tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193355799199276532024-03-13T23:18:52.439-07:00BookNAroundbooks, running, lifeKristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.comBlogger4051125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-9866928503290373012024-03-13T05:38:00.000-07:002024-03-13T05:38:00.135-07:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-Qm49cDOJMk/TAVqJaWcJaI/AAAAAAAABaw/M_9QCFHandk/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-Qm49cDOJMk/TAVqJaWcJaI/AAAAAAAABaw/M_9QCFHandk/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780385549158.jpg?height=500&v=v2-5c14d6d6c62b901ba7dada6ed5b3425b" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-titanic-survivors-book-club-timothy-schaffert/20583074?ean=9780385549158"> The Titanic Survivors Book Club by </a><br />Timothy Schaffert.
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The book is being released by Doubleday Books on April 2, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>From the author of The Perfume Thief, a remarkable tale about the life-changing power of books and second chances, following the Titanic librarian who opens a bookshop in Paris where he meets a secret society of survivors.
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For weeks after the sinking of the Titanic, Yorick spots his own name among the list of those lost at sea. As an apprentice librarian for the White Star Line, his job was to curate the ship's second-class library. But the day the Titanic set sail he was left stranded at the dock.
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After the ship's sinking, Yorick takes this twist of fate as a sign to follow his lifelong dream of owning a bookshop in Paris. Soon after, he receives an invitation to a secret society of survivors where he encounters other ticket holders who didn't board the ship. Haunted by their good fortune, they decide to form a book society, where they can grapple with their own anxieties through heated discussions of The Awakening or The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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Of this ragtag group, Yorick finds himself particularly drawn to the glamorous Zinnia and the mysterious Haze, and a tangled triangle of love and friendship forms among them. Yet with the Great War on the horizon and the unexpected death of one of their own, the surviving book club members are left wondering what fate might have in store.
Elegant and elegiac, The Titanic Survivors Book Club is a dazzling ode to love, chance, and the transformative power of books to bring people together.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-69126918190286403892024-03-06T06:33:00.000-08:002024-03-06T06:33:00.137-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-Qm49cDOJMk/TAVqJaWcJaI/AAAAAAAABaw/M_9QCFHandk/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-Qm49cDOJMk/TAVqJaWcJaI/AAAAAAAABaw/M_9QCFHandk/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250280275.jpg?height=500&v=v2-a330576e5d3f1b0e0134c9994fa3f33e" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-trail-of-lost-hearts-tracey-garvis-graves/19995435?ean=9781250280275"> The Trail of Lost Hearts by </a><br />Tracey Garvis Graves.
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The book is being released by St. Martin's Press on March 26, 2024. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn't see coming, and all she wants to do is put the whole heartbreaking mess behind her. No one is more surprised than Wren when she discovers that geocaching--the outdoor activity of using GPS to look for hidden objects--is the only thing getting her out of bed and out of her head. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life.
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Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. Though Wren initially rebuffs Marshall's attempt at hiker small talk, she's beyond grateful when he rescues her from a horrifying encounter farther down the trail. In the interest of safety, Marshall suggests partnering up to look for additional caches. Wren's no longer quite so trusting of the universe--or men in general--but her inner circle might argue that a smart, charismatic psychologist isn't the worst thing the universe could place in her path.
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What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know. Now all she can do is hope that the universe gets it right this time.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-32580510745836905772024-02-27T22:04:00.000-08:002024-02-27T22:04:00.243-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250896582.jpg?height=500&v=v2-8f149a65c41cd85d6aae62b8659265f8" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-divorcees-rowan-beaird/19995576?ean=9781250896582"> The Divorcees by </a><br />Rowan Beaird.
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The book is being released by Flatiron Books on March 19, 2024. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>Lois Saunders thought that marrying the right man would finally cure her loneliness. But as picture-perfect as her husband is, she is suffocating in their loveless marriage. In 1951, though, unhappiness is hardly grounds for divorce--except in Reno, Nevada.
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At the Golden Yarrow, the most respectable of Reno's famous "divorce ranches," Lois finds herself living with half a dozen other would-be divorcees, all in Reno for the six weeks' residency that is the state's only divorce requirement. They spend their days riding horses and their nights flirting with cowboys, and it's as wild and fun as Lake Forest, Illinois, is prim and stifling. But it isn't until Greer Lang arrives that Lois's world truly cracks open. Gorgeous, beguiling, and completely indifferent to societal convention, Greer is unlike anyone Lois has ever met--and she sees something in Lois that no one else ever has. Under her influence, Lois begins to push against the limits that have always restrained her. How far will she go to forge her independence, on her own terms?
