Watching the Oscars has made me realize several things:
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Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
February 12, 2020
December 11, 2019
For My Husband - A List of Book Gifts
by Alison DeLuca
Just in case my husband needs Christmas suggestions, here's a whole list. Let's just say any of these under the tree would make this wife very, very happy:
Just in case my husband needs Christmas suggestions, here's a whole list. Let's just say any of these under the tree would make this wife very, very happy:
August 27, 2018
Donna's August Reading Round-up #MondayBlogs
by Donna Huber
Here we are at the last Monday of the month. It has been a busy month with the university starting back with its fall semester. While I don't deal with students so much there were somethings at work that follow the academic schedule so my days were a bit more structured by those activities. The exercise classes that are free to staff at the university also started back. I've been taking the yoga class, but I decided to try the indoor cycling class. I couldn't walk for 3 days after the first class. I'm not pushing myself quite as hard and have really enjoyed the last two classes so I will keep up with that.
I also helped organize my town's Book & More Festival this month. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a favorite author, K. B. Hoyle, for the first time in person. After the festival, we went to dinner and had a great conversation about publishing, the changes going on in young adult literature, how to handle diversity and the #MeToo movement in storytelling, family, food, and of course the re-release of her fantasy series The Gateway Chronicles. It was fun to get her perspective on certain parts of the books and characters that I have been thinking about. (You can learn more about her books below).
Even with all the was going on, I still managed to read 11 books: 4 audiobooks (2 of which were for a review), 7 print/ebooks (5 of which were for a review).
I hope I can keep up with my reading as we move into fall, but there are several television shows starting next month that I enjoy which might cut into my reading time. I'm excited about the new Amazon Prime show Jack Ryan. I love the series by Tom Clancy and I hope they did a good job translating it into a television series.
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| K.B. Hoyle and me at Bogart's Books & More Festival (picture by: Bowen Craig) |
Here we are at the last Monday of the month. It has been a busy month with the university starting back with its fall semester. While I don't deal with students so much there were somethings at work that follow the academic schedule so my days were a bit more structured by those activities. The exercise classes that are free to staff at the university also started back. I've been taking the yoga class, but I decided to try the indoor cycling class. I couldn't walk for 3 days after the first class. I'm not pushing myself quite as hard and have really enjoyed the last two classes so I will keep up with that.
I also helped organize my town's Book & More Festival this month. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a favorite author, K. B. Hoyle, for the first time in person. After the festival, we went to dinner and had a great conversation about publishing, the changes going on in young adult literature, how to handle diversity and the #MeToo movement in storytelling, family, food, and of course the re-release of her fantasy series The Gateway Chronicles. It was fun to get her perspective on certain parts of the books and characters that I have been thinking about. (You can learn more about her books below).
Even with all the was going on, I still managed to read 11 books: 4 audiobooks (2 of which were for a review), 7 print/ebooks (5 of which were for a review).
I hope I can keep up with my reading as we move into fall, but there are several television shows starting next month that I enjoy which might cut into my reading time. I'm excited about the new Amazon Prime show Jack Ryan. I love the series by Tom Clancy and I hope they did a good job translating it into a television series.
June 25, 2018
Donna's June Reading Round Up #MondayBlogs
by Donna Huber
This month has gone by really quickly. I had a 2-day conference at the beginning of the month and ending the month at a 3-day intensive science writing workshop. In between these work obligations, I've squeezed in a few books, including 2 audiobooks to celebrate Audio Book Month.
This month has gone by really quickly. I had a 2-day conference at the beginning of the month and ending the month at a 3-day intensive science writing workshop. In between these work obligations, I've squeezed in a few books, including 2 audiobooks to celebrate Audio Book Month.
April 11, 2018
Of Scars & Courage: 10 Stories of Facing Life's Challenges (sponsored by @talkspace)
by Donna Huber
This post is sponsored by TalkSpace which offers on-demand therapy and counseling from licensed therapists on your Android device. Get private and anonymous help for depression, stress, and more.
We know reading can have a number of health benefits. It can help you unwind and de-stress after a long day at work or give you much needed "me time" from dealing with the pressures of taking care of a family. Turning off the television and picking up a book before bed can lead to a better night's sleep. Not to mention, getting lost in a good book can be like taking a mini-vacation.
Books can also be a safe way to explore issues that are difficult to talk about. Many authors have used their writing to share their own experiences with mental health, abuse, and other life challenges. I've selected 10 books that allow you to explore mental illness as well as read stories where authors share their personal experiences.
This post is sponsored by TalkSpace which offers on-demand therapy and counseling from licensed therapists on your Android device. Get private and anonymous help for depression, stress, and more.
We know reading can have a number of health benefits. It can help you unwind and de-stress after a long day at work or give you much needed "me time" from dealing with the pressures of taking care of a family. Turning off the television and picking up a book before bed can lead to a better night's sleep. Not to mention, getting lost in a good book can be like taking a mini-vacation.
Books can also be a safe way to explore issues that are difficult to talk about. Many authors have used their writing to share their own experiences with mental health, abuse, and other life challenges. I've selected 10 books that allow you to explore mental illness as well as read stories where authors share their personal experiences.
April 1, 2018
It's Raining New Releases
This is no joke. There is a bounty of new books coming to bookstores near you this month. Here's a look at just a few to be on the lookout for. What is on your radar for this month?
March 26, 2018
Donna's March Reading Round-up #MondayBlogs
by Donna Huber
March has been a bit of a better month for reading - 9 books read so far and probably one more will be finished before the end of the week. My new babies (the kittens) are fully integrated into the household and though they are still totally adorable they largely amuse themselves. I'm still not liking the new digital library service (and from what I've heard, I'm not the only unhappy patron) so I dug out my contact at Audible and got a list of audiobooks available for review.
March has been a bit of a better month for reading - 9 books read so far and probably one more will be finished before the end of the week. My new babies (the kittens) are fully integrated into the household and though they are still totally adorable they largely amuse themselves. I'm still not liking the new digital library service (and from what I've heard, I'm not the only unhappy patron) so I dug out my contact at Audible and got a list of audiobooks available for review.
March 14, 2018
Fire and Ice: Books and Marathons for the last of winter
by Alison DeLuca
It’s the end of the winter here in New Jersey, and I’m ready to go outside. Except, it’s still really cold, and I can’t decide. Should we brave the rain and head out for the night? Or stay in by the fireside?
March 3, 2018
Books to Enjoy as Spring Approaches
by Donna Huber
Spring is just around the corner. Here is the south my yard is already green and turning a bit wild so I'll be spending my weekends with yard work and airing out the house. Then we lose an hour next weekend as we change to Daylight Savings Time. With all the new releases this month I need all the hours I can get for reading. But I guess the good news is that these books can be a reward for all that spring cleaning and yard work.
Spring is just around the corner. Here is the south my yard is already green and turning a bit wild so I'll be spending my weekends with yard work and airing out the house. Then we lose an hour next weekend as we change to Daylight Savings Time. With all the new releases this month I need all the hours I can get for reading. But I guess the good news is that these books can be a reward for all that spring cleaning and yard work.
