Looking for some new biography and memoir books for your library? There are so many new releases this week that you’re bound to find a new favorite. You can pick up new books from Gary Janetti, Carly Simon, Edmund Morris and more. Enjoy your new biography and memoir books. Happy reading!
What can you tell us about your new release, Requiem, Changing Times?
If you ever wanted to escape reality from your living room couch, then this book is for you. Requiem, Changing Times is a novel where fantasy meets reality. This wondrous event is mindboggling and sought after, but only few find it. Clint Holden wasn’t looking for anything except how to go unnoticed in class, talk to girls, get his mother to dump his new stepfather, and play the best practical joke on his sister.
Fantastic creatures from another world, both good and evil, search him out to discover the Requiem. His life, and the lives of all those around him, are changed forever as the fate of both worlds tip on the edge of a knife.
What or who inspired you to become an author?
Oh, my family all the way. I would read the stories from Terry Brooks, Tolkien, Rowlings, C.S. Lewis, Robert Jordan and George Lucas. As I did, I thought there was just something special about them that was missing. I learned there was. They kept at it. Each of these writers wrote and told stories that brought me to different worlds that I wanted to visit.
What's on your top 5 list for the best books you've ever read?
These are not in order, but I liked Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien, Ulysses by James Joyce, the Star Wars trilogy by George Lucas, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
Say you're the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?
I would like to talk with George Lucas. I would ask him how he was able to make his stories come to life despite the challenges he faced.
What's your favorite thing about writing?
Writing is wonderful. The experience of making a new world and changing the rules, placing new characters in a situation where the only boundary is your imagination.
What is a typical day like for you?
Because of my health, I get up and read what is most important to me. I do what I can to help my family and then study for school. I write when everything else is taken care of and spend as much time with the best people in the world that I live with. Then I hit the repeat button.
What scene in Requiem, Changing Times was your favorite to write?
It was when both worlds collided. When magic met reality. When a fifteen-foot tree was discovered growing in a house, an orc smashing through downtown shopping centers, or a dwarf sang a modern song at a school dance. I had the best time when the story would create itself and I couldn’t write fast enough. The characters seemed to tell me the story.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
I believe in God, wife, family, friends, and the Utah Jazz; in the order of their importance. Happy wife, happy life.
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What can you tell us about your new release, The Safe House?
Wow, without giving too much away, The Safe House is my follow up novel to The Adults in the Room. Tim Hall continues to live in his ex-wife’s residents but is now in charge of the Safe House duties. If I say too much more it will spoil the ending for those who may have finished The Adults in the Room.
What books are currently on your nightstand?
Free Women Free Men-Sex Gender Feminism by Camille Paglia.
Below The Line by Meredith Jordan.
Ripper by Isabel Allende.
What advice would you give your teenage self?
What I would say to a young Jeff Mechling would be “Everything that you feel is incredibly important in your life right now, is not important at all so get off your ass and finish college”. I am just afraid that I still would not listen.
If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?
Practicing Yoga. Yoga keeps me centered and relaxed and has made me a better person especially to the other people in my life.
What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?
My wife Kathleen. We are both truly dedicated to taking care of each other. Why does that give me Joy? When you truly discover that you are in love with another person, it transcends everything else that you ever thought was important in a relationship including sex. That is one of the reasons I also laugh when I hear a couple say, “We are working things out in therapy”. At that point, the relationship is over yet the poor couple just does not know it yet. Forgiveness is another very misunderstood emotion. Many people feel that their willingness or capacity for forgiveness is similar to a Presidential Pardon where in reality it is a simple process of letting things go and letting things go starts with the ability to forgive one’s self. It is very difficult to forgive another when one cannot forgive themselves.
What scene in The Safe House was your favorite to write?
I just love writing about Florida and the Florida Everglades. The Everglades are truly one of the last unconquered lands in the United States. I used to love how the late author John D McDonald used to editorialize about the Florida environment in his Travis McGee novels and wish I was able to write the same why.
Jeffrey Mechling is the author of the new book The Safe House.
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What can you tell us about your new release, The Angel of Evil?
