Monday, May 30, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

As I mentioned yesterday, I am still dipping into and out of a ridiculous number of books. But this should be over soon and I'll be able to clean up the staggeringly out of control "in the middle of" list of books. I might even be able to get back to writing reviews sometime soon. Wouldn't that be nice?! This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
Riverine by Angela Palm
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
The One-in-a-Million boy by Monica Wood
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
I Will Find You by Joanna Connors
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Winter War by Philip Teir
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Bertrand Court by Michelle Brafman

Reviews posted this week:

The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Remarkable by Dinah Cox
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie
The Unseen World by Liz Moore
The Silver Spoon by Kansuke Naka
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine by Alex Brunkhorst
The Honeymoon by Dinitia Smith
The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter
The Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
Bottomland by Michelle Hoover
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison
The Lake by Perrine Leblanc
Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

Monday Mailbox

I've neglected this for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd mention the things that came in the weeks I wasn't close to a computer or was too busy to record them. This past (several) week's mailbox arrivals:

The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan came from William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

I enjoy historical fiction with ties to the present so this one about a society woman who risks everything to do the right thing and a modern day woman trying to uncover the mystery of her biological family looks really interesting.

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood came from me to me.

A neglectful dad suffering from guilt starts visiting the elderly woman his young son was helping out to earn a Boy Scout badge after his son's untimely death.  This will probably be very sad but I'm counting on it to be hopeful as well.

Remember My Beauties by Lynne Hugo came from Switchgrass Books and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

This slim novel about a family that is disintegrating, the woman who is trying to hold them together, and the breeding farm and remaining horses that give them hope sounds tough and beautiful.

What Would Mary Berry Do? by Claire Sandy came from me for myself.

Doesn't this one look just sloppily delectable? It hits my love of fun, frothy, Brit lit too. And it sounds like fans of The Great British Bake-Off will thoroughly enjoy it. Can't wait!

Nine Island by Jane Alison came from Catapult.

A woman in a beach-side glass building is deciding whether to give up on love as she translates Ovid's Metamorphoses; this looks literary and wonderful.

Auntie Poldie and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano came from Meryl Zegarek.

A sassy, foul-mouthed elderly widow as a sleuth and set in Italy to boot? I don't normally do mysteries but I find myself attracted to every aspect of the blurb for this one (besides the presence of a corpse) so I'm going to give it a try.

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams came from William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

Luscious cover, no? The Roaring Twenties, romance, intrigue, and a love triangle. How could anyone resist this? I know I can't.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Sunday Salon: Annual Summer Reading List

With Memorial Day tomorrow, it's the symbolic start of summer and as per usual, I have put together a list of books I'd like to read between now and Labor Day. This year the list is more unwieldy than usual but I'm already at least 100 pages in on many of these so in the end it won't end up being more pages than usual I don't think. And of course I certainly won't actually get to all of these. I've come to look at my summer list as a sort of "my eyes were bigger than my stomach" sort of situation and that's okay. I'm still going to dream big! Without further ado, here's the extensive list:

Man by Kim Thuy
A Girl From Yamhill by Beverly Cleary
The Eagle Tree by Ned Hayes
The Girl From the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor
Follow the River Home by Corran Harrington
The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
A House For Happy Mothers by Amulya Malladi
The Royal Nanny by Karen Harper
Wrong Highway by Wendy Gordon
Remember My Beauties by Lynne Hugo
The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan
A Good American by Alex George
A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams
The Wonder Garden by Lauren Acampora
A Reckless Promise by Kasey Michaels
Lift by Daniel Kunitz
Run the World by Becky Wade
The Runaway Wife by Elizabeth Birkelund
Finding Fontainebleu by Thad Carhart
Home Field by Hannah Gersen
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Lost and Found by Brooke Davis
Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
The Valley by Helen Bryan
Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale
The Whiskey Sea by Ann Howard
Ostrich by Matt Greene
Course Correction by Ginny Gilder
Gold Fever by Steve Boggan
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
Riverine by Angela Palm
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
The One-in-a-Million boy by Monica Wood
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
I Will Find You by Joanna Connors
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel
Eliza Waite by Ashley E. Sweeney
The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
Shelter by Jung Yun
The Center of the World by Jacqueline Sheehan
The Edge of Lost by Kristina Morris
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
The Last Time She Saw Him by Jane Haseldine
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
This Side of Providence by Rachel Harper
Bertrand Court by Michelle Brafman
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
A Different Kind of Daughter by Maria Toorpakai
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Winter War by Philip Teir
If You Left by Ashley Norton
The Heart You Carry Home by Jennifer Miller

Do you make summer reading lists? What's on yours? If you bothered to read such a long, text heavy list, and I don't blame you if you didn't, have you read anything on my list? What did you think of it?

