Review: On Folly Beach by Karen White

Even though I am now a Southerner (well, a Yankee transplant if we're being 100 percent accurate), I am not terribly familiar with southern beaches or islands. Life just conspires to keep me in my inland bubble. But that doesn't mean I don't think about the appeal of these places now well within driving distance of my house. So when I saw the premise of Karen White's On Folly Beach, I was definitely intrigued. That there were parallel story lines, one current and one set during World War II, made it that much more attractive.

Opening in Indiana in 2009 with Emmy unable to sleep, certain down to the marrow of her bones that her beloved husband Ben has been killed in Afghanistan, the book then moves back in time to 1942 and Folly Beach. Both threads of the novel deal with loss and acceptance and eventually come together nicely.

Emmy's mother, who hails from Folly Beach, SC pushes Emmy to buy the small bookstore on the island as a way of encouraging her to accept Ben's life and to move on. What convinces Emmy to do what her mother wants is the mystery she discovers in a box of books sent from the bookstore. There are books with notes written in them, some from a woman and some from a man but Emmy knows that she doesn't have the entirety of the correspondence and she is intrigued by the clandestine nature of the jottings, getting a frisson up her spine whenever she finds another one. And so her life as the proprieter of Folly's Finds commences with the stipulation that Lulu, the aunt-in-law of the current owner, be allowed to continue her bottle tree business out of the backyard of the bookstore.

Alternating chapters with Emmy's eventual reawakening to life is the story of Cat, Maggie, Lulu, and Peter during World War II. Cat, newly widowed, is eager to meeting new men, dancing with all the soldiers on Folly Beach who are waiting to be sent overseas. Her cousin Maggie is the quiet voice of reason who feels compelled to help Cat maintain a more decorous air if possible even while she is also responsible for younger sister, the eagle-eyed and observant Lulu. So when Peter comes into Folly's Finds, the small general store and bookstore that Maggie runs, and seems to have eyes only for Maggie, it seems as if happiness will finally come for Maggie.

As Emmy, in the present day, uncovers more and more about the people writing the notes in the old books, the WWII storyline comes closer and closer to its conclusion. The amazing thing about this book is that both storylines are equally weighted and well done. The characters in each part of the book are distinct and interesting. And as the narrative tension builds in one section, it is mirrored in the other, giving a cohesive feel to the book as a whole. Also included very organically is some interesting and seemingly little known WWII information that becomes an integral piece in the ultimate denouement of the historic portion of the story. White has created an engrossing read, one that not only offers up interesting new historical fact but is also right at home on the beach. Family, love, a 50 year old mystery coded in books, and the theme of renewal, what more can a reader ask for?

Thanks to Joy at Joan Schulhafer Publishing and Media Consulting for sending me a copy of the book to review.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.
For me, I can't wait to read: The Unexpected Son by Shobhan Bantwal. Due out July 27th from Kensington, Shelf Awareness says this about the book:

What happens when a woman suddenly wakes up to a shocking truth? A mysterious letter shatters Vinita Patil's contented American life. It tells an impossible story: she has a grown son in India, a child she was told was stillborn 30 years ago. Revealing her secret past to her husband could ruin her marriage. Nonetheless Vinita is compelled to return to India to meet her unknown son--and pray for the faith of the family she leaves behind.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Since I am certainly not getting ahead of the books coming in, at least I want to keep to a consistent level with the reading and reviewing. See how well, I did, she asks sarcastically? On the other hand, this gives me something else to do this week as I get ready for vacation and I need to escape the packing. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden

Reviews posted this week:

Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown
Blame by Michelle Huneven
Sphdz Book #1: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita

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

On Folly Beach by Karen White
Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck
Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart
How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holmquist
Street Gang by Michael Davis
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins
Bite Me by Christopher Moore
Old World Daughter, New World Mother by Maria Laurino
South Beach Sizzle by Suzanne Weyn and Diana Gonzalez
Look at Me Now by Thomas Hubschman
Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown
The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert

Monday Mailbox

Last week's post showed a huge embarrassment of riches. Luckily this week's is slightly more manageable although no less appealing. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye came from Unbridled Books.
Great Lakes? Check. Boat sinking? Check. No, this is not the tale of my summer last summer. It's part of the premise of this book about a father and son trying to reconnect. I can't wait!