<br><br>
Set in the glamorous, dizzying world of 1950s Reno, where housewives and movie stars rubbed shoulders at gin-soaked casinos, The Divorcees is a riveting page-turner and a dazzling exploration of female friendship, desire, and freedom.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-64613301903796788172024-02-27T07:48:00.000-08:002024-02-27T10:23:27.887-08:00Review: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/17/56/17568030817c674596a70567341444341587343_v5.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="421" src="https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/17/56/17568030817c674596a70567341444341587343_v5.jpg"/></a></div> Diane Setterfield draws misty trails across her stories in ways that both obscure and illuminate, challenging her readers to uncover the truth she writes. Her settings are the otherworldly that sit opaquely on top of a solid reality and her characters draw a reader in through fascination and curiousity. She is a master of language. I first encountered her work through The Thirteenth Tale and then in <a href="https://booknaround.blogspot.com/2014/10/review-bellman-and-black-by-diane.html">Bellman and Black</a>, the former of which I liked more than the latter, and I bought Once Upon a River several years ago in order to once again immerse myself in her work. And then as is common with books I buy, it languished, unread, on my shelf for literal years, until now, when I picked up this unsettling, dreamy, and immersive fairy tale of a story about the power of storytelling and want and loss.
<br>
<br>
In 1887, on the evening of the winter Solstice, at The Swan, a rural inn on the banks of the River Thames, as a public room full of people drank and listened to the publican's storytelling, a man three quarters frozen through, and dripping river water, burst into the room carrying the body of a four year old girl and promptly collapsed. The child had drowned and was beyond help but the man could still be saved. Rita, a local nurse, was called to assist with the unconscious man. She saw the body of the child and confirmed to herself by all measures that the small girl was dead, only to then witness the girl come back to life with a gasp. The man who saved her regains consciousness but has no idea who the child is, leading to confusion and speculation. Was she the missing child of the Vaughns, wealthy local landowners whose baby was kidnapped several years before? Was she missing daughter of a thief from a local farming family who disapeared when her mother died by suicide and was last seen being led to the river before her mother's death? Was she the young sister of the parson's cleaning lady? Each of these three possibilities diverge and then come together just as the River Thames and its tributaries meander toward the sea. Each of these missing girl stories is like a tributary of the great river--sometimes taking over and sometimes meandering slowly like a trickle but always weaving inexorably back to the main story. There is a fourth, and supernatural, possibiliy as well. Could this mute child be the daughter of Quietly the boatman who is said to haunt this stretch of the river? Threaded through these larger tales are smaller stories that also flow into the greater story, that of Daunt, the photographer who saved the girl and who finds himself falling in love with his nurse; that of the local farmer, the son of royalty and a Black maid, who has created his own wonderful, much loved family; and that of the solitary, haunted woman who cleans for the parson, keeping quiet about the history of abuse she has suffered and continues to suffer.
<br>
<br>
The line between the realistic and the supernatural is a thin one and this story straddles it well with its slowly rising tension, its lush descriptions, the ongoing question of the child's identity, and the hypnotic feel of the prose itself. In the person of the reanimated little girl and the various characters' great desire for her to be their missing child, all of the characters are all faced with the secrets and heavy guilt each carries. Setterfield has taken a complex plot, stirred in elements of magical realism, Victorian sensibilities, the hold of superstition, and questions of belonging and identity in this paean to the power and importance of storytelling. The ending of this mesmerizing tale starts to come apart a bit, as if the answer to the question of the child's identity must be hurried along so that all of the other plot threads could be neatly tied up too. Despite this oddly curtailed conclusion after so many pages of slowly heightening the suspense, the story as a whole was an engrossing one that keeps a reader turning the pages hoping for the truth, or at least a satisfying resolution to each of the major and minor story lines.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-58718055436593544532024-02-21T07:58:00.000-08:002024-02-27T08:03:19.039-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780063319882.jpg?height=500&v=v2-8a08df42363479c9ae8018c32f185df1" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-funeral-ladies-of-ellerie-county-claire-swinarski/20256340?ean=9780063319882"> The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County by </a><br />Clare Swinarski.
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The book is being released by Avon Books on March 12, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>Armed with a Crock-Pot and a pile of recipes, a grandmother, her granddaughter, and a mysterious young man work to bring a community together in this uplifting novel for readers of The Chicken Sisters.
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Esther Larson has been cooking for funerals in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for seventy years. Known locally as the "funeral ladies," she and her cohort have worked hard to keep the mourners of Ellerie County fed--it is her firm belief that there is very little a warm casserole and a piece of cherry pie can't fix. But, after falling for an internet scam that puts her home at risk, the proud Larson family matriarch is the one in need of help these days.
<br><br>
Iris, Esther's whip-smart Gen Z granddaughter, would do anything for her family and her community. As she watches her friends and family move out of their lakeside town onto bigger and better things, Iris wonders why she feels so left behind in the place she is desperate to make her home. But when Cooper Welsh shows up, she finally starts to feel like she's found the missing piece of her puzzle.
<br><br>
Cooper is dealing with becoming a legal guardian to his younger half-sister after his beloved stepmother dies. While their celebrity-chef father is focused on his booming career and top-ranked television show, Cooper is still hurting from a public tragedy he witnessed last year as a paramedic and finding it hard to cope. With Iris in the gorgeous Ellerie County, though, he hopes he might finally find the home he's been looking for.
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It doesn't seem like a community cookbook could possibly solve their problems, especially one where casseroles have their own section and cream of chicken soup mix is the most frequently used ingredient. But when you mix the can-do spirit of Midwestern grandmothers with the stubborn hope of a boy raised by food plus a dash of long-awaited forgiveness--things might just turn out okay.