The Angel of Evil is book 4 in The Great Devil War series. The series begins with “The Devil’s Apprentice”, in which Philip – a good boy – accidentally gets sent to Hell to become the Devil’s heir. The Devil, Lucifer, is dying and desperately in need of a successor, but there’s been a mistake and Philip is the wrong boy. Philip is terrible at being bad, but Lucifer has no other choice than to begin the difficult task of training him in the ways of evil. Even though the story (mostly) takes place in Hell, it’s also a humorous tale about good and evil seen from a different perspective. The story of Philip’s adventures in Hell continues in book 2 and 3 – “The Die of Death” and “The Wrongful Death” - where the reader also gets to visit Death’s domain, Paradise, Hades, and other underworlds. In book 4 – “The Angel of Evil” – the Great Devil War finally breaks out. This is where all hell breaks loose...
What books are currently on your nightstand?
I just finished “The Institute” by Stephen King. I’m a huge King fan and I always look forward to finding out what he’s up to this time. I’m also a big fan of his son Joe Hill and his new short story collection “Full Throttle” is my next read as well as book 2 in Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy.
What advice would you give your teenage self?
Don’t think I would give any. Everyone knows that messing with time is a dangerous thing (I’ve even written a book about it, which will come out next year) and I wouldn’t want to risk screwing things up, risking not meeting my wife or something like that. The butterfly effect, no thanks.
If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?
Though I read every day, I would like to read more. There are so many good books out there, that deserves to be read.
What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?
My day job and my evening job: Writing and spending time with my family. Don’t need anything else.
What scene in The Angel of Evil was your favorite to write?
There is a scene where Philip – and the reader - witnesses what happened the time Lucifer declared war on God. Why he did it and what the consequences were. I like the scene a lot and when I wrote it, it felt like I was there, too. It would be a great scene for a movie.
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What can you tell us about your new release, Lee's Lesson?
Lee’s Lesson is the fourth full novel in the Ditch Lane Diaries.
Ruby’s Choice, Anna’s Way, and Sandy’s Story is a mystical tale about three best friends. They go spelunking in a cave and leave with gemstones that trigger supernatural powers.
Lee is Ruby’s mother.
It is only with Lee’s Lesson that the reader understands there is a much larger storyline afoot.
The prologue picks up an epic battle scene from Sandy’s Story. It is this scene that becomes the catalyst to the novel.
The first chapter sets up Sacred Heights Sanatorium, a place Luc and The Army of the Fallen control. Lee’s mother, Jenny, undergoes treatment for debilitating migraines at the facility. While her father signs Jenny’s release papers, Lee finds herself on the fourth floor, which is also a portal to hell. She runs into Luc whom she thinks is a physician. That meeting releases a sequence of events that will test her powers and threatens her soul.
On the day of her college graduation, Lee meets Erinelle, a warrior angel and her guardian. She reveals that Lee has extraordinary powers designed by The Creator to be a lethal weapon. Lee is dumbfounded. She has no clue who and what she was before the rebellion, before Luc, along with one-third of heaven’s angels, were thrown out of heaven.
Lee must train, and her powers must be realized to save someone she loves before Luc consumes their soul.
Side note. The reason I used a sanatorium: my mom in the mid-fifties was hospitalized after her mother died. She was also suffering from postpartum depression. In those days, they use ECT without sedation. It created lifelong nightmares for her, and I think may have contributed to her memory loss later in life. I did loads of research, and my findings would curl your toes.
What or who inspired you to become an author?
I have a long line of storytellers in my family. My father was a master weaver. He inspired me to write.
The storytelling bug hit me in the fifth grade during an oral book report of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. I turned out the lights and relayed the story to my classmates using a flashlight and sound effects. I scared them to death. I wrote my first screenplay in middle school, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Tennessee is rich with folklore and storytellers.
After I graduated college, I landed a job at the ABC Affiliate in Nashville as a Broadcast Consultant, and from there I opened Jones Media. I love to create. In late 2014, I decided to downsize my agency to care for my parents. The day I resigned my largest client, I wrote the first page of Ruby’s Choice, and I fell in love with writing.
What's on your top 5 list for the best books you've ever read?
The Bible (The Book of Enoch recently blew my mind)
Outlander (series)
Harry Potter (series)
The Hunger Games (series)
All Souls Trilogy
Interview with a Vampire
Say you're the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?
