#read99women: Natalia Sylvester

As promised in yesterday’s post, today’s guest is the amazing Natalia Sylvester, whose YA debut RUNNING is coming from Clarion Books/HMH in July! Natalia’s adult novels are beautifully written, smart stories of family bonds and individual longing strained and smothered by outside forces. So I can’t wait to see what she does with the story of a Cuban American teenager forced to privately and publicly reckon with her father’s politics, and her own, when her senator father runs for President.

Born In Lima, Peru, Natalia Sylvester came to the U.S. at age four and grew up in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley In Texas. She received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami and now works as a freelance writer in Texas. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, Latina magazine, McSweeney's Publishing, and the Austin American-Statesman. 

 Natalia’s first novel, CHASING THE SUN, was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad. Her latest novel, EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME, won an International Latino Book Award, the 2018 Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, and was named a Best Book of 2018 by Real Simple magazine.

Natalia Sylvester

Her #read99women recommendation is THE AFFAIRS OF THE FALCÓNS by Melissa Rivero. “It's the story of a Peruvian family living in 1990s New York as undocumented immigrants. Ana, along with her husband and two young children, wants nothing more than a happy, stable life full of opportunities for her family, but no matter how hard she works and how much she sacrifices, things keep getting harder instead of the ‘better’ that the American Dream promises. This is a book about being forced to make decisions in the face of unthinkable options. It's about the power of a mother's sacrifices. What has stayed with me most since I first read it is the compassion and complexity with which Melissa Rivero renders her characters—even and especially when they're imperfect and fallible women. The language is stunning, striking so deeply into the heart of things, that I can still vividly remember and re-experience how I felt reading certain passages. I also highly recommend listening to this book if you're an audio book lover. It's narrated by Frankie Corzo, whose voice is a beautiful balance of strong and tender, just like Ana Falcón.”

#read99women: Margaret Dilloway

I’ve mentioned before how impressed I am by authors who slay in multiple genres, right? Add Margaret Dilloway to the list. I really loved THE CARE AND HANDLING OF ROSES WITH THORNS in particular, and in addition to her gorgeous women’s fiction (perfect for book clubs, by the way) she’s also killing it in the books-for-tweens category, with her newest novel FIVE THINGS ABOUT AVA ANDREWS coming this summer. (And look! You can enter to win an advance copy right here on Goodreads.)

A more official bio: Margaret Dilloway is the author of 8 books for children and adults, including SUMMER OF A THOUSAND PIES,  the award-winning MOMOTARO series and HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE. Her newest book, FIVE THINGS ABOUT AVA ANDREWS (Balzer + Bray) comes out this June, and is about a 6th grader with the invisible disabilities of a heart condition and anxiety, who uses improv to cope, make friends, and become an activist. 

Margaret Dilloway

Margaret’s recommendation is EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU GO HOME by Natalia Sylvester, which she describes as “a beautiful novel that’s a family story and a love story and, most interestingly, a ghost story. In the present, we meet Isabel and Martin newly married—as well as Martin’s dead father, Omar, who disappeared years ago. We then follow Omar and his wife, Martin’s mother, into the past, when they fled into the United States. It’s about immigration and hope and sacrifice and has lyrical prose and rich, complex characters.”

And guess who’s up tomorrow with her own recommendation? Natalia herself! Stay tuned… 

#read99women: E.A. Aymar

Well, I did it again. I’ve been keeping up my spreadsheet more or less, and because lately it’s been less, I missed marking the occasion of the 66th post, i.e. two-thirds of the way through this delightful yet exhausting #read99women exercise. Anyway, yay! A bit more than a month to go, and plenty of great recs yet to come.

So it’s as good a day as any to welcome our second male author as a #read99women guest — here’s E.A. Aymar, thriller writer, book recommender, and highly valued member of the DC-area writing community.

Of E.A. Aymar’s THE UNREPENTANT, Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “gut-wrenching…readers who appreciate depth of character alongside gritty nonstop action will be rewarded.” His past thrillers include the novel-in-stories THE NIGHT OF THE FLOOD (in which he served as co-editor and contributor). He has a monthly column in the Washington Independent Review of Books, and he is the Managing Editor of The Thrill Begins on behalf of the International Thriller Writers; he also serves on the national board of that organization. He was born in Panama and now lives and writes in the D.C./MD/VA triangle. To learn more, visit eaymar.com.