All Over the Map by Laura Fraser came from Harmony Books.
A memoir by a travel writer which incorporates not only her travel but also her search for the life she wants to build, this follow-up to An Italian Affair looks fabulous.

Semper Cool by Barry Fixler came from Exalt Press.
A Vietnam memoir, this was offered to all participants in the War Through the Generations Challenge. And as hard as reading first person accounts of the terrors of war are, this one is billed as having humor too so that should make this very worthwhile and readable.

A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion came from the author.
With a main character who works in a bookstore, this book about three women, their lives, and family sounds like a read with which I will definitely identify. Can't wait!

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard Morais came from Scribner.
A kitchen fiction, what's not appealing about the story of an Indian boy who moves to France and becomes a chef? I suspect this one will have me salivating as I read along but that's totally okay by me!

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and Kristi at The Story Siren and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Book attractions

My family thinks I will buy any book ever published. They think I am completely indiscriminate. My monthly book bills and my groaning shelves might bear out this observation (generally said in a pitying tone of voice and accompanied by a resigned head shake). I can't be trusted in book stores, racking up a triple digit bill in mere minutes. And my amazon wishlist is insanely out of control. But despite all evidence to the contrary, I do indeed have a modicum of restraint. Of course, there are certain things about books that severely test my restraint.

If a book has a boat or water on the cover, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a book or bookselves on the cover, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book is by an author I've read before and didn't totally loathe, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a quirky title, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a steamy bodice ripping cover, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a dog on the cover, I am guaranteed to pick it up (although I hate the general truth of my friend C.'s observation that if a dog appears on the cover, it will die before the end of the book and keep my fingers crossed that this will turn out to be false each and every time--Joe Coomer doesn't kill off the dog on A Pocketful of Names, just so you know why I continue to hold out hope even in the face of overwhelming odds).

If a book has something even vaguely Indian looking on the cover, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a photograph of a woman or women wearing stunning clothing, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a title referring to a body of water, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has a cover that contains lots of shades of blue, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If the book subtitle says: A Memoir, I am guaranteed to pick it up.

If a book has food on the cover, I am guaranteed to pick it up (yes, you should see the obscene number of cookbooks I own).

I have to stop listing things because this could go on and on and on. And while the above list might seem to argue for my family's view of my reading, I might note that these guarantees don't mean that I will actually buy the book (although research shows that we are more inclined to buy something we have been compelled to touch first so odds are better than not that I will buy all of the above). Getting me to buy the book isn't necessarily a slam dunk but it really doesn't take too much arm twisting either. I have a friend in Ohio who used to love going to the bookstore with me and playing the "Let's get Kristen to buy books" game. She'd troll the tables and shelves and hand me things, chortling with glee when I added them to my stack. I don't know if she, being an artist and therefore visually observant, had my list of guarantees tucked away in her mind as she pulled for me, but it was an easy game for her to win and for my bank account to lose. So I guess, despite my claim to read ecelectically, I am in fact, terribly predictable. Or maybe my family is correct and I am just completely and totally indiscriminate. Nah...

This past week, some bookmarks stagnated in their books as others raced through different books. I traveled the world learning about the simple truths behind happiness, I avoided food because it was so loaded with the sorrow of the maker, I farmed and lost and told the tale of sorrow bound into my life and land, and I stayed at the home of an absent friend, looking back on my friendship with her and another. I am still working through the experience of a Korean picture bride to Hawaii, life with a mentally ill mother, the waning years of the British Raj, and a classic Dickens. Each day I dip into the flora and fauna around the Great Lakes and I am pleased to be leaving for said Great Lakes shortly.

This week I also created a page on Facebook for the blog. So if you are so inclined, head over to BookNAround on Facebook and hit the like button to have posts show up in your news feed. Because you certainly wouldn't want to miss any of my brilliant pearls of wisdom now would you?