My reading travels this week have consisted of dips into many different places and worlds, too many to list actually. I am almost done with my sampling and look forward to being able to get back to sinking in and finishing everything I read. Where did your reading travels take you this week?

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

The Tumbling Turner Sisters by Juliette Fay. The book is being released by Gallery Books on June 14, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: For fans of Orphan Train and Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, a compelling historical novel from “one of the best authors of women’s fiction” (Library Journal). Set against the turbulent backdrop of American Vaudeville, four sisters embark on an unexpected adventure—and a last-ditch effort to save their family.

In 1919, the Turner sisters and their parents are barely scraping by. Their father is a low-paid boot-stitcher in Johnson City, New York, and the family is always one paycheck away from eviction. When their father’s hand is crushed and he can no longer work, their irrepressible mother decides that the vaudeville stage is their best—and only—chance for survival.

Traveling by train from town to town, teenagers Gert, Winnie, and Kit, and recent widow Nell soon find a new kind of freedom in the company of performers who are as diverse as their acts. There is a seamier side to the business, however, and the young women face dangers and turns of fate they never could have anticipated. Heartwarming and surprising, The Tumbling Turner Sisters is ultimately a story of awakening—to unexpected possibilities, to love and heartbreak, and to the dawn of a new American era.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Review: The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson

Occasionally there will be a story in the news about a manuscript by a famous author being discovered in an attic or somewhere else banal and unexpected. This is always thrilling news, of course, especially if the newly discovered work is by a favorite of yours. If such discoveries excite the general public, how much more must they excite the scholarly circles devoted to the writer or artist? We who love the titans of the craft can think of little more sensational than having a new work from an old favorite to enjoy and study. Almost as wonderful as a new work is new insight into the person of the writer by someone who knew him or her. Alison Anderson's newest novel, the tale of a diary written by a friend of Anton Chekhov's and the diary's tantalizing suggestion of a lost novel written by Chekhov, is just the kind of story that stirs the hearts of bibliophiles everywhere.

Zinaida Lintvaryova lives with her sisters, mother, brothers, and sister in law on the family estate in Luka, Ukraine. She trained as a doctor but has had to give up her practice because she is now blind and suffers from headaches and seizures as a result of a brain tumor. Despite this terminal diagnosis, Zinaida remains engaged in life as much as she is able. She is intelligent and thoughtful. With the help of a bar to keep her writing straight, she has started keeping a diary to pass on to her unborn niece so that she may attain some measure of immortality. As she starts to write in her diary, it comes to pass that the Chekhov family arrives to spend the summer in the estate's guest house. Zinaida becomes close to Anton Pavlovich, writing of their intellectually stimulating and philosophically interesting conversations, each playing a vital role in expanding how the other looks at the world. Zinaida is not a muse per se but she does encourage Chekhov to challenge himself, to foster curiousity, and to write outside his comfort level. In Anton Pavlovich's narrative visual descriptions for the unseeing Zinaida, he truly sees what is most important and wondrous in that which he observes, an important gift that shines through in his own writing.

In her journal, Zinaida also mentions a novel she has encouraged him to undertake. But today Chekhov is known for his plays and short stories and no known novel exists. The fact that the diary discusses its existence would be enough to set the literary world on fire. The diary itself, with its insights into the famous writer, during the 2 summers just before his literary star launched into the firmament, is amazing on its own as well though. That it is in the possession of a tiny, British, literary press on the verge of bankruptcy is baffling. Katya Kendall, a Russian emigre married to Peter, a Brit, hopes that this literary discovery will be enough to save the failing press and maybe even her increasingly distant relationship with her husband. She engages a translator to translate the original Russian into English but then becomes almost completely incommunicado about the diary.  Her worries about Peter's drinking and their tenuous financial situation are in a race with her desire to bring the diary to the world and reveal the possibility of a Chekhovian novel before time runs out.