E.A. Aymar

Of his #read99women recommendation, Ed says, “I worried about Tara Laskowski’s debut novel, ONE NIGHT GONE. I’d been a fan of her two collections of short stories – the marvelously-inventive MODERN MANNERS FOR YOUR INNER DEMONS and the gripping, crime-influenced BYSTANDERS – but transitioning from short stories to novels is famously difficult. And, as deeply as I admired her style and prose, I wasn’t sure if either would work for a novel, particularly a crime novel.

There was no need to worry.

ONE NIGHT GONE is a taut, character-driven read, the kind of book that begs to be read slowly, and dries out your pen if you’re the type to underline mesmerizing passages. It’s recently earned nominations for the prestigious Agatha, Lefty, and Mary Higgins Clark awards, and more nods are likely to follow.”

#read99women: Heather Webb

I have many fun Heather Webb stories, but here’s my favorite: when I flew cross-country to Portland, Oregon to attend my first Historical Novel Society Conference, I arrived at the conference hotel around 10 p.m. local time, exhausted and already spent. But at this particular hotel, the hotel bar was located between the front door and the registration desk, and the minute I got inside, I spotted Heather Webb. We hugged and started talking. I ended up not checking in until well after midnight Pacific time.

Totally worth it!

Even if you only know Heather Webb from her novels, you know she’s got a sharp mind, an eye for detail, a way with words, and a lively sense of fun. I knew she’d have a great recommendation for #read99women and her choice does not disappoint.

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of six historical novels. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodreads Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Her latest, Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to over a dozen languages.  

Heather’s pick is the amazing CIRCE by Madeline Miller. “Each sentence is a pearl; a smooth and iridescent beauty that you'd like to hold in your mind. I savored every page.“ Click here to read Heather’s full review.

Click here to follow Heather Webb on BookBub. (You’ll want to do this, trust me.)

#read99women: Matthew Norman

Yesterday we had our first double act, two collaborating authors each making her own recommendation, and today we’ve got another #read99women first: a male author sharing his pick. When I started putting together the idea of #read99women, I figured it made sense to extend invitations regardless of gender. If the books themselves were about or by women, I decided, the gender of the recommender didn’t particularly matter. (That said, you may have noticed the obvious preponderance of women, but if you know—or are—a male author who wants to participate, just drop me a line! We’ll talk.)

Today’s guest Matthew Norman’s latest novel LAST COUPLE STANDING follows a married couple, Jessica and Mitch, as they decide that the best way to minimize their chances of divorce—a plague that has hit their friend group hard—is to open their marriage. Trouble and hilarity both ensue.

Matthew Norman lives with his wife and two daughters in Baltimore, Maryland, and holds an MFA from George Mason University. His newest novel, LAST COUPLE STANDING, is out now.

His first novel, DOMESTIC VIOLETS, was nominated in the Best Humor Category at the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards, and his second novel, WE’RE ALL DAMAGED, was an Amazon bestseller. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @TheNormanNation.

Matthew Norman

Without further ado: Matthew Norman!

“By sheer coincidence, as I write this, it should be MLB’s Opening Day. I’m doing my best to keep things in perspective. The world has bigger problems than a delayed baseball season, right? But, to be honest, the absence of my favorite sport has me down this week. Fortunately, I have Emily Nemens’ THE CACTUS LEAGUE to help me through.  

The book has several storylines and a rich cast of characters, so it’s a tough one to summarize in a single sentence. But, basically, THE CACTUS LEAGUE is about a group of people who are associated with a fictional baseball team during Spring Training, most notably superstar outfielder Jason Goodyear, whose life and career are beginning to come apart at the seams.

 Nemens clearly knows baseball inside and out. She gets the nuances of the game and, more importantly, the passion it instills in its players, coaches, and fans. But, you don’t need to be a baseball fanatic to enjoy this book. You just need to like really, really good fiction. The characters are wonderfully drawn and deeply human, and their storylines intersect in interesting, compelling ways. 

