Book Expo - From a Distance - Part 1

It's hard to believe that only two years ago Don and I were trekking all over New York City while I attended Book Expo America at the Javits Center. In our new virtual age, publishers, booksellers, and librarians knocked themselves out to make sure the show went on and I thought it was a resounding success. The editors of Library Journal annually host what's called A Day of Dialog, panel discussions and presentations from publishers and writers geared specifically to librarians, affording us a heads up on the hot new books for fall and winter. I found the all-day presentations even more meaningful than when I've attended in person, the authors more approachable while speaking from their home offices and their responses to questions more intimate and revealing.

I thought I'd share with you just a few of the hundreds of titles that caught my eye so that you can compile a TBR list for when your libraries reopen. From Harper Collins comes a translation of an Italian bestseller by Viola Ardone, "The Children's Train," based upon a true story. Poverty and hunger were so rampant in post World War II Naples that an organization arranged for children to be sent north to live with more prosperous families where they could be fed, clothed and educated. The novel centers around Amerigo, an enterprising seven-year-old who abandons his mother in the south to remain with his adopted family in the north, and the ramifications that his actions have down through the years.

Staying with the ever popular WW II theme, Grove Atlantic was touting a new novel by Canadian writer Carol Windley. "Midnight Train to Prague" opens in 1927 as Natalia Faber and her mother are on a holiday trip to a spa in Hungary. Natalia will meet two people on this trip, the mysterious Dr. Magdalena

Schaeffer whose daughter Anna will hugely influence her later life, and the journalist, Count Miklos Andorjon, who she will eventually marry. Germany's invasion of Russia becomes the catalyst for this story of love and friendship interrupted.  

If you remember the uplifting Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness based on the life story of Chris Gardner, a salesman and inventor who progressed from homelessness to an internship at a prestigious brokerage firm, then you'll be pleased to know that Mr. Gardner is now the owner of his own multimillion dollar company. He looks back at this life and the amazing turns it has taken in "Permission to Dream," a powerful prescription for a successful and satisfying life.

Vikki Warner from Blackstone Publishers gave a heartfelt endorsement of a debut novel from Memphis-born author Edward Farmer. https://www.edwardafarmer.com/ Set in the cotton fields of Greenwood, Mississippi, and inspired by his own family's story, "Pale" introduces Bernice, a single black woman who, for safety, joins her brother as a servant on the Kern plantation where, of course, she will find none. Reviewers have compared Farmer's literary crafting to the luminous prose of the late Ernest Gaines.

And then there's Norton which will be publishing a new, definitive biography of Malcolm X, "The Dead are Arising," from Pulitzer prize-winning international journalist and Newsday editor Les Payne. Payne spent over thirty years

compiling this tome and tragically died in 2018 before it was ready for print. Fortunately his daughter Tamara had been working as his research assistant and was able to complete it. Based upon hundreds of hours of interviews with people who interacted with Malcolm in all his iterations from his Nebraska childhood, to petty criminality, to his religious conversion to the Nation of Islam, this book promises a deeper, more nuanced portrayal of the man.

That's it for today. Next up: new historical and literary fiction for your reading pleasure.