February 26, 2018
Donna's February Reading Round-up #MondayBlogs
by Donna Huber
I knew my reading streak wouldn't last. I'm still a couple of books ahead of schedule for my reading challenge so that isn't too bad. Two of the reasons my reading is down are pictured above. I adopt two 8-month-old kittens three weeks ago. They are now all integrated (I have 2 dogs) into the family so I'm getting more reading done. The other reason my reading is down is my library switch the digital library they use at the beginning of the month. I listened to 6 audiobooks in January and only 2 this month. The 'listen online' option at RB Digital is horrible - it doesn't save my spot, there is no rewind/fast forward function, and it constantly crashes and has to be reloaded. So I might be listening to fewer books from now on.
I knew my reading streak wouldn't last. I'm still a couple of books ahead of schedule for my reading challenge so that isn't too bad. Two of the reasons my reading is down are pictured above. I adopt two 8-month-old kittens three weeks ago. They are now all integrated (I have 2 dogs) into the family so I'm getting more reading done. The other reason my reading is down is my library switch the digital library they use at the beginning of the month. I listened to 6 audiobooks in January and only 2 this month. The 'listen online' option at RB Digital is horrible - it doesn't save my spot, there is no rewind/fast forward function, and it constantly crashes and has to be reloaded. So I might be listening to fewer books from now on.
February 1, 2018
New Releases: February 2018
Winter might be hanging on a bit longer so there will be plenty of time to snuggle up with a good book. I have my fingers crossed for at least one more snow day before winter turns to spring. There are plenty of books coming out this month that would great for curling up on the couch for the day.
Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. Covers and descriptions are from Goodreads.com.
Pyper and Julius are getting married. There’s a wedding to plan, dresses to order, and daiquiris to consume. But when Pyper’s younger brother starts dating a young woman who looks remarkably like the new ghost haunting her café, suddenly the plans are on hold until Pyper can unravel a curse that threatens to not only ruin her big day, but her brother, too.
Available February 4
Buy Spirits, Diamonds, and a Drive-thru Daiquiri Stand at Amazon
The critically acclaimed, award-winning, modern classic Speak is now a stunning graphic novel.
"Speak up for yourself-we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless--an outcast--because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through her work on an art project, she is finally able to face what really happened that night: She was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. With powerful illustrations by Emily Carroll Speak: The Graphic Novel comes alive for new audiences and fans of the classic novel.
Available February 6
Buy Speak: The Graphic Novel at Amazon
oy has always been relegated to the outskirts of his small village. With a large hump on his back, a mysterious past, and a tendency to talk to animals, he is often mocked and abused by the other kids in his town. Until the arrival of a shadowy pilgrim named Secondus. Impressed with Boy’s climbing and jumping abilities, Secondus engages Boy as his servant, pulling him into an expedition across Europe to gather the seven precious relics of Saint Peter. Boy quickly realizes this journey is not an innocent one. They are stealing the relics, and gaining dangerous enemies in the process. But Boy is determined to see this pilgrimage through until the end—for what if St. Peter can make Boy’s hump go away?
This compelling, action-packed tale is full of bravery and daring, stars a terrific cast of secondary characters, and features an unlikely multigenerational friendship at its heart. Memorable and haunting, Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s epic medieval adventure is just right for readers of Sara Pennypacker’s Pax, Adam Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale, and Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Echo.
Features a map and black-and-white art throughout.
Available February 6
Buy The Book of Boy at Amazon
After being together for ten years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, beautiful twin girls, and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other's sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together and panic sets in. They never expected "until death do us part" to mean seven decades.
In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: they will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring. But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very foundation of their unshakable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that question some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all.
Available February 13
Buy Surprise Me at Amazon
Descended from an ancient race, Earth’s few remaining Lightkeepers battle the forces of darkness that threaten humanity...
Detectives Micki Dare and Zach Harris are called in to investigate when a millionaire developer leaps from atop his luxury hotel on the night of its grand opening.
After Micki receives a mysterious package from her long-dead mentor, and Zach suspects something supernatural working against them, they realize this is no ordinary case. A dark force is once again threatening the Big Easy.
Aspects of this case prove eerily similar to an unsolved murder from years before, making the stakes dangerously personal for Micki. This time it’s her life on the line.
It will take the ingenuity and special skills of their misfit band of light beings and humans to bring this perpetrator down...but can they do it before they lose one of their own?
Available February 13
Buy Fallen Five at Amazon
One is playing a long game. But which one?
They meet at a local tavern in the small town of Belleville, Delaware. Polly is set on heading west. Adam says he’s also passing through.
Yet she stays and he stays—drawn to this mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness both unnerves and excites him. Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other—dangerous, even lethal, secrets that begin to accumulate as autumn approaches, feeding the growing doubts they conceal.
Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other’s lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away—or even if they want to. Is their love strong enough to withstand the truth, or will it ultimately destroy them?
Something—or someone—has to give.
Which one will it be?
Available February 20
Buy Sunburn at Amazon
Court Gentry is back in action. This time he's working on behalf of a well-connected group of Syrian expats to secure the Syrian president's mistress so they can use her to bring down the president's regime. But the expats' plan goes awry when it's discovered the mistress has a baby--the Syrian president's only male heir--hidden away in a Damascus safe house.
Court goes after the baby, a decision that comes at the price of the mistress's life. The expat organization deems the boy now useless to their cause and refuses to protect him against the Syrian first lady and the notorious Swiss assassin in her employ. With no support on the way, Court realizes he'll have to take down the Syrian president himself if he and the boy are going to make it out alive.
Available February 20
Buy Agent in Place at Amazon
From New York Times bestselling author Rhys Bowen comes a haunting novel about a woman who braves her father’s hidden past to discover his secrets…
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.
Nearly thirty years later, Hugo’s estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father’s funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
Still dealing with the emotional wounds of her own personal trauma, Joanna embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to understand her father’s history—and maybe come to understand herself as well. Joanna soon discovers that some would prefer the past be left undisturbed, but she has come too far to let go of her father’s secrets now.
Available February 20
Buy The Tuscan Child at Amazon
From award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell comes a fantasy novel told in four parts about a land crippled by the use of magic, and a tyrant who is trying to rebuild an empire—unless the people find a way to resist.
Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.
In four interrelated parts, The Tangled Lands is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell have created a fantasy for our times about a decadent and rotting empire facing environmental collapse from within—and yet hope emerges from unlikely places with women warriors and alchemical solutions.
Available February 27
Buy The Tangled Lands at Amazon
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January 29, 2018
Donna's January Book Round Up
by Donna Huber
I'm still shocked that I read 115 books last year. I credit audiobooks for the win, and if my list of books read this month is an indication, audiobooks are going to play a big part in reaching my 2018 reading goals. Do you listen to audiobooks? I prefer to read books, but it is a nice way to fit in books when I have other things that need doing - cleaning the house or at work.
Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. Covers and descriptions are from Goodreads.com
Saving the Sheriff by Roxanne Snopek
Over Christmas, I discovered the Marrietta, MT universe. I went looking for other books in that universe and came across this free short story (it's now 99 cents). While Snopek does write in the Marrietta universe, this book is not. As far as clean romances go, I really liked it.
The power might be out…but the heat is on.
Every year, free-spirited Frankie Sylva banishes her holiday loneliness with good deeds. This time, she's rescuing a truckload of neglected reindeer—until a blizzard sidetracks her scheme, and now she's stuck…literally.
Local sheriff Red LeClair is shocked to find a very cute, half-frozen woman trespassing on Three River Ranch in a ditched rig, with a suspiciously empty trailer. Is she a horse thief? Is she on the run? Is she out of her mind? He has no choice but to take her back to the ranch and keep an eye on her.
But when the power goes out, Red and Frankie are forced to depend on each other in a way that both have avoided for years. The sheriff's quiet holiday is suddenly festive: a crackling fire, candles, carols, and an irresistible stranger…who might be a felon.
Buy Saving the Sheriff at Amazon
A Rancher's Surrender by Michelle Beattie
This is another Marietta, MT story. It is set in the 1880 and features Jillian whom I briefly see in Away in Montana. This book is more steamy than the other titles I've read in this universe. It reminded me a bit of the television show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
Denied entrance into vet school because of her gender, fiery and determined Jillian Matthews trained at her father's side and then headed west to Montana Territory after answering an ad using only her father's initials and last name. She is convinced that her skills will override local ranchers prejudice. She's wrong and handsome Wade Parker, the one who hired her, is the first to make his displeasure public. But Jillian refuses to back down and sets out to win Wade's approval. Soon that's not all she hopes to win.
Widower Wade Parker is furious the new vet he helped hire is a woman. The fact that she's beautiful, smart and wakes parts of him that he thought dead burns even more. Feeling tricked, Wade is determined to send her back east but when the town turns on Jillian and her enemies become dangerous, he steps up to be her protector. And that's not the only role Jillian has him contemplating.
Buy A Rancher's Surrender at Amazon
(the ebook was still free when I prepared this post this weekend)
Betrayed by Lisa Scottoline
I discovered this series last year when looking for audiobooks. I really enjoyed the story. I liked the main character Judy. I'm undecided on how I feel about the family twist at the end.
The women of Rosato & Associates return, after the relaunch of the series that started with Accused. This second entry, Betrayed, stars Judy Carrier, who has had the starring role in only one previous Rosato book. When Betrayed opens, Judy Carrier finds herself at a crossroads in her life. Her best friend, Mary DiNunzio, has just become partner and is about to become a bride, leaving Judy vaguely out of sorts. She's not jealous, but she's not happy either and she's wondering where her own career and love life are going. To make matters worse, she is rocked to her emotional foundations when she learns that her beloved Aunt Barb has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She races to her aunt's side, and so does Judy's mother, only to find that her aunt is dealing with the sudden death of a friend who had been helping her through chemo. The friend, Iris Juarez, was an undocumented worker at a local farm, but her death doesn't look natural at all, to Judy. Judy begins to investigate, following a path that leads her into an underground world far more dangerous than she ever imagined. Judy has to dig to uncover what happened to Iris, and at the same time unearth the secrets in her own family.
Buy Betrayed at Amazon
This Could Hurt by Jillian Medoff
My first review book of 2018. At the start of the book, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I thought is might be too depressing for the start of a new year. But after getting to know the characters, I really started to like the book and it didn't feel quite as depressing. By the end, I felt that it was a bittersweet story and one I'm glad I read. Read my full review.
A funny and deeply felt novel that illuminates the pivotal role of work in our lives—a riveting fusion of The Nest, Up in the Air, and Then We Came to the End that captures the emotional complexities of five HR colleagues trying to balance ambition, hope, and fear as their small company is buffeted by economic forces that threaten to upend them.
Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery.
While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company’s bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a middle-aged, happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something—a romance, a promotion—to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places—that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.
Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture dreams big and small. As their individual circumstances shift, one thing remains constant—Rosa, the sun around whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble, the implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob, Lucy, and Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond their reckoning.
Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American company in all its brilliant, insane, comforting, and terrifying glory. Authentic, razor-sharp, and achingly funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about work, loneliness, love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and unexpected windfalls; a novel about life.
Buy This Could Hurt at Amazon
Brooklyn by Colm TóibÃn
I enjoyed this audiobook. It was a sweet coming-of-age type story. The book was made into a movie, but I haven't seen it. I'll probably look for it. Have you read it or seen the movie?
Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America--to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland"--she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. He takes Eilis to Coney Island and Ebbets Field, and home to dinner in the two-room apartment he shares with his brothers and parents. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.
By far TóibÃn's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.
Buy Brooklyn at Amazon
Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand
When I listened to the 4th book over Christmas, I realized I had somehow missed book 3. It filled in some of the missing gaps I had when I listened to the last book in the series. When I started this series I wasn't sure if I would stick with it, but I grew to love these characters. From the description, this was supposed to be the end of the series. I'm glad there was a 4th and I wonder if the series will spin off with some of the children.
Gather under the mistletoe for one last round of caroling with the Quinn family in this heartwarming conclusion to Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Winter Street Trilogy. Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. After a year apart, and an ill-fated affair with the Winter Street Inn's old Santa Claus, Mitzi has returned to rule the roost; Patrick is about to be released from prison; Kevin has a successful new business and is finally ready to tie the knot with Isabelle; and best of all, there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan. That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon. Kelley has recently survived a health scare; Jennifer can't quite shake her addiction to the drugs she used as a crutch while Patrick was in jail; and Ava still can't decide between the two lovers that she's been juggling with limited success. However, if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together to give thanks for the good times, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other as the Quinns prepare to host Kevin and Isabelle's wedding at the inn. But as the special day approaches, a historic once-in-a-century blizzard bears down on Nantucket, threatening to keep the Quinns away from the place--and the people--they love most. Before the snow clears, the Quinns will have to survive enough upheavals to send anyone running for the spiked eggnog, in this touching novel that proves that when the holidays roll around, you can always go home again.
Buy Winter Storms at Amazon
22 Scars by C.M. North
It is kind of like an edgy indie film that either people hate or love. I liked the chapters with Beth as the narrator as they flowed more like a story. Read my full review.
Raised with apathy and spite, Amy’s life is a monotonous drone of deep despair, broken only by coffee and nights out with her best—and only—friend. She battles depression daily, fighting to keep her sanity in a world that, to her, is set on destroying her soul.
Her future is bleak, overcast with shadow and doubt; her past harbors terrible secrets that even those closest to her couldn’t begin to guess. When tragedy strikes someone she holds dear, will she succumb to the crushing weight of despair, or will she find the strength to fight—to live?
22 Scars is a story of what it takes to live daily with depression - and how the scars of a lifetime can pass through generations and beyond.
