July 2012 Newsletter

Hi Goodreads Member,

Here's our monthly newsletter from Goodreads—giving you the latest and greatest in our quest to connect people through reading!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

Emily Giffin

An adopted teen turns up unannounced on her birth mother's doorstep in Where We Belong, the latest novel from the blockbuster author of Something Borrowed.

Chris Cleave

A novel of athletic and emotional extremes, Gold pits two close friends and cyclists against each other as they race for the chance to compete in the 2012 London Olympics.

Jeaniene Frost

Get your blood pumping on July 16 for a live chat about Once Burned, a new paranormal romance starring the infamous vampire Vlad from Frost's Night Huntress universe.

RSVP!

Erin Morgenstern

The fantasy author will answer your questions in a live chat on July 30 about the two dueling magicians who face off and fall in love in her debut novel, The Night Circus.

RSVP!

GOOD MINDS SUGGEST

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Favorite Books About Books

Visit 1950s Barcelona in his new gothic thriller, The Prisoner of Heaven, and try these recs that celebrate storytelling.

Sam Kean's Favorite Science Books for Nonscientists

No need for a lab coat. Enjoy these picks from the science writer behind The Violinist's Thumb, an in-depth look at our genetic code.

Joe Meno's Favorite Books About Artists in Love

The avant-garde meets bohemian passion in these selections from the author of the counterculture romance Office Girl.

Lydia Netzer

With her astronaut husband stranded in space, suburban mom Sunny Mann hides her baldness under a wig and her family's quirks from the neighbors in Shine Shine Shine.

A dark undercurrent runs through this suspenseful novel rich with family secrets, marriages gone wrong, and a shocking murder. On Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s and '60s, five narrators slowly dig up regrets and betrayals.

Alif the Unseen

by G. Willow Wilson (Goodreads Author)

Hacker-for-hire Alif goes on the run from an unnamed Middle Eastern government when the woman he loves gives him a powerful book, The Thousand and One Days. This techno-thriller blends folklore and political intrigue.

The Last Rhinos

by Lawrence Anthony & Graham Spence

Endangered by war and poaching, the northern white rhino could soon go extinct. In this memoir conservationist Anthony describes how he plunged into the Congolese jungle to negotiate with rebels for the animals' protection.

The Long Walk

by Brian Castner (Goodreads Author)

Bomb squad vet Castner came home from Iraq to face a new enemy: the psychological toll of war he dubs "the Crazy." His memoir gives a vivid, comprehensive account of the hazards of both combat and civilian life.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

by Rachel Joyce

With nothing but the clothes on his back, a shy, henpecked husband impulsively walks the length of England to deliver a letter to a dying friend. He hopes his journey will keep her alive in this poignant novel full of cheeky British charm.

Insignia

by S.J. Kincaid (Goodreads Author)

In this futuristic adventure for young adults, corporations are the puppet masters of nations and even clean water is patented. Teen con artist Tom Raines leaves the casino circuit to train in virtual-reality military tech for war.

Youth Speaks

This nationwide nonprofit offers teens educational programs focused on spoken word poetry, including the annual Brave New Voices competition in July!

The Results Are In!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Independent Book Blogger Awards! Voters chose their favorite blogs in four categories.

View winners

NEW FEATURE

New Design for iPhone & iPad!

Check out our fresh new home page for iOS devices! We've made it easier to navigate to the barcode scanner, update your reading progress, read ebooks, and much more. (Never fear, Android users, we continue to improve our Android app, too!)

Get iPhone app

GOODREADS POETRY CONTEST

Want your words to reach 7 million people? Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group have partnered to host an ongoing poetry contest. Join the ¡POETRY! group to vote each month to pick a winner from among the finalists. You can also submit a poem for consideration. Here is our July winner!

Auto Biographies

by Joanne Merriam (Goodreads Author)

I remember my breath making tiny clouds. My hands mittened on the wheel. The crescent moon high up in the clear sky. I remember the mudflats to the horizon, your laugh and your hand on my thigh. I remember fog waiting doglike at the foot of the mountain. A doe we slowed down for, her eyes redefining silver in the highbeams. The open window turning your hair into a bird.

I remember you breaking the dashboard with your fists. My stillness. A hawk on a birch branch. The way the plastic pops back into place. I remember the black ice slide into the median and the twisted axel. A few spooky bits where trees rose up out of flooded, frozen fields. A few grains of snow piled up in corners. Road kill.

I remember saying I loved you, and later saying I didn't anymore. I remember the way the snow skating over the pavement made shapes that faded as we named them. I remember crying. I remember you crying. Our voice, fences in the darkness, and the riverbeds lined with a mess of broken ice.