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Includes Recipes</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-38389151673439013722024-02-14T07:54:00.000-08:002024-02-27T08:03:56.407-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250846006.jpg?height=500&v=v2-1fa4ae1a2a1377b8d49944dd9cf61788" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/finlay-donovan-rolls-the-dice-elle-cosimano/19987767?ean=9781250846006"> Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by </a><br />Elle Cosimano.
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The book is being released by Minotaur Books on March 5, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are in sore need of a girls' weekend away. They plan a trip to Atlantic City, but odds are--seeing as it's actually a cover story to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero's childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car--it won't be all fun and games. When Finlay's ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on tagging along too, Finlay and Vero suddenly have a few too many meddlesome passengers along for the ride.
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Within hours of arriving in their seedy casino hotel, it becomes clear their rescue mission is going to be a bust. Javi's kidnapper, Marco, refuses to negotiate, demanding payment in full in exchange for Javi's life. But that's not all--he insists on knowing the whereabouts of his missing nephew, Ike, who mysteriously disappeared. Unable to confess what really happened to Ike, Finlay and Vero are forced to come up with a new plan: sleuth out the location of Javi and the Aston Martin, then steal them both back.
But when they sneak into the loan shark's suite to search for clues, they find more than they bargained for--Marco's already dead. They don't have a clue who murdered him, only that they themselves have a very convincing motive. Then four members of the police department unexpectedly show up in town, also looking for Ike--and after Finlay's night with hot cop Nick at the police academy, he's a little too eager to keep her close to his side.
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If Finlay can juggle a jealous ex-husband, two precocious kids, her mother's marital issues, a decomposing loan shark, and find Vero's missing boyfriend, she might get out of Atlantic City in one piece. But will she fold under the pressure and come clean about the things she's done, or be forced to double down?</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-41359977020960537232024-02-07T07:50:00.000-08:002024-02-27T08:03:37.164-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250890481.jpg?height=500&v=v2-12911ce5afdebe194de0c45d33b3295c" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-last-days-of-the-midnight-ramblers-sarah-tomlinson/19995528?ean=9781250890481"> The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers by </a><br />Sarah Tomlinson.
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The book is being released by Flatiron Books on February 13, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>Perfect for fans of Daisy Jones and The Six and Almost Famous, a gripping debut about the complicated legacy of a legendary rock band and the ghostwriter telling their story
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Three Rock and Roll icons. Two explosive tell-all memoirs. One ghostwriter caught in the middle.
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Anke Berben is ready to tell all. A legendary model and style icon, she reveled in headline-grabbing romances with not one but three members of the hugely influential rock band the Midnight Ramblers. The band members were as famous for their backstage drama as for their music, and Anke is the only one who fully understands the tangled relationships, betrayals, and suspicions that have added to the Ramblers' enduring appeal and mystique. That is most evident in the mystery around Anke's role in the death of Mal, the band's founder and Anke's husband, in 1969.
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When Mari Hawthorn accepts the job to work with Anke on her memoir, she is dead set on getting to the truth of Mal's death. She has always been deft at navigating the fatal charms of celebrities, having grown up with a narcissistic, alcoholic father. As she ingratiates herself into the world of the band, she grows enchanted, against her better judgment, by these legendary rock stars. She knows she can't get pulled in too deep, otherwise she'll compromise her objectivity--and her integrity.
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Filled with all of the glamour and attitude of rock and roll, The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers is a bighearted page-turner that will appeal to fans of Daisy Jones and The Six and Almost Famous.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-46518622463056055542024-01-31T02:59:00.000-08:002024-01-31T02:59:00.137-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780063304734.jpg?height=500&v=v2-5a3d7fa9991ab773948b463a04f4d0f5" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-phoenix-crown-janie-chang/19879569?ean=9780063304734"> The Phoenix Crown by </a><br />Kate Quinn and Janie Chang.
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The book is being released by William Morrow and Company on February 13, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles.
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San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing's fallen Summer Palace.
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His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-59051213446111734202024-01-25T00:29:00.000-08:002024-01-25T00:29:00.133-08:00Review: Babbacombe's by Susan Scarlett<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1907503331.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="328" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1907503331.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/></a></div> Warm, sweet, and wholesome are just some of the adjectives that apply to Susan Scarlett's (Noel Streatfeild) novels. Streatfeild is probably best known for her children's books (Ballet Shoes, et al) but her lovely, WWII, adult novels must have proved to be the kind of cozy, escapist reads that would have been embraced during wartime. In fact, they are still appealing today, even if they feel a little simplistic in their lack of nuance. Babbacombe's is the second of her novels that I've read and it was as charming as the first.
<br>
<br>
When the story opens, sweet, naive Beth Carson is graduating from school amidst a shower of compliments and despite wanting to go on and study further, she must take up a job to help her loving family, which lives paycheck to paycheck. Father George, who has worked faithfully at Babbacombe's department store for decades, has secured her a position as a junior assistant in Gowns. As Beth is starting her new job, cousin Dulcie, who is Beth's age, comes to live with the Carsons and she is also found a job at Babbacombe's. But she can't be more different than Beth. Dulcie is scheming, spoiled, and nasty, and her work ethic is non-existent. She causes stress for the family, none more so than when David Babbacombe, the son of the store owner, meets the pretty and natural Beth and continues to show an interest in her, despite her continued assertion that they have no future given their different class situation. Dulcie's machinations threaten everyone's happiness but in the end, good will triumph.
