Quick Review: BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT TO DO IS DIRECT by Ken Kwapis (St. Martin’s Griffin)

September 7, 2020May 12, 2021 Civilian Reader Review But What I Really Want to Do is Direct, Hollywood, Ken Kwapis, Macmillan, Memoir, Most Anticipated 2020, Movies, Non-Fiction, St Martin's Press

An interesting blend of memoir and advice for budding directors

For over three decades, director Ken Kwapis has charted a career full of exceptional movies and television, from seminal shows like The Office to beloved films like He’s Just Not That Into You.

He is among the most respected directors in show business, but getting there wasn’t easy. He struggled just like everyone else. With each triumph came the occasional faceplant. Using his background and inside knowledge, But What I Really Want To Do is Direct tackles Hollywood myths through Ken’s highly entertaining experiences. It’s a rollercoaster ride fueled by brawls with the top brass, clashes over budgets, and the passion that makes it all worthwhile.

This humorous and refreshingly personal memoir is filled with inspiring instruction, behind-the-scenes hilarity, and unabashed joy. It’s a celebration of the director’s craft, and what it takes to succeed in show business on your own terms.

In But What I Really Want to Do is Direct, Ken Kwapis draws on decades of experience as a director of television and movies, sharing what he’s learned behind the camera and also some interesting and often amusing experiences and stories. Continue reading →

Upcoming: MAKE ME A CITY by Jonathan Carr (Henry Holt)

July 16, 2018 Civilian Reader Upcoming Chicago, Debut 2019, Fiction, Henry Holt, History, Jonathan Carr, Macmillan, Make Me a City

Chicago is one of my favourite American cities. I was there earlier this month (damn, it was hot), and when I spotted Jonathan Carr‘s Make Me A City on Edelweiss, I put it on my wishlist. A debut novel that “embroiders fact with fiction to tell the story of Chicago’s 19th century”, I think it looks really interesting:

The tale begins with a game of chess — and on the outcome of that game hinges the destiny of a great city. From appalling injustice springs forth the story of Chicago, and the men and women whose resilience, avarice, and altruism combine to generate a moment of unprecedented civic energy.

A variety of irresistible voices deliver the many strands of this novel: those of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, the long-unheralded founder of Chicago; John Stephen Wright, bombastic speculator and booster; and Antje Van Voorhis, the first woman to report for the Chicago Tribune. The stories of loggers, miners, engineers, and educators teem around them and each claim the narrative in turns, sharing their grief as well as their delight.

As the characters, and their ancestors, meet and part, as their possessions pass from hand to hand, the reader realizes that Jonathan Carr commands a grand picture, one that encompasses the heartaches of everyday lives as well as the overarching ideals of what a city and a society can and should be. Make Me a City introduces us to a novelist whose talent and ambition are already fully formed.

Make Me a City is due to be published by Henry Holt, on March 19th, 2019 (it will be available in the UK, too).

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Twitter

Review: THE GUILTY and END GAME by David Baldacci (Grand Central / Macmillan)

January 19, 2018 Civilian Reader Review CIA, Crime, David Baldacci, End Game, Grand Central Publishing, Guilty, Jessica Reel, Macmillan, Mystery, Thriller, Will Robie

The fourth and fifth Robie & Reel novels see a shift in the series style

Will Robie is the government’s most professional, disciplined, and lethal assassin. He infiltrates the most hostile countries in the world, defeats our enemies’ advanced security measures, and eliminates threats before they ever reach our shores.

But now, his skills have left him. Sent overseas on a critical assignment, he fails, unable to pull the trigger. Absent his talents, Robie is a man without a mission, and without a purpose.

To recover what he has lost, Robie must confront what he has tried to forget for over twenty years: his own past.

Will Robie escaped his small Gulf Coast hometown of Cantrell, Mississippi, after high school, severing all personal ties, and never looked back. Not once. Not until the unimaginable occurs. His father, Dan Robie, has been arrested and charged with murder.
Father and son haven’t spoken or seen each other since the day Robie left town. In that time, Dan Robie–a local attorney and pillar of the community – has been elected town judge. Despite this, most of Cantrell is aligned against Dan. His guilt is assumed.

