Monday, December 31, 2018

Review: On the Same Page by N.D. Galland

Haven't we all wanted to live on an island? It sounds exotic or romantic and is generally based on what we know of the island we fantasize about during the regular season. Not too many people think about what it's like to live there in the off-season, when the weather isn't ideal, jobs might be scarce, and there's little entertainment available. But people who do or have lived on islands all year, face all the realities of island living. Some choose to stay in their communities and others move off island as soon as they can. In N.D. Galland's newest novel, a woman who left Martha's Vineyard as soon as she could must come home, take care of the irascible uncle who raised her after he falls off his roof one winter, and slowly fit her way back into the year round islander community she was once so quick to abandon.

Joanna Howes is a well-known freelance features writer in New York City who is trying to decide if she's ready to move in with her easy going boyfriend when she gets a call that her Uncle Hank fell off his roof, broke his leg badly, bruised some internal organs, and is in the hospital. He may be a curmudgeon but she immediately heads for Martha's Vineyard to take care of him, assuming that she will be back in the City in fairly short order after she gets him settled. But Hank has really done a number on his leg and Joanna is faced with a longer than planned stay. In order to keep paying the rent on her apartment, she starts to freelance at one of the two island newspapers. Then she has to start freelancing at the other one. And she has to keep her jobs separate and secret because of the feud between the papers. So Joanna Dias Howes writes about the politics and happenings on the island as Anna Howes at the Journal and she writes about the charm of the Vineyard and profiles of the people who live there for the Newes as Joey Dias.

When she covers the argument about construction of a private helipad that is escalating between the town and a wealthy summer resident, she inadvertently meets and agrees to a date of sorts with Orion Smith, the summer resident in question. Conflicted because of her job and intent on keeping everything between them ethically unassailable, she gets in deeper and deeper with Orion without ever divulging her her ties to her uncle Hank, Orion's most vociferous opponent. As Joanna and Orion spar, their relationship grows until the secret between them is bigger than the lawsuit that divides them.

Tackling issues of truth versus subterfuge, class differences, belonging, and natives versus wash-ashores, this is a love story between characters but also about Martha's Vineyard itself and what the inhabitants of the island think makes their slice of the world so wonderful. The characters all think they are considering others in their actions and opinions but in reality each is frustratingly only working in their own narrow interest. Joanna's relationship with her Uncle Hank starts out understandably (he's cranky and in pain) but goes downhill pretty quickly and while he is referred to many times as a Yankee man (and presumably a typical one at that), his sniping and griping at her is never balanced with caring unless the reader simply assumes that because he raised her, he loves her. Joanna is surprisingly insecure about herself and her writing, especially given her past moderately famous successes. Her character comes across as weak and hesitant. Her one firm stand, not accepting anything that can be construed as a gift from Orion, and therefore supplying her own food and drink every time they are together, feels more like a quirk than showing the strength of her ethics. The relationship between Joanna and Orion was a bit lukewarm and Orion repeatedly telling Joanna that she clearly wasn't a very good journalist if she was unable to find much out about him was, frankly, infuriating, and made him rather less than likable. His privilege oozed from him at all times and the corrective to that came too late to change this reader's opinion of him. The narrative tension eased off towards the simple and perhaps too easily achieved end and a plot line or two just faded into the background. Despite these flaws, the novel had an intriguing concept that ultimately delivered a quick and pleasant read. Although not an in depth look at the economic, social, and political realities of living on an island year round, it does offer a glimpse at life and love when the sun and sand are replaced by snow and mud, when summer resident comes up against the working class year rounder, and what could happen to the magic of the place if there's too much change.

