March 2019: Daughters of the Lake*

We'll be reading Kevira's book pick, "Daughters of the Lake" by her friend
Wendy Webb in March 2019. I believe some folks purchased this book recently, as well, when it was on sale. (*Note update from initial announcement that it was
"The Tale Of Halcyon Crane" by same author.)

ABOUT THE BOOK

The ghosts of the past come calling in a spellbinding heart-stopper from the “Queen of the Northern Gothic.”

After the end of her marriage, Kate Granger has retreated to her parents’ home on Lake Superior to pull herself together—only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed into the shallows.

Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. No one can identify the woman. Except for Kate. She’s seen her before. In her dreams…

One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy, its mysteries left unsolved. It’s time for the lake to give up its secrets. As each mystery unravels, it pulls Kate deeper into the eddy of a haunting folktale that has been handed down in whispers over generations. Now, it’s Kate’s turn to listen.
As the drowned woman reaches out from the grave, Kate reaches back. They must come together, if only in dreams, to right the sinister wrongs of the past.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendy K. Webb is an American fiction author. Her books have received several awards, including the Minnesota Book Award for fiction in 2011 and 2017.

She has also written: 
The Tale of Halcyon Crane
The End of Temperance Dare
The Vanishing
The Fate of Mercy Alban
 

February 2018: The Aviator's Wife

Julie has picked "The Aviator's Wife" by Melanie Benjamin as our February 2019 book pick -- and it'll be our first experiment with the library book kits! Here's keeping our fingers crossed!

ABOUT THE BOOK
n the spirit of Loving Frank and The Paris Wife, acclaimed novelist Melanie Benjamin pulls back the curtain on the marriage of one of America’s most extraordinary couples: Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

“The history [is] exhilarating. . . . The Aviator’s Wife soars.”—USA Today

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

When Anne Morrow, a shy college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family, she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong. Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. In the years that follow, Anne becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States. But despite this and other major achievements, she is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Praise for The Aviator’s Wife

“Remarkable . . . The Aviator’s Wife succeeds [in] putting the reader inside Anne Lindbergh’s life with her famous husband.”—The Denver Post

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Benjamin is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling historical novels The Swans of Fifth Avenue, about Truman Capote and his society swans, and The Aviator's Wife, a novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Her latest historical novel, The Girls in the Picture, is about the friendship and creative partnership between two of Hollywood's earliest female legends—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford.
Previous historical novels include the national bestseller Alice I Have Been, about Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, the story of 32-inch-tall Lavinia Warren Stratton, a star during the Gilded Age.
Her novels have been translated in over fifteen languages, featured in national magazines such as Good Housekeeping, People, and Entertainment Weekly, and optioned for film.
Melanie is a native of the Midwest, having grown up in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she pursued her first love, theater. After raising her two sons, Melanie, a life-long reader (including being the proud winner, two years in a row, of her hometown library's summer reading program!), decided to pursue a writing career. After writing her own parenting column for a local magazine, and winning a short story contest, Melanie published two contemporary novels under her real name, Melanie Hauser, before turning to historical fiction.
Melanie lives in Chicago with her husband, and near her two grown sons. In addition to writing, she puts her theatrical training to good use by being a member of the Authors Unbound speakers bureau. When she isn't writing or speaking, she's reading. And always looking for new stories to tell.
 

January 2019: 'I'll be gone in the dark'

Andrea has picked "I'll be gone in the dark" by Michelle McNamara for us to read in January.

ABOUT THE BOOK

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:
Washington Post | Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air | Paste | Entertainment Weekly | Esquire | Slate | Buzzfeed | Jezebel | Philadelphia Inquirer | Publishers Weekly | Kirkus Reviews | Library Journal | Bustle | Real Simple | Crime Reads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Hudson Booksellers | New York Public Library | Chicago Public Library
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction | SCIBA Book Award Winner | Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence

The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case—which was solved in April 2018.
Introduction by Gillian Flynn • Afterword by Patton Oswalt
“A brilliant genre-buster.... Propulsive, can’t-stop-now reading.”   —Stephen King

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic—one which fulfilled Michelle's dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59497750

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michelle Eileen McNamara (April 14, 1970 – April 21, 2016) was an American freelance writer and crime blogger.^[1][2] She was the author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, a true crime book about the Golden State Killer.^[3] The book was released posthumously in February 2018 and is being adapted as an HBO documentary series.

In 1992, McNamara graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor's degree in English.^[9] She earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota.

After graduate school, in 1997 McNamara moved to Los Angeles to write in the film and TV industry.^[8]
In 2006, McNamara launched her website TrueCrimeDiary.^[1][11] McNamara had a long-standing fascination with true crime originating from the unsolved murder of Kathleen Lombardo that happened two blocks from where she lived when she was young.^[3][9][12]
McNamara became interested in the Golden State Killer case and penned articles for Los Angeles magazine about the serial killer in 2013 and 2014.^[13][2] In 2014, McNamara and true crime investigative journalist Billy Jensen were on a SXSW Interactive panel called "Citizen Dicks: Solving Murders With Social Media."^[14][15][16] McNamara and Jensen had a long-term friendship based on their shared passion for researching and writing about true crime.^[17]
McNamara coined the term "Golden State Killer", after authorities linked DNA evidence that connected the Original Night Stalker and East Area Rapist.^[18] She then signed a book deal with HarperCollins and began to work on a book about the case.
Her book, entitled I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, was posthumously updated and finalized by true crime writer Paul Haynes and her widower Patton Oswalt. The book, released posthumously on February 27, 2018 (almost two years after her death), reached number 2 of The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction and number 1 of combined print and e-book, nonfiction.^[19][20] As of April 29, 2018, the book had been on the list for eight weeks.^[21]
In April 2018, HBO announced that they had purchased the rights for I'll Be Gone in the Dark and were developing it into a documentary series.^[4] Filming for the series began on April 24, 2018.^[22] The documentary is being directed by Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?).^[5]
On April 25, 2018, Californian authorities arrested Joseph James DeAngelo as the alleged Golden State Killer.^[23][24] Oswalt stated that authorities' use of the killer's name that McNamara coined was "proof of the impact of her work."[



McNamara died in her bed on April 21, 2016^[29][30] in her family's Los Angeles, California, home. According to the autopsy report released online by Radar,^[31] her death was attributed to the effects of multiple drugs, including Adderall, Xanax, Fentanyl and amphetamines. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease was a contributing factor. The coroner ruled it an accidental overdose.
 

From Wikipedia