Can the past ever truly be forgotten?
Can depression ever be beat?
Buy 22 Scars at Amazon
Busy Body by M.C. Beaton
If you haven't tried audiobooks, and you like cozy mysteries, then I recommend picking up one in the Agatha Raisin. They are fun and easy to follow.
Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, but her cozy little village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities.
But this year Mr. John Sunday, a self important officer with the Health and Safety Board, has ruled that the traditional tree on top of the church is a public menace; that lampposts are unsafe for hanging illuminations; that May Dimwoody's homemade toys are dangerous for children. Things have reached such a desperate pass that the Carsely Ladies' Society joins forces with the ladies in the neighboring village of Odley Cruesis to try to put a stop to Mr. Sunday's meddling - only to find that someone has literally put a stop to him with a kitchen knife.
Agatha's detective agency is on the case, but when a man has made as many enemies as John Sunday, it's hard to know where to start.
Buy Busy Body at Amazon
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
The first book in this trilogy was a book club read and since I listened to it on audio, I decided to listen to the whole trilogy. I got it from the digital library in December, but with the holidays I kept running out of time and then would have to go back on the holds list. I don't know if it was the wait or because this one had a lot of recapping in it as the story was wrapped, but I found myself growing bored with it.
Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb.
Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God's Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb's dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge.
Combining adventure, humor, romance, superb storytelling, and an imagination at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is vintage Margaret Atwood—a moving and dramatic conclusion to her internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.
Buy MaddAddam at Amazon
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
Susan reviewed this book back in the fall of 2016 and I've wanted to read it ever since. So I got the audiobook. It caused it me a lot of anxiety to the point I went looking for spoilers (since I couldn't just flip to the last page and find out what happens). It is an excellent psychological thriller, even knowing how it ends.
Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace: he has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You'd like to get to know Grace better. But it's difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are never apart. Some might call this true love.
Picture this: a dinner party at their perfect home, the conversation and wine flowing. They appear to be in their element while entertaining. And Grace's friends are eager to reciprocate with lunch the following week. Grace wants to go, but knows she never will. Her friends call—so why doesn't Grace ever answer the phone? And how can she cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim?
And why are there bars on one of the bedroom windows?
The perfect marriage? Or the perfect lie?
Buy Behind Closed Doors at Amazon
Women Float by Maureen Foley
I've felt much like reading in the evenings so even though it is a novella I haven't made much progress.
Lonely California pastry chef Win never learned how to swim, despite growing up just miles from the Pacific Ocean. Even Janie, her flaky pro-surfer single mother, couldn't convince her to brave the water, solidifying Win's fear when she leaves her at the tender age of 9. But when Win turns 29 and decides to take swimming lessons for the first time -- finally confronting her hydrophobia and trying to make sense of why her mer-mother suddenly swam off all those years ago -- she must also deal with a desperate crush she's developed on her New Age neighbor, mysterious postcards that keep arriving in the mail, and her bad habit of pathological lying. This touching and humorous look at female relationships and the dramas that come for contemporary women turning thirty also doubles as a loving ode to the small coastal town of Carpinteria and the laid-back SoCal lifestyle that guides it. Poetic and moving, Maureen Foley's fiction debut is both a perfect beach read and an insightful look at love, accidental families and the power of friendships.
Buy Women Float at Amazon
Peregrine Island by Diane B. Saxon
I'm not really sure where this story is going but it is interesting so far. It's won a bunch of awards.
Part “who-done-it” and part family drama, this award-winning novel reveals that neither people nor paintings are always what they appear to be
Contradictory relationships within troubled families are nothing new, but the award-winning psychological novel written by well-known journalist Diane B. Saxton elevates these relationships and the mysterious heirloom painting that both exposes and unites them to an art form.
Peregrine Island interweaves the stories of three generations of women, one valuable painting, the artist who created it, and those who would do anything to possess it – including kill.
Lush with sensory details, this psychologically complex mystery novel is set on a private island in the middle of Long Island Sound. It begins when the family’s lives are turned upside-down one summer by so-called art experts, who appear on the doorstep of their isolated home to appraise a favorite heirloom painting. When incriminating papers along with two other paintings are discovered behind the painting in question, the appraisal turns into a full-fledged investigation and detectives are called into the case— but not by the family whose members grow increasingly antagonistic toward one another.
During the course of the inquiry and as the summer progresses, the family members discover new secrets about one another and new facts about their past. Above all, they learn that neither people nor paintings can be taken at face value.
Buy Peregrine Island at Amazon
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
This is the book club read for February. I've just started it and my book club meets on Thursday! It took forever to get a copy from the library.
The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple award winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
Buy The Three-Body Problem at Amazon
Prancing Around with Sleeping Beauty by Stacy Juba
This Sleeping Beauty isn’t sure she wants to wake up…
Dance instructor Rory Callahan likes to play it safe. When she meets Kyle, he’s impulsive, persistent, and her exact opposite. He’s pushing her to tango way past her comfort zone and keeping Rory on her toes more than twenty years of dance teachers ever had.
Unfortunately, he’s the grandson of her family’s archrival and she doesn’t want to disappoint them. After all, her parents imagine her as a proper princess - hence her namesake Aurora, AKA Sleeping Beauty. Complicating matters, Rory’s also dealing with a surgeon boyfriend who’s perfect for her (sort of), an obnoxious boss, and desperate dance moms. Kyle wants to change her whole life, but Rory doesn’t like the stakes. After all, princesses are the ones who get the happy endings. . .aren’t they?
This sweet romantic comedy is a standalone and can be read on its own. All books in the series can be read in any order so jump in at any time.
Buy Prancing Around with Sleeping Beauty at Amazon
Birds of Wonder by Cynthia Robinson
Fiction. One August morning while walking her dog, high-school English teacher Beatrice Ousterhout stumbles over the dead body of a student, Amber Inglin, who was to play the lead in Beatrice's production of John Webster's Jacobean tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. Barely able to speak, Beatrice calls the police. That is to say, she calls her daughter. Jes is a detective with two years of experience under her belt and a personal life composed primarily of a string of one-night-stands, including the owner of the field in which Beatrice has found Amber. In addition to a house and a field, Child Services lawyer Liam Walsh owns a vineyard, where Amber Inglin, along with a handful of other teens who've had difficulty negotiating the foster system, was an intern. Set among the hills and lakes of upstate New York and told in six vibrantly distinct voices, this complex and original narrative chronicles the rippling effects of a young girl's death through a densely intertwined community. By turns funny, fierce, lyrical and horrifying, BIRDS OF WONDER probes family ties, the stresses that break them, and the pasts that never really let us go.
Buy Birds of Wonder at Amazon
What great books have you discovered this first month of 2018?
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| My January snow day - fuzzy socks, good books, hot tea |
Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. Covers and descriptions are from Goodreads.com
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Over Christmas, I discovered the Marrietta, MT universe. I went looking for other books in that universe and came across this free short story (it's now 99 cents). While Snopek does write in the Marrietta universe, this book is not. As far as clean romances go, I really liked it.