To make matters worse, Dan has refused to do anything to defend himself. When Robie tries to help, his father responds only with anger and defiance. Could Dan really be guilty?

I’m definitely a fan of Baldacci’s novels. After the Camel Club series ended, the author’s novels featuring Will Robie and Jessica Reel quickly became my favourites. However, these last two installments — while enjoyable and engaging thrillers in their own right — didn’t quite rise to the quality I have come to expect from the author. Nevertheless, they are well-written novels, and I was kept entertained and invested in the story. Continue reading →

Quick Review: DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch (Crown/Macmillan)

September 13, 2016 Civilian Reader Review Blake Crouch, Crown Publishing, Dark Matter, Fiction, Literary, Macmillan, Most Anticipated 2016, Must Read 2016, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A gripping multiverse thriller

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. Hiswife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined — one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

There was so much buzz surrounding this book in the lead-up to its publication. So much, in fact, that I started to get nervous. Having now finished the novel, though, it’s very easy to see why so many people have been recommending it: it’s superb. Crouch, author of the Wayward Pines novels, has penned a fantastic sci-fi mystery. Continue reading →

Interview with LAURA LAM

May 25, 2016May 23, 2016 Civilian Reader Interview False Hearts, Laura Lam, Macmillan, Masquerade, Most Anticipated 2016, Pantomime, Shadowplay, Urban Fantasy

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Laura Lam?

I’m a displaced Californian who now lives in Scotland. I moved across the world when I was 21 and started writing books seriously once I got here. Other interests include reading as much as I can, cooking (with occasional disasters), traveling (when I can afford to), and drawing (passably well).

Your next novel, False Hearts, will be published by Macmillan in June. It looks rather intriguing: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Orphan Black meets Inception. Conjoined twins Taema and Tila were raised in a cult in the redwoods outside of San Francisco. When their shared heart begins to fail, they escape and are pressured into being separated and being fitted with mechanical hearts. Ten years later, Tila is accused of murder, and Taema is given an offer she can’t refuse: to impersonate her sister, go deep into the underbelly of San Francisco crime, and try to prove her sister’s innocence to save her life. It’s part of a series of standalone thrillers set in the same world. There’ll be at least two, maybe more. Continue reading →

Quick Review: LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE by Jessica Knoll (Simon & Schuster)

March 28, 2016March 27, 2016 Civilian Reader Review Fiction, Gritlit, Jessica Knoll, Luckiest Girl Alive, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster

An interesting, but flawed novel

Her perfect life is a perfect lie.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that’s bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for — or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

This was an interesting read. The hype surrounding it was considerable, and as far as I could tell everyone was pegging it in the same sub-genre as Gone Girl. Which… isn’t really where it belongs. I read this pretty quickly, and did enjoy reading it. But, given the hype and synopsis, I kept expecting some momentous twist. Which never arrived. While it’s well-written, the novel is flawed, and ultimately didn’t satisfy as much as I’d hoped. Continue reading →

Review: IF I FORGET YOU by Thomas Christopher Greene (Thomas Dunne)

January 23, 2016January 23, 2016 Civilian Reader Review Fiction, If I Forget You, Literary, Macmillan, Must Read 2016, New York, St Martin's Press, Thomas Christopher Greene, Thomas Dunne Books

A beautifully written, engaging novel

Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love.

Told from altering points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair, complete with the secrets they carry when they find each other for the second time.