Ana Harding is the translator hired to work on Zinaida's dairy. She is newly divorced, a little bit lonely, and living quietly and frugally in the French countryside. She is a very good translator, careful to maintain the integrity of the works she does but also to render their spirit into the second language as well. In the course of her translating, Ana becomes completely captivated by the diary and Zinaida Lintvaryova and once she reads the mention of Chekhov's lost novel, she is excited and just a little obsessed with uncovering this literary mystery.

Anderson deftly handles the weaving together of these three major plot threads, pulling the reader from one story line just as tension builds, ensuring that the reader must keep turning pages, loathe to leave each of the three stories in turn but always glad to return to a previous thread. The diary portion of the novel is based on the true fact that Chekhov did spend two summers early in his writing career at the farm in Luka, fishing and enjoying the countryside away from the demands of the cities and his increasing readership. The conversations between Zinaida and Anton Pavlovich are incredibly insightful and philosophical, raising deep and important ideas like writing, family, and life and death. The plots dealing with Katya and Ana are slightly secondary to the diary but they are equally well rendered and add their own discussion to the difficulty of making a living in the arts, what is important in life, and the influence and value of words and writing. The ending of the novel is masterful and well earned. In the diary segments, the Russian habit of using names and also diminutives for the same person might add a touch of difficulty for some Western readers but there is a handy list in the front of the book to help keep confusion to a minimum. Beautifully rendered and exquisitely plotted, the novel will appeal to those who enjoy literary treasure hunts, those who read and appreciate Russian authors, especially Chekhov, and those who appreciate well-crafted writing, particularly when it gives a small insight into the publishing or translating world.

For more information about Alison Anderson, take a look at her web page. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Monday, May 23, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

The reading craziness continues! This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine by Alex Brunkhorst
The Honeymoon by Dinitia Smith
The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter
The Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
Bottomland by Michelle Hoover
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison
The Lake by Perrine Leblanc
Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
Riverine by Angela Palm
The Other Woman by Therese Bohman
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

Reviews posted this week:

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Remarkable by Dinah Cox
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie
The Unseen World by Liz Moore
The Silver Spoon by Kansuke Naka
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine by Alex Brunkhorst
The Honeymoon by Dinitia Smith
The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter
The Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
Bottomland by Michelle Hoover
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison
The Lake by Perrine Leblanc
Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

Monday, May 16, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
The Silver Spoon by Kansuke Naka
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts

Reviews posted this week:

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Remarkable by Dinah Cox
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie
The Unseen World by Liz Moore
The Silver Spoon by Kansuke Naka
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

This Too Shall Pass by Milena Busquets. The book is being released by Hogarth on May 24, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shaken by the unexpected death of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realizes that she has no idea what her future will look like.

To ease her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery. Leaving Barcelona behind, she returns to Cadaqués on the coast, accompanied by her two sons, two ex-husbands, and two best friends, and makes a plan to meet her married lover for a few stolen moments as well. Surrounded by those she loves most, she spends the summer in an impossibly beautiful place, finding ways to reconnect and understand what it means to truly, happily live on her own terms, just as her mother would have wanted.

A fresh, honest, and ruefully funny story about love, sex, marriage, grief, friendship and parenthood, THIS TOO SHALL PASS is an irresistible novel that is fast becoming an international phenomenon.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Review: Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore

Christopher Moore is pretty much crazy and unrepentant. Forget being a fly on the wall, I'd love to spend the day inhabiting his brain because I don't think there's ever a boring minute in it. I first started reading Moore's novels many years ago now when my book club was looking for a non-sentimental Christmas read (hello The Stupidest Angel). Intrigued by his wonderfully warped view on things, we later moved on to his hilariously irreverent novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I've since moved so I have no idea if that book club continues to periodically visit the weird that is Moore's creative output, but I do. Secondhand Souls, the sequel to A Dirty Job, is his latest entry into the wacky and bizarre world he has conjured up and it is as quirky, funny, and insane as I've come to expect from Moore.

At the end of A Dirty Job, the world was saved (if you haven't read it and think this is a spoiler, get your knickers out of a twist and get over yourself) but that doesn't mean it had to stay that way. The cast of characters from the first novel notices that things seem to be heading a little (a lot) off kilter again. And when a banshee comes to warn them of the impending doom coming their way, a doom unlike that which they've seen before, they will have to come together to fight the forces of darkness again. This time there are ghosts congregating at the Golden Gate Bridge, the meat puppets have something slightly sinister going on amongst themselves, the remaining Death Merchants are so far behind on their soul collections they'll never catch up, and the Morrigan have a smooth talking, dangerous supernatural companion on their side.  How Charlie, Sophie, Minty Fresh, Inspector Rivera, Lily, and Audrey will face all of this makes for a completely madcap read.

