News about We are Called to Rise

We Are Called to Rise is a #1 IndieNext pick, a Barnes&Noble Discover selection, a Simon Mayo BBC Radio2 Book Club choice, a Waterstones UK Book Club pick, and an American Booksellers Indies Introduce choice.  It was also a Book Passage First Edition Book, #18 on Pop Sugar’s Best Books of the Year, and it once made it to #4 on Amazon’s Kindle and #2 on Barnes&Noble’s Nook sales.

Isabel Allende was recently asked what books she recommends and said, “I just read a beautiful book called We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride. If you have a chance to read it, you will love it. It’s a book that leaves you thinking for many days.” (video at 1:03:04)

Simon & Schuster just completed a 14th printing of We Are Called to Rise, six years after its 2014 debut.

There’s nothing that honors a book like being chosen for a One Book program. And not much that challenges an author more either! Here’s an interview about these wonderfully engaging programs. We Are Called to Rise has been chosen for one book events in fifteen states and more than two dozen communities, including: A Tale for Three Counties (Batavia NY), Tarrant County College (Fort Worth TX), Central Methodist University (Fayette MO), Richardson Reads (Richardson TX), One Book One Valley (Estes Park CO), Nevada Reads 2015, One Book One Valley (Eagle Valley CO), Housatonic Community College (Bridgeport CT), Pekin Reads (Pekin IL), One Book One Community-San Juan College (Farmington NM), Utah Lit (Salt Lake City UT), One City One Book (Camarillo CA), Molloy College (Rockville Centre NY), and Owensboro Community and Technical College (Owensboro KY). We Are Called to Rise has also been chosen to highlight many special events, notably Books & Boutiques (Overland Park KS), Cherish the Children (Dallas TX), and the Arlington Central Library (Arlington VA).

We Are Called to Rise made it to a lot of great reading lists. Notably: Huffington Post’s 10 Cross Cultural Novels, Isabel Allende’s Summer Reading, Eleanor Brown’s 30 Authors Choice, Patry Francis’ 30 Authors Choice, Lynn Kanter’s 30 Women Novelists, Literary Sofa’s Best Six in 2014, Wendy Sheanin’s 12 Favorite Novels, the Military Spouse Book Review’s Most Glowing Review of the Year, Liza Tarbuck’s BBC Book Club picks, Book Rambler’s Summer Reads, Vulture’s Eight Books You Need to Read, PopSugar’s June Must Reads, Bustle’s Ten Must Reads, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Five Must-Read Novels, Redbook’s Five Perfect Beach Books, AARP’s Beach Bag Books for Grownups, and Fathom’s Eight Beach Reads and the Beaches to Read Them On.

Library Journal gave We Are Called to Rise a starred review, remarking “Laura McBride has written an urgent morality tale for our times in the form of this poignant and gripping debut.” Entertainment Weekly (A-) called it “pitch perfect” and “a universal story about the messy wonders of community.” Bookpage commended its “plainspoken realism” and suggested that “courage and character are often writ large during the darkest of days.”

Thank you to these bloggers for their notable posts about reading We Are Called to Rise: Amy Bermudez at TheMilitarySpouseBookReview, Jennifer Lyn King in GreatNewBooks, Kris at AwesomeBookNuts, Kelly Jemal Massry at ReadLately, Trina Hayes at HungryForGoodBooks, Bill Wolfe at ReadHerLikeAnOpenBook, Jacob Sahms at MustardSeedThoughts, Kathryn White at Kathryn’sInbox, Helen at MyNovelOpinion, Emily at emhawkerblog, Sam at SamStillReading, AnnMcDonald at RedCarpetCrash, Lucy Bowler at StonefruitSeason, Jennifer Mackie at BookshelfReviews, Kristine at TwinSpin, OneMillionPagePrincess, Julia Webb Harvey, Books&Such, GoodBookFairy, elizabethsara, MauriceOnBooks, and ScrapbookObsession.