So, what attracts you to a book like a bee to honey? And where have you been between the pages this week?

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson was mentioned on Luxury Reading.

The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell was mentioned on Caroline Bookbinder.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Things I realized today...

When you haven't really run in months, the lovely muscles in your legs that developed because of running will slowly fade back into the amorphous stumpiness that are your regular, unfit legs.

Just having to hook your bra on the tightest set of hooks, is no guarantee that you've lost weight. As a matter of fact, in my case, it's more likely that the poor elastic is so strained it is slowly losing the fight to keep the girls hitched up (or the bra is officially old, which could be true in this instance too).

When all of your chin hairs grow in at the same pace, you can double as your spouse with a five o'clock shadow, even if it is only 9am. This is not what I envisioned whenever I hear that spouses start to resemble each other after years together.

The scale number can be the same as it has been for months (weight loss plateau my big fat behind, it's becoming the Great Plains) and your pants can be tighter than they were. I knew those brownies were going to go to my arse but this is ridiculous!

When it is beyond humid outside and you go for a run (see item #1 for reason why), you don't need to worry about chub rub because your upper thighs will glue themselves together with sweat and not come unstuck enough to rub.

Layers in your hair mean you really do need to attempt to style your hair. Either that or spend a lot of time in the pool under water. This works best when the pool doesn't feel like warm bathwater thanks to ridiculously high temps.

The car's air conditioner will only give up the ghost on the hottest day of the summer thus far and only when you are faced with a very long drive in less than a week. Anyone else think D. is going to be suspicious if I tell him the a/c is out in the car after it went out in the house too? I promise neither the HVAC guy or the mechanic were good looking enough to warrant another call and additional hours in their company!

Printing luscious looking dessert recipes from the internet is nearly as satisfying as eating them and more satisfying than taking the time to make them. Truly, it's a diet revolution. And I apologize in advance to all the trees giving up their lives so I can drool over my stacks of personally selected food porn.

Review: Sphdz #!: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita

Michael K. is the new boy in fifth grade. Being new is never fun but it's even worse when the other new kids in the class turn out to be aliens who have no concept of how to act like normal kids. They spout lines from old tv shows since Earth tv was beamed into their planet and is how they understand earthlings. Michael doesn't want to be associated with Bob and Jennifer or their commander, who is apparently the class hamster, but he cannot seem to escape them. For their part, they are innocently convinced that Michael K. is the help they need in order to save the Earth and keep it from being turned off. Silliness and outright goofiness abound here but there's not much explanation of the danger facing Earth that Michael K. so needs to help avert. The bumbling of Agent Umber (all the good color names were taken) is slightly reminiscent of Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau with the chief difference that he does not, in the end, catch the aliens. Short and quick, this is the first in a projected series and seems almost to exist mainly to introduce the characters as there is little further explanation of the dire crisis facing our planet. There are ecological snippets scattered amongst the chapters, which perhaps give a clue to the ultimate crisis but it seems that further books in the series are needed for it to be stated explicitly.

I'm passing this one along to the youngest son to see what his take on it is, given that he's within the target age range for it. I only wish my ARC had finished artwork so he could have the full experience. In any case, I suspect it will be welcome reading as he tries to read for a half hour a day for more than 50 days over the summer to earn an ice cream party when school starts next year.

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

Review: Blame by Michelle Huneven

I had seen this one around a few blogs but I was not looking forward to reading it at all when it arrived on my doorstep. I am the grandchild of an alcoholic and even went to an Al-Anon meeting as a teenager (perhaps this one time visit is the source of my long term distrust of anything that smacks of self-help or psychiatry). So the whole premise of the book was a little close to home. That said, I ended up quite enjoying it.