As downright zany and convoluted as this sounds (and it is), Moore is a master at weaving his strange plot threads together to form a coherent and entertaining story. There is humor here as well as chaos and hijinks. The story and some of the situations are twisted (encouraging a person to commit suicide for the greater good?!) but everything works so well in the service of the story that even the questionable is forgiven. As a sequel, this is best read after A Dirty Job, otherwise some of the characters and their current situations take some adjusting to but for people who already appreciate Moore's offbeat mythology, this is a welcome addition to his canon. Even though there's absolutely nothing about a Moore novel that fits into my regular reading preferences (no to fantasy, no to paranormal, and a huge no to Death), they are like crack; once you've read one, you can't wait for the next hit and I appreciated Secondhand Souls for the rollicking and fast ride it was.

For more information about Christopher Moore, take a look at his web page, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Monday, May 9, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler
The Bridge Ladies by Betsy Lerner
Where We Fall by Rochelle B. Weinstein
The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie
The Unseen World by Liz Moore

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Silver Spoon by Kansuke Naka

Reviews posted this week:

The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler
The Bridge Ladies by Betsy Lerner
Where We Fall by Rochelle B. Weinstein

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Remarkable by Dinah Cox
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie
The Unseen World by Liz Moore

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Eagle Tree by Ned Hayes came from Little A and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

The story of a young autistic boy who loves trees and wants to keep the majestic Eagle Tree near his home from being cut down, this sounds like a wonderful and topical novel.

Gold Fever by Steve Boggan came from Oneworld and LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I had no idea there was a modern day Gold Rush going on but now that I do, I am completely curious about it and the life that these modern prospectors lead so I am looking forward to this one for sure.

Follow the River Home by Corran Harrington came from Arbor Farm Press and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

About a man who has grappled with guilt over his infant sister's death many years ago coupled with PTSD from his service in Vietnam and who is pulled back to the truth of the past, this looks like a tough but hopefully redeeming read.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Sunday Salon: Summer Book Club

It's that time of year again where I choose the books that my summer book club will be diving into for June, July, and August. Normally I ask for advice in choosing but since I have been swamped with work and kid stuff, I have barely had time to breathe, much less ask all of you great readers what you would recommend we dig into this summer. So I went solo and chose but I'd still love to hear what you would have chosen if you were the Supreme High Chooser instead of me. Maybe if I combine all of the recommendations, I can create a sort of virtual book club/reading list for myself for the year and for any of you who want to join in. In any case, here's the summer roster according to me:

Man by Kim Thuy
Following on the Giller Prize-nominated and Governor General's Literary Award-winning success of Ru, Kim Thúy's latest novel is a triumph of poetic beauty and a moving meditation on how love and food are inextricably entwined.

Mãn has three mothers: the one who gives birth to her in wartime, the nun who plucks her from a vegetable garden, and her beloved Maman, who becomes a spy to survive. Seeking security for her grown daughter, Maman finds Mãn a husband--a lonely Vietnamese restaurateur who lives in Montreal.

Thrown into a new world, Mãn discovers her natural talent as a chef. Gracefully she practices her art, with food as her medium. She creates dishes that are much more than sustenance for the body: they evoke memory and emotion, time and place, and even bring her customers to tears.

Mãn is a mystery--her name means "perfect fulfillment," yet she and her husband seem to drift along, respectfully and dutifully. But when she encounters a married chef in Paris, everything changes in the instant of a fleeting touch, and Mãn discovers the all-encompassing obsession and ever-present dangers of a love affair.

Full of indelible images of beauty, delicacy and quiet power, Mãn is a novel that begs to be savoured for its language, its sensuousness and its love of life.


A Good American by Alex George
This is the story of the Meisenheimer family, told by James, a third-generation American living in Beatrice, Missouri. It’s where his German grandparents—Frederick and Jette—found themselves after journeying across the turbulent Atlantic, fording the flood-swollen Mississippi, and being brought to a sudden halt by the broken water of the pregnant Jette.

A Good American tells of Jette’s dogged determination to feed a town sauerkraut and soul food; the loves and losses of her children, Joseph and Rosa; and the precocious voices of James and his brothers, sometimes raised in discord…sometimes in perfect harmony.

