Book Circle Online: Books

As a teenager, Pamela Ribon would write lengthy love letters to the boys that she had crushes on. In her new book, Notes to Boys, she reexamines these letters and other journal entries to write about her life as a lovelorn teenager. In this edition, host Jeffrey Masters sits down and talks to Pamela Ribon about her new book, Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn't Share in Public. “The real tragedy is that nobody ever pulled me aside to gently inform me that some feelings I should keep inside, that not everybody deserves my truth...or at least so much of my truth.” [...] The post Pamela Ribon | Notes to Boys | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can't reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant. Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with [...] The post California by Edan Lepucki | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

On Season 16 of The Bachelor, Courtney Robertson became one of the biggest villains in the franchise’s history. She infamously broke the rules and partook in an illicit skinny-dip that helped seal her proposal to the season's bachelor, Ben Flajnik. I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain is her side of the story. In the book, Courtney dishes about finding love, her famous exes, and what really happens behind the scenes on. I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends is the first ever book written by a former contestant about the show, and she shares many of the [...] The post Courtney Robertson | I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Dead Stars is Bruce Wagner’s most lavish and remarkable translation yet of the national zeitgeist: post-privacy porn culture, a Kardashianworld of rapid-cycling, disposable narrative where reality-show triumph is the new American narcotic. At age thirteen, Telma is famous as the world’s youngest breast cancer survivor until threatened with obscurity by a four-year-old Canadian who’s just undergone a mastectomy … Reeyonna believes that auditioning for pregnant-teen porn online will help fulfill her dream of befriending Jennifer Lawrence and Kanye West … Biggie, the neurologically impaired adolescent son of a billionaire, spends his days Google Map-searching his mother-who abandoned home and family for a new love [...] The post Dead Stars by Bruce Wagner | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Wally Rudolph's debut novel, Four Corners, follows Frank Bruce as he navigates the often savage corners of the American southwest. This is a love story juxtaposed against the beauty of Wally's language, and the violent members of his past. In this addition, host Jeffrey Masters sits down and talks with Wally Rudolph (pen name of Walter Wong, Sons of Anarchy) about Four Corners. "It was bright and dark - the way it can be in parking lots at night - but I could see Maddie's freckles drowning in a swelling red and tears flooding her cheeks. I wanted to feel right. But all my [...] The post Wally Rudolph | Four Corners | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Like the main characters in their new novel, Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke have been best friends for twenty-five years, surviving high school and college together. After an argument on their twentieth high school reunion, Casey and Rachel, the main characters, wake up in each other’s bodies and are forced to navigate their altered realities. They quickly realize that they don’t know each other or themselves as well as they thought. In this edition, host Jeffrey Masters sits down and talks with Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke about their new book, Your Perfect Life. "My mouth tastes like ass. Rolling over, I grab for [...] The post Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke | Your Perfect Life | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Lauren Miller's novel, Free to Fall, is a romantic thriller that takes place in the near future. In this world, it is understood that to achieve happiness in your life, you must follow every recommendation of an app on your mobile device. It's a life-changing technology called Lux that optimizes every decision, big or small, for the best personal results. Free to Fall explores consequences after the main character, Rory, goes to an elite boarding school and stops following the recommendations of her Lux. In this edition, host Jeffrey Masters sits down and talks with Lauren Miller about her new book, Free to Fall. [...] The post Lauren Miller | Free to Fall | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in ANNIHILATION, the agency is in complete disarray. John Rodrigues (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area [...] The post Authority by Jeff VanderMeer | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Melissa de la Cruz is the best-selling author many books including the Blue Bloods series, The Ashleys, Heart of Dread, How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less, Fresh Off the Boat, Angels on Sunset Boulevard, The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-Inch Heels and Faux Pas, and The Witches of East End, which was recently adapted into a television series on Lifetime. In a world where money can buy access to magic, and magic is power, Melissa's new book, The Ring and The Crown, centers around the lives of Princess Marie-Victoria and her mage, Aelwyn as they come to age in an alternate [...] The post Melissa de la Cruz | The Ring & The Crown | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Dinah Lenney’s book, The Object Parade, is a collection of interconnected essays that examine meaningful objects – her grandfather’s piano, her mother's green earrings, her mole – and the stories that they evoke from her life. In this edition, Jeffrey Masters sits down and talks with Dinah Lenney about her new book, The Object Parade. "It flashed: a pale, round star in the lobe of her ear; a circle of stone shot through with light — not emerald, or chartreuse, or aquamarine — a color like no other." - Dinah Lenney on her Mother's Green Earrings, from The Object Parade Click Here to Download [...] The post Dinah Lenney | The Object Parade |Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Join the Book Circle team as we investigate the he said/she said psychosis of GONE GIRL, Gillian Flynn's bestselling hypnotic thriller (soon to be a major motion picture): "Marriage can be a real killer. One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates [...] The post Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Patricia Storace's novel, The Book of Heaven, asks "What if a woman's point of view were Gods?" The stories and their accompanying proverbs reimagine the lives of familiar women from the old testament including the Queen of Sheba, Job's wife, Abraham's wife, and a polytheistic cook. As The Book of Heaven commences, Eve speaks about what is alleged to have happened in the Garden of Eden, a story she hardly recognizes. She tells her version of events, revealing that the constellations we are accustomed to seeing above conceal heavens with which we have yet to contend. In this edition, host Jeffrey Masters, sits [...] The post Patricia Storace | The Book of Heaven | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Getting Groomed is the first and only wedding planner for gay grooms. It includes sample budgets and a master timeline, and walks a gay couple through every aspect of planning a wedding. In this edition, host Jeffrey Masters, sits down and talks with Jason Mitchell about his new book, Getting Groomed. Click Here to Download the Podcast on iTunes BCO HOST JEFFREY MASTERS WITH JASON MITCHELL Bio: Jason Mitchell is the Wedding Planer at Shiraz Events located in NYC. Prior to joining their team, he served as the Event and Banquet Manager at the members-only Soho House New York where he has designed, planned [...] The post Jason Mitchell | Getting Groomed | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

