back. And quirkier than ever. In her debut narrative, Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair, blogger extraordinaire Laurie Perry gave people a hilarious yet heartfelt glimpse into her misadventures as a recent divorcée with three cats, a slight wine and Cheetos problem, and scores of unfinished—and—uneven knitting projects.

Now, in her second installment, Home is Where the Wine Is (February 2010; HCI), Laurie Perry once again shows how all of us can keep reaching for our bliss while finding the happy in every day.

She’s done drunk-dialing her ex, and has moved on to make the best out of the “extra odd bits”—both in knitting and in life. As she searches high and low for enlightenment in Los Angeles, she ventures to the most exotic foreign locations; the gym, a therapist’s office, a self-tanning emporium, and the bikini waxer to the stars.

Whether readers are Laurie Perry fans, knitting veterans, glue-gun novices, dating again, cat lovers, or simply looking for a good read, they’ll find more adventures, eclectic projects, and, of course, more cocktails on Laurie’s quest to make the best out of life in a topsy-turvy world.

As an added bonus, Home is Where the Wine Is also includes more than a dozen knitting recipes with patterns, step-by-step instructions, and photos, including:

* Personal Massager Cozy

* Quick Knit Date-Night Bag

* Felted Wine Bottle Cozy

* Wine Glass Flip-Flop Coaster

* Knitted Swiffer Cover

and more!

About Laurie Perry

Laurie Perry knits and writes in Los Angeles, California, where she chronicles her daily life on her online diary, Crazy Aunt Purl. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, MSN.com, Vogue Knitting, the Boston Herald, and The Palm Beach Post. Perry has written for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Winter Haven News Chief in Winter Haven, Florida. She is the author of Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair.

Follow Laurie on Twitter and check out her blog Crazy Aunt Purl.

Laurie Perry’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, February 1st: She Just Walks Around With It

Tuesday, February 2nd: Jenn’s Bookshelf

Wednesday, February 3rd: She Just Walks Around With It author interview

Wednesday, February 3rd: One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books

Thursday, February 4th: Diary of an Eccentric

Monday, February 8th: Knit and Tonic

Tuesday, February 9th: You’ve GOTTA Read This

Wednesday, February 10th: A Novel Menagerie

Thursday, February 11th: Wendy Knits

Tuesday, February 16th: Luxury Reading

Wednesday, February 17th: Rundpinne

Thursday, February 18th: Knitting Knot

Friday, February 19th: Knit Read Cats Hockey

Monday, February 22nd: Bookfoolery and Babble

Tuesday, February 23rd: Booking Mama

Wednesday, February 24th: Gaysknits…

Thursday, February 25th: Stumbling Over Chaos

Friday, February 26th: Tripping Towards Lucidity

Lisa See, author of Shanghai Girls, on tour January 2010

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:51:20 +0000

About Shanghai Girls

In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.

As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.

At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other, but each knows exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other the most. Along the way they face terrible sacrifices, make impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are–Shanghai girls.

About Lisa

Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.

You can visit Lisa’s website to learn more about her work by clicking HERE.

Lisa See’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, January 4th: Suko’s Notebook

Tuesday, January 5th: The Literate Housewife Review

Wednesday, January 6th: Stephanie’s Written Word

Thursday, January 7th: She is Too Fond of Books

Friday, January 8th: Book Club Classics

Monday, January 11th: Luxury Reading

Tuesday, January 12th: Diary of an Eccentric

Wednesday, January 13th: Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, January 13th: Peeking Between the Pages author guest post

Thursday, January 14th: Caribousmom

Friday, January 15th: The Book Faery Reviews

Friday, January 15th: The Book Faery Reviews author guest post

Friday, January 15th: Savvy Verse & Wit author interview

Monday, January 18th: Booking Mama

Tuesday, January 19th: Booking Mama author guest post

Tuesday, January 19th: Savvy Verse & Wit

Wednesday, January 20th: Dolce Bellezza

Thursday, January 21st: Book, Line, and Sinker

Friday, January 22nd: Word Lily

Monday, January 25th: The Brain Lair

Tuesday, January 26th: A Lifetime of Books

Wednesday, January 27th: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness

Jennie Shortridge, author of When She Flew, on tour December 2009/January 2010

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:34:31 +0000

About Jennie

Bestselling author Jennie Shortridge has four published novels: Riding with the Queen, (NAL 2003), Eating Heaven (2005), Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe (2008), and now When She Flew (2009). Prior to writing novels, her nonfiction work appeared regularly in magazines and newspapers, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Natural Home, and others. The Seattle writer has been called “an accomplished and superior novelist” by the Statesmen Journal and “a writer to watch out for,” by the Rocky Mountain News.

