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December 2024 Book Club Giveaway

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International Prize Winner!

SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE

South of the Yangtze by Flora Qian

SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE starts with the protagonist, Qian Yinan, taking the high-speed train through the landscape of Jiangnan (South of the Yangtze River) with her American husband. Now in her mid-thirties, Yinan recalls her first trip along the same route in the late 1980s, as well as her Shanghai childhood with her “historical counter-revolutionary” grandfather, semi-literate grandmother, philosophy professor father and former “red guard” mother.
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Later in school, while receiving a nationalist education and witnessing the booming market economy, she becomes close to Jie, a classmate who aspires to join the Communist Party. And a few months before the new millennium, Yinan finds herself trapped in a secret love affair with her Mandarin-speaking high school teacher, who was once an activist during the political turmoil of 1989.
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In the midst of these formative relationships, Yinan contemplates the impact of the nation’s ideology, tradition and even its written language, and pushes the boundaries of thinking which are restrained by these tools. Later, she decides to write and read in English as much as possible, and eventually leaves her home town. But what is the price to pay when she adopts a new language and a new way of thinking? After the SARS epidemic in 2003, would her reunion with a psychologically troubled Chinese American friend bring Yinan real hope for love, understanding and peace?
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While this thoughtful novel is a meditation on both physical migration and migration between languages, it also provides a moving portrait of China’s only child generation.
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“Told with wonderful precision, insight and vivid detail, South of the Yangtze brings to life a transformative time period through the eyes of a young woman doing her best to navigate the seismic changes in her society and her own coming of age.”—Emily Mitchell, Washington, DC, USA, author of The Last Summer of the World and Viral: Stories.

Purchase Links

IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Opposites attract when an introverted vlogger and a reformed party boy exchange lessons on art, confidence, and yacht rock.

SO INTO YOU

So Into You by Kathleen Fuller

Artist Britt Branch has a successful online channel where she teaches a variety of art lessons. Obsessed with the 1970s, she has a style all her own. But she also has a huge problem–severe social anxiety. She lives with her mom, and while she pays her own bills, she wonders if she’ll ever have the courage to move out and move on. When her best friend announces she’s getting married, Britt decides it’s time to make a change.

Gorgeous Hunter Pickett has always skated by on his model looks, applying very little effort to anything except sports, and even that was iffy at times. The third son of extremely wealthy and successful parents, he dealt with being the black sheep of the family by drinking and using drugs. By his third year of sobriety, he’s still dealing with aimlessness. Late one night he catches Britt’s channel and ends up watching her videos. He’s not interested in art . . . at first. And when he sends her an online message, he’s surprised she responds. Before long they are chatting every day, and once they start meeting in person, a spark-filled friendship begins.

But both of them are keeping secrets. Big ones. When all truths are revealed in one pivotal moment, Britt and Hunter are at a crossroads. Will he fight for the happiness he’s worked so hard to obtain? And will she continue to hide from life, or can she finally step out of her own shadow?

Purchase Links

Thomas Nelson | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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“Emotional, beautiful, wonderful. Debbie Johnson at her finest.” –Milly Johnson, Sunday Times bestselling author

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Statistically Speaking by Debbie Johnson

From Debbie Johnson, the author of the Comfort Food Café series, comes an emotionally rich, laugh-out-loud funny novel about the journey of self-discovery, family reunions, and finding peace with your past. Statistically Speaking is The Amazing Grace Adams meets Bridget Jones.

When Gemma’s anxiety gets the best of her, she opens her sock drawer and starts counting. Lately, she’s been counting a lot of socks.

As a high school history teacher, Gemma Jones loves the certainty of the past–specific names, solid dates, proven statistics. Maybe that’s because her own past resembles a jumbled-up sock drawer, one where it’s impossible to find a match.

On paper, Gemma’s life is just like any other successful, single thirtysomething. Her students adore her. She lives in a cute beachside cottage next door to the world’s sweetest neighbor, Margie. And she’s definitely caught the eye of Karim, the resident hot PE teacher at her school. But every day of her life, she can’t get one thing out of her mind: the baby she gave up for adoption when Gemma was just sixteen years old.