Diana Gabaldon. What’s your favorite curse word? Ha! Okay, it’s a literary talk show. How do you develop character names?
What is a typical day like for you?
My husband and I own a family business, rental property, and we recently bought my parents farm that’s been in the family since 1802 situated on a ridge in the country. Which coincidentally is similar to the one in the Ditch Lane Diaries. After marking off my list of to-do’s, I come home and write for a couple hours, after hubs goes to sleep, I may write several hours. I am a night owl. I love to write in total silence while I develop a project. I may jam to music during the editing process. I will never live long enough to develop all of the concepts and ideas in my imaginative brain.
What's your favorite thing about writing?
Worldbuilding. It takes me to places that sometimes I wonder how I got there and how I returned, intact.
What scene in Lee's Lesson was your favorite to write?
Writing Lee’s Lesson took an emotional toll on me, yet the most fulfilling. My parents passed away last year within six months of each other. It’s not been quite a year since my dad died. Lee’s Lesson is a tribute to them. Lee and Harry have some of my parents' traits. The best scene was the hardest to write, the last one.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
May love light the way. It is a salutation the angels say when greeting or departing. I use it frequently.
D.F. Jones is the author of the new book Lee's Lesson.
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What can you tell us about your new release, 4 Days?
4 Days is set in Los Angeles and is about a serial killer that comes back for more after years of supposedly being dormant—but was he? John Testarossa and partner Alex Ortiz investigate the murder of a young woman, and the circumstances make no sense. As more young women turn up, the one thing it appears they have in common was that, as young children, they were kidnapped, held for four days, then released—alive. Is it the same person, or is there another explanation? You’ll have to read 4 Days to find out!
What books are currently on your nightstand?
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
What advice would you give your teenage self?
Don’t be in such a hurry to grow up. You have more power than you think.
If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?
Sleeping
What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?
The love of my life, our kids, watching their success, my writing. In that order.
What scene in 4 Days was your favorite to write?
Wow, that’s hard. I’d say Chapter 15. Has nothing to do with the crime.
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Have you been searching for some new science fiction and fantasy books to add to your fall reading list? We've made a list of some of our favorites and think you'll love them too! Check out these great books from bestselling authors R.J. Parker, Crissi Langwell, Olivia Hardy Ray, Kenneth B. Andersen, Andrea Pearson, and Martin L. Shoemaker. Happy reading!
Release Date: September 26, 2019
Best friends Clint and Corbin are having a strange day. After they are followed by a man and later attacked by an imp, they retreat to the safety of home. But things get even weirder when strangers from another world, Banks and O'Neil, arrive with a medley of allies. Why are they here and what do they want?
Release Date: June 27, 2019
Like everyone else in the world, Noelle Edison knew the exact date and cause of her death. When she hits the 100 days left mark, she moves to a facility for the dying, River's End, and is ready to spend her final days being pampered. Then she meets Ryder. Noelle thought she was ready for the end. It turns out she is not.
Release Date: October 1, 2019
Annabel's husband has been missing for years. He is finally found in the bowels of White Chapel England during the horrific time of Jack the Ripper. He has made a discovery that brings Annabel and her family to the turn of nineteenth-century England where he hopes to rescue Michele from the Black Witch's cage.
Release Date: October 20, 2019
The fourth book in The Great Devil War series by Kenneth B. Andersen... Satina has been kidnapped by the enemy and nothing will ever be the same. Disobeying the orders of Lucifer, Philip sets out on a journey to find her in the deep darkness of Outer Reach. He could not have been prepared for the horror that awaits him or the demons he will encounter along the way.
Release Date: October 15, 2019
The first book in the new Midnight Chronicles series by Andrea Pearson... It has been at least seven years since Abel has seen Lizzie. His experiences have changed him significantly since the last time he saw her. He's sure he has moved on. He knows he will be immune to her bubbly and carefree personality. But then he sees her again and knows he's still in love. But there's a problem... he's being blackmailed into murdering her.
Release Date: November 1, 2019
The first book in The Near-Earth Mysteries series by Martin L. Shoemaker... Mutiny means death when you are in space. That's why Inspector General Park Yerim is taking her investigation so seriously. Captain Nicolau Aames is the alleged mutineer and his command of the Aldrin has come under fire. The crew swears he's in the right but the System Initiative says he disobeyed orders.
