#read99women: Kathleen Barber

Remember how I mentioned earlier in the #read99women series that the DC writers’ scene is a pretty impressive bunch? Today’s guest is another one of our local bright lights, and if you happen to be in the DC area, you can see her tonight at Kramerbooks launching her brand-new novel FOLLOW ME. (I’d be there myself, except that I’m doing an event for WOMAN 99 a few miles away at One More Page at the same time! But I’m attending in spirit.)

Kathleen Barber’s debut novel TRUTH BE TOLD (originally published as Are You Sleeping) is the inspiration for the Apple TV+ series of the same name, which is produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and stars Octavia Spencer and Aaron Paul. Originally from Galesburg, Illinois, Kathleen is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, and a former attorney. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and son. FOLLOW ME is her second novel.

Kathleen Barber

My to-read list of thrillers written by women has been growing dramatically as our #read99women series rolls on, and today’s recommendation from Kathleen has added one to the very top of that list:

“Layne Fargo’s debut, TEMPER, took my breath away. A slow-burning feminist thriller set in Chicago’s theater scene, it’s a dangerously seductive story about ambition, obsession, and the capacity for violence that bewitched me from the start and kept me in its thrall until long after I turned the final page.”

#read99women: Sarah-Jane Stratford

I’m delighted to introduce today’s #read99women guest, Sarah-Jane Stratford, whose new novel RED LETTER DAYS comes out tomorrow, February 25. It’s been dubbed ‘thoroughly fascinating’ in a starred review by Booklist, and a ‘crisp novel…that delivers on every level’ by Publishers Weekly. I was lucky enough to get an early copy and officially expressed my love for it with this blurb:

“Fairly singing with tension and triumph, Sarah-Jane Stratford's RED LETTER DAYS plunges you directly into the dark days of McCarthyism, as courageous women writers on the blacklist struggled to win back their lives and careers. Stratford weaves fact and fiction into a tale that serves as entertainment, warning, reflection and homage wrapped up in one highly readable package."

Sarah-Jane is the author of RADIO GIRLS, which has been described as a “crackerjack historical novel” (USA Today) and “an intoxicating look inside a world of innovative new media,” (Kirkus). She holds a Masters in history from the University of York and in 2017 was granted a 5-year visa from the Arts Council in Britain. Formerly a resident of both American coasts (not at the same time), she's now living the expat life in London. She enjoys adventuring around town with her boyfriend, knitting, and is a keen board game player.

Sarah-Jane Stratford

Sarah-Jane’s #read99women recommendation is FUN HOME by Alison Bechdel, and you can find her glowing review in its entirety here on BookBub. A snippet to whet your appetite: “You wouldn’t have thought a woman’s memoir of her closeted gay father, whose suicide dovetails with her own coming out, would feel both personal and universal to the average reader, but that’s only part of the joy of this glorious book. It is funny and witty as well as searingly sad….It’s no wonder the book was turned into one of the best modern musicals this theatre-lover could ever hope to see (5 times).” High praise indeed!

#read99women: Leslie Pietrzyk

There are a thousand ways to get to know fellow authors, including workshops and conferences and friends in common and yes, Twitter or Facebook or whatever social network is hot at the moment. And MFA programs, for those who choose to go the route of getting that (usually expensive) degree, offer another set of possibilities. I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths not just with the writers I met in the MFA program at American University, but others who attended that program at different times. It’s an exciting and varied list of accomplished alumni, including today’s guest.

Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of the novel Silver Girl, released in 2018 by Unnamed Press, and called “profound, mesmerizing, and disturbing” in a Publishers Weekly starred review. Her collection of unconventionally linked short stories, This Angel on My Chest, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Kirkus Reviews named it one of the 16 best story collections of the year, Her previous novels are Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and a Day. Short fiction and essays have appeared in Southern Review, Ploughshares, Gettysburg Review, Hudson Review, The Sun, Shenandoah, Arts & Letters, River Styx, Iowa Review, Washingtonian, The Collagist, Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, New England Review, Salon, Washingtonian, Washington Post Magazine, and many others. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and in 2020, her story “Stay There” was awarded a Pushcart Prize. Pietrzyk is a member of the core fiction faculty at the Converse low-residency MFA program and often teaches in the MA Program in Writing at Johns Hopkins University. Raised in Iowa, she now lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Leslie Pietrzyk

Leslie’s recommendation for #read99women is an intriguing and challenging novel, and here’s what she says about it:

“WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver is probably my favorite book to recommend...to the right person! It's dark and intense, a nail-bitingly compulsive read, about a woman whose son commits a Columbine-type school massacre (which the reader discovers right away; no spoilers here!). Eva is conflicted about her son: Does she love him enough, or at all? Is it her fault the boy is so challenging to love? Can he sense her ambiguity? What does it mean that his father is able to love Kevin deeply and without reservation? These tough questions circle and tighten until suddenly it's four in the morning and you're not sleeping until you finish the book. (P.S. The movie doesn't do justice. You must witness Eva's voice for yourself through the letters she writes in this epistolary novel.)”

