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Beth

Beth has a weakness for love stories. She reads a wide variety of genres, but her favorites are Romance, Fiction, and Chick Lit. Her first literary loves were Nat from The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre. She works in the Collection Development department. In her spare time, she enjoys baking and reading gossip magazines.

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Beth

Author Carine McCandless to Speak at Arbutus Branch

posted by: December 5, 2014 - 7:00am

Cover art for The Wild TruthIn 1992, 24-year-old Chris McCandless gave away his savings and most of his worldly possessions and embarked on his dream trip, a quest in the Alaskan wilderness. His adventure ended in his tragic death in an abandoned bus just off the Stampede Trail near Denali National Park. Chris’ story was the subject of Jon Krakauer’s bestselling nonfiction book Into the Wild in 1996, and it was later made into a film directed by Sean Penn. Krakauer’s book focused mainly on Chris’ journey and the end of his life, but it left many questions about his past and his motivations unanswered, leading to many widely held misconceptions about Chris.

 

Because of the popularity of Into the Wild, people think that they know Chris’ story, but there’s much more than meets the eye. While Krakauer was researching his book, Chris’ sister Carine McCandless shared more about her family and Chris’ childhood with him, even allowing Krakauer to read some of her brother’s letters relating his feelings about unpleasant details of life in the McCandless home. To protect her parents and half siblings, Carine asked Krakauer not to include the letters in his book. Now, Carine McCandless is revealing those details in The Wild Truth, a book she hopes will allow readers to view her brother’s life and actions through a more accurate lens.

 

Above all things, Chris McCandless valued truth, and Carine’s raw and honest account of their family life builds a much clearer picture of what drove Chris to take his journey. This unforgettable story is my favorite new nonfiction book this fall. The Wild Truth is not just for fans of Into the Wild. It’s also a must-read for readers who are drawn to family memoirs.

 

We are delighted that Carine McCandless will speak about her book and her brother’s legacy at the Arbutus Branch on Saturday, December 6 at 2 p.m. Readers can hear directly from Carine and have the opportunity to ask her questions about The Wild Truth. Find out more information about this event.


 
 

Happy Birthday, Rudolph!

posted by: December 2, 2014 - 7:00am

Cover art for Rudolph the Red-Nosed ReindeerThis year marks three important anniversaries for everyone’s favorite reindeer. In 1939, advertising copywriter Robert L. May wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the request of Chicago’s Montgomery Ward department store. The retailer wanted to use the story in a promotional booklet for its customers. That year, Montgomery Ward distributed over 2 million copies of the booklet featuring the story of Rudolph. A new 75th anniversary edition of May’s original rhyming story was just published with beautiful new illustrations by Antonio Javier Caparo. This oversized book’s rich illustrations make it a great way to share this version of Rudolph’s story.

 

Ten years later, May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks adapted the story into the unforgettable song, and Gene Autry's recording topped the charts in December 1949. From there, Rudolph’s popularity skyrocketed. Then, on December 6, 1964, a new Christmas tradition was born. That night, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first aired on NBC. The stop motion animation TV special narrated by Burl Ives now airs on CBS each year, and watching it has become an annual tradition for many families.

 

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the animated TV special, two new books have been released featuring its familiar plot. Thea Feldman’s retelling of the story combined with Erwin Madrid’s illustrations, which are very similar to the TV special’s art, make Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Classic Story a sure bet for die-hard Rudolph fans. Families with younger children may prefer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Special Edition Pop-up Book. This shorter version of the story with large-scale pop-ups using movie stills to capture memorable scenes from the TV special will become a family favorite.


 
 

Between the Covers with Sonali Dev

posted by: November 12, 2014 - 7:00am

Cover art for A Bollywood AffairSonali Dev’s debut novel A Bollywood Affair is getting a lot of attention from romance readers and authors alike. Mili was married to a boy named Virat when she was only 4 years old, and she never saw him again. Twenty years later, Virat sends his brother Samir to find Mili and to obtain a divorce for him. Samir hides his identity, and as their friendship deepens, a romance develops. But Samir knows that his secret could destroy their blossoming relationship. A Bollywood Affair contains familiar romantic comedy elements that will make it appeal to a wide audience, but it feels like something new and special. Elements of Indian culture permeate the novel, forming a rich backdrop for this sweet love story.

 

Read on to learn more about Dev’s favorite Bollywood films and her experience as a debut novelist.

 

Between the Covers: This is your debut novel, which brings with it a lot of firsts. What has been the most exciting thing about the publishing process? Has anything surprised you?
Sonali DevSonali Dev: The short answer is everything. Everything about this process has been exciting and it has absolutely taken me by surprise. A Bollywood Affair is the book of my heart and, at my most optimistic best, I had hoped to get a traditional publishing deal. Then I had pictured myself working slowly and steadily toward drawing in readers to build an audience. But the reaction I have received has completely blown me away. First, all these huge names in the romance genre got behind my book, including Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Nalini Singh and Kristan Higgins. Then the reviewers embraced it with a passion. Booklist, Library Journal, Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Dear Author, RT Book Reviews and a myriad bloggers and reviewers raved about it. It even made Library Journal’s list of Best Books of 2014. Even though I had experienced firsthand how incredibly generous writers and readers in the romance genre are, as a newbie unpublished writer, I had never expected to see this level of love and acceptance for a book that was so different from the norm.

