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.

Central Places by Delia Cai

The book is being released by Ballentine Books on January 31, 2023.

The book's jacket copy says: A young woman’s past and present collide when she brings her white fiancé home to meet her Chinese immigrant parents in this vibrant debut from an exciting new voice in fiction.

Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny central Illinois town where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she’s become, from those she left behind.

But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey’s relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother’s astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she’s shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there’s Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.

Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey’s proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?

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.

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

The book is being released by Kensington on January 24, 2023.

The book's jacket copy says: Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.

But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path.

Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.

Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . . .

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 Sisters We Were by Wendy Willis Baldwin

The book is being released by Sourcebooks on January 17, 2023.

The book's jacket copy says: Pearl and Ruby's choices drove them apart.

Finding their way back to each other might be the only way forward.

The weight of their family secrets could not have shaped Pearl and Ruby Crenshaw any differently. Ruby's a runner, living in Dallas and only reluctantly talking to their mother, Birdie, when she calls from prison. Pearl is still living in her mother's fixer-upper and finds herself facing a line in the sand: her weight is threatening to kill her. She's hundreds of pounds beyond the point where she can celebrate her curves or benefit from the body positivity movement, and unless she takes drastic action, the future looks dire.

But when Ruby's buried rage explodes in a hilariously viral way, the mistake has life-altering consequences. Now the sisters are back living under the same roof and forced to put the pieces of their separate lives together again. Funny, cinematic, and bursting with heart, this is a story of hope and redemption that celebrates the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

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 Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa

The book is being released by Atria Books on January 10, 2023.

The book's jacket copy says: Four generations of women experience love, loss, war, and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of the “timely must-read” (People) The German Girl.

Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. As the Nazis rise to power, Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her against Hitler’s deadly ideology of Aryan purity. But as she grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Lilith hidden so Ally sets in motion a dangerous and desperate plan to send her daughter across the ocean to safety.

Havana, 1958: Now an adult, Lilith has few memories of her mother or her childhood in Germany. Besides, she’s too excited for her future with her beloved Martin, a Cuban pilot with strong ties to the Batista government. But as the flames of revolution ignite, Lilith and her newborn daughter, Nadine, find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.

Berlin, 1988: As a scientist in Berlin, Nadine is dedicated to ensuring the dignity of the remains of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Yet she has spent her entire lifetime avoiding the truth about her own family’s history. It takes her daughter, Luna, to encourage Nadine to uncover the truth about the choices her mother and grandmother made to ensure the survival of their children. And it will fall to Luna to come to terms with a shocking betrayal that changes everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.

Separated by time but united by sacrifice, four women embark on journeys of self-discovery and find themselves to be living testaments to the power of motherly love.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

With the Christmas countdown happening, I am busy finishing up gifts, cooking, and the like so not much reading is getting done! This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past couple of weeks:

Death on a Winter Stroll by Francine Mathews
Under a Veiled Moon by Karen Odden
Why We Ride edited by Verna Dreisbach
How to Kill our Family by Bella Mackie

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Biana Marais

Reviews posted this week:

The Foundling by Ann Leary
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Death on a Winter Stroll by Francine Mathews
Under a Veiled Moon by Karen Odden

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

Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Tiddas by Anita Heiss
The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler
Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
If I Were You by Lisa Renee Jones
McMullen Circle by Heather Newton
Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen
Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau
Twenty-One Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Home Repairs by Trey Ellis
Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin
Looking for a Weegie to Love by Simon Smith
This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Love and Saffron by Kim Fay
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
Shady Hollow by Juneau Black
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodges
Jane of Hearts by Katharine Weber
Laura Rider's Masterpiece by Jane Hamilton
Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan
Chivalry by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
She Is Haunted by Paige Clark
A Woman's Place by Marita Golden
Murder Above the Silver Waves by Blythe Baker
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones
The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
The Desert Smells Like Rain by Gary Paul Nabhan
Stay Gone Days by Steve Yarbrough
The Mason House by T. Marie Bertineau
A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang
Just One Taste by Louisa Edwards
The Good Byline by Jill Orr
Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith
Dance of the Returned by Devon A. Mihesuah
Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour by Yelena and Galina Lembersky
The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Tomorrow in Shanghai by May-Lee Chai
What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster
Geographies of the Heart by Caitlin Hamilton Summie
Setting Fire to Water by Phoebe Tsang
My Days of Dark Green Euphoria by A. E. Copenhaver
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Provenance by Sue Mell
I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West
A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter by Carolyn Hays
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
The Hawk's Way by Sy Montgomery
The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs by Leslie Kirk Campbell
Here Lies by Olivia Clare Friedman
The Barrens by Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
Blue-Skinned Gods by S.J. Sindu
Everything Harder Than Everyone Else by Jenny Valentish
Drowned Town by Jayne Moore Waldrop
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
Fighting Time by Amy Banks and Isaac Knapper
Oklahoma Odyssey by John Mort
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubenstein
Let the Wild Grasses Grow by Kase Johnstun
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
The Year of the Horses by Courtney Maum
Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue by M.C. Beaton
Color Me Murder by Krista Davis
In the Wake of the Boatman by Jonathon Scott Fuqua
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
The Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
The Finder by Will Ferguson
Sandman by Bob Drews
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings edited by John Lorinc
Book of Extraordinary Tragedies by Joe Meno
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
50 Things to Do When You Turn 50 edited by Ronnie Sellers
Near the Exit by Lori Erickson
She Left Me the Gun by Emma Brockes
The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Beheld by Tarashea Nesbit
The Secret History of Food by Matt Siegel
My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh
Mothercare by Lynne Tillman
Hockey Karma by Howard Shapiro
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Kiss and Tango by Marina Palmer
Galatea by Madeline Miller
The Librarian Always Rings Twice by Marty Wingate
The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World by Matt Kracht
Why We Ride edited by Verna Dreisbach
How to Kill our Family by Bella Mackie

