BOOK & BLOG

June 29, 2012

THE TODAY SHOW AND BEYOND
A Combination Book & Blog

When my publicist got a nibble from the Today Show, she was pretty excited. This is what all publicists want; for one of their clients to appear on the Today Show, and not because they were just indicted. The Today Show wanted me to recommend summer reading, I would be on with two other writers, and I was responsible for recommending thrillers.

Bitterly regretting that I had not read the latest Laura Lippman and Val McDermid (both on my TBR mountain), I scrambled to assemble a list of thrillers I’d read and enjoyed that were (a) recent, and (b) not all from my publisher -- one of the show’s caveats, and an understandable one.

I don’t read that many pure thrillers, so it was kind of a shaky list, but it included Defending Jacob (William Landay), The Expats (Chris Pavone), and Nocturne (Scott Sigler). I stretched the thriller category to include mysteries, and I was able to come up with ten. They wanted a total list of 15, which they’d publish on their website. It took me a few hours, but I completed my list.

The next day, the parameters changed. There would be two writers on (myself and Janet Evanovich), and we’d be responsible for recommending three books in each of three categories: Beach Reads, Rainy Day Reads, and Under the Covers, which encompassed books that were either really sexy or really frightening.

This gave me a lot more latitude, but fewer total books. I set to work again, since they wanted our choices ahead of time so they could flash the covers.

But I had to weigh a lot of choices. I wanted to include Discount Armageddon and Blackout, one by Seanan McGuire and one by Mira Grant . . . but they’re one person. So in the interest of spreading the wealth, I cut Blackout. The list I went with for the Today Show was:

BEACH READS

Wicked Autumn, G.M. Malliet
Let’s Pretend this Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
Discount Armageddon, Seanan McGuire

RAINY DAY READS

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley
Defending Jacob, William Landay
When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson

UNDER THE COVERS

Once Burned, Jeaniene Frost
Those Across the River, Christopher Buehlman
The Warded Man, Peter Brett

I’d reviewed all these books on this site, and I was strong proponent of them all. But less than a day before the appearance, the segment got shortened. I had to cut one book from each of the three categories. In the interests of fairness, I just cut the third book in each list. It hurt, but I had to.

So here’s my whole list, and in weeks to come I’ll talk about The Expats and a great September book, Trust Your Eyes, by Linwood Barclay, which is an amazing thriller.

Thanks to all of you who watched. I had a wonderful time and the whole day was very interesting. But I had to make some hard choices, and I wish I could have kept on talking about books!

Charlaine Harris

[appologies for the late post - webmistress]

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