Barnes and Noble Announces March Author Store Appearances

Stars Shine at Barnes & Noble in March with Karamo Brown, Kobe Bryant, Harlan Coben, Hoda Kotb, Lisa See, And Many More

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest retail bookseller, announced March 2019’s distinguished lineup of events, featuring bestselling authors, television stars, world-renowned athletes and more. Fans can come to Barnes & Noble throughout March to meet "Queer Eye’s" Karamo Brown, basketball legend Kobe Bryant, thriller writer Harlan Coben, "The Today Show" host Hoda Kotb, and many more.

Below are just some of the events Barnes & Noble is hosting this March. Customers can visit the Barnes & Noble Store Locator to find more great authors and events in their area.

    Laurie Halse Anderson, Shout, Barnes & Noble Woodland Plaza in Tulsa, OK, on March 25 at 7 PM.

    Karamo Brown, Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope, Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City on March 5 at 7 PM; Barnes & Noble The Grove in Los Angeles on March 7 at 7 PM.

    Kobe Bryant, The Wizenard Series: Training Camp, Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City on March 20 at 7 PM.

    Harlan Coben and Anna Quindlen, Run Away, Barnes & Noble Upper West Side in New York City on March 19 at 7 PM; Harlan Coben at Barnes & Noble Paramus in Paramus, NJ, on March 28 at 7 PM.

    Tara Conklin, The Last Romantics: A Novel (Barnes & Noble Book Club Selection), Barnes & Noble Northgate in Seattle, WA, on March 5 at 7 PM.

    Greg Iles, Cemetery Road: A Novel, Barnes & Noble Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, LA, on March 15 at 6 PM; Barnes & Noble Lincoln Park in Dallas, TX, on March 21 at 7 PM.

    Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Barnes & Noble Upper West Side in New York City on March 6 at 7 PM.

    Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Barnes & Noble at The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack, NJ, on March 14 at 7 PM.

    Hoda Kotb, You Are My Happy (Barnes & Noble National Storytime Selection), Barnes & Noble Park Slope in Brooklyn, NY, on March 7 at 6 PM; Barnes & Noble Eastchester in Scarsdale, NY, on March 9 at 11 AM.

    Geddy Lee, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass, Barnes & Noble Corte Madera in Corte Madera, CA, on March 2 at 2 PM.

    Christopher Paolini - Barnes & Noble Author Residency Tour, The Fork, The Witch, and the Worm: Tales From Alagaesia (Volume I: Eragon), Barnes & Noble Gallatin Valley Mall in Bozeman, MT, on March 4 at 5 PM.

    Andrew Rannells, Too Much is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood, Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City on March 12 at 7:30 PM.

    V.E. Schwab and John Scalzi, The Near Witch, Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City on March 19 at 7 PM.

    Lisa See, The Island of Sea Women, Barnes & Noble Thousand Oaks in Thousand Oaks, CA, on March 5 at 7:30 PM.

    Don Winslow, The Border, Barnes & Noble at The Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio, TX, on March 8 at 7 PM.

Barnes & Noble hosts over 100,000 events annually at its stores across the country. Customers should visit the Barnes & Noble Store Locator for a full list and stay tuned for the next announcement of exciting events in April.


About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 630 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store (www.nook.com) features digital books, periodicals and comics, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company's corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers® and Barnes & Noble.com® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat (bnsnaps), and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

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Book Review: MISSISSIPPI BLOOD

MISSISSIPPI BLOOD
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Greg Iles
ISBN: 978-0-06-231115-3; hardcover (March 21, 2017)
704pp, B&W, $28.99 U.S., $35.99 CAN

Mississippi Blood is a 2017 novel written by author Greg Iles.  It is the third novel in Iles' Natchez Burning trilogy, following Natchez Burning (2014) and The Bone Tree (2015).  In this final novel, Penn Cage must bear witness to the trial of the century, as far as the people in and around Natchez, Mississippi, are concerned – the trial of his father, Dr. Tom Cage, for murder.

As Mississippi Blood opens, Penn is still mourning the death of his bride-to-be, Caitlin Masters, but he will have to put his grief on hold.  His father's trial for the recent murder or “mercy killing” of Viola Turner is about to begin.  Viola was the African-American woman who was once one of Dr. Cage's nurses; she was also his lover in the 1960s and bore him a love child.  That child is now an adult, the vengeful Lincoln.  On one side of the trial is Shadrach K. Johnson, the Natchez district attorney who is determined to get a conviction against Dr. Tom Cage in order to settle old score.  On the other side is one of the most famous defense attorneys in Mississippi, the legendary African-American lawyer and courtroom magician, Quentin Avery.