 

BTC: A Bollywood Affair, then titled The Bollywood Bad Boy, was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart award for best unpublished manuscript in 2013. What did that honor mean to you and your career?
SD: Again, it meant everything and it set everything in motion. To have five anonymous strangers pick this book when they had to have nothing in common (at least on the surface) with my characters or my world gave me an immense amount of confidence in the power of the story. Thanks to that confidence, I was able to send it to authors I admire for endorsements. And to have authors whose word is respected in the industry not only endorse the book but like it enough to advocate for it set it on the path to a dream debut for me in terms of buzz.

 

BTC: Indian culture and Bollywood elements are infused throughout the novel, building a rich backdrop for the story, but at its heart, this is a novel built around the characters’ relationships. As a writer, how do you develop those deep connections between your characters?
SD: Thank you so much for saying that.
This is a really hard question. Because I don’t really set out to develop those connections per say. I just set out to develop characters who are struggling with something. Something big and binding that is seemingly impossible to heal from yet familiar enough that we’ve all struggled with some shade of it, like fear of abandonment or feelings of unworthiness. And then I work on making these struggles tangible and rooted in trauma and childhood events, so they are almost cemented in the fabric of the character’s being. I think the deep connections come when these seemingly insurmountable flaws draw one character to another because their flaws and their strengths somehow interlock to create those deep connections.

 

BTC: Do you have any recommendations for readers who are interested in trying Bollywood films after reading your book?
SD: There are several Indian films made in English for international audiences like Monsoon Wedding, Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice. These are wonderful, authentic films that I recommend for anyone whether or not you’re familiar with Indian culture.

 

If you’re interested in ‘full-on’ Bollywood films in Hindi (with subtitles), Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge, Kal Ho Naa Ho, and Life in A Metro are some of my favorite films and they’re a great place to start.

 

[Several of these films are in BCPL’s collection. A list is available here.]

 

BTC: What are you working on next?
SD: I’m working on the next few books in the Bollywood series. Which isn’t technically a series but more a set of stories in which one of the protagonists works in Bollywood.

 

BTC: What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
SD: I love Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series, and Shield of Winter, which came out earlier this year, I think is the most romantic and magical book in the series yet (which, by the way, is saying something because that series is full of great books).


 
 

Between the Covers with Shelley Coriell

posted by: November 6, 2014 - 6:00am

Cover art for The Buried by Shelley CoriellShelley Coriell continues her Apostles series with The Buried, a thriller built around a deadly game of cat and mouse. “It’s cold. And dark. I can’t breathe.” That’s what prosecutor Grace Courtemanche hears when she answers a call from a young woman who claims to be buried alive. Grace finds help in the form of Theodore “Hatch” Hatcher, her ex-husband and a member of an elite team of FBI agents. As Grace and Hatch try to find the woman at the other end of the call, they soon realize that they are caught at the center of a deadly game, and this is only Round One. Coriell’s Apostles series will appeal to both thriller and romance readers. It’s a perfect read for fans of Catherine Coulter, Tami Hoag and Elizabeth Lowell.

 

Coriell recently answered some questions for Between the Covers readers. Learn more about the maverick FBI agents who make up the Apostles and get her secret recipe for a kale salad that will wow your family this fall.

 

Between the Covers: This series revolves around an elite team of FBI agents nicknamed the Apostles. Tell us a little bit about them.
Shelley Coriell: Led by Parker Lord, a legendary FBI agent now wheelchair bound, the Apostles are an elite group of FBI agents who aren’t afraid to work outside the box and at times outside the law. They take on America’s vilest criminals, using the most powerful weapons known to mankind, the human mind…and heart. They aren’t good at following rules, and every Apostle I’ve met so far has either quit or been fired from the FBI before being personally recruited by Parker for his Special Criminal Investigative Unit. Parker Lord on his team: “Apostles? There’s nothing holy about us. We’re a little maverick and a lot broken, but in the end, we get justice right.”

 

BTC: Each member of the team has a unique area of expertise. How do the characters’ specialties impact your approach to the story? Do you do additional research to get into the right mindset?
SC: Each Apostle’s specialty is at the heart of each story. In The Buried, Agent Hatch Hatcher is a crisis negotiator and master communicator, so his book is very much about connecting with others. The Broken, book one in the Apostles series, features a criminal profiler or “head guy”, so that book is more of a puzzling who-done-it. As an author, I love the variety and scope of story possibilities with such a team.

 

As for research, I enrolled in a thirteen-week citizens’ police academy before writing a single word in the Apostles series and have a retired FBI agent I turn to with agency questions. I read law enforcement textbooks and do online research. After researching online how to make and disarm bombs for book three in the Apostles series, I’m sure I’m on some kind of government watch list.