Opening with Joey's confused summer the summer her mother died of cancer, the novel introduces Joey's appealing uncle Brice and his good-time girlfriend Patsy, both of whom are so out of their league watching Joey and self-absorbed that they mistakenly allow her to get high. Cut to Book Two and Patsy, a college professor, is coming to with a nasty hangover. She's in the local drunk tank, a place she's been in before, but this time her drunken misdeeds are not being treated as lightly as usual. Apparently, during her blackout, in her own driveway, she hit and killed a mother and young daughter, Jehovah's Witnesses who were just leaving her house after dropping off some leaflets. Patsy does her time in prison and comes back to regular life having resisted and then finally surrendered to AA, filled with remorse and regret. She builds her life around the truth of her actions and the results of what she did that night still so troublingly missing from memory. Ultimately, Patsy meets and marries Cal, the local AA superstar, sponsor extraordinaire, and widower with children. She changes who she was in spirit and finds forgiveness even if her life still centers around her guilt and atonement.

The novel jumps in time from each situation in Patsy's life but the missing pieces are easily inferred and reasonable as the reader watches Patsy build a whole new life for herself. The secondary characters are well-fleshed out and realistic. Starting with the section on Joey is perhaps a mistake as she is mostly absent from the book, which she should be since the story is really Patsy's, but what Joey witnesses when she is stoned out of her little mind does come full circle in the end, neatly tying the book's beginning and ending together.

The revelation about Patsy's drunken accident, near the end of the book, is certainly cataclysmic but it is somehow not entirely unexpected by that time either. And the way it forces Patsy to reevaluate her life again, as the immediate aftermath of the accident did once before, lends a balance to the plotting. The book was a bit unrealistic and shiny, happy in its portrayal of recovering alcoholics but it was fascinating to see the way that Cal shifted his addiction to the rush of AA meetings and that Patsy never called him on it because she was so busy with her own repentance, feeling that she had to be perfect and non-confrontational. This is much more a character study, with Patsy examining her life and coming to grips with who she is, rather than the thriller hinted at in marketing blurbs. It is a rather quiet but thoughtful and well-written book that happens to hinge on an horrific accident. This book will stay with you long after you close the back cover so don't be scared off by less than appealing jacket copy or the idea that this is full of suspense. Rather it is an engrossing and compelling read.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy of this book.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.
For me, I can't wait to read: The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin. Due out June 29th from William Morrow, amazon says this about the book:

Blind acceptance splinters a polygamous marriage in Shoneyin's gripping debut set in modern-day Nigeria. Bolanle Alao, the newest and youngest of Baba Segi's wives, threatens to upset the balance of power--she is educated and beautiful, though naïve about the relationship dynamics among the other three wives in the house. Raped at 15, Bolanle considers herself disgraced and unwanted until Baba Segi, an overweight, malodorous businessman welcomes her into his family, no questions asked, until it seems she cannot conceive. Like the other wives, she feels she has been saved by Baba Segi, who accepts all of them politely, but beyond brief mentions of his sexual encounters and visits to the toilet, Baba Segi is a peripheral character. When greedy Iya Segi and Iya Femi plot to run young, sweet Bolanle out of the family, the result is disaster. It is Bolanle's unexpected submissiveness that leads her and her husband to uncover a secret that forces him to assert his control over the family. Shoneyin masterfully disentangles four distinct stories, only to subtly expose what is common among them.

Review: Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown

Lyssa Harper lives in a beautiful community in suburbia. She's a stay at home mom who runs her kids around to their day to day activities and is on the neighborhood board. Her friends on the board are just like her in so many ways. They are the ladies who lunch. They do yoga every day. They have a coffeeshop where they meet daily. And they keep abreast of the gossip in the neighborhood. Oh boy do they keep abreast of the gossip! So when perfect Harry Wilder and his aloof, ice princess wife Denise split, these women know it almost before Harry does. Then Lyssa meets Harry at the park where their daughters are playing and Harry breaks down. Because Lyssa is a nice person, she decides to introduce Harry into her group, never guessing what a shallow, predatory group of women they are. Initially all goes well but as Harry faces a nasty, bitter divorce with custody of his kids at stake, the last thing he needs is to worry about the machinations of the neighborhood's ruling cabal. And he manages to offend and alientate all of them except Lyssa, who continues to lend a hand and an ear despite being ostracized herself.