Right from the start, however, Penn realizes that Quentin and his father have concocted some kind of cock-eyed plan in which they seem to let Shadrach score every point he wants with the jury and with the no-nonsense Judge Joe Elder.  Could his father want to be convicted, Penn wonders and worries?  Meanwhile, the last vestiges of the vicious Ku Klux Klan offshoot, the Double Eagles, continue to hover at the edges of this trial.

Penn believes that longtime Double Eagle, Snake Knox, is really behind Viola's murder.  Snake also has a score to settle, as Penn recently killed his nephew, Forrest Knox, the son of the Eagles' founder (the late Frank Knox) and a high-ranking, but corrupt officer in the Louisiana State Police.  Now, the secret histories of two families will be revealed as Penn and Lincoln race towards a final showdown with Snake and his crew.  And even that may not save Dr. Tom Cage from prison.

I wrote in my review of Natchez Burning that it was probably the best 862-page novel that I had ever read.  The Bone Tree is one of the best almost-900-pages-long novel that I have ever read.  So Mississippi Blood is one of the best novels of 700+ pages that I have ever read.

Natchez Burning is a Southern Gothic novel:  violence, racism, sex, blood, family scandal, corrupt cops, and Jim Crow.  The Bone Tree is a Southern-fried crime novel and Deep South historical, complete with drug dealers, corrupt cops, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the mafia, dirty lawyers, dishonest politicians, a hunting lodge, a Texas Ranger, jailbreaks, shocking murders, and a hidden legend in a labyrinthine swamp.

Mississippi Blood is a courtroom drama and a denouement.  Most of the narrative is taken up by Tom Cage's murder trial and the secrets (some decades old) that trial forces into the open.  Greg Iles pulls off something that is difficult in any medium – turn a criminal trial into a thrill-machine that constantly delivers jolts.  Only the television series, “Perry Mason,” of the 1950s and 60s, could make just about every minute of a murder trial hard to ignore.

Seriously, Greg Iles makes the murder trial the centerpiece and bulk of Mississippi Blood.  After the end of the trial, dealing with the leftover racists, particularly Snake Knox, seems like a mere formality.  That is sad because, as long as this novel is (and as long as it took me to read it), I did not want it to end.  You'd think after almost 2500 pages that I would have enough of the Cage family, the Knox family, and Viola Turner (the woman who connects them), but I don't.

Greg Iles is a great American novelist, and with the Natchez Burning trilogy, he has delivered three great American novels set in the great American cauldron that is the part of eastern Louisiana and the part of western Mississippi that is connected by the mighty Mississippi River.  There, stories might end, but they are chapters in a never-ending epic.  Iles' Natchez Burning trilogy is that epic that casts a mighty shadow, and if anyone else attempts an epic set in this region, it will live in that shadow.

If you need another reason to read this fine finale, here it is.  Read Mississippi Blood before the Natchez Burning television series begins.

A
9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: THE BONE TREE (Natchez Burning Series)

THE BONE TREE
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Greg Iles
ISBN: 978-0-06-231113-9; mass market paperback (February 23, 2016)
878pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.50 CAN

The Bone Tree is a novel written by author Greg Iles.  Originally published in hardcover in April 2015, the novel was published in a mass market paperback edition in March 2016 (the edition in which I read this novel).  The Bone Tree is a sequel to Iles' 2014 novel, Natchez Burning, the first novel in the Natchez Burning trilogy.

Like the first novel, The Bone Tree covers a wide variety of genres and sub-genres, including mystery, thriller, suspense, crime, and family and local history.  The Natchez Burning trilogy centers on Mayor Penn Cage (the star of several Iles novels and currently the mayor of Natchez, Mississippi).  Cage has been trying to discover the truth about his father who is accused of murdering a former employee who was also once his lover.  The Bone Tree centers on a legendary killing site that may hold the answers to many mysteries and also the remains of uncounted victims of savage murder.

As The Bone Tree opens, Penn is caught in a terrible and dark maelstrom.  He and his fiance, Caitlin Masters (the editor-in-chief of the Natchez Examiner newspaper), have just escaped certain death at the hands of one of the most evil and vile men in the South, Brody Royal, the architect of some of the most notorious racially motivated murders of the 1960s.  Penn's troubles all started when he tried to clear his elderly father, Dr. Tom Cage, of murder charges.  Tom was accused of allegedly being involved in the “mercy killing” of Viola Turner, the African-American woman who was once one of Dr. Cage's nurses and who was also his lover in the 1960s.