But above all, A Good American is about the music in Frederick’s heart, a song that began as an aria, was jazzed by ragtime, and became an anthem of love for his adopted country that the family still hears to this day.


Lost and Found by Brooke Davis
The #1 international bestselling debut novel about the wisdom of the very young, the mischief of the very old, and the magic that happens along the way
Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie's father, leaves her in the big ladies' underwear department of a local store and never returns. United at this fateful moment with two octogenarians seekers, she embarks with them upon a road trip to find Millie's mother. Together they will discover that old age is not the same as death, that the young can be wise, and that letting yourself feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy life.


This week my reading travels have taken me far afield. I was there as an elderly woman in Pittsburgh revealed the secret of her past, including being a WASP, to a young aspiring writer. I sat with an author, her mother, and four other older women at a New Haven bridge table as stories were told and a relationship examined. I was right in my own town of Charlotte as a marriage and family suffered under the weight of depression, a long held secret, and betrayal. I traveled through the Japanese Inland Sea of almost a quarter century ago. I was in Boston at the nascence of what would evolve into virtual reality as a solitary girl grew up with the weight of her father's genius, his Alzheimer's, and her own social confusion. Now I have bookmarks currently in too many books to mention, some of weeks (months) duration and some of more recent vintage. Where did your travels in books take you this past week?

Friday, May 6, 2016

Review: Where We Fall by Rochelle Weinstein

Anxiety and depression can be debilitating. They suck the marrow out of life. But it's not just the person suffering from these illnesses who suffers, it is everyone around them who loves and cares for them. These twin demons make it impossible for a person to have the sort of relationships they want or to live fully. They are incredibly damaging. Rochelle Weinstein's newest novel, Where We Fall, addresses the cost of these illnesses and how facing up to them and finding help to fight against them can change the future for everyone.

Abby and Lauren are best friends and college roommates. Lauren and Ryan are soulmates and deeply in love. They've never had a problem including Abby in their warmth and happiness, so secure are they in their couplehood. But when Lauren leaves after graduation for a six month course taking photographs of waterfalls around the world instead of staying with Ryan, something changes. Flash forward seventeen years. Ryan and Abby are married with a daughter. Ryan is a successful high school coach, revered by the mostly disadvantaged boys he coaches to glory. Abby is a prisoner of her anxiety and depression, holding tight to a secret she's never revealed to Ryan, suffering in the depths of her own self-hatred. And Juliana is a self-sufficient teenager in love with her dad's star player, a boy whose father and older brothers are serious criminals. Lauren is a best selling author who writes romances under a pseudonym and she's finally coming back to North Carolina to face the painful past she's still holding in her heart.

Ryan's team is making a run for States just as Abby breaks down badly and agrees to be admitted to a residential mental health hospital in the mountains. As if worrying about his wife isn't enough, EJ, the star of the team and Juliana's boyfriend, flees from the police, who want to question him about a major theft, and Lauren is about to reappear in his life. Abby has a lot of hard work and introspection in front of her in her program and she must look at her relationship with Ryan and the truth of their history, her love for Juliana and the ways she's been an absent mother, and how she betrayed her best friend so many years ago. Fixing all of the things wrong in her life, including her own reactions and feelings and teasing out the difference between love and loyalty, won't be easy.

The novel is told in first person by the four major characters: Abby, Ryan, Juliana, and Lauren. Each of them shares their innermost feelings and desires as they tell their stories, present and past. None of them have distinctive voices though, making each section sound the same. And to be honest, I didn't much like any of them so spending so much time in their heads was not rewarding. The prose was excessively wordy and it didn't help that the obligation felt by the characters extended to the reader. They built lives out of obligation, I finished the book out of the same. Often set in Charlotte, NC, the city as described does not feel like the Charlotte I live in at all. And the idea that Ryan and Lauren still love each other so deeply and purely after seventeen years, without taking into consideration how their experiences and life has changed them rings false. The parallel of young intense, forever love between Ryan and Lauren and between Juliana and EJ is a bit heavy handed and quite honestly, the high school love story wasn't all that engaging to me. Weinstein has drawn an intensely introspective and psychological portrait of the way in which one family member's mental illness takes over and forms each person in the family combined with the story of soul mates and an all encompassing love but the major halves of the story exist together a bit uneasily. And the martyrdom of the ending, although by all rights it could not have ended any other way, was the capper on a story I was already struggling with. Many other people seem to have really been touched by this novel so readers who appreciate troubled family tales, stories of the impact of mental illness, or novels about truth and lies and friendship should read it and make up their own minds.