The power might be out…but the heat is on.
Every year, free-spirited Frankie Sylva banishes her holiday loneliness with good deeds. This time, she's rescuing a truckload of neglected reindeer—until a blizzard sidetracks her scheme, and now she's stuck…literally.
Local sheriff Red LeClair is shocked to find a very cute, half-frozen woman trespassing on Three River Ranch in a ditched rig, with a suspiciously empty trailer. Is she a horse thief? Is she on the run? Is she out of her mind? He has no choice but to take her back to the ranch and keep an eye on her.
But when the power goes out, Red and Frankie are forced to depend on each other in a way that both have avoided for years. The sheriff's quiet holiday is suddenly festive: a crackling fire, candles, carols, and an irresistible stranger…who might be a felon.
Buy Saving the Sheriff at Amazon
This is another Marietta, MT story. It is set in the 1880 and features Jillian whom I briefly see in Away in Montana. This book is more steamy than the other titles I've read in this universe. It reminded me a bit of the television show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
Denied entrance into vet school because of her gender, fiery and determined Jillian Matthews trained at her father's side and then headed west to Montana Territory after answering an ad using only her father's initials and last name. She is convinced that her skills will override local ranchers prejudice. She's wrong and handsome Wade Parker, the one who hired her, is the first to make his displeasure public. But Jillian refuses to back down and sets out to win Wade's approval. Soon that's not all she hopes to win.
Widower Wade Parker is furious the new vet he helped hire is a woman. The fact that she's beautiful, smart and wakes parts of him that he thought dead burns even more. Feeling tricked, Wade is determined to send her back east but when the town turns on Jillian and her enemies become dangerous, he steps up to be her protector. And that's not the only role Jillian has him contemplating.
Buy A Rancher's Surrender at Amazon
(the ebook was still free when I prepared this post this weekend)
I discovered this series last year when looking for audiobooks. I really enjoyed the story. I liked the main character Judy. I'm undecided on how I feel about the family twist at the end.
The women of Rosato & Associates return, after the relaunch of the series that started with Accused. This second entry, Betrayed, stars Judy Carrier, who has had the starring role in only one previous Rosato book. When Betrayed opens, Judy Carrier finds herself at a crossroads in her life. Her best friend, Mary DiNunzio, has just become partner and is about to become a bride, leaving Judy vaguely out of sorts. She's not jealous, but she's not happy either and she's wondering where her own career and love life are going. To make matters worse, she is rocked to her emotional foundations when she learns that her beloved Aunt Barb has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She races to her aunt's side, and so does Judy's mother, only to find that her aunt is dealing with the sudden death of a friend who had been helping her through chemo. The friend, Iris Juarez, was an undocumented worker at a local farm, but her death doesn't look natural at all, to Judy. Judy begins to investigate, following a path that leads her into an underground world far more dangerous than she ever imagined. Judy has to dig to uncover what happened to Iris, and at the same time unearth the secrets in her own family.
Buy Betrayed at Amazon
My first review book of 2018. At the start of the book, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I thought is might be too depressing for the start of a new year. But after getting to know the characters, I really started to like the book and it didn't feel quite as depressing. By the end, I felt that it was a bittersweet story and one I'm glad I read. Read my full review.
A funny and deeply felt novel that illuminates the pivotal role of work in our lives—a riveting fusion of The Nest, Up in the Air, and Then We Came to the End that captures the emotional complexities of five HR colleagues trying to balance ambition, hope, and fear as their small company is buffeted by economic forces that threaten to upend them.
Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery.
While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company’s bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a middle-aged, happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something—a romance, a promotion—to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places—that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.
Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture dreams big and small. As their individual circumstances shift, one thing remains constant—Rosa, the sun around whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble, the implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob, Lucy, and Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond their reckoning.
Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American company in all its brilliant, insane, comforting, and terrifying glory. Authentic, razor-sharp, and achingly funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about work, loneliness, love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and unexpected windfalls; a novel about life.
Buy This Could Hurt at Amazon
I enjoyed this audiobook. It was a sweet coming-of-age type story. The book was made into a movie, but I haven't seen it. I'll probably look for it. Have you read it or seen the movie?
Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America--to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland"--she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. He takes Eilis to Coney Island and Ebbets Field, and home to dinner in the two-room apartment he shares with his brothers and parents. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.
By far TóibÃn's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.
Buy Brooklyn at Amazon
When I listened to the 4th book over Christmas, I realized I had somehow missed book 3. It filled in some of the missing gaps I had when I listened to the last book in the series. When I started this series I wasn't sure if I would stick with it, but I grew to love these characters. From the description, this was supposed to be the end of the series. I'm glad there was a 4th and I wonder if the series will spin off with some of the children.
Gather under the mistletoe for one last round of caroling with the Quinn family in this heartwarming conclusion to Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Winter Street Trilogy. Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. After a year apart, and an ill-fated affair with the Winter Street Inn's old Santa Claus, Mitzi has returned to rule the roost; Patrick is about to be released from prison; Kevin has a successful new business and is finally ready to tie the knot with Isabelle; and best of all, there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan. That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon. Kelley has recently survived a health scare; Jennifer can't quite shake her addiction to the drugs she used as a crutch while Patrick was in jail; and Ava still can't decide between the two lovers that she's been juggling with limited success. However, if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together to give thanks for the good times, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other as the Quinns prepare to host Kevin and Isabelle's wedding at the inn. But as the special day approaches, a historic once-in-a-century blizzard bears down on Nantucket, threatening to keep the Quinns away from the place--and the people--they love most. Before the snow clears, the Quinns will have to survive enough upheavals to send anyone running for the spiked eggnog, in this touching novel that proves that when the holidays roll around, you can always go home again.
Buy Winter Storms at Amazon
It is kind of like an edgy indie film that either people hate or love. I liked the chapters with Beth as the narrator as they flowed more like a story. Read my full review.
Raised with apathy and spite, Amy’s life is a monotonous drone of deep despair, broken only by coffee and nights out with her best—and only—friend. She battles depression daily, fighting to keep her sanity in a world that, to her, is set on destroying her soul.
Her future is bleak, overcast with shadow and doubt; her past harbors terrible secrets that even those closest to her couldn’t begin to guess. When tragedy strikes someone she holds dear, will she succumb to the crushing weight of despair, or will she find the strength to fight—to live?
22 Scars is a story of what it takes to live daily with depression - and how the scars of a lifetime can pass through generations and beyond.
Can the past ever truly be forgotten?
Can depression ever be beat?
Buy 22 Scars at Amazon
If you haven't tried audiobooks, and you like cozy mysteries, then I recommend picking up one in the Agatha Raisin. They are fun and easy to follow.
Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, but her cozy little village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities.