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Scarlett gently highlights class difference here and plays into the trope of the cheerful working class. The story is predictable but still delightful for all that. The characters are quite one dimensional with Beth being good through and through and Dulcie being the villain at every turn but somehow this straightforward and uncomplicated rendering works for this easy, undemanding, and heartwarming, if unrealistic, read. It's a winsome book all the way around.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-49053961750017662142024-01-24T06:12:00.000-08:002024-01-24T06:12:36.757-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250867933.jpg?height=500&v=v2-1deac3787507b60bbe8a8757446c0a7b" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/when-grumpy-met-sunshine-charlotte-stein/19995386?ean=9781250867933"> When Grumpy Met Sunshine by </a><br />Charlotte Stein.
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The book is being released by St. Martin's Griffin on February 6, 2024. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>A steamy, opposites-attract romance with undeniable chemistry between a grumpy retired footballer and his fabulous and very sunshine-y ghostwriter.
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When grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding gets badgered into selling his memoirs, he knows he's never going to be able to write them. He hates revealing a single thing about himself, is allergic to most emotions, and can't imagine doing a good job of putting pen to paper.
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And so in walks curvy, cheery, cute as heck ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, who knows just how to sunshine and sass her way into getting every little detail out of Alfie. They banter and bicker their way to writing his life story, both of them sure they'll never be anything other than at odds.
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But after their business arrangement is mistaken for a budding romance, the pair have to pretend to be an item for a public who's ravenous for more of this Cinderella story. Or at least, it feels like it's pretend--until each slow burn step in their fake relationship sparks a heat neither can control. Now they just have to decide: is this sizzling chemistry just for show? Or something so real it might just give them their fairytale ending?</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-58422310662897064042024-01-17T01:43:00.000-08:002024-01-24T10:53:28.362-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780593540312.jpg?height=500&v=v2-651ef94fe6477f992074a11bcb456c29" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/clover-hendry-s-day-off-beth-morrey/20080216?ean=9780593540312"> Clover Hendry's Day Off by </a><br />Beth Morrey.
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The book is being released by G. P. Putnam's Sons on January 30, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>A hilarious and empowering perimenopausal Ferris Bueller's Day Off, about Clover Hendry, 46, and the day she decides to stop keeping the plates spinning, say F@#! it all, and finally get hers.
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Today is not the day to mess with Clover Hendry.
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Clover hasn't said "No" a day in her life. Until today. Normally a woman who tips her hairdresser even when the cut is hideous, is endlessly patient with her horrendous mother, and says yes every time her boss asks her to work late--today, things are going to be very different. Because Clover is taking the day off. Today, she's going to do and say whatever she likes, even if it means her whole life unravels.
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What made Clover change her ways? Why doesn't she care anymore? There's more to this day than meets the eye.
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Clover Hendry's Day Off is a joyful, raging, galvanizing story about putting life on pause, pleasing yourself, and getting your own back. Whatever it takes. Because when Clover stops caring, she can start living.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-42870663838870774642024-01-09T22:59:00.000-08:002024-01-09T22:59:00.140-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780063279070.jpg?height=500&v=v2-c94f5d30277a4c335c4597b691a6e1ed" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/everyone-on-this-train-is-a-suspect-benjamin-stevenson/20124262?ean=9780063279070"> Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by </a><br />Benjamin Stevenson.
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The book is being released by Mariner Books on January 30, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>For fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz, a fiendishly fun locked room murder mystery from the author of the indie darling Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone --this time set on a train full of mystery writers, agents, editors, and fans.
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Ernest Cunningham returns in a deliciously witty locked room (train) mystery.
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When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out.
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The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty:
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the debut writer (me!)
<br><br>
the forensic science writer
<br><br>
the blockbuster writer
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the legal thriller writer
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the literary writer
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the psychological suspense writer
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But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.
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Of course, we should also know how to commit one.
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How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-49540141929188636832024-01-02T22:56:00.000-08:002024-01-08T10:59:21.646-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780063304796.jpg?height=500&v=v2-a10a8935adeba6e5a26165ed8ed98463" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/love-and-hot-chicken-a-delicious-southern-novel-mary-liza-hartong/20297436?ean=9780063304796"> Love and Hot Chicken by </a><br />Mary Liza Hartong.
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The book is being released by William Morrow on February 20, 2024. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>The Chickie Shak is something of a historical landmark. Red clapboard walls, thriving wasp population, yard-toilets resplendent with sunflowers. My best friend Lee Ray and I used to come after our softball games and snag a picnic table while our mammas ordered the home team special. Truth is, most people around here order the same thing until the day somebody throws their ashes off a roller coaster at Dollywood. The line snakes around the building as far as you can see, the grimiest bunch of Jessies, Pearls, and Scooters you ever did behold, hobnobbing in the parking lot from noon until night.