For more information about N.D. Galland and the book, check out her webpage, like her author page on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Goodreads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The New York Time Footsteps by various authors
Christmas Comes to Main Street by Olivia Miles
The Golden Egg by Donna Leon
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Must Love Mistletoe by Christie Ridgway
On the Same Page by N. D. Galland
A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Metis Beach by Claudine Bourbonnais
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Reviews posted this week:

not one since I was on vacation and not around the computer

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

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
Tenemental by Vikki Warner
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Lido by Libby Page
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
The Showrunner by Kim Mortishugu
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
Terra Nullius by Clare G. Coleman
Christmas in July by Alan Michael Parker
Nothing Forgotten by Jessica Levine
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman
Weedeater by Robert Gipe
The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison
The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Sound by Bella Bathurst
Celine by Peter Heller
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
You'll Always Have Tara by Leah Marie Brown
The Taster by V.S. Alexander
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
Calypso by David Sedaris
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Postcards from the Canyon by Lisa Gitlin
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Second Wind by Nathaniel Philbrick
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Shores Beyond Shores by Irene Butter
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark
Tigerbelle by Wyomia Tyus
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
London Road by Tessa Smith McGovern
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie
The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders
The Governess Game by Tess Dare
In-Between Days by Teva Harrison
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Penelope Lemon by Inman Majors
I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society by assorted authors
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara
The Legendary Lord by Valerie Bowman
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Thousand-Miler by Melanie Radzicki McManus
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Kirkpatrick
Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony
One House Over by Mary Monroe
A Merry Little Christmas by Martha Schroeder
Lady Fortescue Steps Out by M.C. Beaton
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale
What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille
Burntown by Jennifer McMahon
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak
The White Darkness by David Grann
The New York Time Footsteps by various authors
Christmas Comes to Main Street by Olivia Miles
The Golden Egg by Donna Leon
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Must Love Mistletoe by Christie Ridgway
On the Same Page by N. D. Galland
A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was 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. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The Chef's Secret by Crystal King.

The book is being released by Atria Books on February 12, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: When Bartolomeo Scappi dies in 1577, he leaves his vast estate—properties, money, and his position—to his nephew and apprentice Giovanni. He also gives Giovanni the keys to two strongboxes and strict instructions to burn their contents. Despite Scappi’s dire warning that the information concealed in those boxes could put Giovanni’s life and others at risk, Giovanni is compelled to learn his uncle’s secrets. He undertakes the arduous task of decoding Scappi’s journals and uncovers a history of deception, betrayal, and murder—all to protect an illicit love affair.

As Giovanni pieces together the details of Scappi’s past, he must contend with two rivals who have joined forces—his brother Cesare and Scappi’s former protégé, Domenico Romoli, who will do anything to get his hands on the late chef’s recipes.

With luscious prose that captures the full scale of the sumptuous feasts for which Scappi was known, The Chef’s Secret serves up power, intrigue, and passion, bringing Renaissance Italy to life in a delectable fashion.

Monday, December 24, 2018

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak
The White Darkness by David Grann

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Metis Beach by Claudine Bourbonnais
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The New York Time Footsteps by various authors
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Reviews posted this week:

not one

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

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
Tenemental by Vikki Warner
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Lido by Libby Page
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
The Showrunner by Kim Mortishugu
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
Terra Nullius by Clare G. Coleman
Christmas in July by Alan Michael Parker
Nothing Forgotten by Jessica Levine
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman
Weedeater by Robert Gipe
The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison
The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Sound by Bella Bathurst
Celine by Peter Heller
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
You'll Always Have Tara by Leah Marie Brown
The Taster by V.S. Alexander
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
Calypso by David Sedaris
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Postcards from the Canyon by Lisa Gitlin
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Second Wind by Nathaniel Philbrick
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Shores Beyond Shores by Irene Butter
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark
Tigerbelle by Wyomia Tyus
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
London Road by Tessa Smith McGovern
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie
The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders
The Governess Game by Tess Dare
In-Between Days by Teva Harrison
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Penelope Lemon by Inman Majors
I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society by assorted authors
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara
The Legendary Lord by Valerie Bowman
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Thousand-Miler by Melanie Radzicki McManus
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Kirkpatrick
Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony
One House Over by Mary Monroe
A Merry Little Christmas by Martha Schroeder
Lady Fortescue Steps Out by M.C. Beaton
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale
What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille
Burntown by Jennifer McMahon
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Miss Tonks Turns to Crime by M.C. Beaton came from me for myself.

This is the second in the Poor Relations series and I needed this one after I found the first one to be a charming palate cleanser of a read.

Back in Society by M.C. Beaton came from me for myself.

The final title in the Poor Relations series so I needed it to be a completist. :-)

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.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was 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. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The Matchmaker's List by Sonya Lalli.