But this year Mr. John Sunday, a self important officer with the Health and Safety Board, has ruled that the traditional tree on top of the church is a public menace; that lampposts are unsafe for hanging illuminations; that May Dimwoody's homemade toys are dangerous for children. Things have reached such a desperate pass that the Carsely Ladies' Society joins forces with the ladies in the neighboring village of Odley Cruesis to try to put a stop to Mr. Sunday's meddling - only to find that someone has literally put a stop to him with a kitchen knife.
Agatha's detective agency is on the case, but when a man has made as many enemies as John Sunday, it's hard to know where to start.
Buy Busy Body at Amazon
The first book in this trilogy was a book club read and since I listened to it on audio, I decided to listen to the whole trilogy. I got it from the digital library in December, but with the holidays I kept running out of time and then would have to go back on the holds list. I don't know if it was the wait or because this one had a lot of recapping in it as the story was wrapped, but I found myself growing bored with it.
Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb.
Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God's Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb's dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge.
Combining adventure, humor, romance, superb storytelling, and an imagination at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is vintage Margaret Atwood—a moving and dramatic conclusion to her internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.
Buy MaddAddam at Amazon
Susan reviewed this book back in the fall of 2016 and I've wanted to read it ever since. So I got the audiobook. It caused it me a lot of anxiety to the point I went looking for spoilers (since I couldn't just flip to the last page and find out what happens). It is an excellent psychological thriller, even knowing how it ends.
Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace: he has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You'd like to get to know Grace better. But it's difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are never apart. Some might call this true love.
Picture this: a dinner party at their perfect home, the conversation and wine flowing. They appear to be in their element while entertaining. And Grace's friends are eager to reciprocate with lunch the following week. Grace wants to go, but knows she never will. Her friends call—so why doesn't Grace ever answer the phone? And how can she cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim?
And why are there bars on one of the bedroom windows?
The perfect marriage? Or the perfect lie?
Buy Behind Closed Doors at Amazon
Currently Reading:
I've felt much like reading in the evenings so even though it is a novella I haven't made much progress.
Lonely California pastry chef Win never learned how to swim, despite growing up just miles from the Pacific Ocean. Even Janie, her flaky pro-surfer single mother, couldn't convince her to brave the water, solidifying Win's fear when she leaves her at the tender age of 9. But when Win turns 29 and decides to take swimming lessons for the first time -- finally confronting her hydrophobia and trying to make sense of why her mer-mother suddenly swam off all those years ago -- she must also deal with a desperate crush she's developed on her New Age neighbor, mysterious postcards that keep arriving in the mail, and her bad habit of pathological lying. This touching and humorous look at female relationships and the dramas that come for contemporary women turning thirty also doubles as a loving ode to the small coastal town of Carpinteria and the laid-back SoCal lifestyle that guides it. Poetic and moving, Maureen Foley's fiction debut is both a perfect beach read and an insightful look at love, accidental families and the power of friendships.
Buy Women Float at Amazon
I'm not really sure where this story is going but it is interesting so far. It's won a bunch of awards.
Part “who-done-it” and part family drama, this award-winning novel reveals that neither people nor paintings are always what they appear to be
Contradictory relationships within troubled families are nothing new, but the award-winning psychological novel written by well-known journalist Diane B. Saxton elevates these relationships and the mysterious heirloom painting that both exposes and unites them to an art form.
Peregrine Island interweaves the stories of three generations of women, one valuable painting, the artist who created it, and those who would do anything to possess it – including kill.
Lush with sensory details, this psychologically complex mystery novel is set on a private island in the middle of Long Island Sound. It begins when the family’s lives are turned upside-down one summer by so-called art experts, who appear on the doorstep of their isolated home to appraise a favorite heirloom painting. When incriminating papers along with two other paintings are discovered behind the painting in question, the appraisal turns into a full-fledged investigation and detectives are called into the case— but not by the family whose members grow increasingly antagonistic toward one another.
During the course of the inquiry and as the summer progresses, the family members discover new secrets about one another and new facts about their past. Above all, they learn that neither people nor paintings can be taken at face value.
Buy Peregrine Island at Amazon
This is the book club read for February. I've just started it and my book club meets on Thursday! It took forever to get a copy from the library.
The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple award winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
Buy The Three-Body Problem at Amazon
Up Next:
I have two reviews coming up in February so they will be my next reads.This Sleeping Beauty isn’t sure she wants to wake up…
Dance instructor Rory Callahan likes to play it safe. When she meets Kyle, he’s impulsive, persistent, and her exact opposite. He’s pushing her to tango way past her comfort zone and keeping Rory on her toes more than twenty years of dance teachers ever had.
Unfortunately, he’s the grandson of her family’s archrival and she doesn’t want to disappoint them. After all, her parents imagine her as a proper princess - hence her namesake Aurora, AKA Sleeping Beauty. Complicating matters, Rory’s also dealing with a surgeon boyfriend who’s perfect for her (sort of), an obnoxious boss, and desperate dance moms. Kyle wants to change her whole life, but Rory doesn’t like the stakes. After all, princesses are the ones who get the happy endings. . .aren’t they?
This sweet romantic comedy is a standalone and can be read on its own. All books in the series can be read in any order so jump in at any time.
Buy Prancing Around with Sleeping Beauty at Amazon
Fiction. One August morning while walking her dog, high-school English teacher Beatrice Ousterhout stumbles over the dead body of a student, Amber Inglin, who was to play the lead in Beatrice's production of John Webster's Jacobean tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. Barely able to speak, Beatrice calls the police. That is to say, she calls her daughter. Jes is a detective with two years of experience under her belt and a personal life composed primarily of a string of one-night-stands, including the owner of the field in which Beatrice has found Amber. In addition to a house and a field, Child Services lawyer Liam Walsh owns a vineyard, where Amber Inglin, along with a handful of other teens who've had difficulty negotiating the foster system, was an intern. Set among the hills and lakes of upstate New York and told in six vibrantly distinct voices, this complex and original narrative chronicles the rippling effects of a young girl's death through a densely intertwined community. By turns funny, fierce, lyrical and horrifying, BIRDS OF WONDER probes family ties, the stresses that break them, and the pasts that never really let us go.
Buy Birds of Wonder at Amazon
What great books have you discovered this first month of 2018?
Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.
Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today! Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.
January 1, 2018
First New Releases of 2018
by Donna Huber
Happy New Year! It's a new month of a new year, which means that new books are hitting the shelves. 2017 had a number of blockbusters and I can't wait to see what 2018 has to hold. Here are a few books to watch for this month. Pre-order today so you don't miss them.
Happy New Year! It's a new month of a new year, which means that new books are hitting the shelves. 2017 had a number of blockbusters and I can't wait to see what 2018 has to hold. Here are a few books to watch for this month. Pre-order today so you don't miss them.
December 2, 2017
New Books for December 2017
by Donna Huber
Here we are, the last month of 2017. There have been some truly great books this year. I would love to hear what your favorite reads on 2017 are. If you are trying to fit in another new release or two before the year-end, there are a few books coming out this month from popular authors.