<br><br>
When PJ Spoon returns home for her beloved daddy's funeral, she doesn't expect to stick around. Why abandon her PhD program at Vanderbilt for the humble charms of her hometown, Pennywhistle, Tennessee? Mamma's broken heart, that's why. But truth be told, PJ's own heart ain't doing too good either. She impulsively takes a job as a fry cook at Pennywhistle's beloved Chickie Shak, where locals gather for Nashville-style hot chicken. It may not be glamorous, but it's something to do.
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Fate shakes up PJ's life again when the town rallies around the terribly retro and terribly fun Hot Chicken Pageant. PJ finally notices her cute redheaded coworker Boof, a singer-songwriter with a talent as striking as her curly hair, and learns to fear her smack-talking manager, Linda.
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As PJ and Boof fall for each other, Boof's search for her birth mother--a Pennywhistle native--catapults the budding couple into a mystery that might be better left unsolved. The Chickie Shak pageant takes off, spurring old rivalries and new friendships in this tale of unexpected connections and new beginnings.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-62508009098110061182023-12-28T06:57:00.000-08:002023-12-28T06:57:00.143-08:00Review: A Deadly Bone to Pick by Peggy Rothschild<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0593437101.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0593437101.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/></a></div> I like dogs. I like mysteries that aren't too gory. And I definitely like it when the person investigating the murder has some actual credentials for doing so, even if they no longer work at whatever gave them the credentials in the first place. Peggy Rothschild's A Deadly Bone to Pick, the first in a new mystery series, has all of these things wrapped together in an easy to read story.
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Molly Madison is an ex-cop and PI whose husband's death and the ensuing scandal caused her to flee to California from the East Coast. She and her lovely golden retriever Harlow are moving into her new place when they meet Noodle, the enthusiastic and drooly Berdoodle whose physician owner basically neglects the friendly but unruly dog. Molly offers to provide Noodle with training and doggie daycare and her reputation as a dog wrangler takes off. It turns out that interacting with their dogs is a good way to meet the neighbors. But then Noodle uncovers a severed hand on the beach while Molly is walking the dogs. Since the cops don't seem to be making any progress in solving that mystery, Molly leans on her training and starts asking around. But her involvement leads to more murders and an assault, all on people who Molly had interacted with recently and the snarly, unpleasant detective on the case would love nothing more than to pin everything on Molly. Now she has no choice but to keep looking into all of it to clear her own name.
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<br>
There's a lot of interesting information on dog training and agility mixed in with the mystery of the severed hand and who is attacking and killing women in the neighborhood. The fact that Molly is just meeting people as a new transplant to the area means that the beginning of the book is full of background, slowing the plot significantly. Then the resolution is quite fast, although since uncovering the killer is fairly easy, that might be forgiven. Molly is an appealing character and her back story is sparingly revealed so as to keep her background mysterious as long as possible. The dogs are major players in the book but they are never anything more than dogs, not unreasonably intuitive or overly anthropormorphized, which is nice. Over all, this is a quick and pleasant afternoon read.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-10903952232196556922023-12-27T06:56:00.000-08:002024-01-26T12:12:45.501-08:00Review: Isabel Puddles Abroad by M.V. Byrne<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1496728351.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="334" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1496728351.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/></a></div> When I saw the cover of this cozy mystery, I knew it would be absolutely perfect for my Anglophile mother. And because we believe in "pre-enjoying" book gifts, I immediately cracked it open myself. It is a nice story with an interesting cast of characters on two sides of the Atlantic. It is the third book in the Mitten State Mystery series, and it might be best to have the background from the first two books before diving into this one.
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Isabel Puddles is a widow from Gull Harbor, Michigan. She has a comfortable life and friends in her small town but there are things she's always wanted to do and places she's always wanted to see that she now has time for. One of those things is going to England to visit her penpal and friend, well known mystery author (and professor) Teddy Mansfield. He's invited her to stay in the carriage house at his home in the Cornish village of Mousehole. Isabel is excited by her trip both to see a friend and for the budding potential for more but really she's just delighted to live her life a little bigger than she has in the past. When she gets to England, she gets to know Teddy's sister Matilde, his housekeeper Tuppence, and the people in the village as well as all of the petty squabbles, long histories, and rivalries amongst them. Not surprisingly, when a cantankerous villager is found murdered and buried in her own garden after possibly sabotaging her competition in the village bake-off so she could win for yet another year, as an outsider, Isabel can make and see connections between people that others can't, while she works to solve the murder.