The book is being released by Berkley on February 5, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: Raina Anand may have finally given in to family pressure and agreed to let her grandmother play matchmaker, but that doesn't mean she has to like it--or that she has to play by the rules. Nani always took Raina's side when she tried to push past the traditional expectations of their tight-knit Indian-immigrant community, but now she's ambushing Raina with a list of suitable bachelors. Is it too much to ask for a little space? Besides, what Nani doesn't know won't hurt her...

As Raina's life spirals into a parade of Nani-approved bachelors and disastrous blind dates, she must find a way out of this modern-day arranged-marriage trap without shattering her beloved grandmother's dreams.

Monday, December 17, 2018

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

A Merry Little Christmas by Martha Schroeder
Lady Fortescue Steps Out by M.C. Beaton
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale
What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille
Burntown by Jennifer McMahon

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Metis Beach by Claudine Bourbonnais
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The New York Time Footsteps by various authors
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Reviews posted this week:

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
The Unseen World by Liz Moore

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

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
Tenemental by Vikki Warner
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Lido by Libby Page
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
The Showrunner by Kim Mortishugu
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
Terra Nullius by Clare G. Coleman
Christmas in July by Alan Michael Parker
Nothing Forgotten by Jessica Levine
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman
Weedeater by Robert Gipe
The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison
The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Sound by Bella Bathurst
Celine by Peter Heller
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
You'll Always Have Tara by Leah Marie Brown
The Taster by V.S. Alexander
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
Calypso by David Sedaris
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Postcards from the Canyon by Lisa Gitlin
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Second Wind by Nathaniel Philbrick
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Shores Beyond Shores by Irene Butter
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark
Tigerbelle by Wyomia Tyus
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
London Road by Tessa Smith McGovern
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie
The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders
The Governess Game by Tess Dare
In-Between Days by Teva Harrison
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Penelope Lemon by Inman Majors
I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society by assorted authors
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara
The Legendary Lord by Valerie Bowman
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Thousand-Miler by Melanie Radzicki McManus
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Kirkpatrick
Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony
One House Over by Mary Monroe
A Merry Little Christmas by Martha Schroeder
Lady Fortescue Steps Out by M.C. Beaton
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale
What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille
Burntown by Jennifer McMahon

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements came from me for myself.

A story about two sisters who inherit a failing ice cream shop and have to come up with a way to save it, this sounds completely delicious and wonderful.

On the Same Page by N. D. Galland came from TLC Book Tours and William Morrow for a blog tour.

I have a fondness for books set on islands and this one about a woman who returns to Martha's Vineyard to care for her cranky uncle and ends up writing for the two competing newspapers on the island (one under an alter ego) sounds like a fun and inventive story. I can't wait.

Fromage a Trois by Victoria Brownlee came from me for myself.

A title that is a cheesy pun (you're welcome for that one too)? That's really all I need to know but this one about Paris, love, and cheese sounds delectable even beyond its title.

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.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Review: The Unseen World by Liz Moore

Human beings have long been fascinated by artificial intelligence, creating a computer that can learn from us and even one day outstrip us. We worry about the effects of something like this and whether it would turn against us but even that concern doesn't slow us down from pursuing its creation. The fact that a technology like this could be used to capture something of a person, something of their very essence, especially once they themselves are nothing but a memory is incredibly enticing. Liz Moore's novel, The Unseen World, is set in the 1980s, when the idea of computers learning and expanding from that learning was much newer than it is now, the 2010s when technology had advanced well beyond the initial exploration of this idea, and the future when the technological frontier could be anything, but it is not just a novel about technology. It is a novel about people and relationship, love and learning, and the deliberate and accidental mistakes and betrayals that make people so very human.