Here we are, the last month of 2017. There have been some truly great books this year. I would love to hear what your favorite reads on 2017 are. If you are trying to fit in another new release or two before the year-end, there are a few books coming out this month from popular authors.
November 27, 2017
Books Read, Reading, To Read - November 2017 #MondayBlogs
by Donna Huber
It has been another great month for reading. I set a reading goal this year of 80 books, and currently, I have read 95. If my reading trend continues through December, I will surpass 100 books! I'm also pretty excited that I can start reading the Christmas books I found during my bookshelf cleaning.
It has been another great month for reading. I set a reading goal this year of 80 books, and currently, I have read 95. If my reading trend continues through December, I will surpass 100 books! I'm also pretty excited that I can start reading the Christmas books I found during my bookshelf cleaning.
November 24, 2017
Book Suggestions for the Readers on Your List
by Susan Roberts
Christmas is right around the corner and it's time to make your list (and check it twice). Lots of avid readers would prefer to unwrap a book on Christmas morning more than anything else (ok, maybe diamond earrings would be better but we have to be realistic here.) I have listed some of my favorite books of 2017 below.
Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.
Betting on the city of Detroit’s eventual comeback, cousins Addie and Samantha decide to risk it all on an affordable new house and a culinary career that starts with renovating a vintage diner in a depressed area of town. There’s just one little snag in their vision.
Angus, a weary, beloved local, is strongly opposed to his neighborhood’s gentrification—and his concerns reflect the suspicion of the community. Shocked by their reception, Addie and Samantha begin to have second thoughts.
As the long hours, problematic love interests, and underhanded pressures mount, the two women find themselves increasingly at odds, and soon their problems threaten everything they’ve worked for. If they are going to realize their dreams, Addie and Samantha must focus on rebuilding their relationship. But will the neighborhood open their hearts to welcome them home?
Buy The Welcome Home Diner at Amazon
Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan (read my review)
It's Christmas in the Cornish coastal village of Mount Polbearne - a time for family, friends and feasting.
Polly Waterford loves running the Little Beach Street Bakery. She's at her happiest when she's creating delicious treats and the festive season always inspires her to bake and knead something extra special for the village residents. In fact, the only thing she loves more than her bakery is curling up with her gorgeous boyfriend, Huckle. She's determined that this Christmas is going to be their best one yet, but life doesn't always work out as planned...
When Polly's best friend Kerensa turns up with a secret that threatens the life Polly and Huckle have built together, the future begins to look uncertain. And then a face from Polly's past reappears and things become even more complicated. Polly can usually find solace in baking but she has a feeling that's not going to be enough this time. Can she get things back on track so that everyone has a merry Christmas?
Buy Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery at Amazon
A candid, compelling, and rollicking portrait of the pirate captain of Margaritaville—Jimmy Buffett.
In Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, acclaimed music critic Ryan White has crafted the first definitive account of Buffett’s rise from singing songs for beer to his emergence as a tropical icon and CEO behind the Margaritaville industrial complex, a vast network of merchandise, chain restaurants, resorts, and lifestyle products all inspired by his sunny but disillusioned hit “Margaritaville.”
Filled with interviews from friends, musicians, Coral Reefer Band members past and present, and business partners who were there, this book is a top-down joyride with plenty of side trips and meanderings from Mobile and Pascagoula to New Orleans, Key West, down into the islands aboard the Euphoria and the Euphoria II, and into the studios and onto the stages where the foundation of Buffett’s reputation was laid.
Buffett wasn’t always the pied piper of beaches, bars, and laid-back living. Born on the Gulf Coast, the son of a son of a sailing ship captain, Buffett scuffed around New Orleans in the late sixties, flunked out of Nashville (and a marriage) in 1971, and found refuge among the artists, dopers, shrimpers, and genuine characters who’d collected at the end of the road in Key West. And it was there, in those waning outlaw days at the last American exit, where Buffett, like Hemingway before him, found his voice and eventually brought to life the song that would launch Parrot Head nation.
And just where is Margaritaville? It’s wherever it’s five o’clock; it’s wherever there’s a breeze and salt in the air; and it’s wherever Buffett sets his bare feet, smiles, and sings his songs.
Buy A Good Life All the Way at Amazon
The Summer Springsteen's Songs Saved Me by Barbara Quinn (read my review)
Coming home to catch her husband with his face between the long, silky legs of another woman is the last thing Sofia expects—and on today of all days. But, after scratching an expletive into his Porsche and setting the cheating bastard’s clothes on fire, she cranks up her beloved Bruce and flees, vowing to never look back.
Finding solace in the peaceful beachside town of Bradley Beach, NJ, Sof is determined to start over. And, with the help of best friends, new acquaintances, a sexy neighbor, and the powerful songs of Springsteen, this may be the place where her wounds can heal. But, as if she hasn’t faced her share of life’s challenges, a final flurry of obstacles awaits.
In order to head courageously toward the future, Sofia must first let go of her past, find freedom, and mend her broken soul.
Buy The Summer Springsteen's Songs Saved Me at Amazon
From the critically acclaimed author of The Hummingbird and The Curiosity comes a dazzling novel of World War II—a shimmering tale of courage, determination, optimism, and the resilience of the human spirit, set in a small Normandy village on the eve of D-Day
On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country.
Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again.
But in the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers.
But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.
Buy The Baker's Secret at Amazon
The Boat Runner by Devin Murphy (read my review)
A DUTCH SEAFARER, TURNED SMUGGLER.
In the tradition of All The Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale comes an incandescent debut novel about a young Dutch man who comes of age during the perilousness of World War II.
Beginning in the summer of 1939, fourteen-year-old Jacob Koopman and his older brother, Edwin, enjoy lives of prosperity and quiet contentment. Many of the residents in their small Dutch town have some connection to the Koopman lightbulb factory, and the locals hold the family in high esteem.
On days when they aren’t playing with friends, Jacob and Edwin help their Uncle Martin on his fishing boat in the North Sea, where German ships have become a common sight. But conflict still seems unthinkable, even as the boys’ father naively sends his sons to a Hitler Youth Camp in an effort to secure German business for the factory.
When war breaks out, Jacob’s world is thrown into chaos. The Boat Runner follows Jacob over the course of four years, through the forests of France, the stormy beaches of England, and deep within the secret missions of the German Navy, where he is confronted with the moral dilemma that will change his life—and his life’s mission—forever.
Epic in scope and featuring a thrilling narrative with precise, elegant language, The Boat Runner tells the little-known story of the young Dutch boys who were thrown into the Nazi campaign, as well as the brave boatmen who risked everything to give Jewish refugees safe passage to land abroad. Through one boy’s harrowing tale of personal redemption, here is a novel about the power of people’s stories and voices to shine light through our darkest days, until only love prevails.
Buy The Boat Runner at Amazon
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan (read my review)
"Just because the men have gone to war, why do we have to close the choir? And precisely when we need it most!"