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Isabel is a congenial character who easily and unconsciously wins over most of the other characters immediately. Since she has a history of successfully solving other murders in her own town, her credentials as an amateur sleuth are accepted without question in Mousehole. The police keep her abreast of the investigation and people answer her questions with few or no reservations. The whole novel is gentle and easy to read. The story is a slow meander through quirky characters and village politics (with a small p) and the murder doesn't happen until quite far into the book. It's a quaint read filled with delicious sounding scones, inquisitive corgis, and appealing British scenery to the point it's almost a cliche. For those times that you need an easy and uncomplicated read, or if you're a lover of cozy mysteries, this might be the read for you.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-71423322212516606342023-12-26T05:34:00.000-08:002023-12-26T05:34:00.133-08:00Review: Rabid by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/2c/92/2c92529bea5f3f6597466656867444341587343_v5.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="422" src="https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/2c/92/2c92529bea5f3f6597466656867444341587343_v5.jpg"/></a></div> Rabies is the deadliest disease known to humankind and is still almost 100% fatal. It has been terrifying people for as long as we have recorded history. In Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus, Wasik and Murphy look at the history of rabies, the relationship between man and dog, the myths of werewolves and vampires, which might originate with rabies, the search for a vaccine, current treatment options, and hope for defanging rabies in the future throughout this thoroughly researched book. This can be slow and dry and there are quite a few extended digressions from the disease at hand. It was interesting enough to learn the method by which rabies sidesteps the human immune system and the ways in which it continues to spread around the world through unvaccinated dogs and in the US via bats. In an effort to make it accessible to a general audience, the authors didn't overwhelm the reader with a lot of technical science but that left them with less than a books' worth of information definitively about rabies. What is presented, and much of it is at best merely speculated to be connected to rabies, often incredibly tenuously, is almost entirely within the cultural sphere. That's unfortunate because the cultural history was not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped, even adding in information about zombies, wild (and ineffective) old time remedies, and ways in which rabies is depicted in books and movies among other things. You really have to be invested in rabies to find this an interesting read.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-4313319879671987962023-12-24T11:34:00.000-08:002023-12-24T11:34:54.241-08:00Review: Secret Identity by Alex Segura<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1250801745.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1250801745.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/></a></div> My husband and sons are huge comics geeks. I am not. But somehow I came across this title and thought it would be perfect as a Christmas gift. In fact, I've apparently thought it would be perfect for my husband two Christmases in a row. As I came into the house this year, pleased as punch with my discovery, I glanced down at his bookshelves, only to see this same book already there. I hid this year's copy and asked him about it. He said he has not yet read it but was looking forward to it. Crestfallen (and now needing another gift for my husband), I decided to read it myself so I could best determine which of my sons was getting the duplicate gift. This was completely out of my wheelhouse and I didn't have the insider comics knowledge or interest that I suspect elevates this novel.
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Carmen Valdez grew up in Miami, loving comics. When she moves to New York City in 1975, she takes a job with Triumph Comics, a publisher several steps below Marvel and DC. She's the publisher/owner's assistant but what she'd really like to do is to write comics. But the industry, which seems to be fading out, is not welcoming to women and their perspectives. She is frustrated but she continues to try and break into writing despite her boss's constant dismissal of her scripts. So when Harvey, a mediocre writer at Triumph, comes to her and tells her he wants her help writing a script, she agrees, despite knowing that she can't admit her involvement with the book, if it even gets published. Carmen and Harvey, but mainly Carmen, create a female superhero named Claudia Calla, the Lynx. After Harvey turns the six scripts in without Carmen's name on them, he is murdered. So now Carmen needs to figure out how to reclaim her character, who turns out to be a runaway hit, who killed Harvey, and if she's now in danger too.
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<br>
Segura obviously knows the comics industry and its history and he deftly weaves them into a story about much more than comics. Carmen is dealing with the misogyny of her chosen industry, the homophobia of the age, and the gritty reality of living in 1970s New York City. Her feelings about Harvey (he's a friend, he's a jerk, he's a friend, he's only a co-worker acquaintance, he's a friend, he's a double crosser, he's a friend, etc.) are completely inconsistent and change page to page depending on which feeling drives the story better. There are also several plot threads that come to great prominence and then just peter out. Illustrated pages from Lynx's comic book were sprinkled throughout the story but were distracting, not having enough connection to the plot of the story to make them valuable to the story, especially for a non-comic reader like me. I do think that my husband and the son who will be getting this pre-read copy for Christmas this year will enjoy the book more than I did.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-30811659758170420782023-12-19T22:10:00.000-08:002023-12-19T22:10:00.133-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250821508.jpg?height=500&v=v2-299558cf3e2b14ecec055d4121e70ce5" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/hedging-your-bets-jayne-denker/19987662?ean=9781250821508"> Hedging Your Bets by </a><br />Jayne Denker.
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The book is being released by Kensington on January 9, 2024. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>When small-town neighbors go head-to-head, better start Hedging Your Bets.
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Gillian has been happily divorced for several years and, after trying a few dating apps, prefers to stay that way. Navigating her way through dates with fat shamers and lackluster men has left her with no desire to do anything other than work in her garden in her spare time. Who needs rude comments and awkward first-date conversation when soft roses and vibrant tulips are so much better?
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Noah West has just moved to Willow Cove. After a rough breakup that leaves him looking to get far away, he relocates to the same small town he spent summers in as a teen--and moves right next door to Gillian. A big believer in minimalist design and that the best kind of plants are non-flowering, he knows as soon as he meets his neighbor that they are going to clash on just about everything. Now if only he could keep his eyes off her too. That might be helpful.