As the tension between Harry and the women grows, Harry's oldest son starts to act out, his daughter regresses and his soon to be ex-wife throws low blow after low blow at him. Meanwhile, Lyssa is examining her own marriage and is troubled by what she sees. Her friendship with Harry growing and taking on an increased importance in her life, her friendship with the other wives waning, she takes stock of what in her childhood made her the way that she is, how that allowed to her marry Ted, what Ted really wants, and how she can find contentment in her life.

The reader guesses the ending of the book long before it comes and while the outcome is perfectly suited for a movie, it is perhaps a twist too far in terms of believability. On the other hand, it offers poetic justice and is a satisfying outcome for this fun and frothy beach read. Brown has drawn a convincing and accurate picture of the malaise that infects certain bits of suburbia from the former exec who runs the neighborhood board with an iron fist to the outrage that erupts when children are hurt (even just in the normal course of growing up). She has balanced the seeming frivolity of the stay at home mom's day with the frenzied activities and the masterful planning that is involved in running a family. Her main characters are sympathetic and likable. The plot clips along. And the subtle (and not so subtle) look at stagnant marriage offers a bit of food for thought throughout as Lyssa and Harry negotiate the minefield that is modern suburbia. I gulped this down in less than a day in between driving my kids hither, thither and yon and enjoyed the experience greatly. It is escapist and light and as satisfying as a cold drink by the pool. And from the way Harry is described, he can be my pool boy whenever he wants!

Thanks to Sarah from Simon and Schuster for sending me a review copy of this book and allowing me to participate in this tour.

See what others think. Other blogs reviewing the book today include:

All About {n}
The Book Tree
Books Gardens & Dogs
Arms of a Sister
Booktumbling
A Room Without Books Is Empty
Busy Julie
Bookin’ with Bingo
The Down Home Diva
Me, My Book, and the Couch
Starting Fresh
Frugal Plus
Avid Reader
Avid Reader
Eclectic Book Lover
Not Quite Susie
Books and Needlepoint
Books with a Cup of Coffee
Knitting and Sundries
Just Another New Blog
Simply Stacie
Must Read Faster
Booksie’s Blog
Reminder List
My Five Monkeys
My Book Views
Taking Time For Mommy
I Heart Book Gossip
Book Junkie
Jeanne's Ramblings
Readaholic
Broken Teepee
Tethered Mommy
Just Jennifer Reading
So Many Books, So Little Time
Reading With Tequila
A Journey of Books
Bella’s Novellas
CuzinLogic’s Blog
Rundpinne

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Since I am certainly not getting ahead of the books coming in, at least I want to keep to a consistent level with the reading and reviewing. See how well, I did, she asks sarcastically? This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown
The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord

Reviews posted this week:

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
Petals From the Sky by Mingmei Yip
The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

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

The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas
Blame by Michelle Huneven
Sphdz Book #1: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita
On Folly Beach by Karen White
Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck
Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart
How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holmquist
Street Gang by Michael Davis
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins
Bite Me by Christopher Moore
Old World Daughter, New World Mother by Maria Laurino
South Beach Sizzle by Suzanne Weyn and Diana Gonzalez
Look at Me Now by Thomas Hubschman
Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown
The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet

Monday Mailbox

I seem to be deep in the depths of a reading and reviewing slump and so I was a little worried each day opening the mailbox this week. But who could be unhappy with such great looking books? Of course, I am kissing goodbye all hopes of ever getting caught up again! This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Embers by Hyatt Bass came from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
A family torn apart by blame and grief and secrets as they try to come together again on the eve of a wedding ten years after the death of a son and brother. This has all kinds of enthralling reading written all over it.

Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini came from Shelf Awareness.
An avid collector of Proust's possessions, helped to save works, letters, and possessions from destruction by Proust's embarrassed family and this is the story of both Proust's things and Guerin and his passion to protect these things. Hoarding to benefit literary history, sounds cool, eh?