Ada Sibelius is a child prodigy. Conceived by a surrogate and raised by her single father, David, she grows up in the local university's computer science lab where her father is a respected professor and researcher working on the artificial intelligence program ELIXIR, a language processing program. She is homeschooled by her father and her only friends are the graduate students at the lab and her father's close friend and colleague, Diana Liston. She adores her father, enjoys their intellectual fencing, and doesn't realize the extent of her unorthodox upbringing until the year she is twelve, when David starts showing signs of Alzheimer's.  As David's condition deteriorates, Ada ultimately moves in with Liston and her sons and goes to school for the first time, having to learn what regular teenage life is like. Alternating with the story of David's decline and young Ada's sudden immersion in a "normal" life that is completely foreign to her is the story of adult Ada trying to solve the puzzle that David left her and uncover the myriad of secrets that bubble up as she tries to figure out who her father really was, not just to her, to his students, and to his pet project, but who he was in a wider sense. In searching for answers, Ada will also come to understand and know herself and others in her life better too.

This is a very slow moving novel and there's a lot of technical information that might cause the non-technical reader to stumble, especially early on as the story is just starting to build. But once the reader is invested in Ada, they will follow her in her journey, eager to understand the truth about David, wanting to know what he left her just as much as she does. This is very much a literary novel, an exploration into identity, how technology preserves or changes that identity, and the messiness and mistakes of human connection. The characters are not only smart, they are at least as interesting as the enigmas they all hope to solve. There are codes and puzzles woven throughout the novel, some obvious (trying to crack David's code), some less so (like Ada's puzzling out how to be a normal kid and have normal relationships) and smart readers will enjoy following the many trails to discovery and the ultimate unveiling at the end. There are touches of mystery and sci-fi combined with personal, human reality here that all come together in one masterfully done literary work.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to review.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was 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. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

Caroline's Bikini by Kirsty Gunn.

The book is being released by Faber and Faber on January 22, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: "Alright" I said, "I’ll try..." This is how Emily Stuart opens her intricate tale of a classic love affair that becomes Caroline’s Bikini: a swirling cocktail of infatuation, obsession, and imagination. The moment that Emily’s friend Evan Gordonstone - a successful middle-aged financier - meets Caroline Beresford – a glamorous former horsewoman, and now housewife, hostess, and landlady - there is a "PING!" At least, that's how Evan describes it to Emily when he persuades her to record his story: the story of falling into unrequited love, which is as old as Western literature itself. Thus begins a hypnotic series of conversations set against the beguiling backdrop of West London’s bars, fueled in intensity by endless gin and tonics and Q&As. From the depths of mid-winter to July’s hot swelter, Emily's narration of Evan’s passion for Caroline will take him to the brink of his own destruction.

Written in a voice so playful, so charismatic, and so thoughtfully aware of the responsibilities of fiction it can only be by Kirsty Gunn, Caroline’s Bikini is a swooning portrait of courtly love - in a modern world not celebrated for its restraint and abstraction. Ready. Steady. Go!

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Review: Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstances by Ruth Emmie Lang

We are often told that our world needs to slow down, get outside, and enjoy nature more. Many of us seem to have lost our connection with the natural world and it shows in the increase in so many of our ills: obesity, depression, and stress, to name a few.  Although the outdoors cannot cure these things, experts tell us that it would certainly mitigate them at the very least. And for anyone who has spent time outside communing with nature and wildlife, there is definitely something a little bit magical about the untamed world. There is more than a little of this magic in Ruth Emmie Lang's slightly magical, charming debut novel, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance.

Weylyn Grey has always been special. Born in June, it snowed as soon as he breathed for the first time. He is orphaned young in a freak storm that he feels responsible for causing and ends up being raised by wolves. He can communicate with animals, he can make plants grow riotously out of control, and he can stop (and start) storms. He is sweetly innocent and as he moves through the world, he touches all he comes into contact with. He never stays with anyone very long, his closest long term companion being Merlin, a talking pig. His adventures are fantastical and wonderful and though his time in each place is brief, he leaves an indelible mark behind himself.

Told in the first person by the people whose lives Weylyn moves through, this is a whimsical story with a clear fairy tale quality. Weylyn as a character is both revealed by the narrators and remains just out of reach, quietly elusive. He is a gentle soul with a strong but ungovernable connection to the natural world, as if he was not human born but truly a child of the forest. He is uncomfortable with most people but when he loves, he loves with his whole heart. The writing is slow and measured and the novel feels like quiet mysticism. There is a yearning for home and understanding as Weylyn moves around meeting others who sometimes embrace him and sometimes misunderstand his power. There are adventures within each encounter he has but the plot is less important that the ultimate journey. The second half of the novel slows down a bit and the ending is purposely ambiguous. At its core, this is a fairy tale of a story about difference, love, and acceptance and it will leave the reader feeling contented and at peace, just like a ramble through the woods might.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to review.