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When a gardening contest brings out the competition in Gillian and Noah, dueling plant arrangements and fiery banter ensues. But is it possible that beneath all their differences, they might just be perfect for each other?</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-84417403171041305832023-12-12T22:05:00.000-08:002023-12-17T10:10:04.386-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781496744647.jpg?height=500&v=v2-cb78e09748f1944b6ef04fa7d934a192" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/familia-lauren-e-rico/19957923?ean=9781496744647"> Familia by </a><br />Lauren E. Rico.
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The book is being released by Kensington on December 26, 2023. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>What if your most basic beliefs about your life were suddenly revealed to be a lie?
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As the fact checker for a popular magazine, Gabby DiMarco believes in absolute, verifiable Truths—until they throw the facts of her own life into question. The genealogy test she took as research for an article has yielded a baffling result: Gabby has a sister—one who’s been desperately trying to find her. Except, as Gabby’s beloved parents would confirm if they were still alive, that’s impossible.
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Isabella Ruiz can still picture the face of her baby sister, who disappeared from the streets of San Juan twenty-five years ago. Isabella, an artist, has fought hard for the stable home and loving marriage she has today—yet the longing to find Marianna has never left. At last, she’s found a match, and Gabby has agreed to come to Puerto Rico.
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But Gabby, as defensive and cautious as Isabella is impulsive, offers no happy reunion. She insists there’s been a mistake. And Isabella realizes that even if this woman is her sister, she may not want to be.
With nothing—or perhaps so much—in common, Gabby and Isabella set out to find the truth, though it means risking everything they’ve known for an uncertain future—and a past that harbors yet more surprises . . .</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-41522860834136740342023-12-05T22:01:00.000-08:002023-12-17T10:10:14.379-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9781250908568.jpg?height=500&v=v2-772aab8e7cacce763dadaf52afdf1222" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/mercury-amy-jo-burns/20001658?ean=9781250908568"> Mercury by </a><br />Amy Jo Burns.
<br />
The book is being released by Celadon Books on January 2, 2024. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>A roofing family's bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town--from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel Shiner
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It's 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone's table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun.
<br><br>
The Joseph brothers become Marley's whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father's inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family's survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they've always known--or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-18412495942604587692023-11-30T14:19:00.000-08:002023-11-30T14:19:56.214-08:00Review: The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1668011832.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1668011832.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/></a></div> There's something so enchanting about imagined worlds inhabited in childhood. The Hundred Acre Wood. Calvin and Hobbes. Narnia. Anne Shirley's fanciful stories about the landscape around her. These invented places are a comforting and happy place to be and a safe refuge when the world is too much. Patti Callahan Henry obviously understands the importance and charm of these worlds in her latest novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea.
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<br>
1939. Operation Pied Piper. Hazel is 14 and her little sister Flora is 5. Their father has been killed in the war so despite their grieving mother's despair at letting her children leave, she sends them away from London, away from the bombs, to rural England. Hazel and Flora end up being taken in by Bridie Aberdeen, a warm and loving woman who has a son Harry, who is the same age as Hazel. Much of their time in the countryside is idyllic aside from the backdrop of war and missing their mother. When the sisters need to escape even this cozy life with the Aberdeens, Hazel tells Flora their own special, made-up, private fairy tale set in the magical land of Whisperwood to help them cope with the uncertainty in their world.
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1960. Years after the war, Hazel is working for Hogan's Rare Book Shoppe in Bloomsbury. It's her last day on the job before moving over to Sotheby's when she finds a manuscript written by American author Peggy Andrews titled Whisperwood and the River of Stars. It is the story she always told little Flora, who went missing, presumed drowned, while they were billeted in the country. But neither she nor Flora ever told anyone else the story so she can't understand how this American author could possibly know it. Impulsively Hazel takes the valuable manuscript when she leaves Hogan's, and sets out on a quest to finally answer what happened to her little sister.
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<br>
This story is an delightful look at imagination and the power of stories through the lens of the very real Operation Pied Piper and the specter of the "lost children" (those who were evacuated but never returned home) from that time. Hazel is a sympathetic character, trying to live her life but really still stuck back in 1939, feeling guilt and grief over Flora's disappearance. The manuscript is so similar to the story she used to tell her sister that it makes hope bloom in her, pushing her to uncover what happened back then. The book spills over with the enchantment of stories and shines with enduring love for family. Readers will themselves want to be invited into Bridie's welcoming country home and work in the back room of the rare book shop. Hazel seems to be a sweet, intelligent, fairly modern young woman and the reader winces when people around her encourage her to let go of her quest, cheering her at every turn as she continues on regardless. The end was the weakest part of the story as it was telegraphed with flares and predictable, but there were a few welcome twists and turns to get there, which helped make it less frustrating in the end. Obviously this is a WWII book but it's really more about the homefront than it is about the war. The mystery pacing starts off slowly and picks up speed as things start to come together for Hazel and the alternating time line helps to build anticipation. This is a endearing read, especially for those who spent a lot of time in books or other imagined worlds when they were young.
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<br>
This book is one of the 2023 Women's National Book Association's Great Group Reads.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-89822033085874180372023-11-29T09:46:00.000-08:002023-12-17T10:04:52.862-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780385546874.jpg?height=500&v=v2" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-frozen-river-ariel-lawhon/20335369?ean=9780385546874"> The Frozen River by </a><br />Ariel Lawhon.