The weather is cooling down and it's the perfect time to curl up on the couch with some new love stories. Whether you're a fan of steamy, sweet, or historical, we've got some amazing new romance novels for you to add to your fall reading list. Enjoy!
Release Date: August 24, 2019
New York, 1832. Laura and her long-time friend, Charles, have been discovered in a compromising situation during the high society ball. To preserve the family's good name and satisfy social dictates, her father insists that they get married immediately. Will Laura and Charles find a way to overcome their hurried union and make a life together or will they continue their platonic relationship.
Release Date: October 1, 2019
The sixth book in the bestselling Hometown Series... Winnie is content as the matriarch of Smithville. When she receives a letter from a long-lost friend, a door to her past suddenly reopens. Memories come flooding back from 1968, her college days. Tara knows her husband is up to something and there's more to Justin's busy schedule than just work.
Release Date: October 15, 2019
Candice Gaines loves Christmas time. She basks in the twinkling lights, sings carols and goes crazy with decorations. Charlie Sullivan hates Christmas but it is what keeps the Sullivan Family Christmas Tree Farm in business. Now Charlie's parents want him to be their official public representative for their philanthropic projects. His mom asks Candice to accompany him to a variety of holiday parties. She is determined to male him embrace the Christmas spirit.
Release Date: September 2, 2019
The new romantic suspense novel from bestselling author Doreen Owens Malek... Multi-millionaire and criminal, George Walden, has avoided detection for decades. Agent Jefferson Tallchief has been sent to Walden's New Jersey mansion to assemble a case against him. But when he arrives, a relationship starts to develop between him and Walden's bitter and reclusive daughter, Victoria.
Release Date: September 10, 2019
The fourth book in the Ditch Lane Diaries series by D.F. Jones... Everglade, Tennessee, 1950. Lee Campbell has just discovered a secret that will change her life forever. A messenger from the heavenly realm has revealed her true nature that has been hidden since birth. As her supernatural powers start to emerge, she is sent on a dangerous quest to save innocent souls from Hades.
Release Date: October 2, 2019
I have three reasons why rebound sex with my neighbor would be a bad idea. 1. My life is already complicated. 2. He knows that I wear Batman undies. 3. He's older, sophisticated and incredibly hot. Yes, I know that is more than three. But that still didn't make me stop.
What can you tell us about your new release, Numbered?
Numbered is a dystopian romance that takes place in the year 2050. Technology has advanced so much that people now know the date and cause of their natural death. As you can imagine, knowing exactly how long you have to live will affect the way you live. But the biggest change is that in the last 100 days of life, people give up their jobs, their homes, and everything in their life, say goodbye to their families, and then enter a spa-like facility where everything is taken care of for them, spending the last three months of their life in complete comfort with no worries at all.
Noelle and Ryder move into one of these facilities on the same day. Because of their shortened lifespan, both have spent a lifetime avoiding relationships and connections. With only three months left to live, they don’t have time to fall in love, but they can’t deny the magnetic pull they feel toward each other.
And then they uncover a secret about the numbers. Everything safe becomes lethal, and the only people they can trust is each other. Noelle and Ryder find themselves in a fight for their lives, as well as a fight to save the rest of the world.
What or who inspired you to become an author?
I’ve been a writer as long as I’ve known how. But before writing, I was a reader. I think what inspired me to want to write stories were the stories I was reading. I’ve always had my nose in a book, so storytelling became a natural passion. I started out making up bedtime stories for my sisters. Then I started writing stories as gifts for my family. I dreamed of writing a book one day, believing it to be a huge, hard to accomplish feat. When I finally did, it was awful, but it also showed me that I could write a book. That terrible book (that I never published) paved the way for future books that weren’t terrible, and led to becoming a published author.
What's on your top 5 list for the best books you've ever read?
Only 5??? This list changes all the time because I have so many favorites, but at this moment, I’d consider these my favorites:
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
Mud Vein, by Tarryn Fisher
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
Say you're the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?