Monday, December 10, 2018

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Kirkpatrick
Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony
One House Over by Mary Monroe

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Metis Beach by Claudine Bourbonnais
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The New York Time Footsteps by various authors
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
Burntown by Jennifer McMahon
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale
Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
A Merry Little Christmas by Martha Schroeder

Reviews posted this week:

Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan
Someone You Love Is Gone by Gurjinder Basran

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

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
Tenemental by Vikki Warner
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Lido by Libby Page
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
The Showrunner by Kim Mortishugu
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
Terra Nullius by Clare G. Coleman
Christmas in July by Alan Michael Parker
Nothing Forgotten by Jessica Levine
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman
Weedeater by Robert Gipe
The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison
The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Sound by Bella Bathurst
Celine by Peter Heller
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
You'll Always Have Tara by Leah Marie Brown
The Taster by V.S. Alexander
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
Calypso by David Sedaris
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Postcards from the Canyon by Lisa Gitlin
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Second Wind by Nathaniel Philbrick
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Shores Beyond Shores by Irene Butter
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark
Tigerbelle by Wyomia Tyus
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
London Road by Tessa Smith McGovern
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie
The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders
The Governess Game by Tess Dare
In-Between Days by Teva Harrison
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Penelope Lemon by Inman Majors
I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society by assorted authors
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara
The Legendary Lord by Valerie Bowman
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Thousand-Miler by Melanie Radzicki McManus
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Kirkpatrick
Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony
One House Over by Mary Monroe

Monday Mailbox

Apparently I had a book on back order that just arrived. Who knew? What a delightful surprise though!  And a few other wonderful surprises arrived too.  This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Squirrel Pie by Elisabeth Luard came from me for myself.
A food memoir about food around the world? Serve that right up for me! Now I just need someone to cook the recipes. :-)

Tiny Americans by Devin Murphy came from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I enjoy books that follow one family for decades so I am really looking forward to this one about an alcoholic father and the three children he left behind with whom he now must try to reconnect.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo came from a friend for a book exchange.
This one has all the accolades. About a Nigerian couple facing infertility and polygamy, it sounds like it deserves them all too.

The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani came from a friend for a book exchange.
After a woman loses her pregnancy and her marriage unravels, she heads to India to learn her family's history. I can't wait!

Mutts and Mistletoe by Natalie Cox came from a friend for a book exchange.
A seasonal book centered on dogs? How much more perfect can you get?

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, December 9, 2018

Review: The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha

For many years, the work of women, the unpaid work that they did or do, has been invisible. There is, of course, the old joke that a husband comes home from work one day and sees that the house is a mess, the kids are running rampant, and there's no dinner waiting for him because his wife has taken to heart that he thinks she does "nothing" all day long and so has decided to live up to his belief and therefore has actually done nothing that day. It's a scenario that makes a point very clearly. He never saw the work she did until the day she chose not to do it. Her work, important as it was, was invisible until it was left undone. Martha Batalha's novel The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao comes from this same place of women's work and lives being invisible unless they buck what society expects of them.

Euridice marries her husband Antenor because that is what is expected of her. She will become a housewife and mother in 1940s Rio. And she plays her role but she doesn't embrace it or truly enjoy it. Instead she spends a long time looking for her purpose in life within the societal constraints placed on her. Before her marriage she was an exceptional recorder player. The hope of a musical life had to go by the wayside as she married and became a mother. Then she learned to cook exotic and impressive dishes. But that wasn't her calling either, and unusual foods didn't please her children or her husband. Then she taught herself to sew and became quite an accomplished seamstress, dressing first herself and then neighborhood women. But her husband objected to her working from home. Finally she becomes an author, tickety tapping away on her typewriter, either destined for greatness or for obscurity as she retells the story of her life. She is a determined and intelligent woman who finds her prescribed role boring. Her beautiful sister Guida took a different, less conventional path through life but she cannot tell her story completely any more than Euridice could live her story completely as she wanted even after she came back to the path society required of her.