I absolutely loved this book. In fact, I loved it so much that I made myself read slowly—often putting it down when I wanted to keep going. Because, like a dream season, when something is this good, you want it to last.”  

#read99women: Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Eagle-eyed #read99women readers — not sure how many of those there are! — may have noticed that yesterday was the first time since the series started that we didn’t have a new recommendation posted. Partly that was to leave space for the GIRL IN DISGUISE temporary ebook discount (hint hint — there may be other books with a temporary price dip coming soon!) and partly it was because I knew that we’d have two recommendations today, in a #read99women first!

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have been best friends forever and amicably co-writing bestsellers since 2014. They are now the authors of six, soon to be seven, novels, including GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT, THE TWO LILA BENNETTS, and the Amazon Charts bestselling novel THE GOOD WIDOW. Their new novel coming this summer is a dark, heart pounding love story with a magical twist. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE will publish on July 14th, 2020. Pre-order it here.

Also! Hit up their Facebook page for virtual brunches, their new podcast, a mega-huge 43-book giveaway, and more.

Liz & Lisa

And now: two authors, two #read99women recommendations!

Liz recommends Cheryl Strayed’s TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, saying it’s “a masterpiece, and is meant to be savored.” Full review here.

Lisa’s pick is FOREVER IS THE WORST LONG TIME by Camille Pagan, “one of the best books I've read in a very long time.” Here’s the rest of the rave.

#read99women: Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon is a native New Yorker, former actress and history geek. Her book SCANDALOUS WOMEN was released in March 2011 to enthusiastic reviews. Since the book’s release, the book has been sold to Thailand, Korea, and Poland. SCANDALOUS WOMEN was an RT Book Review Non-Fiction Pick for April 2011 and Elizabeth was also named RWA NYC’s Author of the Year. In 2012, she was a featured speaker at the We Move Forward conference on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and participated in Chick History’s yearlong project #HerStory. Elizabeth has been featured in the H2 show How Sex Changed the World, as well as The Travel Channel’s Monumental Mysteries, and the Investigation Discovery show Tabloid. A pop-culture diva, Elizabeth has written for The Royal Representative, Heroes and Heartbreakers, Ever After Romance, and Criminal Element.

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Elizabeth’s #read99women recommendation is Julia Kelly's historical novel THE WHISPERS OF WAR. She says, “World War II is a particular interest of mine, since my dad and uncle fought in the war and I love books that are about female friendships.  THE WHISPERS OF WAR is such a beautiful, heartrending story of three friends who struggle to remain loyal when one of them is threatened with internment by the British Government.  The friendship between Nora, Marie and Hazel just felt so real. I felt like I was there in London in those early months of the war. You will think about this book long after you turn the last page.” 

#read99women: J.T. Ellison

It seems so long ago already, but before we all stopped leaving our houses, I was lucky enough to catch J.T. Ellison’s event at Solid State Books for her new boarding school thriller, GOOD GIRLS LIE. J.T. is always a ray of sunshine and her newest book is getting some of the best reviews of her career, like this starred rave from Publishers Weekly: “A high-tension thriller...Alternating points of view raise the suspense, blurring the lines between what’s true and false...Ellison keeps readers guessing throughout." (I love to guess. Don’t you?)

J.T. Ellison began her career as a presidential appointee in the White House, where a nuclear physicist taught her how to obsess over travel itineraries and make a seriously good pot of Earl Grey, spawning both her love of loose leaf and a desire for control of her own destiny. Jaded by the political climate in D.C., she made her way back to her first love, creative writing. More than 20 novels later, she is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with millions of books in print, and is published in 28 countries and 16 languages. She is also the EMMY-award winning cohost of A WORD ON WORDS, a literary interview television show, and co-wrote the “A Brit in the FBI” series with #1 New York Times bestseller Catherine Coulter. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two small gray minions, known as cats in some cultures. She thinks they’re furry aliens. Visit JT at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more insight into her wicked imagination.