#read99women: Erika Mailman

We’re officially one-third of the way through the 99 recommendations of #read99women, and the hits just keep coming! Today’s is a modern classic for fans of historical fiction, suspense, and plot machinations that take your breath away.

Today’s guest is Erika Mailman, author of THE WITCH’S TRINITY, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book which Khaled Hosseini called "gripping"; WOMAN OF ILL FAME, which Diana Gabaldon of the OUTLANDER series called, "one of the best books I've read in a long time"; and the award-winning THE MURDERER’S MAID: a Lizzie Borden Novel. She holds an MFA in poetry and has been a Yaddo fellow and Bram Stoker Award finalist. Under the pen name Lynn Carthage, her young adult trilogy includes HAUNTED, BETRAYED and AVENGED.

Erika’s recommendation is FINGERSMITH by Sarah Waters. You can read her full review here, and here’s a teaser that will definitely tempt you to add this intriguing historical novel to your TBR pile: “This book does what all great historical fiction can do: let you feel like you LIVE in another time period, sweating its sweat, breathing its fumes. I loved this book and the incredible plot twists and pure energetic FUN.”

#read99women: Kathryn Craft

If my math is right, we’re almost one-third of the way through our 99 recommendations for #read99women! I picked the number 99, of course, because WOMAN 99 is now out in paperback. But when I was brainstorming titles with my editor and agent, the idea of a woman called by a number instead of a name came up as an abstract idea — we didn’t know at first what the number would or should be. I tried out different combinations until one sounded right, and 99 won out primarily because it’s right on the edge of something — the exact feeling I wanted for a novel about a sane woman in an insane asylum. Certainly there may be a point farther along in this series of recommendations when I may wish I’d called the book WOMAN 33, but so far, so good!

Today’s guest is Kathryn Craft, the award-winning author of two novels from Sourcebooks, THE ART OF FALLING and THE FAR END OF HAPPY. She’s also the author of chapters in AUTHOR IN PROGRESS and THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF NOVEL WRITING from Writers Digest Books. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, Kathryn leads writing workshops and retreats, works as a freelance developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, and blogs at Writers in the Storm and Writer Unboxed. She lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband.

Kathryn Craft

Kathryn’s recommendation is Glendy Vanderah’s debut, WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE STARS. ”This is exactly my kind of book: an intimate cast of quirky characters, each bravely trying to surmount the pain they carry by choosing to face life together. Many great insights infuse this tale, filled with all the wonders that Mother Nature and human nature have to offer.”

Read her full review on BookBub here.

THE ARCTIC FURY cover is here!

I’ve been teasing this reveal for a week, and I won’t make you wait even a sentence longer. Here’s the utterly gorgeous cover for my next historical novel THE ARCTIC FURY, forthcoming from Sourcebooks in December 2020!

And here’s a little summary to whet your appetite:

In early 1853, experienced California Trail guide Virginia Reeve is summoned to Boston by a mysterious benefactor who offers her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: lead a party of 12 women into the wild, hazardous Arctic to search for the lost Franklin Expedition. It's an extraordinary request, but the party is made up of extraordinary women: mountaineers and battlefield nurses, interpreters and journalists, other adventurers. Each brings her own strengths and skills to the expedition--and her own unsettling secrets.

A year and a half later, back in Boston, Virginia is on trial for her life, accompanied by only five survivors. Represented by an incompetent attorney, persecuted by the rich parents of her supposed victim, and desperate to keep her own secrets, Virginia believes her trial is unwinnable. Told in alternating timelines that follow both the sensational murder trial in Boston and the dangerous, deadly progress of the women's expedition into the frozen North, this heart-pounding story will hold readers rapt as a chorus of voices answer the trial's all-consuming question: what happened out there on the ice?

Are you excited? I’m excited.

Click here to mark THE ARCTIC FURY as to-read on Goodreads.

Click here to get your pre-order in!

#read99women: Lori Rader-Day

Did I already mention that there are SO many great books coming out this week? We already talked about Mary Kubica’s THE OTHER MRS. and Sherri L. Smith’s THE BLOSSOM AND THE FIREFLY, and here’s another for the trifecta: Lori Rader-Day’s latest “riveting” (Library Journal) and “harrowing” (Kirkus) thriller, THE LUCKY ONE.

Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar Award-nominated and Anthony Award- and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of UNDER A DARK SKY, THE DAY I DIED, LITTLE PRETTY THINGS, and THE BLACK HOUR. She co-chairs the mystery conference Murder and Mayhem in Chicago and serves as the national president of Sisters in Crime. Her new book is THE LUCKY ONE, set in a true-crime amateur online sleuth community.

Lori Rader-Day

Lori’s recommendation: A BROKEN WOMAN by Dharma Kelleher.