I would really love to talk with Katherine Paterson. Her books (She’s probably most known for Bridge to Terabithia) are full of well-rounded characters with real world problems. I feel like she gives a voice to grief or hardship, and then shows a way to keep living, even with this really hard thing the character is going through. Like in Jacob Have I Loved, she illustrates exactly what it feels like for someone to grow up feeling on the outside of everything, especially in one’s own family, and how it feels to live in the shadows of a sibling everyone loves. I resonated so much with this that I’ve cried buckets reading this book. So if I had her on my literary talk show, I’d ask about how she develops her characters, if they’re based on real people, and what kind of prewriting she does about her characters before she starts writing the story (or even while she’s writing it).
What's your favorite thing about writing?
I love how I can lose myself in the story. While writing, that’s my reality. Even when I’m not writing, the characters stay with me. I could be driving down the road, and I’ll feel their presence, think about their circumstance, and so on. It’s kind of relieving to immerse myself in the story because sometimes the world doesn’t feel very fun.
What is a typical day like for you?
Well, I have a day job, so that takes up most of my Monday – Friday. But I wake up extra early so that I have time to journal and read before work. I will often work on my manuscript during my lunch hour, sitting in a nearby park if the weather is nice. After work I’ll go to the gym, then eat dinner. Then I’ll spend another hour or so on my writing, if I have the energy. It’s hard to have a lot of time to write during the week, so weekends are when I get the most writing in. On those days, my favorite thing to do is grab my laptop and hole up in a coffeeshop for a few hours, sucking down caffeine while working on my novel.
What scene in Numbered was your favorite to write?
I loved writing the scenes where Noelle is a pretty awesome badass. Her father was a Navy Seal and trained Noelle and her brother throughout their childhood. So when society implodes and Noelle and Ryder become part of a rebel team, Noelle steps up to the plate with her training. It was really fun to write the fight scenes and show her fighting skills.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
Everyone has their own story. I think this is something we all need to remember, especially in this divisive time. It doesn’t mean we have to agree with people who have differing points of views, but we would all do better as a society if we could aim to understand the reasons someone has for believing or acting a certain way. If more people approached others with curiosity instead of condemnation, I think this world could be a better place. Not a perfect place, but it’s a start.
Crissi Langwell is the author of the new book Numbered.
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What can you tell us about your new release, The Seduction of Tallchief?
"The Seduction of Tallchief" is a combination of romance and suspense which goes into more detail about the process of the story and the development of the main relationship than is usually possible in a shorter romance. I really enjoyed portraying the main male character because he's an anti-hero and his attitude toward life is changed by his interaction with the main female character. It has aspects of the narrative which go beyond the usual limits of this type of story and that provided a challenge for me as a writer.
What or who inspired you to become an author?
My father, who was a local Superintendent of Schools, was a big reader and had many books around the house. As a kid I would read them and gradually came to the conclusion that I would like to produce them myself. I always felt an affinity for language and was able to use it to my advantage eventually in my career.
What's on your top 5 list for the best books you've ever read?
"Ordinary People" by Judith Guest
Anything by Evelyn Anthony, especially "The Persian Price"
"Salem's Lot" by Stephen King
"The Exorcist" by William Peter Blatty
"Dancer from the Dance" by Andrew Holleran
This is just a sample, there are many more. These are all popular fiction, and lately I've reading non-fiction. Some favorites are:
"Leadership in Troubled Times" by Doris Kearns Goodwin; all of her books are wonderful
John Meacham's biography of Thomas Jefferson
"Leonardo da Vinci" by Walter Isaacson
Say you're the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?
Shakespeare would be my first guest and I would ask him how he developed his extraordinary talent growing up as the child of a small businessman in Stratford, England.
What is a typical day like for you?
I don't have a system or pattern that I follow. I might work like a demon through the night for several days running and then just decompress for a day or two. I've tried to be more organized about my writing but that just doesn't work for me. When I'm in the groove, the story I'm thinking about is like a movie running in head and I have to get it down as it comes to me.
What's your favorite thing about writing?
My favorite thing about writing is when people read what you have written they know what you think.
What scene in The Seduction of Tallchief was your favorite to write?
My favorite was the reunion scene at the end of the book when the two people in love have been torn apart by dire circumstances. It's highly emotional and demonstrates the attachment that will keep them together after their difficult separation.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Doreen Owens Malek is the author of the new book The Seduction of Tallchief.
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