For more information about Rochelle Weinstein, take a look at her web page, like her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Review: The Bridge Ladies by Betsy Lerner

It's always curious looking at a community from the outside. It's perhaps curiouser to look at a community from the inside. When that community includes your mother and ladies you've known, but not really known in depth, for decades, it is curiouser and curiouser. Betsy Lerner's interesting and warm memoir, The Bridge Ladies, looks at her mother and women she's been playing bridge with for more than half a century. It looks at their lives, the expectations they faced, and how they have always interacted together. It also looks at Lerner's relationship with her mother and how her investigations into the game of bridge brings them closer than they have ever been.

Betsy Lerner grew up watching her mother and the four other women of the group meet weekly for their standing bridge game. As a child she was intrigued by the women and that interest reignited when she went to care for her mother after a surgery. She knew what these women had lived through in broad strokes, both historically and locally, but she had no idea of their smaller personal histories. And she had an image in her mind of the way that their longstanding friendship worked, imagining that it was similar to that of her own friendships with peers. But over the course of time, as she was cautiously welcomed into the group, she discovered that her ideas about the ladies, and about her own mother in particular, were in fact quite off the mark. Lerner interviews each of the women about her life and life choices. She wonders at the way that these ladies kept their own council, maintained their reserve, and, most interestingly of all, didn't gossip at the bridge table. This behaviour is in direct contrast to Lerner's own experience with her generation, the Baby Boomers. These five Jewish women, all of whom had married and had children, as was expected of them, had a long history with each other and yet still they didn't share confidences. Over time, as Lerner questioned them, they opened up slightly more to her, especially as it became clear that Lerner had a sincere interest in getting to know them better, to appreciate the lives they chose and led, and to leave judgments aside. Even so, they kept a dignified reticence about certain things. In understanding this dignity in the others, Lerner comes to appreciate it and forgive what she once thought of only as distance in her own mother too.

Lerner uses the game of bridge and the lives of the other ladies as a bridge to understanding and repairing her fraught relationship with her own mother. Chapters where she goes to learn the game herself are interspersed with her interactions with the ladies and her mother. Just as Lerner slowly comes to appreciate the complications and beauty of the game, she comes to appreciate the lives of women who chose to live so very differently than she herself did a generation later. She may not understand their life choices (or exactly how the bidding is a conversation between partners obliquely telling each other what they have in their hands) but she learns to value the lives they've led, to honor the secrets they've kept, and to let go the differences that separated her from her mother (and to at least understand the process of an opening bid). There are many comparisons to her own life, a highlighting of major differences, the contrast between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers evident in so many ways. Lerner also confronts the sadness of aging and decline, acknowledging that growing older necessarily robs a person of independence, diminishing them, and undermining the person they were when they were young. She sees the appeal of the comfort and familiarity of routine that has kept the ladies gathering around the bridge table for so many years. This is a very personal exploration of relationship, family, and friendship. Accessible and interesting, the memoir is a quick read, blending Lerner's experiences with the conventional lives against which she spent her teen and early adult years rebelling. That bridge and the bridge ladies bridged this long divide is both lovely and fitting. The complex game that seems to be restricted to the elderly these days proved a life learning experience and an insight into a very different community for sure. How curious.

For more information about Betsy Lerner, take a look at her web page, like her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe. The book is being released by Knopf on May 24, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: A bold, spellbinding novel featuring one of the most fascinating protagonists in recent memory, Dear Fang, With Love tells the story of seventeen-year-old Vera—ravishing, troubled, wildly intelligent—who travels to Europe with her estranged father, hoping that an immersion in history might help them forget his past mistakes and her uncertain future.