This is the year that Baby–the only name Gemma has for her little girl–will turn eighteen. And it might be the year she actually meets her daughter face-to-face. Or maybe she already has. Katie, a new student who’s moved into the area, shares Gemma’s hair color (bright red) and build (long and lean). And BTW–totally random stat–she also shares the same birthday (October 3) as Baby. And they’re both about to turn eighteen. What are the odds? But Gemma and Katie’s mom are becoming good friends, and Gemma is concerned that their newly minted friendship will unravel fast if Katie is indeed Gemma’s birth daughter.

Gemma doesn’t know if this will be the year she finds Baby. But maybe, just maybe, it will be the year she finds herself–and finds peace with her life–past and present. And maybe that’s what truly counts.

Statistically Speaking by Debbie Johnson is a heartfelt and humorous novel about self-discovery, familial reconciliation, and dealing with one’s past. If you enjoy character-driven stories with a hefty dose of laughter like Bridget Jones or The Good Place, you’ll love this book. Fall in love with Debbie Johnson’s heartwarming novel (previously published in the UK as Forever Yours). Now available for the first time in the US!

“Johnson’s heartwarming latest (published in the UK as Forever Yours) will appeal to fans of Jenny Colgan.” –Booklist

Purchase Links

Harper Muse | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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The true story of a runaway queen and a powerful knight who defy an empire

THE GIRL OF MANY CROWNS

The Girl of Many Crowns by D. H. Morris

The Girl of Many Crowns is the true and inspiring story of Judith, the first princess of France, who is a pawn in a complex political game of chess as her father, King Charles, tries to hold on to his kingdom. King Charles, grandson of Emperor Charlemagne, is beset on every side by Vikings, rebel lords, and greedy neighboring monarchs. He marries 12-year-old Judith to Aethelwulf, the aging King of Wessex, for political advantage. When she is widowed less than two years later, he arranges a second marriage for her. But, when Judith refuses to marry a third time at her father’s command, King Charles imprisons her in one of his palaces.

Baldwin Iron Arm is a powerful knight from Flanders who pledges loyalty to King Charles and his family. As the companion of Judith’s brother, Louis, he fulfills his oath by protecting King Charles’ family from Vikings, rebel lords, wars, and assassination plots. He is conflicted when he must choose between obeying the king and rescuing his daughter Judith from her imprisonment.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Set during World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, family, and loyalty told in in the voices of two women, generations apart, who find themselves connected by a mysterious and valuable bottle of wine stolen by the Nazis.

THE FRENCH WINEMAKER’S DAUGHTER

The French Winemaker’s Daughter by Loretta Ellsworth

1942. Seven-year-old Martine hides in an armoire when the Nazis come to take her father away. Pinned to her dress is a note with her aunt’s address in Paris, and in her arms, a bottle of wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her papa. When they are finally gone, the terrified young girl drops the bottle and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris.

But when Martine arrives in the city, her aunt is nowhere to be found. Without a place to go, the girl wanders the streets and eventually falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot, where Sister Ada finds her and takes her to the abbey, and watches over her.

1990. Charlotte, a commercial airline pilot, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. Successfully bidding on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during the Second World War, Henri gives Charlotte a seemingly inferior bottle he finds inside the box. Cleaning the label, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her on a quest to find the origins of this unusual—and very valuable—bottle of wine, a quest that will take her back fifty years into the past. . . .

A powerful tale of love, war, and family, The French Winemaker’s Daughter is an emotionally resonant tale of two women whose fates are intertwined across time. Loretta Ellsworth’s evocative and poignant page-turner will linger in the heart, and make you think about luck, connection, and the meaning of loyalty.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Please fill out our super short registration form (click the “Enter Now” button above) by December 30th for a chance to win a set of up to ten copies of one of these great books for your book club! We will randomly choose a winner at the end of the month. This giveaway is open to clubs in the US only (our apologies to friends in other countries). 

Best of luck!

We LOVE Book Clubs!