My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff was a contest win from She Reads and Reads.
I have a pre-teen daughter and therefore first period territory is not far away (and I still vividly remember my own). How better to prepare for it than by reading other women's experiences too?

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea came from Hachette Books.
I love the premise of this novel: a young Mexican woman heads north the the US to smuggle Mexican men back into her small village since it is almost devoid of men and at the mercy of drug-lords. Unlike anything else I've read, I have been waiting (im)patiently for it to arrive on my doorstep.

April & Oliver by Tess Callahan came from Hachette Books.
I have long wanted to read this story of a love story between life-long friends even if it has all the hallmarks of an incredibly melancholic read, starting with the atmospheric cover.

Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord came from Penguin.
Compared to Le Petit Prince, one of the few books to which I give shelf space for multiple copies, I was immediately attracted to this slight book about exactly what it's title suggests.

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund came from Shelf Awareness.
Naslund's Ahab's wife was pretty darn amazing and inventive. This tale of the suddenly-widowed Lucy, whose late husband claims to have proof of extra-terrestrial life, and the injured and delusional Adam, with whom she has a relationship sounds like a crazy mix of genre and I'm glad to be signing on for the ride.

Miss You Most of All by Elizabeth Bass came from Kensington.
Sisters, a farm, and a wayward stepsister returning to the family. What more could one want in a book? Having a sister myself always makes me draw toward stories of the complicated ties between fictional sisters.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow came from Algonquin Books.
I have seen nothing but wonderful things about this book about a mixed race girl who survives falling from a building. Issues of race surely abound in this much lauded novel about which I am very curious.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender came from Doubleday.
Aside from the fact that I want to eat the cover, a book about a girl who can taste people's emotions in the food that they make is incredibly appealing.

Room by Emma Donoghue came from Little, Brown.
Five year old Jack has only ever lived in one room all his life and it is his whole world. It is also where he and his mother are held captive. I don't often gravitate towards books that seem ripped from the headlines but I have read Donoghue's work before and enjoyed it so I'm curious to see what she does with this one.

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson came from Henry Holt.
Given the beard I seem to growing as I age, I am drawn to this book about a circus' bearded lady. OK, that's not really what draws me but everything else does: circus, Gilded Age New York, and uncovered secret, love, you name it. I've only been to the circus once that I remember but it totally fascinates me and this book should help feed that fascination.

This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia came from Henry Holt.
This novel about a widower who goes home to his late wife's hometown to try and understand her better is immensely enticing. Do other people always hold the key to identity? I look forward to finding out.

Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe by Jenny Hollowell came from Henry Holt.
A pastor's wife who walks out on her life to have a go at stardom in Hollywood, this has a great premise and I can't wait to meet main character Birdie Baker.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Book catalogs

You know how you read books set back in the day and they talk about the big catalogs, primarily the Sears and Roebuck catalog, that people used to pore over, dream about, and eventually, sometimes place an order from? These days given how many small catalogs I still get in the mail, despite not having bought anything mail order in years, you'd probably be surprised to find that I do still get excited about any of them. But I do. Yesterday's mail brought me one of my very favorites: the catalog for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. I have been a fan of their books since I started saving up my babysitting money to buy my own books many, many, many (too many) years ago. I used to scan the bookstore shelves specifically for their oddly sized paperbacks and many of those quirky sized books are still on my shelves to this day. So you can just imagine how pleased I am each season to find their lovely catalog in the mailbox.

I bring it into the house, sink down on the couch, and curl up to read all about the new and upcoming releases on their list. They consistently publish interesting and different books that appeal to me. The very first time I got the catalog, I spent hours poring over each page. Now I can restrict myself to the Frontlist pages as I own so very much of the backlist that I don't have to review it anymore. Actually, I thought it would be fun to count this time so here are my rough numbers for the backlist: of the approximately 123 or so non-fiction titles (which I only started reading a lot of in the past 4-5 years), I only have 22 (but many more are on my wishlist) and of the approximately 130 fiction titles, I have 51. Numbers are apporximate given my couting issues, incidentally. This does not include the Algonquin books I have that are out of print, nor does it count the books from the frontlist, many of which I also already own. I think it's fairly safe to say that I have always gravitated to the capital A on top of a book on spines.