Now, the incidents depicted in Natchez Burning have started a war between Penn Cage and a deadly offshoot of the KKK, the Double Eagles.  The ostensibly leader, Forrest Knox, the son of the Eagles' founder (the late Frank Knox), is a high-ranking officer in the Louisiana State Police, and is poised to take over the LSP.  Tom Cage's alleged crimes and his status as a wanted fugitive have put Knox's plans in jeopardy, and have also forced a spotlight on America's most shameful history.  From New Orleans, to Natchez, to Vidalia and Ferriday, Louisiana, the FBI is digging into the hidden figures and secrets of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs, the Mafia, the unsolved murder of Black men involved in the Civil Rights movement, and more.

It all leads to the Bone Tree, a legendary killing site that holds things and people forgotten and not-so-forgotten.  And some players in this fiery drama won't survive this round.

I wrote in my review of Natchez Burning that it was probably the best 862-page novel that I had ever read.  The Bone Tree is probably the best almost-900-pages-long novel that I have read to date and may ever read.

There is a blurb on the paperback cover of Natchez Burning.  It contains two lines of praise from bestselling author Stephen King.  They declare that Natchez Burning is “Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down.”  One can say the same for The Bone Tree.

In fact, the back cover of The Bone Tree has this quote from a “starred review” by Booklist:  “Absolutely compelling... A beautifully constructed story [and] some extremely fine writing.”  That's all true.  The Bone Tree is the work of a natural born novelist who also works really hard at what he does.  Greg Iles has the prose-writing talent of an artist, and he tells a complicated story with the skill of a superior story craftsman.  Greg Iles is a storytelling technician building prose ziggurats on foundations that can support his monsters-of-rock narratives

But at the end of the day, dear reader, you are wondering if The Bone Tree is a good read for you.  To that I'll say “Yeah!” like rapper-producer Li'l Jon says it.

The Bone Tree, like its predecessor, Natchez Burning is our dark, racist, Jim Crow, segregation, church-bombing, political assassination, and black man-killing past turned into the proverbial must-read, potboiler novel.  The Bone Tree is the second Greg Iles, Southern-fried humdinger that John Grisham wishes he could write.

A
9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: NATCHEZ BURNING

NATCHEZ BURNING
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Greg Iles
ISBN: 978-0-06-231109-2; mass market paperback (March 31, 2015)
880pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.50 CAN

Natchez Burning is a 2014 novel written by author Greg Iles.  It is the first book in Iles' Natchez Burning Trilogy and the fourth book in his “Penn Cage Series.”  Harper recently reprinted Natchez Burning in a mass market paperback edition, after originally publishing the novel in the spring of 2014.

Natchez Burning covers a wide variety of genres and sub-genres, including mystery, thriller, suspense, crime, and family and local history.  The novel centers on Mayor Penn Cage, as he tries to discover the truth about his father who is accused of murdering a former employee.

Natchez Burning opens with former prosecutor, bestselling author, and current mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage, describing his father.  Growing up in the rural Southern hamlet of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn learned everything he knows about honor and duty from his father, Tom Cage, a family doctor beloved by the poor for how he helped and continues to help them.  It is 2005, just months after Hurricane Katrina stuck, and Dr. Cage is accused of murdering Viola Turner, the beautiful nurse with whom he worked in the 1960s.

Penn has been a fighter who has always stood for justice, so he is going to fight for his father, of course.  However, Penn's quest for answers sends him deep into the past—into the turbulent 1960s of Natchez, Mississippi and of Concordia Parish, Louisiana.  Here, Penn discovers a conspiracy of murder, greed, and racial hate that involves a vicious KKK offshoot, the Double Eagles, financed and directed by one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Louisiana.  Determined to save his father, Penn's goes on a journey that spans forty years and discovers that the truth will endanger everyone – black and white and young and old.

I think that Natchez Burning is probably the best 862-page novel that I have ever read.  If, somewhere along the way, I discover a better one, then, it will almost certainly be a work of art and it will certainly leave me astounded.  It won't be easy to top Natchez Burning, although the second book of the trilogy, The Bone Tree, is already out in hardcover.

There is a blurb on the paperback cover of Natchez Burning.  It contains two lines of praise from bestselling author Stephen King that says:  “Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down.”  If you are a fan of King, would you suspect him of lying?  How can you defy him?  Read this book.

Seriously, several times, personal and professional obligations demanded that I stop reading Natchez Burning.  When I could read it, however, I did not want to stop.  Every page is practically a cliffhanger, and many pages offer a cliffhanger, of sorts.  Holding this book is like holding a small package of literary dynamite, and I didn't mind how many times it exploded in my hands and in my face.

Natchez Burning is our dark, racist, Jim Crow, segregation, church-bombing, black man-assassinating past turned into the proverbial must-read, potboiler novel.  This is the Southern-fried humdinger that John Grisham wishes he could write.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux; support me on Patreon.


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.