FW: December Newsletter

New books, author interviews, find your next great read!

Hi Aalok, Here's our monthly newsletter from Goodreads—giving you the latest and greatest in our quest to connect people through reading! EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS Ruth Ozeki The unlikely intersection of a suicidal Japanese teen and a curious novelist resonates in A Tale for the Time Being, a Goodreads Choice Finalist in Fiction. More Michael Moss Are we addicted to food? The Goodreads Choice Finalist in Best Food & Cookbooks investigates the secrets of the processed food industry in Salt Sugar Fat. More Allie Brosh Absurd but oh-so-true stories are told with expressive drawings in the hilarious Hyperbole and a Half, a Goodreads Choice Winner for Best Humor. More BEST BOOKS OF 2013 Announcing the 2013 Winners! The readers have spoken! We have our winners in 20 categories after three hotly contested rounds and nearly 2 million votes cast! It's time to stack your to-read list with the best books of the year: View the full results to see all the champions and runners-up for Best Fiction, Romance, Memoir, Nonfiction, Mystery, Young Adult Fantasy, and more. See Winners! BOOK LOOK Richard Corman: Madonna NYC 83 View gallery GOOD MINDS SUGGEST Jennifer L. Armentrout's Favorite New Adult Romances Get steamy with these recs from the author of Wait for You, a Goodreads Choice Finalist for Best Romance. More Billy Collins's Favorite Works of Poetry The former poet laureate and Goodreads Choice Best Poetry Finalist for the collection Aimless Love offers his top five. More Susanna Kearsley's Favorite Historical Fantasies Go back to a time when magic was real in these picks from the Goodreads Choice Best Fantasy Finalist for The Firebird. More DEBUT AUTHOR SNAPSHOT James Whitfield Thomson This first-time novelist at age 68 tells the story of love gone wrong in Lies You Wanted to Hear, a novel about a desperate divorced father who kidnaps his own children. More MOVERS & SHAKERS Morning Glory by Sarah Jio (Goodreads Author) Fleeing heartache in New York, Ada moves into a Seattle houseboat where she discovers a trunk belonging to a young bride who disappeared in 1959. She aims to solve this local mystery that her neighbors suspiciously refuse to discuss. More Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir The gentle Tudor queen lived through the blood feud of the War of the Roses and married Henry VII, a man with a lesser claim to the throne than herself. Historian Weir chronicles her quiet influence in this detailed biography. More The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi This Italian noir thriller sets forensic photographer Sandra on a hazardous path as she investigates her husband's death. She meets an amnesiac priest on the hunt for a serial killer and learns of a shadowy Vatican sect. More The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay by Hooman Majd Grandson of an ayatollah and translator to presidents, Majd left Iran as a child. At age 50, with a blond American wife and infant son in tow, he returns to his homeland for a year to experience the eccentricities of modern Iranian life. More The Housemaid's Daughter by Barbara Mutch (Goodreads Author) Across racial boundaries, the complicated friendship between a South African maid and her Irish emigrant mistress is forged and tested over several decades, during and after apartheid, in this sweeping historical novel. More These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner Marooned together on a deserted planet, heiress Lilac and war hero Tarver are the only two survivors of a space-liner crash in this sci-fi thriller for teens. They begin a trek to seek help and outlast harsh conditions. More GOODREADS POETRY CONTEST Want your words to reach millions of people? Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group have partnered to host an ongoing poetry contest. Join the ¡POETRY! group and vote each month to pick a winner from among the finalists. You can also submit a poem for consideration. Here is our December winner! Living Too Long by David Sloan (Goodreads Author) Some nights I feel I've lived too long, when the moon's a squint-eyed mute, oak branches turn into fish bones, and the wind's a whimper. I hobble out to the shed, our old chicken coop. How you'd loved those hens, made the mistake of naming them— Blackie, Maude, the rest. We never figured out how the owl got in, but we learned the cost of attachment. The path I cleared through the woods is overgrown now, so I lean against the maple in the yard. How many more tattered moons will seek me out? You embrace this waning, but I can't find a way to love the less. You said, "Yes, we lose leaves, but we gain sky." I say, "Give me back my legs." Let me scale this tree, turn panther, pounce on an owl under a hatching moon, pillow the night with a fury of feathers Read more poetry With love, The Goodreads Editorial Team Follow on Facebook @goodreads Follow on 2013 Reading Challenge Goodreads Blog We are hiring Software Engineers, Android and iOS Developers, a Systems Engineer, Product Managers, a Senior Financial Analyst, and a Senior Data Engineer. Check out our Jobs Page for more details and to apply. TRIVIA According to Dr. Seuss, what is most likely wrong with the Grinch? His head isn't screwed on just right. His shoes are too tight. His heart is two sizes too small. SPONSORED BOOK FIRST READS: Win prerelease books! Be the first to read new books. Enter a drawing and cross your fingers! More FEATURED AUTHOR GROUPS Anne Lamott Author of Stitches Thursday, December 12 Join discussion Marisha Pessl Author of Night Film Monday, December 16 Join discussion The In Cold Blood Quiz Question 1 of 10: The name of the murdered family is... The Harpers The Clutters The Simpsons The Raymonds SPONSORED BY LISTOPIA When the Snow Is Falling More Browse Listopia NEW BOOKS BY GOODREADS AUTHORS The Pieces We Keep Historical Fiction by Kristina McMorris The Geek's Guide to Dating Humor by Eric Smith Pawn YA Fiction by Aimee Carter SPONSORED BY The #1 best-selling Beautiful Creatures series continues! To unsubscribe from the Goodreads Newsletter, please click here. © 2013 Goodreads Inc 188 Spear Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105