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The cover has been unveiled for a new edition of Lois Lowry’s autobiography, Looking Back: A Book of Memories. According to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers’ blog post, the original version of Lowry’s book was published back in 1998.

Lowry has become well-known as the two-time Newbery Medal-winning author behind Number the Stars and The Giver. We’ve embedded the full image for the jacket design above—what do you think?

This revised and expanded project features photos and an introduction by Alice Hoffman. The publisher has scheduled the release date for Sept. 6.

Hoffman's novels are storytelling magic. Set on an island in the Caribbean, this beautifully written and engrossing tale of family and forbidden love is an enchanting portrait of a headstrong woman who defies her community to follow her heart. Books mentioned in this post The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman Sale Hardcover $19.59

Describe your latest book. The Marriage of Opposites is a novel about the mother of impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, set on the island of St. Thomas and in Paris. What's the strangest or most interesting job you've ever had? A secretary at a university sex clinic. What was your favorite book as a child? Magic [...]

Martine Murray is the acclaimed Australian writer of The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley, the Henrietta series and, for older readers, How to Make a Bird. Her new book is Molly and Pim and the Millions of Stars (Text Publishing). Molly’s life is set in the real world but her story has fantastical […]

The free digital Publishers Lunch Buzz Books have proven themselves accurate predictors of bestseller and best-of-the-year titles, before they are published. This season Publishers Lunch has gathered substantial excerpts from 54 of the most buzzed-about books scheduled for publication this fall and winter in two exclusive, free new ebooks, BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Fall/Winter and BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter, offered in consumer and trade editions.

Book lovers get an early first look at new books from New York Times bestselling authors Mitch Albom, Geraldine Brooks, Alice Hoffman, and Adriana Trigiani, and popular and critically acclaimed writers Lauren Groff, Janice Y.K. Lee, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Belinda McKeon; columnist and television host Jason Gay’s first book, the \"whip-smart\" fiction debut of Academy Award-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg; an unprecedented look at feminist and legal pioneer Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik’s Notorious RBG; Dick Van Dyke’s memoir Keep Moving; Jesse Itzler on living with a Navy SEAL; and the first novels from essayist Sloane Crosley and award-winning short story writer Claire Vaye Watkins.

Following its highly successful introduction last year, Publishers Lunch again is presenting a stand-alone volume previewing exciting and outstanding material from publishing’s powerhouse sector, young adult and middle-grade novels, in BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter. This edition holds a taste of eagerly awaited books like new work from bestselling and award-winning leaders in the field including James Dashner (The Maze Runner series), Jennifer Donnelly (A Northern Light and Revolution), Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking trilogy), and Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall, Panic); authors best-known for their adult books (Eleanor Herman and Cammie McGovern); and a good number of exciting debuts (Tessa Elwood’s Inherit the Stars, Moïra Fowley-Doyle’s The Accident Season, and Estelle Laure’s This Raging Light, among others). Aaron Hartzler, author of the critically acclaimed YA memoir Rapture Practice, makes his fiction debut with What We Saw. In what appears to becoming a YA trend, four Buzz Books entries are highly graphic or archival-looking in form via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations and more. These include Hannah Moskowitz’s History of Glitter and Blood, a lyrical fantasy with an unusual graphic format.

Of the 24 adult books previewed and published to date in the 2015 Spring/Summer edition, 19 have made \"best of the month/year\" lists and five are New York Times bestsellers.

BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Fall/Winter and BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter are available for free download now on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple’s iBookstore, the Google Play Books store, and Kobo.

  Twig is an only child as far as the townspeople know.  They don't realize that her older brother James lives in the attic, out at Fowler Farm.  Twig's mother returned to the family farm late at night when Twig was small.  The rules were set right then and there.  The Fowlers kept to themselves; made no friends; excepted no visitors.  200 years before, Agnes Early, who lived in abandoned Mourning Dove Cottage, put a curse on all the men in the Fowler family.

The town of Sidwell accepts their own, no matter how strange they behave.  Besides, with a series of small thefts, reports of strange things flying at night and weird graffiti, the townsfolk can't worry about the Fowler women.

Then, one day, Mourning Dove Cottage is no longer abandoned.  Twig finds a friend.  James finds a reason to come out of hiding.  And the Fowler family finds themselves in the spotlight.

The story is compelling.  The characters well-drawn and sympathetic.  The dilemma faced by all the young people in this book is troublesome.  How do they protect James from people who might misunderstand his differences?  How can they break the curse?