This is very much a domestic novel filled with quirky, often frustrated characters. Euridice is strong, flexible, and yearning as a a character. She absorbs the disappointments of her life, which are all of the spiritual variety rather than the physical disappointments and trials her sister weathers, as best she can while still being a woman of her time. She is different in her striving for more, in her quest to be seen, and sometimes that opens her up to gossip and innuendo from others but she perseveres in creating in herself the accomplished and fulfilled woman she needs to be.  No matter where she is in her journey to herself, she remains a sympathetic character.  The novel definitely has the feel of contemporary South American literature, a certain sensibility that comes through tying it to a long tradition of Latinx writing. Quite character driven, this novel is an interesting and insightful look at the life and dreams of one eccentric mid-twentieth century Brazilian woman as she becomes visible to her family, her neighbors, and most importantly, to herself.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book for review.

Friday, December 7, 2018

Review: Someone You Love Is Gone by Gurjinder Basran

Everyone grieves differently and it's hard to know when to step in and offer help to someone and when to let them process things in their own way. Losing someone is never simple, never uncomplicated, and when that loss is tied up with so many questions and unexplained issues, it must be that much more difficult. Gurjinder Basran has captured the complex and endless seeming grief of one such situation in her novel Someone You Love Is Gone.

The novel opens with Simran getting dressed for her mother's funeral. Amrita's death was not unexpected and Simran is an adult but that doesn't mean that she isn't devastated by the loss of her mother. She finds herself floundering as she grieves the complicated woman who was her mother at the same time she faces the growing estrangement in her marriage and the lengthening distance from her only daughter. The three biggest relationships in her life all become intertwined in this time of sadness and confusion and her difficult relationships with her sister and brother add another layer of stress as they work together to plan the funeral and decide what to do with Amrita's ashes.

The novel has three different alternating narrative threads, each building on the others to create a more complete picture of this Canadian-Sikh family's past and present. The present is, of course, the aftermath of Amrita's death and the subsequent squabbling between Simran and younger sister Jyoti as well as the measured disintegration of Simran's marriage as she focuses solely on her grief, uncovering secrets from her mother's past, and her conversations with the ghost of her mother. Mother Amrita's youth and devastating disappointment plays out slowly, unfolding just when explanations are needed for the third plot thread, that of Simran's childhood and the seemingly inexplicable sending away of her younger brother Diwa, an unusual child who knows more about the family's past than he could possibly do.

This is at its core, a story about loss. Obviously it is the story of a daughter's loss of her mother, but it is also a story of the loss of hopes and dreams, the loss of a child and sibling. And as the characters journey through their individual griefs, they move towards an acceptance and the flicker of a hope for the future. Simran is brimming over emotionally, alternately frozen and angry, resigned and desperate as she seeks to make sense of her own life and the choices her mother made, choices that forever impacted Jyoti, Diwa, and Simran herself. There is both a turning away from memory and a recognition and welcoming of it as pieces fall into place. The writing is quiet and steady and Simran's grief, her feeling of being set adrift, packs an emotional punch. The details of the expectations and limitations for girls in the India of Amrita's girlhood and then the reality of life in Canada as immigrants are very well drawn. Although there are some big events that happen in the novel, it is more of a character study and a look at one path through the deep sorrow when someone you love is gone. Elegaic in tone, this is a well written tale of one woman's long path towards acceptance and forgiving.

Thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was 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. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

Talent by Juliet Lapidos.

The book is being released by Little, Brown on January 22, 2019.

The book's jacket copy says: Anna Brisker is a twenty-nine-year-old graduate student in English at Collegiate University who can't seem to finish her dissertation. Her project: an intellectual history of inspiration. And yet, for the first time, Anna has found herself utterly uninspired. Rather than work on her thesis, she spends her days eating Pop-Tarts and walking the gritty streets of New Harbor, Connecticut.

As Anna's adviser is quick to remind her, time is running out. She needs the perfect case study to anchor her thesis-and she needs it now. Amid this mounting pressure, Anna strikes up a tenuous friendship with the niece of the famous author Frederick Langley. Freddy wrote three successful books as a young man, then published exactly nothing for the rest of his wayward, hermetic life. Critics believe Freddy suffered from an acute case of writer's block, but his niece tells Anna that there's more to the story: When he died, he was at work on something new.