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to have gotten this glimpse of nirvana in your mailbox recently, here are the titles that I am most likely to add to my ever burgeoning wishlist from this season's frontlist (ignoring, of course, those titles I do already own which are now coming out in paper and which would be on the list if they weren't already on my shelf):

Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt (Jan. 2011)
Missing Lucille by Suzanne Berne (Oct. 2010)
Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West (Jan. 2011)
Nothing Left to Burn by Jay Varner (Sept. 2010)
Paris Was Ours edited by Penelope Rowlands (Feb. 2011)

I just know that if they come from Algonquin, they are pretty much guaranteed to be wonderful reads. I know what I'm going to have fun diving into this fall and winter. How about you?

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong was mentioned on Breaking the Spine.

The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day was mentioned on A Striped Armchair.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Review: The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

I so wanted to love this book. It had so much I like in a novel: a group of quirky characters bound by a common thread (in this case writing), growing tension between the characters, and it didn't stoop to the "every problem under the sun" cliches that so many ensemble cast type books do. And yet there was something that just didn't work here for me. It's a writing group, not a book club book. It has male and female characters, not just women. And these things should have elevated it above the usual. But somehow, it was just a rather dull book.

Opening with a sample of the book, a fictionalized biography of her father being written by Nancy, who has been invited to "audition" for the Leopardi Circle writing group's open spot, the narrative quickly pings back and forth between all the characters of the group, setting up their lives and their literary leanings. Several of the characters are given short shift here as the main thrust of the novel is the ethics of writing. There are tensions and factions amongst the members of the group and as these play out, the reader gets a sense of the insecurities and egos that can come into play when artists of any sort gather together. Some of the characters are more likable than others. One in particular is pretty fairly morally bankrupt and that fact is evident almost from the get-go and not tempered enough to make her anything but the obviously self-centered villain of the piece.

Right from the beginning of this book, I had trouble engaging. I do think it was a mistake to start with a sample of a novel rather than a set-up of the characters as it was confusing to go from this un-introduced bit into the actual plot. Mostly though, my problem with it was that the story sort of wandered along without much narrative tension until the quick unravelling at the end. This might have been the case because we didn't see enough of the characters to understand and feel their relationships to each other; in fact, there were too many characters. We only vaguely know of the alliances and the divides in the group and don't know the characters themselves well enough to predict their reactions or even to suspect the defining theft itself. The end itself was strange and unsettling and felt cobbled on to me.

I wanted to love this one. I really did. And I just couldn't.

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

Review: Petals From the Sky by Mingmei Yip

Meng Ning is finally going to see if her vocation is to become a Buddhist nun like her mentor, the lovely nun who saved her life so many years ago. Finally all but finished with her doctorate, Meng Ning signs up for a retreat to test her desire to enter the Empty Gate, forsaking love and marriage. But a fire breaks out in the convent and she is fortuitously rescued by a handsome American doctor, igniting in her a seed of doubt about her own path. More than a traditional love story, this is the tale of a woman discovering herself and her own desires.

As Meng Ning and Michael come to know each other better, their characters change fairly significantly and in ways that make them seem to be completely removed from who they were at the beginning of the book. Although Meng Ning's decision whether to marry Michael or to turn her back on family and the material world is a serious one, her constant waffling makes for tough reading. And the plot is completely anachronistic when she travels to New York and meets Michael's "friends." Certainly, Yip has done a reasonable job portraying a woman who has been hovering without making a decision for more than 10 years but there was just something a little off-putting here. The descriptions of the Buddhist life, its necessary intersections with the outside, material world, and the culture clash that is inevitable in a cross-cultural relationship are all interesting but they just can't quite carry the novel.