I never felt that the book was written for young people.  There was a measured pace - not that things didn't happen quickly enough.  They did.  But the pace seemed better suited to more seasoned readers.  As things became complicated, though, I felt the author explained feelings too much.  I wasn't sure she trusted her audience.  These two things made a stellar book a little less starry.

The story is the kind we fall asleep dreaming of - possibilities, hopes and moonlight.  Enjoy.

Two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig's family. This summer, it's time to break the spell. A magical, enchanting story about a village that believes in fairy tales, a hidden "monster," and the conquering power of love. Books mentioned in this post Nightbird Alice Hoffman Sale Hardcover $11.89

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.

Two ladies have joined the cast for The Dovekeepers adaptation. Deadline reports that Cote de Pablo will portray Shirah and Rachel Brosnahan will portray Yael.

The filmmaking team still has to cast two actors to play the lead protagonists Revka and Aziza. The story takes place in ancient Israel.

Scribner, an imprint at Simon & Schuster, released Alice Hoffman’s novel back in October 2011. CBS plans to air this four-hour TV miniseries in 2015.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In 2010, when Hoffman sent her editor the draft for her historical novel, “The Dovekeepers,” set during the siege of Masada in ancient Israel, she included a photograph by Joyce Tenneson she found while writing the book. The image, of a long-haired woman with a white bird on each shoulder, became the novel’s cover.

This week, Ms. Hoffman’s newest novel, “The Museum of Extraordinary Things,” was published with another cover she proposed. The glowing image is of a creature that appears part-fish, part-fairy, with a long tail, wings and the suggestion of a human torso. Ms. Hoffman found it in a coffee-table book while browsing a New York bookstore. “As soon as I saw it, I thought, this is the photograph I always wished I’d taken,” said Ms. Hoffman, who submitted it along with her draft. (via Wall Street Journal)

Summary of THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS

Mesmerizing and illuminating, Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things is the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century.

Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.

The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.

With its colorful crowds of bootleggers, heiresses, thugs, and idealists, New York itself becomes a riveting character as Hoffman weaves her trademark magic, romance, and masterful storytelling to unite Coralie and Eddie in a sizzling, tender, and moving story of young love in tumultuous times. The Museum of Extraordinary Things is Alice Hoffman at her most spellbinding.

 

What are your thoughts on book cover design? Do they impact your decisions? Do they play into your overall perception of a book?

LightWorkers Media will adapt Alice Hoffman‘s The Dovekeepers for television. The novel tells the story of four women who tend doves during a violent moment in history.

This production company will adapt the book into a televison mini-series. Roma Downey, an actress and owner of the company, will serve as an executive producer. Here’s more from the release:

The mesmerizing story, set in ancient Israel in the year 70 C.E., is the tale of a Jewish settlement of 960 people who have taken a last refuge on the plateau of Masada after escaping the violent Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The Roman Legion now surrounds them in Masada and prepares to brutally invade.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Novelist Alice Hoffman has inked a deal for a middle grade novel. Random House Children’s Books will publish Nightbird in spring 2015.

Tina Wexler at ICM negotiated the deal with Random House Children’s Books publisher Barbara Marcus. Wendy Lamb will edit the book for her Wendy Lamb Books imprint. Hoffman has written 21 novels and eight YA and children’s books. Here’s more from the release:

Nightbird is a work of modern folklore set in the Berkshires, where rumors of a winged beast draw in as much tourism as the town’s famed apple orchards. Twig lives in a remote area of town with her mysterious brother and her mother, baker of irresistible apple pies. A new girl in town might just be Twig’s first true friend, and ally in vanquishing an ancient family curse.

(Author photo by Deborah Feingold)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ray Bradbury died today, but writers around the world are reflecting on this great author’s legacy. William Morrow will publish Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury in July, a tribute to this great science fiction writer.

In a spooky coincidence, Neil Gaiman recorded the audiobook version of his contribution yesterday, “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury.”  The book also includes work by Dave Eggers, Joe Hill, Audrey Niffenegger, Margaret Atwood and Alice Hoffman.