With exclusive access to the notebooks of an author who was inspired, uninspired, and potentially reinspired, Anna knows she's found the perfect case study. But as fascination with Freddy blooms into obsession, Anna is drawn irrevocably into the criminal machinations of his sole living heir.

A modern twist on the Parable of the Talents, Lapidos's debut is a many-layered labyrinth of possible truths that reveal at each turn the danger of interpreting another person's intentions-literary or otherwise.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Review: Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan

I have been reading and enjoying Jenny Colgan's books for years, The Bookshop on the Corner and Summer at the Little Beach Street Bakery in 2016 and Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery in 2017 are just a few. In fact, I used to order her books directly from England before they were available here in the States because they were guaranteed to make me smile. Her novels are just the right amount of appealing, engaging, and heartwarming even as she addresses current social issues that might seem at odds with the otherwise comfortable and cozy feel. Christmas on the Island, her latest novel, is quintessential Colgan.

The small, remote, northern Scottish island of Mure is getting cold as Christmas is getting nearer. Flora was born and raised on Mure and returned to the island after a year away. She owns the Seaside Kitchen, a bakery on the main street of the town and is an integral part of the fabric of Mure. It just so happens that she is unexpectedly pregnant and is struggling with how to break the news to her boyfriend Joel, knowing that, because of his past history, this will be a really big deal but not knowing exactly how he'll react. She is not the only one on the island facing big life changes either. Saif is a doctor working on Mure. He is a Syrian refugee and has recently been reunited with his young sons but doesn't know the fate of his much loved wife, not even if she's still alive. He and the boys are having to adjust to a very different climate, culture, and life amidst people who can't have any idea of the horrors they saw or of the threats to their way of life, their religion, and their past that they still feel, even on this welcoming island. It doesn't help that Saif is fighting growing feelings for Lorna, the boys' teacher in the tiny lower school. As Saif and his boys try to establish a new life, another life is coming to a close. Colton Roger is a reclusive billionaire from Silicon Valley who arrived on Mure with grand development plans but fell in love with the island as it was and with his eventual husband, Fintan, Flora's brother. Now he's dying of cancer and his long estranged brother turns up to claim the family's share of the pie.

Colgan tackles some pretty tough issues in this novel but the only time anything is remotely preachy is when American politics are dragged into the plot via Colton's offensive and overly stereotypical, negative brother. All of the other issues are dealt with deftly, allowing the story not to be overwhelmed with the message. Mure might be wretchedly cold in the winter, but the tightly knit community is otherwise warm and wonderful. The novel is certainly not simply a happily ever after, especially given Colton's clear diagnosis, among other things, and this imparts a feeling of necessary bittersweetness to the tale. The setting is well drawn and that it makes the reader want to visit even during the cold, dark winter is impressive indeed. This is the third in a series and while a knowledge of the previous two novels might help give a little more depth to the characters, reading them isn't necessary to enjoy this one. (In fact, I own but haven't read the previous two yet either.) Readers who are looking for a heartwarming read about the importance of love, friendship, and acceptance, set during the season that is all about these things will find this novel fits the bill.

For more information about Jenny Colgan and the book, check out her webpage, like her author page on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Goodreads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

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

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Hard and Heavy Thing by Matthew J. Hefti
Paint Your Wife by Lloyd Jones
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Metis Beach by Claudine Bourbonnais
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney
The New York Time Footsteps by various authors
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
One House Over by Mary Monroe
Burntown by Jennifer McMahon
Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Kirkpatrick
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale
Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

Reviews posted this week:

The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love by Per J. Andersson
Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano

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

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
Tenemental by Vikki Warner
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Lido by Libby Page
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
The Showrunner by Kim Mortishugu
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
Terra Nullius by Clare G. Coleman
Christmas in July by Alan Michael Parker
Nothing Forgotten by Jessica Levine
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman
Weedeater by Robert Gipe
The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison
The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Sound by Bella Bathurst
Celine by Peter Heller
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
You'll Always Have Tara by Leah Marie Brown
The Taster by V.S. Alexander
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
Calypso by David Sedaris
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Postcards from the Canyon by Lisa Gitlin
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Second Wind by Nathaniel Philbrick
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Shores Beyond Shores by Irene Butter
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark
Tigerbelle by Wyomia Tyus
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
London Road by Tessa Smith McGovern
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie
The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders
The Governess Game by Tess Dare
In-Between Days by Teva Harrison
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Penelope Lemon by Inman Majors
I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society by assorted authors
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara
The Legendary Lord by Valerie Bowman
Someone You Love Is Gone by Gurjinder Basran
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Thousand-Miler by Melanie Radzicki McManus
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis

Monday Mailbox

I won a contest on Reading with Robin's Facebook page and as a result I got an embarrassment of riches in my mailbox. If you don't know Reading with Robin, you should. She's got a great podcast where she interviews authors about their new book and the interviews are always spoiler free. If you're in New England (I'm not), she also runs the Point Street Reading Series, which sounds like it would be wonderful to attend. And of course, she runs great contests, hence my stuffed mailbox this past week. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Collector's Apprentice by B.A. Shapiro came from Reading with Robin.

I am fascinated with the whole idea of art theft or fraud so this novel about a young woman suspected of being in on her fiance's scheme and who determines to recover her father's collection and to revenge herself on her con artist fiance sounds gripping.

Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood came from Reading with Robin.

I love Ann Hood and have been reading her since I was in high school umpty thousand years ago so pair her writing with the topic of food in personal essays and I'm all in.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver came from Reading with Robin.

Who hasn't wanted to get her hands on the latest Barbara Kingsolver?! Certainly not me!

The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim came from Reading with Robin.

A family separated from their infant daughter by war and their long determination to reunite the family which only highlights the difference between a child who grew up in war torn Korea and one who grew up in the US? Oh, yes please!

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay came from Reading with Robin.

As a family gathers for their patriarch's 70th birthday in Paris, family secrets will burst out just as the river Seine does in this amazing sounding novel.

Heads You Win by Jeffrey Archer came from Reading with Robin.

Jeffery Archer writes sprawling, twisty novels and this story of a Russian man who chooses where to live as he and his mother flee Russia based on a coin toss promises to be Archer in top form.

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, December 2, 2018

Sunday Salon: You Choose

You might have noticed that I am shamefully behind on writing up reviews. Then again, it's such a small number (HA!) that maybe it slipped past you. ::snort:: Since I am completely overwhelmed with how many I have to do and since the holidays are upon us, I thought I'd let you choose. Is there a book in this list that you'd like to see a review of sooner rather than later? Obviously I'll keep reading and adding to the list but if you ask for a review, it will help light a fire under me to do those that you're curious about first. Consider it an early Christmas present from me to you. :-)

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
Tenemental by Vikki Warner
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Lido by Libby Page
The Invisible Valley by Su Wei
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
The Showrunner by Kim Mortishugu
I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan
Terra Nullius by Clare G. Coleman
Christmas in July by Alan Michael Parker
Nothing Forgotten by Jessica Levine
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman
Weedeater by Robert Gipe
The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison
The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Sound by Bella Bathurst
Celine by Peter Heller
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
You'll Always Have Tara by Leah Marie Brown
The Taster by V.S. Alexander
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
Calypso by David Sedaris
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Postcards from the Canyon by Lisa Gitlin
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
As Wide As the Sky by Jessica Pack
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Second Wind by Nathaniel Philbrick
Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Shores Beyond Shores by Irene Butter
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark
Tigerbelle by Wyomia Tyus
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
London Road by Tessa Smith McGovern
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie
The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders
The Governess Game by Tess Dare
In-Between Days by Teva Harrison
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Penelope Lemon by Inman Majors
I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Country of Red Azaleas by Domnica Radulescu
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society by assorted authors
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Hope Has Two Daughters by Monia Mazigh
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara
The Legendary Lord by Valerie Bowman
Someone You Love Is Gone by Gurjinder Basran
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Thousand-Miler by Melanie Radzicki McManus
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart
No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery

So what do you think? Let me know in the comments below or by email which books intrigue you the most and I'll get right on them.

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