Costco Connection - June 2006

G o b ehind t he s cenes a nd m eet t he a uthors o f t he b iggest b ooks of the s ummer!

Dear Costco Members,

Every month my job as the Costco Book Buyer is to select a title I have enjoyed—some new and some not so new—that I want our members to discover. Marked with a Buyer’s Pick sticker, they’re easily identified in the warehouse.

William Lashner is a former Philadelphia lawyer. He graduated from New York University Law School and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He came up with the idea for his popular protagonist, Victor Carl, while he was struggling to get published. Feeling very bitter, he decided to write a book about a lawyer who was equally embittered, and he came up with Victor. Six Victor Carl novels later, Lashner finds himself published all over the world and translated into more than a dozen languages. This time around, Victor Carl wakes up with the name Chantal Adair tattooed in a heart on his chest, and he knows he’s got a real dilemma, in Marked Man.

This month, in addition to my pick, I asked six major publishing houses to select one author they love and want you to discover! Here are their choices and some background about the authors. I hope you enjoy these selections and maybe even discover a favorite new writer.

—Pennie Clark Ianniciello

WILLIAM MORROW / Hardcover

Brad Thor was born and raised in Chicago, but he headed west for college. He studied creative writing at the University of Southern California under the celebrated author T.C. Boyle. He is the award-winning creator, producer, writer and host for the public-television series Traveling Lite. While he was filming his show in Lucerne, Switzerland, he came up with the idea of his first novel, The Lions of Lucerne. Thor admits that he has an obsessive habit of looking at things and asking, “What if?” He’ll watch a story on the evening news and entertain different scenarios to see what kind of alternative outcomes he can dream up. His new thriller, Takedown, is a result of such thinking.

Available n ow

ATRIA / Hardcover Available m id-June

Lori Lansens was a successful screenwriter before she hit the literary scene in 2002 with her highly acclaimed first novel, Rush Home Road. Critically acclaimed, it was nominated for the 2003 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Lansens was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, the setting for both Rush Home Road and her new novel, The Girls. Her latest is a heartwarming novel about two sisters known simply as “the girls.” What makes these two independent, funny and courageous women so extraordinary is their status as conjoined twins. Though they have never had the ability to look into each other’s eyes, these two women have been blessed in many other ways. The Girls is their story.