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The book is being released by Doubleday on December 5, 2023. <br />
<br />
The book's jacket copy says: <em>From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.
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Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.
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Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.
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Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-39899337877914374462023-11-22T09:42:00.000-08:002023-11-26T09:52:06.005-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780802161543.jpg?height=500&v=v2-8bf1635c2a2d1e8cbfc022d31efc4b25" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/orbital/19729720?ean=9780802161543"> Orbital by </a><br />Samantha Harvey.
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The book is being released by Atlantic Monthly Press on December 5, 2023. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space—not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate. So are the marks of civilization far below, encrusted on the planet on which we live.
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Profound, contemplative and gorgeous, Orbital is an eloquent meditation on space and a moving elegy to our humanity, environment, and planet.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-60575379311250920132023-11-20T10:11:00.000-08:002023-11-20T10:11:28.832-08:00Review: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0140432639.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0140432639.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/></a></div> It took me more than a year to get through this book. It has my maiden name inside the front cover so I know for sure how long it has been languishing on my tbr pile. I think I've admitted before that I used to be a real literature snob, only reading "worthy" novels, an attitude I developed on my own but had strongly reinforced in graduate school. I have since become less of a jerk (and I didn't stay in academia). But I still had this book on my shelves and thought I should finally read it. Well, my mother told me not to say anything if I couldn't say anything nice but I've never been a completely compliant child so I'm ignoring that advice. And let me tell you, the nicest thing I can say about reading this book is that it was a mind-numbing chore.
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Bare bones, the plot in a nutshell : poor but beautiful young woman falls in love with poor journalist. They cannot marry because they are poor. Rich American heiress who has previously met the journalist and fallen for him comes to London and meets the young woman. They become friends. Heiress is convinced she's dying. Poor woman is also convinced and decides the journalist should marry the heiress so he'll inherit the money when the heiress dies and then they can afford to marry each other. Things don't entirely go as planned. I mean, it doesn't sound terrible, does it? But in James' hands, it is. He took almost 500 pages to get through this small and unremarkable plot. The man wrote in circles, repeating things over and over ad nauseum. Nothing about the book is head on, everything is obtuse and drawn out. His characters never speak plainly either and there are pieces that are completely baffling. In fact, the plan for the future stays completely unstated until the last quarter (eighth?) of the novel. Our journalist is rather dim until he asks his sweetheart, Kate, to come to his rooms or he won't fall in with her plan. Merton has been unobjectionable until this point and suddenly he's taking advantage of his one true love. Kate is not a greedy Machiavelli until near the end. She is observant but it's still a mystery of sorts how she knows that our heiress is dying given that even the fancy doctor won't say it, only exhorting Milly to "live" and suggesting to Milly's companion that if she just falls in love and marries, she'll come out right in the end. If I had to read a character calling Milly a "magnificent" dove one more time, I was going to heave the book at the wall. The only thing that seemed to make her magnificent was that she had a lot of money and was in danger of being relieved of it. Honestly, by the end, I was hate-reading this byzantine insomnia cure. And by byzantine, I'm definitely referring to the writing and not the plot. Unless you are the snobbiest of literary classic readers, I recommend giving this one a wide berth for sure.Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1119335579919927653.post-14277852939587310732023-11-14T22:35:00.003-08:002023-11-14T22:35:00.142-08:00Waiting on Wednesday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98gMfD1y0tHvpeiywDzEm2v7jiD0vPOJI90LJNnjIaS1n97mBAiVEnxsldjU1UXmu_wodiTCMirsd0-Lii77AsQUgT9klWwXVpOqL0LsgfQ0150Xi6WQkQ_2ZnxhRkRX-x-z8MTRA9Kg/s200/New+WoW.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>This meme was hosted by <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> 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. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://images-us.bookshop.org/ingram/9780593185711.jpg?height=500&v=v2-a6c79f16a5a40b5afa41cc16f8bd81df" /><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-wildest-sun-asha-lemmie/19837091?ean=9780593185711"> The Wildest Sun by </a><br />Asha Lemmie.
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The book is being released by Dutton on December 5, 2023. <br />
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The book's jacket copy says: <em>Following her New York Times bestselling debut Fifty Words for Rain, Asha Lemmie's next sweeping and evocative novel introduces a determined young woman's search for the larger-than-life literary figure she believes to be her father.
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When tragedy forces Delphine Auber, an aspiring writer on the cusp of adulthood, from her home in postwar Paris, she seizes the opportunity to embark on the journey she's long dreamed of: finding the father she has never known. But her quest--spanning from Paris to New York's Harlem, to Havana and Key West--is complicated by the fact that she believes him to be famed luminary Ernest Hemingway, a man just as elusive as he is iconic. She desperately yearns for his approval, as both a daughter and a writer, convinced that he holds the key to who she's truly meant to be. But what will happen if she is wrong, or if her real story falls outside of the legend of her parentage that she's revered all her life?
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The Wildest Sun is a dazzling, unexpected, and transportive story about coming into adulthood--from escaping our pasts, to the stories we tell ourselves, to the ambition that drives us--as we seek to find out who we are.</em>Kristenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07651401312450990123noreply@blogger.com0