 

BTC: The Buried opens with a young woman who has been buried alive. You’ve admitted that this is also one of your own fears. What is it about the idea of being buried alive that makes so terrifying? Did writing The Buried help you get over your fear or did it make it worse?
SC: Some people have anxiety dreams about forgetting their locker combinations or showing up for work without any pants. Growing up, I took anxiety dreams to the extreme and had reoccurring nightmares about being buried alive. I was terrified of not being able to breathe, perhaps because when it comes to human needs, air is primal and universal, even more so than food and water when looking at the amount of time we can live while being deprived of each.

 

While I no longer have dreams of being buried alive, this book certainly made me more cognizant of and grateful for the mundane task of breathing. While writing The Buried I woke up one night and was acutely aware of my husband breathing next to me. I remember placing my hand on his chest and feeling his chest rise. It was a surprisingly powerful but peaceful moment for me.

 

BTC: One of my favorite characters in this novel is Allegheny Blue, a very determined elderly hound who Grace frequently claims is “not her dog.” Was he inspired by any real canines in your life?
SC: Both Allegheny Blue and Ida Red were snatched straight from my childhood. My dad, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, raised hounds, and Blue, his 120-pound blue tick hound with paws the size of salad plates was a family favorite. Blue had a beautiful bellow, low and melodic, and I used to sneak him inside the house on cold nights and let him sleep by the fireplace. The bear-grease concoction Grace uses to doctor the pads of Blue’s torn paws is the same ointment my dad made for his dogs.

 

BTC: What’s next for the Apostles?
SC: Evie’s story, The Blind, which comes out in the summer of 2015. Evie Jimenez is the Apostles’ bombs and weapons specialist. She’s fiery, passionate and not afraid of things that go boom. In The Blind Evie travels to the gritty, eclectic Arts District of downtown Los Angeles where she teams up with a buttoned-up billionaire/art philanthropist to track down a serial bomber who uses bombs and live models to create masterful art that lives...and dies.

 

BTC: What is the best book you’ve read recently? What authors are on your personal must-read list?
SC: Jandy Nelson’s young adult novel, I’ll Give You the Sun. It’s the only book I read this year where I ceased being an author studying the craft of writing and simply lost myself in a good story. These days I read a good deal of narrative nonfiction, but in the fiction world, I like most authors named Sarah. Strange but true. I’m a huge fan of Sarah Dunant, Sarah Addison Allen and Sarah Dessen. Beyond the Sarahs, my go-to authors are Alice Hoffman, Lisa Gardner, Elizabeth Wein, Mary Pearson, Jeffery Deaver and Harlan Coben.

 

BTC: You’re a self-proclaimed foodie and a kale aficionado. Do you have a go-to kale dish to convert disbelievers?
SC: Even those with hardened hearts have fallen for my Fall Kale Salad. The secret is massaging raw kale with olive oil before adding the vinaigrette. It mellows the kale, which allows the other flavors to shine. I love serving this dish for the holidays. It’s so colorful and bursting with fall flavors.

 

 

Shelley Coriell's Fall Kale Salad

3-4 side servings

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

  • 2 shallots, chopped

  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped

  • 1 cup dried cranberries

  • 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

  • 2 tsp. honey or agave nectar

  • 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

  • Salt and pepper to taste

  • 1 bunch kale, thinly sliced

  • 1/4 cup roasted and salted pepitas

  • 1/4 cup goat cheese

 

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Heat two tablespoons olive oil and sauté shallots until soft. Add garlic, cranberries, red wine vinegar, honey and lemon juice and heat through.

  2. Put kale into large bowl and massage with remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Add shallot mixture to kale along with pepitas. Top with crumbled goat cheese.

 

 

 


 
 

Inconceivable!

posted by: November 3, 2014 - 6:00am

Cover of As You Wish by Cary ElwesIf you know the name Inigo Montoya, the secret to a nice MLT and never to go against a Sicilian when death is on the line, this book is for you. Cary Elwes takes readers behind the scenes of the cult classic movie The Princess Bride in As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride. Elwes, who played the film’s hero Westley, was a fan of William Goldman’s novel long before he auditioned for the film. When he was approached about the role, he was thrilled. After meeting with Goldman and director Rob Reiner, Elwes was offered the part, and he became part of the 1987 movie which also featured Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Peter Falk, Billy Crystal, Fred Savage, Wallace Shawn and Andre the Giant.

 

Moderately successful in theaters, The Princess Bride wasn’t the blockbuster that the studio hoped it would be. However, when the movie was released on video it truly found its audience. As home video collections became popular, VHS copies of The Princess Bride started selling better than anyone could have expected, and the movie’s popularity took on a life of its own.

 

In As You Wish, Elwes brings fans behind-the-scenes photos and stories told by the film’s cast. Elwes depicts the joy of making this film that has endured and captured the imagination of so many fans. Elwes recently called the book “the quintessential making-of memoir.” As You Wish is a must-read for fans of The Princess Bride, and it will definitely lead to re-watching this beloved movie.


 
 

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