When not writing, she spends time in the community helping kids and adults learn to write better, and has recently co-founded (with fellow Seattle author Garth Stein) a collective of Northwest authors (Seattle7Writers.org) who use their powers for good in the community as well.

About When She Flew

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade (November 3, 2009)

When She Flew, Jennie’s fourth novel, was inspired by true events, and after much research, she let her imagination run wild to create this evocative story of an Iraq war vet raising his daughter in the wild and the single mom/policewoman who breaks all the rules when ordered to separate them, risking everything to help them escape. This story explores the issues of raising children in today’s world, living within the system as opposed to rejecting it, the toll of war on families, and introduces a young heroine raised in the forest who thrives through the worst of circumstances. Publishers Weekly says, “Examining people willing to sidestep the rules in pursuit of a greater good, Shortridge’s fourth novel recalls Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven…”

Learn more about When She Flew on Jennie’s website.

Jennie Shortridge’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Thursday, December 3rd: The 3 R’s Blog: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness

Monday, December 7th: Linus’ Blanket

Tuesday, December 8th: Book, Line, and Sinker

Wednesday, December 9th: Luxury Reading

Thursday, December 10th: The Literate Housewife Review

Monday, December 14th: Book Addiction

Tuesday, December 15th: Hey, Lady! What’cha Readin’?

Wednesday, December 16th: A Novel Menagerie

Thursday, December 17th: Book Club Classics

Tuesday, December 22nd: Dolce Bellezza

Monday, December 28th: Book Chatter

Tuesday, December 29th: Caribousmom

Wednesday, December 30th: Presenting Lenore

Thursday, December 31st: Entertainment Realm

Monday, January 4th: The Brain Lair

Tuesday, January 5th: Redlady’s Reading Room

TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS for Oct. 12th-Oct. 16th

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:40:12 +0000

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

Tuesday, October 13th: Lit and Life

Wednesday, October 14th: One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books

Thursday, October 15th: Jo-Jo Loves to Read!

The Return by Victoria Hislop

Tuesday, October 13th – Bending Bookshelf

Wednesday, October 14th – All About {n}

Thursday, October 15th – The Tome Traveller

In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke

Monday, October 12th – Starting Fresh

Wednesday, October 14th – BookNAround

Thursday, October 15th – Book Club Classics!

Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal

Monday, October 12, 2009: Devourer of Books

Thursday, October 15, 2009: Eclectic Book Lover

Goldengrove by Francine Prose

Tuesday, October 13th: Caribousmom

Wednesday, October 14th: Literate Housewife

Thursday, October 15th: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness

The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl

Tuesday, October 13th: Beth Fish Reads

Wednesday, October 14th: S. Krishna’s Books

Thursday, October 15th: Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Friday, October 16th: Stephanie’s Written Word

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

Monday, October 12th: Red Lady’s Reading Room

Tuesday, October 13th: A High and Hidden Place RESCHEDULED

Wednesday, October 14th: The Well-Read Child

Thursday, October 15th: Diary of an Eccentric

Beth Maloney, author of Saving Sammy: Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD, on tour November 2009

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:34:26 +0000

About Saving Sammy: Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (September 22, 2009)

The summer before entering sixth grade, Sammy, a bright and charming boy who lived on the coast of Maine, suddenly began to exhibit disturbing behavior. He walked and ate with his eyes shut, refused to bathe, burst into fits of rage, slithered against walls, and used his limbs instead of his hands to touch light switches, doorknobs, and faucets.

Sammy’s mother, Beth, already coping with the overwhelming responsibility of raising three sons alone, watched helplessly as her middle child descended into madness. Sammy was soon diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and later with Tourette syndrome. Unwilling to accept the doctors’ prognoses for lifelong mental illness and repeated hospitalizations, Beth fought to uncover what was causing this decline. Racing against time as Sammy slipped further from reality, Beth’s quest took her to the center of the medical community’s raging debate about whether mental illness can be caused by infection. With the battle lines firmly drawn, Beth searched until she found two cutting-edge doctors who answered that question with a definitive yes. Together, they cured Sammy. Five years later, he remains symptom free.

Driven by her desire to help others, Beth Maloney has infused every page of this triumphant journey with heart and passion. An important story, Saving Sammy is part manifesto, part medical mystery, but is at its heart the empowering and inspiring story of a mother’s determination to save her son, take on the medical establishment–and win.