Thomas Christopher Greene‘s previous novel, The Headmaster’s Wife, was a sleeper hit when it came out. I picked it up shortly after, but haven’t had the chance to read it, yet. I spotted If I Forget You on NetGalley, though, and started reading it as soon as I got a review copy. I had high expectations, and they were mostly met. Greene’s prose is exceptionally good, often lyrical. Continue reading →

New Books (May-June)

June 2, 2015August 23, 2018 Civilian Reader New Books Ace Books, Aidan Levy, Alexandra Petri, Century Books, Chicago Review Press, Christopher Robinson, Corey Taylor, De Capo Press, Doubleday, Douglas Lain, Ernest Cline, GP Putnam's Sons, Harper Collins, Hodder, Jack Campbell, Jessica Knoll, Judy Blume, Knopf, Lincoln Child, Loren Rhoads, Macmillan, Mark Lawrence, Mat Johnson, Matthew Palmer, NAL, Naomi Novik, Nathan Garrison, Neal Stephenson, Nick Brown, Ron Perlman, Scribner, Spiegel & Grau, Stephen King, Titan Books, Voyager Impulse

Featuring: Judy Blume, Nick Brown, Jack Campbell, Lincoln Child, Ernest Cline, Nathan Garrison, Mat Johnson, Stephen King, Jessica Knoll, Douglas Lain, Mark Lawrence, Aidan Levy, Jason Matthews, Naomi Novik, Matthew Palmer, Ron Perlman, Alexandra Petri, Loren Rhoads, Christopher Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Corey Taylor Continue reading →

Review: UNDER GROUND by S.L. Grey (Macmillan)

May 26, 2015May 24, 2015 Civilian Reader Review Louis Greenberg, Macmillan, Most Anticipated 2015, Must Read 2015, Post-Apocalypse, Sarah Lotz, SL Grey, Survival Horror, Suspense, Thriller, Under Ground

A fast-paced, slow-burn thriller

They thought they were safe…

A global outbreak of a virus sends society spinning out of control. But a small group of people have been preparing for a day like this. Grabbing only the essentials, they head to The Sanctum, a luxury self-sustaining underground survival facility where they’ll shut themselves away and wait for the apocalypse to pass.

All the residents have their own motivations for buying into the development. A mix of personalities, they are strangers separated by class and belief, all of them hiding secrets. They have only one thing in common: they will do anything to survive.

The doors close, locked and secured with a combination that only one man knows. It’s the safest place they could be. Nothing could go wrong. They’re ready for anything…

But when a body is discovered, they realize that the greatest threat to their survival may be trapped in The Sanctum with them.

“S.L. Grey” is the critically-acclaimed writing partnership between Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg. I haven’t read their previous novel, The Mall, which received rave reviews. This latest novel is a (perhaps oxymoronically) fast-paced slow-burn thriller. A relatively slim novel (under 300 pages), after the cast are gathered at the Sanctum, things quickly spiral out of control, and all hell breaks loose. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Under Ground, but I knew from past experience with Lotz’s writing that it would at least be very good. I wasn’t disappointed — this is a gripping, briskly-paced novel of psychological suspense and the fragility of social norms. Continue reading →

New Books (April-May)

May 8, 2015August 23, 2018 Civilian Reader New Books Aleksandar Hemon, Bond Street Books, Catie Disabato, Charlaine Harris, Chris Holm, Dan Wells, Duff McKagan, Faber, FSG, GP Putnam's, Grand Central, Harper, Headline, Jason LaPier, Jeffery Deaver, Jenny T. Colgan, Joe Perry, John Sandford, Jonathan Freedland, K.J. Parker, Kate Atkinson, Macmillan, Melville House, Mulholland, Nelson DeMille, Orbit, Quercus, Richard Ford, Robert Charles Wilson, Sabaa Tahir, Sebastien de Castell, SL Grey, Stefan Spjut, Stephanie Saulter, Todd Moss, Tor Books, Voyager

Featuring: Kate Atkinson, Jenny T. Colgan, Sebastien de Castell, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Katie Disabato, Richard Ford, Jonathan Freedland, S.L. Grey, Charlaine Harris, Aleksandar Hemon, Chris Holm, Jason LePier, Duff McKagan, Todd Moss, K.J. Parker, Joe Perry, John Sandford, Stephanie Saulter, Stefan Spjut, Sabaa Tahir, Dan Wells, Robert Charles Wilson Continue reading →