A Nigerian native who emigrated to the United States at age 11, Alex Owumi’s exploits on the basketball court led him to a successful career as a small college player. Undrafted by the NBA, Owumi pursued his pro basketball dream overseas, eventually signing with Al-Nasr of Libya, a state-run athletic club privately funded by the family of then-Libyan president Muammar Qaddafi.Owumi’s tenure with Al-Nasr was interrupted by the Libyan uprising and resulting civil war. Imprisoned in his Benghazi apartment for more than 2 weeks with no food, phone, Internet, or hope, Owumi wondered whether he would make it out of Libya alive. Despite his [...] The post Qaddaffi’s Point Guard by Alex Owumi | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

In honor of Tax Day, the Book Circle team explores what may be the most ambitious and resonant fiction ever composed on the subject of the IRS and the men and women who serve it... The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even [...] The post The Pale King by David Foster Wallace | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Join Jason Squamata, Pat Janowski, and Kristi Gray Lovato for the Quarter Quell as Book Circle Online CATCHES FIRE. [...] The post Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Mockingjay is the third and final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss has reluctantly joined the rebel army as Mockingjay, a symbol of hope and freedom for the districts. In this edition, hosts Jeffrey Masters, Jason Squamata, and Kira Hesser sit down and discuss Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Bio: In 1991, Suzanne Collins began her professional career writing for children’s television. She worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the [...] The post Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

ANNIHILATION is a bestselling slice of weird fiction that follows a woman we know only as “the biologist” into a lost world of sorts, an expanding eruption of primeval paradise called AREA X, wherein multiple ecosystems are rudely spliced and teeming lifeforms mutate at the speed of eternity. She and her colleagues (a surveyor, an anthropologist, and a sinister psychologist) are the twelfth expedition into the shrieking tropical depths of X, where savage miracles unfold on an hourly basis, where history and memory and identity are as mutable as the terrain and nothing is what it seems. It combines a feverish excess of naturalistic [...] The post Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Chronicling five years of a troubled romance,This Is Between Us offers an intimate view of one couple’s struggle—from the illicit beginnings of sexual obsession to the fragile architecture of a pieced-together family. Full of sweet moments, emotional time bombs, unexpected humor, and blunt sexuality, the daily life of this man and woman, both recently divorced, with children and baggage in tow, emerges in all of its complexity. In this utterly engrossing debut novel, Kevin Sampsell delivers a confessional tale of love between two resilient people who have staked their hearts on each other. Join Jason Squamata, Pat Janowski, Mark Savage, and Kevin Sampsell [...] The post Kevin Sampsell |This is Between Us | Author Interview appeared first on Book Circle Online.

The Fault in Our Stars is the #1 New York Times bestselling novel by John Green. It is now a major motion picture, and follows the story of Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters after the two meet and form an instant connection at a cancer support group. In this edition, hosts Jeffrey Masters, Jillian Leff, and Kylie Hodges sit down and discuss John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars Click Here to Download the Podcast on iTunes Bio [...] The post The Fault in Our Stars by John Green | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.