Sam Weller, one of the book’s editors and the author of The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury posted this message: “I’ll never see you again. I’ll never see you again. I’ll never see you again. The problem with death, you once said to me, is that ‘it is so damned permanent.’ I will miss you dear man, mentor, father, friend. I type these words through heavy tears. I thank you for 12 glorious years of life, learning and laughter. You have blessed me and my family beyond measure, and for that, I thank you. I LOVE YOU.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster has launched a book club site on Facebook called “Something to Read About.” The club will open on October 12th with a discussion on Jaycee Dugard‘s memoir, A Stolen Life. Readers can join in from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

Follow this link to browse the site. Here’s more: “This new page is designed to enhance readers experience with books and authors by featuring a variety of activities and events including a spotlight ‘Book-of-the-Month’ title, moderated conversations about favorite books, a listing of authors from all Simon & Schuster’s imprints who are available to call into reading groups, favorite book club selections, and daily updates. Fans of the page will also have direct access to videos, photos, a book-specific discussion forum, and excerpts as well as opportunities to interact with some authors and enter contests for free books.”

October’s book-of-the-month title will be Alice Hoffman‘s The Dovekeepers. Jodi Picoult‘s Sing You Home will follow in November and Kathleen Grissom‘s The Kitchen House in December. The site also has two book club samplers available with excerpts from popular authors including Phillipa Gregory, Chris Cleave and Samuel Park.  What do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Alice Hoffman has inked a deal to publish her next novel with Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint. The Dovekeepers will be released on October 4th.  THE DOVEKEEPERS on October 4, 2011.

Publisher Susan Moldow and editor-in-chief Nan Graham acquired the book. The deal was negotiated by Elaine Markson of the Markson Thoma Literary Agency.  Graham will edit.  Last month, Hoffman (pictured, via) published The Red Garden with Random House’s Crown Books imprint.

Here’s more about the book, from the release: “Set in ancient Israel, THE DOVEKEEPERS richly imagines the Romans’ siege of Masada, one of the most significant events in Jewish history. Five years in the writing, THE DOVEKEEPERS has already been hailed by Toni Morrison as ‘a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.’”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s open season on book critics apparently. On the heels of the Alice Hoffman-Roberta Silman feud, Alain de Botton is upset with the fact that Caleb Crain gave his book, The Pleasures of Sorrow and Work, a bad review. De Botton commented on Crain’s blog:

Caleb, you make it sound on your blog that your review is somehow a sane and fair assessment. In my eyes, and all those who have read it with anything like impartiality, it is a review driven by an almost manic desire to bad-mouth and perversely depreciate anything of value. The accusations you level at me are simply extraordinary. I genuinely hope that you will find yourself on the receiving end of such a daft review some time very soon - so that you can grow up and start to take some responsibility for your work as a reviewer. You have now killed my book in the United States, nothing short of that. So that’s two years of work down the drain in one miserable 900 word review. You present yourself as ‘nice’ in this blog (so much talk about your boyfriend, the dog etc). It’s only fair for your readers (nice people like Joe Linker and trusting souls like PAB) to get a whiff that the truth may be more complex. I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.

Geesh. Hoffman’s remarks pale in comparison but are still pretty bad. Hoffman got a lukewarm review for her new novel, The Story Sisters, in the Boston Globe by critic Roberta Silman. Hoffman on her twitter called Silman a moron and an idiot. She also insulted the Globe and the city of Boston. Hoffman goes on to give out Silman’s email address and phone number. Hoffman apologized and took down her twitter account but was mad at the fact that Sillman, gave away the plot of her novel. Memoirist Diane Joseph said that Hoffman’s apology was pretty passive aggressive.

Mary Elizabeth Williams has great article in Salon about Hoffman and past author-critic feuds. There are some good ones. Stanley Crouch vs. Dale Peck. Caleb Carr vs. Laura Miller. Richard Ford vs. Colson Whitehead and ironically Alice Hoffman was once the in the critic’s place when she gave Richard Ford a bad review for The Sportswriter. Mrs. and Mrs. Ford went out back and shot copies of Hoffman’s book with a gun.

Touché!

{image courtesy of Salon.com}

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Jennifer Weiner’s newest book, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, will be releasing this month. As an author, she must be eagerly anticipating her own reviews surfacing over the next few weeks and months. As a human being with feelings and emotions, she is probably filled with intense fear. Great reviews can boost you up and send your soul soaring. Negative reviews can leave you in a curled-up ball of emotions. Best selling novelist, Alice Hoffman, recently defended her recent release, THE STORY SISTERS, against a negative review that ran in The Boston Globe. The story about Alice’s rantings spread like wildfire across the internet. Jennifer weighs in on Alice’s unfortunate headline-grabbing actions over at The Huffington Post.

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