J.T. Ellison

J.T.’s #read99women pick is Laura Benedict’s THE STRANGER INSIDE.

“Nothing excites me more than a talented author making an editorial pivot,” says J.T. “Dark, intelligent, beautifully written.” Read her full review here on BookBub.

(And follow J.T. on BookBub while you’re at it, because she’s always making awesome recommendations!)

#read99women: Alice Stephens

Please welcome to the blog today’s guest, Alice Stephens!

Alice Stephens’ debut novel, FAMOUS ADOPTED PEOPLE, was published in 2018 by Unnamed Press. Her work has appeared in LitHub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Margins, Banana Writers and other publications. She is a contributing editor to Bloom and writes book reviews and a column, Alice in Wordland, for the Washington Independent Review of Books. 

Alice Stephens

Alice’s #read99women pick is Stephanie Allen’s historical novel TONIC AND BALM.

Her rave review: “To discover how our country arrived at this era of climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, measles parties, and a conman in the White House, one only need look back to that unique American phenomenon, the medicine show, which mixed titillating entertainment with sketchy medical advice in order to sell useless balms for illnesses both real and imagined. Stephanie Allen’s fascinating and richly textured novel, TONIC AND BALM, depicts one such troupe, Doc Bell’s Miracles and Mirth Medicine Show, as it travels through Pennsylvania shortly after World War I. The relations in this close-knit community of outcasts are further complicated by racial divisions, as the troupe is comprised of both blacks and whites, including the eponymous Doc Bell, a man of Lincolnesque height who wears a suit of American flags; and the fulcrum of the novel, Antoinette Riddick, AKA Sheba, Queen of the Nile, a sideshow freak put on display for her Elephant Man-like deformity. Stephanie Allen richly renders an America where the marginalized must do everything they can to survive, which often entails exploiting the vulnerable, but also leads to tender displays of mercy, solidarity, and love.”

#read99women: Kristy Cambron

Blurbs are very much on my mind these days, as my forthcoming book THE ARCTIC FURY is out with a few key authors who are reading way-early advance copies in order to decide if they like it enough to blurb. Fingers crossed, right? I always advise first-time authors who aren’t sure about asking strangers to blurb that there is absolutely no harm in asking. I’ve encountered so many new-to-me authors when they or their publishers asked if I’d consider blurbing their books.

That’s how I first became familiar with the work of today’s guest, Kristy Cambron—reading and loving an early copy of her novel THE ILLUSIONIST’S APPRENTICE. (If you enjoyed my debut, THE MAGICIAN’S LIE, definitely take a look at this one!)

KRISTY CAMBRON is a vintage-inspired storyteller writing both award-winning historical fiction, including her bestselling debut THE BUTTERFLY AND THE VIOLIN, and nonfiction, including the Verse Mapping series of Bibles and Bible studies. Her work has been named to Publishers Weekly Religion & Spirituality TOP 10, Library Journal Reviews' Best Books, RT Reviewers' Choice Awards, received 2015 & 2017 INSPY Award nominations, and has been featured at CBN, Lifeway Women, Jesus Calling, Country Woman Magazine, MICI Magazine, Faithwire, (in)Courage, and Bible Gateway.

Kristy holds a degree in Art History/Research Writing and lives in Indiana with her husband and three sons, where she can probably be bribed with a peppermint mocha latte and a good read.

Kristy Cambron

Kristy’s recommendation for #read99women: “I was invited by a publishing colleague to advance read Patti Callahan's BECOMING MRS. LEWIS, the true-to-life love story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis. 

This was as stunning a novel as any I'd ever read. This book became a friend with the turn of each page. Even as I stood in line at the airport for my own season of travels, it gripped me and I couldn't put it down. I later wrote that it was: ‘Intelligent. Witty and charming. BECOMING MRS. LEWIS is a stunning foray into the wilds of faith—from doubt and discovery, to the great adventure of living it out. Patti Callahan’s invitation into Joy and Jack’s love story is as brilliant as the lives they led. I’m left as spellbound as the first time I met Aslan... with these characters now just as dear.’ 

If I've recommended novels by women, for women, in the last few years, this one has been (and still is) on the top of my list.”