“When I'm writing, I like to read books that are very different from mine,” she says. “I got that chance when I recently read Dharma Kelleher's A BROKEN WOMAN, from her Jinx Ballou series. (I hadn't read the first books in the series, so it stands alone just fine.) Jinx is a bounty hunter at the end of her rope financially, professionally, and emotionally, from a personal loss, when she's asked to help a transgender woman stay *out* of jail, instead of turning her in, where she's likely to get hurt, or worse. Jinx is a trans woman, so she understands the danger, but she's torn between duty, justice, and a justice that some parts of our society can't count on. Jinx kicks all kinds of doors down, which is really satisfying.”

#read99women: Kip Wilson

It’s not uncommon for writers to be occasionally outgoing introverts, and that’s definitely the bucket I’m in, personally. While I need long stretches of solo time, I also love to meet readers (my Events page for the WOMAN 99 paperback is filling up!) and I especially love to meet other authors. Conferences are great places for both, and at last summer’s Historical Novel Society Conference, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on World War II fiction and getting to know several authors doing really cool work in that time period.

One of those really cool authors was today’s guest, Kip Wilson. Her amazing YA novel-in-verse WHITE ROSE, about anti-Nazi political activist Sophie Scholl, received starred reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, Shelf Awareness, and Booklist. WHITE ROSE won the 2017 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children's Book Discovery Award and was a 2019 Winter/Spring Indies Introduce and Spring Indie Next title. Kip holds a Ph.D. in German Literature, was the poetry editor at YARN (Young Adult Review Network) for five years, and wrote her doctoral dissertation about the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. She's lived in Germany, Austria, and Spain, and currently calls Boston home.

Kip Wilson

The book Kip recommends is the latest from Sherri L. Smith (who was also on that World War II panel I mentioned), THE BLOSSOM AND THE FIREFLY, about the relationship between a teenage kamikaze pilot and a young woman he meets on the air base just days before his final mission. Here’s the lead-in to Kip’s recommendation: “Written in gorgeous, lyrical prose, THE BLOSSOM AND THE FIREFLY transports readers to the impending doom hovering over an air base in Japan during the final days of World War II. This little-known slice of history comes alive through the voices of Nadeshiko girl Hana and tokkō pilot Taro, two teenagers whose sense of duty to their country is equal only to their shared feelings of loss as they hover between life and death.”

Click here to read the full review on BookBub.

You can also click here to follow Kip Wilson on BookBub or click here to follow Sherri L. Smith and find out more about their books and other recommendations.

#read99women: Mary Kubica

There are certain writers whose work you just devour, and Mary Kubica is one of those writers for me. I love to write books where the bottom drops out and leaves the reader reeling at least once along the way, so it’s no surprise that I enjoy reading thrillers that do the same, and Mary is a master of the twisty, oh-wow-NOW-I-get-it form.

Her latest thriller, THE OTHER MRS., is out today! And it’s already been optioned by Netflix, which is putting together the film adaptation as we speak. Can’t wait.

Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of THE GOOD GIRL, PRETTY BABY, DON’T YOU CRY, EVERY LAST LIE and WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT. A former high school history teacher, Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children. Her first novel THE GOOD GIRL was an Indie Next pick in August of 2014, received a Strand Critics Nomination for Best First Novel and was a nominee in the Goodreads Choice Awards in Debut Goodreads Author and in Mystery & Thriller for 2014. Mary’s novels have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. She’s been described as “a helluva storyteller,” (Kirkus Reviews) and “a writer of vice-like control,” (Chicago Tribune), and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “thrilling and illuminating” (Los Angeles Times).

Mary Kubica

So what book did Mary choose as her #read99women recommendation? “Uber-prolific writer Sara Shepard’s latest adult thriller, REPUTATION, boasts five female narrators, each as unique and captivating as the next. What starts as an email hack scandal soon turns into murder, in a novel that’s juicy, scandalous and totally twisted. Even better, REPUTATION has one of those picture perfect endings that may leave readers a little choked up – it’s that good. If you’re a fan of smart female characters, jaw-dropping twists and page- turning suspense, check this one out!”

For more on Mary, her novels, and other recommendations, click here.

#read99women: Catherine McKenzie

Please welcome to the blog Catherine McKenzie, a talented and prolific author who also belongs to a select but sizable group: writers who are also lawyers. (There are more than you’d think!)

A graduate of McGill University in History and Law, Catherine practices law in Montreal, where she was born and raised. An avid skier and runner, her novels HIDDEN, SMOKE and I'LL NEVER TELL have all been #1 Amazon bestsellers, and I'LL NEVER TELL was nominated for a Goodreads award in 2019 for best thriller and optioned for a TV show to Paramount TV. Her tenth novel, YOU CAN'T CATCH ME, will be released on June 9, 2020. Visit her online at www.catherinemckenzie.com.

Catherine McKenzie

Catherine’s recommendation for #read99women? THE OTHER MRS. by NYT bestselling thriller author Mary Kubica, which hits shelves tomorrow. She calls it “Mary Kubica's best book since her debut, THE GOOD GIRL.” High praise! Other reasons to read: it’s got “Wonderful atmosphere, amazing writing, a unique premise and pages that turn themselves.”

See Catherine’s recommendation in full on BookBub here.

And tune in tomorrow to see what Mary Kubica chose for her own #read99women recommendation!