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Publishers Lunch has two new editions in its free Buzz Books series, buzzed about as the first and best place for passionate readers and publishing insiders to discover and sample some of the most acclaimed books of the year, before they are published. Substantial excerpts from 65 of the most anticipated books coming this spring and summer are gathered in two new ebooks, BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Spring/Summer and BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Spring, offered in consumer and trade editions (adult and YA). All are available free through NetGalley.

Book lovers get an early first look at books from actress and activist Maria Bello, \"Morning Joe\" co-host and bestselling author Mika Brzezinski, NPR/Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon, and bestselling fiction writers Dennis Lehane, Ann Packer, Ian Caldwell, and Neal Stephenson, among others. Highly touted debuts include Leslie Parry’s Church of Marvels, Erika Swyler’s The Book of Speculation, J. Ryan Stradal’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest, Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite’s War Of The Encyclopaedists, and Jessica Knoll’s Luckiest Girl Alive. From inside publishing, there’s Jonathan Galassi’s debut novel Muse, and George Hodgman’s memoir Bettyville.

The YA edition features the latest from Sarah Dessen, David Levithan, Barry Lyga, and Michael Buckley, plus renowned middle-grade authors including Newbery winner Rebecca Stead and Louis Sachar. There’s Alice Hoffman’s Nightbird, her first novel for this age range. We also get a first look at YA debut authors Margo Rabb, Maria Dahvana Headley, plus Paige McKenzie’s The Haunting of Sunshine Girl (adapted from the web series of the same name and already in development as a film from the Weinstein Company) and Sabaa Tahir’s debut An Ember In the Ashes (already sold to Paramount Pictures in a major deal).

Fourteen of the adult titles featured in last year’s Buzz Books 2014 were named to one or more major \"Best Books of 2014\" lists, and 18 became bestsellers. Of the 28 books published to date and previewed in the 2014 Fall/Winter edition, 19 have made \"best of the month/year\" lists and nine are New York Times bestsellers.

I reviewed Songs Without Words for the Oregonian. The New York Times says, “Before Ann Packer decided that Brody Mackay, a principal character in “Songs Without Words,” her latest novel, would be a successful Silicon Valley high-tech executive, she had him working at a floundering start-up. Since Brody was also dealing with his teenage daughter’s suicide attempt, members of Ms. Packer’s writers’ group suggested that his professional troubles might be, well, overkill…. For a couple of drafts he was a doctor, but that didn’t work either. Finally Ms. Packer settled on giving him a job at a Wi-Fi security systems developer and juxtaposed its jock-nerd atmosphere against the crisis roiling the family at home.”

Click here to read more about how Ms. Packer made her decisions about characters and plot. [Full disclosure: I envy her two thing: her converted garden shed and her writer’s critique group. Oh, and I guess her sales. And her books.]

What Adrienne Thinks About That reviews The Purple Balloon, by Chris Raschka and addresses one of the hardest things to talk about: untimely death. Adrienne writes, Overall, this has the hallmarks of a book for the youngest children—bold images, simple text, clear type. I think the reader can enter what’s really going on here, though, through the line, “Dying is hard work....” If you have spent

HipWriterMama is one of the many bloggers who has posted the schedule for bloggers highlighting illustrators who have contributed a snowflake to the Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure auction. Robert's Snow is a book by Grace Lin, whose husband Robert lost his life to Ewing's sarcoma. Thanks go out to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for organizing the bloggers to feature the illustrators