Dear Reader,

I need to warn you about Nick Platt. Nick is the narrator of Snowdrops, and when you first meet him he might seem a pretty ordinary guy. He's in his late thirties, working in Moscow as a corporate lawyer during its dizzying oil-fuelled boom (I lived there too, for three years, as a foreign correspondent). He's neither a villain nor a hero, a bit of a drifter, keen to have a more interesting life than his parents managed: perhaps not that different from you or me.

Then he meets Masha on the Moscow Metro. Soon afterwards the snow starts to fall, making ugly things beautiful, covering up the sins of Russians and Westerners alike. A "snowdrop," in Moscow slang, is a beautiful name for a horrible thing: a corpse that lies buried in the snow, emerging in the thaw.  

One of the things that comes to light at the end of the winter, you might feel, is a different Nick. As you're reading, you might ask what his fianc�e "to whom his story is addressed" might be making of it; you might wonder what Nick makes of it himself, and of the cold deeds in which he has somehow become complicit.

I hope you enjoy it.

Sincerely,

A.D. Miller

A.D. MILLER  IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF SNOWDROPS. ENTER TO WIN A COPY.

Nick Platt is a British lawyer working in 2000s Moscow, a city of hedonism and desperation, corruption and kindness, magical hideaways and debauched nightclubs, communists and chancers. A place where secrets - and corpses - come to light when the snows thaw.  Nick doesn't ask too many questions about the shady deals he works on; he's too busy enjoying the exotic, surreally sinful nightlife Moscow has to offer.  Of course nothing is as it seems in this extraordinary debut novel.  The sordid and vivid portrayal of Moscow serves as an inspired backdrop for a book featuring characters whose hearts are as icy as the Russian winter.

"Masterful debut...A mesmerizing tale of a man seduced by a culture he fancies himself above, Miller's novel is both a nuanced character study and a fascinating look at the complexities of Russian society."

-Booklist

"A sense of foreboding pervades this quietly intense novel, set in a freewheeling Russia of the early 21st century....gripping....A lesson in the art of self-delusion and the dog-eat-dog society of post-Soviet Russia, it's sure to be an instant success.....Essential for committed readers of fiction and a discussion feast for book clubs."

-Library Journal

For more information, visit A.D. Miller's website and follow him on Facebook.

Nonfiction / 336 pages / Paperback
Seal Press / March 2011

Dear Reader,

When I told my husband and two boys that I was going to grow our own food (not some, but 75 percent of all the food we consumed in a year) - and that I was going to grow that food in our yard - they said no way.

They said I'd eat zucchini day in and day out.  They said I'd starve.  They said I was crazy.  

But I did it anyway.

The Quarter Acre Farm tells the story of what I learned in the year of living off my small urban lot; about dirt, bugs, how to grow tomatoes, about a thousand ways to cook zucchini, even how to eat the snails that were decimating my lettuces.  I also learned a huge amount about failure.  In spite of that and along the way, I learned just how much food a person in a city can grow in their yards, where a mere lawn used to be.

Best,

Spring Warren

SPRING WARREN IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF THE QUARTER-ACRE FARM.  ENTER TO WIN A COPY.

The Quarter-Acre Farm is Warren's witty account of deciding - despite all resistance - to take control of her family's food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard. It's a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating. The road is long and riddled with mistakes, but by the end of her yearlong experiment, Warren's sons and husband have become her biggest fans.  In fact, they're even eager to help harvest (and eat) the beautiful bounty she brings in.

 
Reviews of The Quarter-Acre Farm 

"Spring Warren is one of those authors who is just such good company.  I'd go anywhere with her.  So I'm thrilled to find myself at The Quarter-Acre Farm, a book miraculously balanced at that exact point halfway between practical and whimsical, inclusive and intimate."

-Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

"Reading Spring Warren's book is like chatting with a good friend over coffee as she relates her garden adventures (some hilarious) and muses on the meaning of almost everything."

-Georgeanne Brennan, author of Potager: Fresh Garden Cooking in the French Style and A Pig in Provence 

For more information, visit Spring's website and follow her on

Facebook. 

Spring Warren is available to speak with your book club.  Contact Spring to arrange a discussion. 

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy my novel, Becoming George Sand. The idea for this book began when I read the great French writer George Sand's The Story Of My Life and began to think about a modern woman's equivalent story. I wanted to write about love and sex as a major force in life, about a woman who doesn't feel guilty about loving two men, about friendship and parental love as well as the sexual variety. Women (and men) who have read this novel say it speaks to their own lives and they like its honesty. Some people say they find Maria selfish - well, people who are madly in love usually are selfish - and all I can say in her defense is that she becomes less so under the influence of George Sand! 

The title is about who we become in our lives. Maria feels herself at one time almost "becoming" George. George also had to "become" George Sand - a pseudonym - as she was born Aurore Dupin.  But we all - don't we? - spend our lives becoming who we will be.  Do we embrace life passionately and whole-heartedly, or not?  Do we love widely or ration ourselves?  All this leads to our "becoming" who we are.

With all best wishes, and gratitude for reading my book,

Rosalind Brackenbury

ROSALIND BRACKENBURY IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF BECOMING GEORGE SAND.  ENTER TO WIN A COPY.

Maria Jameson is having an affair - a passionate, life-changing affair. She asks: Is it possible to love two men at once? Must this new romance mean an end to love with her husband? For answers, she reaches across the centuries to George Sand, the maverick French novelist who took many lovers.

Rosalind Brackenbury creates a beautiful portrait of the ways in which women are connected across history. Two narratives delicately intertwine - following George through her affair with Frederic Chopin, following Maria through her affair with an Irish professor - and bring us a novel that explores the personal and the historical, the demands of self and the mysteries of the heart.

Reviews for Becoming George Sand: 

"This is not so much a story about having a love affair as it is a study of the nature of love itself. I was absolutely knocked out by it."

-Author Elizabeth Berg

"Becoming George Sand is a wonderful book - filled with wisdom, poetry, and imagery so brilliant I wish I could steal it. Maria is a character to love, whose loves are vivid, embracing, and revelatory. This is a treasure!"

-Author Annie Dillard

For more information, visit Rosalind's website.

Rosalind Brackenbury is available to speak with your book club by phone.  Contact Rosalind to arrange a discussion.