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

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.
For me, I can't wait to read: City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell. Due out September 28th from Henry Holt and Co., amazon says this about the book:

Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth-century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang P'ing Ch'eng— City of Tranquil Light, a place they come to love—and face incredible hardship, will their faith and relationship be enough to sustain them?

Told through Will and Katherine's alternating viewpoints—and inspired by the lives of the author's maternal grandparents—City of Tranquil Light is a tender and elegiac portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation. A deeply spiritual book, it shows how those who work to teach others often have the most to learn, and is further evidence that Bo Caldwell writes "vividly and with great historical perspective" (San Jose Mercury News).

Review: A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

Elena Gorokhova grew up in a Leningrad strangled by Communism. Her mother was a doctor and her dashing father died of tuberculosis when she was young. Her family owned a summer home farm but they were not high up cadre members and so they faced shortages and discrimination like so many others. Gorokhova herself was fascinated by the English language and attended a special school in order to become fluent, working first as a student tour guide and then in other prestigious jobs, ultimately marrying a foreigner and being allowed to emigrate to Texas with her husband.

Gorokhova's childhood was certainly materially different than a childhood here in the States at the same time and her spirit of endurance and perseverance shine through the book. At the same time, she is writing a paean to her mother and the strength of character that she obviously inherited from Galina. The narrative is sometimes episodic in nature as she skims over large swaths of time, occasionally only touching the surface of her feelings at the time or her impression of the feelings of the adults around her. As she is clearly writing this from the vantage point of many years on, it would certainly be acceptable for her to speculate on the adults' experience of Communism more than she does. Her schooling and experience with censorship, toeing the official doctrinal line is illuminating and makes the reader wonder how many others went along with obvious untruths and injustices out of expediency. Although there is an air of want and lack and bleakness, it is also obvious that Gorokhova was raised with much love, whatever the hardships of being raised under Communism. Her rebellion and desire to escape made her unique. Her English speaking ability threw her in the path of an opportunity to make good her escape. And so we have this interesting and very different memoir.

The episodic feel I mentioned above sometimes caused a choppiness to the book and the history of Gorokhova's family felt almost like a rote recitation devoid of emotion. But an interest in Soviet life will overcome the flatness and the pacing issues for the Russophile reader. As an affirmation that Communism, at least as embodied by the former Soviet Union, was hypocritical and ultimately unworkable, this stands out. As a coming of age in a place incredibly foreign to those of us in the west, this will resonate both with familiarity and strangeness. Over all, it was a decent read and I'd be curious to read more from people who grew up under the restrictive regime that so characterized Soviet Communism.

My thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy of this book.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

Reviews posted this week:

Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier

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

The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm
A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
Petals from the Sky by Mingmei Yip
The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas
Blame by Michelle Huneven
Sphdz Book #1: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita
On Folly Beach by Karen White
Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck
Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart
How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holmquist
Street Gang by Michael Davis
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins
Bite Me by Christopher Moore
Old World Daughter, New World Mother by Maria Laurino
South Beach Sizzle by Suzanne Weyn and Diana Gonzalez
Look at Me Now by Thomas Hubschman
Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle

Monday Mailbox

The trickle of books has resumed, not yet a raging river but one more good soaking rain and it'll be there. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

From Zero to Mastectomy by Jackie Fox came from the author.
Starting as a series of articles about the author's early stage breast cancer diagnosis and her eventual recovery, this is a book whose information I never need but it is also one that fills the gap in information left for those women who have breast cancer but who have been lucky enough to catch it at its earliest stage.

Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara came from Megan at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists.
A high powered lawyer who to goes back to Italy, the place of his childhood, to do some soul searching about the person he wants to be and life he wants to live. I think I could definitely do some great soul searching in Italy too!

Free to a Good Home by Eve Marie Mont came from Kaitlyn at Berkley.
There's a dog on the cover, how can I not want it? The fact that it's about a newly divorced woman who is taking care of her ex's mother just makes it that much more intriguing.

My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira was a contest win from BookingMama.
A midwife who overcame prejudice and became a doctor during the civil war? Sign me right up!

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.