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.

In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari

The book is being released by John Scognamiglio on January 3, 2023.

The book's jacket copy says: Inspired by her own family’s experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Susanne Pari explores the entangled lives within an Iranian American family grappling with generational culture clashes, the roles imposed on women, and a tragic accident that forces them to reconcile their guilt or forfeit their already tenuous bonds. Set between San Francisco and New Jersey in the late-1990’s, In the Time of Our History is a story about the universal longing to create a home in this world – and what happens when we let go of how we’ve always been told it should look.

Twelve months after her younger sister Anahita’s death, Mitra Jahani reluctantly returns to her parents’ home in suburban New Jersey to observe the Iranian custom of “The One Year.” Ana is always in Mitra’s heart, though they chose very different paths. While Ana, sweet and dutiful, bowed to their domineering father’s demands and married, Mitra rebelled, and was banished.

Caught in the middle is their mother, Shireen, torn between her fierce love for her surviving daughter and her loyalty to her husband. Yet his callousness even amid shattering loss has compelled her to rethink her own decades of submission. And when Mitra is suddenly forced to confront hard truths about her sister’s life, and the secrets each of them hid to protect others, mother and daughter reach a new understanding—and forge an unexpected path forward.

Alive with the tensions, sacrifices, and joys that thrum within the heart of every family, In the Time of Our History is also laced with the richness of ancient and modern Persian culture and politics, in a tale that is both timeless and profoundly relevant.

Review: Under a Veiled Moon by Karen Odden

The (misquoted) maxim "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it" takes on new meaning in Karen Odden's Victorian set mystery, Under a Veiled Moon, the second in the Inspector Corravan Mystery series. Although the ethnic group is different (the Irish as versus the groups who are the targeted today), people and media still scapegoat "others" and consider them lesser than. These bigoted beliefs led to resentment and violence in the past, as shown in the novel, and similar bigoted beliefs lead to resentment and violence today. Perhaps one day we will learn.

Michael (Mickey) Corravan is the Acting Superintendent of the Wapping River Police. As the novel opens, he has found a unidentified body but quickly this one, potentially murdered man becomes a side note to a much bigger investigation. There's a collision on the Thames between a daily, wooden, pleasure boat and a heavy iron-clad collier that causes massive loss of life and Corravan must determine whether it was an accident or if it was intentionally caused by the Irish Republican Brotherhood as the newspapers attest. The possibility that the IRB is behind the collision causes a massive swell of anti-Irish sentiment at a time when the Irish were already considered vermin. And Michael Corravan is Irish. His superiors and colleagues want a speedy conclusion to the case and question whether he can investigate impartially given his own heritage and close ties to the community. At the same time, Corravan is worried about the youngest son of the family who took him in after his mother left. Colin Doyle has join the Cobbwallers, another Irish gang, and Corravan wants nothing more than to get Colin out of the gang and keep him safe for Ma Doyle.

The prevailing sentiment about the Irish and the debate about Irish Home Rule weaves through the entire story. Newspapers fan the flames of bigotry, falsifying evidence and printing half-truths, allowing extremists and other bitter and angry people an outlet and mouthpiece for their beliefs. Through it all, Corravan keeps his head, tamps down his own reaction, and doggedly goes about uncovering the actual truth of the collision, finding connections to his loved ones that will fill him with regret and sadness forever. Corravan's backstory before and then with the Doyle family weaves through the investigation but there is obviously more to be unveiled in future books. The plot is quite intricate and Odden does a fantastic job keeping it moving along and tying it all together. The politics of the time, the vitriol toward the Irish, and the quiet machinations of Parliament are front and center and at the root of everything here so readers should be prepared for politics to carry as much weight as the mystery itself. The whole thing is detailed, well researched, and well written. The larger story of Michael Corravan is intriguing and the secondary characters in his work and personal life are appealing. This is a good read for historical mystery readers, with a spot on sense of time and place and a sometimes troubling parallel to life, beliefs, and media today.

For more information about Karen Odden and the book, visit her author page, follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, look at the book's Goodreads page, or look at the reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Laurel Ann from Austenprose and the author for sending me a copy of the book to review.