Lucas and Katya were boarding school seniors when, blindingly in love, they decided to have a baby. Seventeen years later, after a decade of absence, Lucas is a weekend dad, newly involved in his daughter Vera's life. But after Vera suffers a terrifying psychotic break at a high school party, Lucas takes her to Lithuania, his grandmother's homeland, for the summer. Here, in the city of Vilnius, Lucas hopes to save Vera from the sorrow of her diagnosis. As he uncovers a secret about his grandmother, a Home Army rebel who escaped Stutthof, Vera searches for answers of her own. Why did Lucas abandon her as a baby? What really happened the night of her breakdown? And who can she trust with the truth? Skillfully weaving family mythology and Lithuanian history with a story of mental illness, inheritance, young love, and adventure, Rufi Thorpe has written a breathtakingly intelligent, emotionally enthralling book.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Review: The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler

We all have to make sacrifices in order to live our dreams and passions. Some sacrifices aren't terrible but others can alter our lives, loves, and family forever. Deciding which dreams are worth that risk and which will only leave us with regrets in the end is a large part of knowing whether to keep chasing your passion. In Maggie Leffler's novel, The Secrets of Flight, one of the characters must make decision after decision about her path to her dream, a dream that will have unimagined rewards as well as high costs.

Mary Browning is in her eighties. She runs a writing group at the local library but aside from one published book long out of print, she never contributes writing for critique, holding herself at arms length from the rest of the seniors in the group. But she is starting to think about writing a memoir about her long hidden past including her time as a WASP during WWII after seeing a picture in the newspaper of her much younger self with two of her fellow fly girls. Then fifteen year old Elyse walks into the writer's group. Something about the teenager reminds Mary of her sister Sarah and she decides that perhaps she could pay this young girl to type up the memoir for her. She's finally ready to start telling her story.

Elyse is writing a novel of her own and despite the fact that the writing group is entirely made up of senior citizens, she decides to keep coming and eventually agrees to Mary's typing proposition. Elyse's life is complicated by not only usual teenaged angst, her interest in a popular boy, and a falling out with her best friend, but also by the fact that her parents might very well be getting divorced and her grandmother, who she hasn't seen in years, is very sick. Her growing friendship with Mary helps to give her a bit of stability and caring at an otherwise unhappy point in her life.

The novel moves back and forth between Mary and Elyse's present day and Mary's past. Mary records chapters of her memoir for Elyse, slowly revealing the fascinating truth of her drive to become a pilot, to fly as a WASP, and why she is so alone now in her final years. The one thing she does not reveal though, is the name she shed so many years ago, Miriam (Miri) Lichtenstein, holding that last secret close to her heart. Mary is an active, tough character, full of life but she is clearly alone. Elyse is a typical teenager in many ways, trying to find out who she is, what value she has, and what gifts she can share with the world.  The two of them need each other.

The tale of Mary's past is a fascinating one although it only skims the surface of the now often overlooked WASP program that gave women vital roles in aviation freeing up male pilots to be sent overseas to fight. Leffler has done a great deal of research into the WASPs (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) and into the discrimination of the time against both Jews and women to make this historically accurate. The premise is both interesting and warm-hearted in its execution although it is peppered with the occasional sad pieces that also form a life. The twist at the end was too pat and unbelievable and as a reader, I winced when I realized where the author was going with it. But aside from this, the novel was an easy, quick read that should appeal to fans of historical fiction, those who want to know something about the WASPs, and those who are looking for a tender tale of chasing dreams.

For more information about Maggie Leffler, take a look at her web page or like her on Facebook. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Monday, May 2, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Remarkable by Dinah Cox
Miss Jane by Brad Watson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
A Well-Made Bed by Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts
The Unseen World by Liz Moore
The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie

Reviews posted this week:

Father's Day by Simon Van Booy
The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom by Alison Love
My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Remarkable by Dinah Cox
Miss Jane by Brad Watson

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Sunday Salon: Independent Bookstore Day

So yesterday was Independent Bookstore Day. I hope that all of you took the time to go and support your local indie bookstore. I, of course, did. Park Road Books is my local independent. And I came away with a nice stack of books as if I don't have enough reading material in the house to keep me going until I am 101 already. But hey, I intend to live (and read) forever so it's all good. And today by the time this posts, I will be on my way to Asheville, where they are completely and totally spoiled with indie bookstores, new and used. R. has to be there and be dance ready (which means hair and makeup done, costume on, and be stretched out) by 8 am. This is a huge deal since she had prom last night and Asheville is a couple of hours from here. I will need to hit all of the bookstores in town to keep me awake after my middle of the night drive so I'm calling it Indie Bookstore Day Plus One. I'm sure I'll have another nice stack to add to the official IBD one. In the meantime, here's yesterday's haul:



If you went to your local bookstore to celebrate, what all came home with you?

Popular Posts