As England enters World War II's dark early days, spirited music professor Primrose Trent, recently arrived to the village of Chilbury, emboldens the women of the town to defy the Vicar's stuffy edict to shutter the church's choir in the absence of men and instead 'carry on singing'. Resurrecting themselves as "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir", the women of this small village soon use their joint song to lift up themselves, and the community, as the war tears through their lives.
Told through letters and journals, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir moves seamlessly from budding romances to village intrigues to heartbreaking matters of life and death. As we come to know the struggles of the charismatic members of this unforgettable outfit -- a timid widow worried over her son at the front; the town beauty drawn to a rakish artist; her younger sister nursing an impossible crush and dabbling in politics she doesn't understand; a young Jewish refugee hiding secrets about her family, and a conniving midwife plotting to outrun her seedy past -- we come to see how the strength each finds in the choir's collective voice reverberates in her individual life.
In turns funny, charming and heart-wrenching, this lovingly executed ensemble novel will charm and inspire, illuminating the true spirit of the women on the home front, in a village of indomitable spirit, at the dawn of a most terrible conflict.
Buy The Chilbury Ladies Choir at Amazon
Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.
Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.
Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.
Buy Slightly South of Simple at Amazon
The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry (read my review)
The women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it...
Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey's mother disappeared.
Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.
Buy The Bookshop at Water's End at Amazon
In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.
The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.
When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?
Buy The Stolen Marriage at Amazon
The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash (read my review)
The author of the celebrated bestseller A Land More Kind Than Home returns with this eagerly awaited new novel, set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events, that chronicles an ordinary woman’s struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice, with the emotional power of Ron Rash’s Serena, Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day, and the unforgettable films Norma Rae and Silkwood
Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill’s owners—the newly arrived Goldberg brothers—white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and others workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May’s best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it’s the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband John has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever she can find.
When the union leaflets first come through the mill, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including lies, threats, and bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county’s biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movement—a decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her town—indeed all that she loves.
Seventy-five years later, Ella May’s daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the whole story of what happened to Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.
Intertwining myriad voices, Wiley Cash brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the now forgotten struggle of the labor movement in early Twentieth Century America—and pays tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent new novel confirms Wiley Cash’s place among our nation’s finest writers.
Buy The Last Ballad at Amazon
A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington (read my review)
Laura Harrington's new novel is a portrait of a family in the midst of recovery, the mysterious disappearance of a young woman, and of a brother and sister whose love of the natural world just might save their lives.
Set in 1970, a watershed moment in American History, A Catalog of Birds tells the story of the Flynn family and the devastating impact of the Vietnam War. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between siblings Nell and Billy Flynn. Nell excels academically and is headed to college and a career in science. Billy, a passionate artist, enlists as a pilot to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying. He is the only survivor when his helicopter is shot down. When he returns home his wounds limit his ability to sketch or even hold a pencil. As Billy struggles to regain the life he once had, Nell and their family will have to do all that's possible to save him.
Lyrical and affecting, Laura Harrington has written an artful family drama about innocence lost and wounds that may never be healed. This is a tale of forgiveness: of ourselves, of those we love best. Illuminated by grief and desire, the novel is full of spirit, wonder and the possibilities of the future.
Buy A Catalog of Birds at Amazon
HAPPY SHOPPING!!!!
P.S. If you need more recommendations, check out Donna's 15 Books for the Reader in Your Life.
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Christmas is right around the corner and it's time to make your list (and check it twice). Lots of avid readers would prefer to unwrap a book on Christmas morning more than anything else (ok, maybe diamond earrings would be better but we have to be realistic here.) I have listed some of my favorite books of 2017 below.
Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.
For the reader who enjoys books about food
The Welcome Home Diner by Peggy Lampman (read my review)Angus, a weary, beloved local, is strongly opposed to his neighborhood’s gentrification—and his concerns reflect the suspicion of the community. Shocked by their reception, Addie and Samantha begin to have second thoughts.
As the long hours, problematic love interests, and underhanded pressures mount, the two women find themselves increasingly at odds, and soon their problems threaten everything they’ve worked for. If they are going to realize their dreams, Addie and Samantha must focus on rebuilding their relationship. But will the neighborhood open their hearts to welcome them home?
Buy The Welcome Home Diner at Amazon
Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan (read my review)
Polly Waterford loves running the Little Beach Street Bakery. She's at her happiest when she's creating delicious treats and the festive season always inspires her to bake and knead something extra special for the village residents. In fact, the only thing she loves more than her bakery is curling up with her gorgeous boyfriend, Huckle. She's determined that this Christmas is going to be their best one yet, but life doesn't always work out as planned...
When Polly's best friend Kerensa turns up with a secret that threatens the life Polly and Huckle have built together, the future begins to look uncertain. And then a face from Polly's past reappears and things become even more complicated. Polly can usually find solace in baking but she has a feeling that's not going to be enough this time. Can she get things back on track so that everyone has a merry Christmas?
Buy Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery at Amazon
For the reader who enjoys books about music
Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan WhiteIn Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, acclaimed music critic Ryan White has crafted the first definitive account of Buffett’s rise from singing songs for beer to his emergence as a tropical icon and CEO behind the Margaritaville industrial complex, a vast network of merchandise, chain restaurants, resorts, and lifestyle products all inspired by his sunny but disillusioned hit “Margaritaville.”
Filled with interviews from friends, musicians, Coral Reefer Band members past and present, and business partners who were there, this book is a top-down joyride with plenty of side trips and meanderings from Mobile and Pascagoula to New Orleans, Key West, down into the islands aboard the Euphoria and the Euphoria II, and into the studios and onto the stages where the foundation of Buffett’s reputation was laid.
Buffett wasn’t always the pied piper of beaches, bars, and laid-back living. Born on the Gulf Coast, the son of a son of a sailing ship captain, Buffett scuffed around New Orleans in the late sixties, flunked out of Nashville (and a marriage) in 1971, and found refuge among the artists, dopers, shrimpers, and genuine characters who’d collected at the end of the road in Key West. And it was there, in those waning outlaw days at the last American exit, where Buffett, like Hemingway before him, found his voice and eventually brought to life the song that would launch Parrot Head nation.
And just where is Margaritaville? It’s wherever it’s five o’clock; it’s wherever there’s a breeze and salt in the air; and it’s wherever Buffett sets his bare feet, smiles, and sings his songs.
Buy A Good Life All the Way at Amazon
The Summer Springsteen's Songs Saved Me by Barbara Quinn (read my review)
Finding solace in the peaceful beachside town of Bradley Beach, NJ, Sof is determined to start over. And, with the help of best friends, new acquaintances, a sexy neighbor, and the powerful songs of Springsteen, this may be the place where her wounds can heal. But, as if she hasn’t faced her share of life’s challenges, a final flurry of obstacles awaits.
In order to head courageously toward the future, Sofia must first let go of her past, find freedom, and mend her broken soul.
Buy The Summer Springsteen's Songs Saved Me at Amazon
For the reader who enjoys fiction books about WWII
The Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan (read my review)On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country.
Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again.
But in the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers.
But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.
Buy The Baker's Secret at Amazon
The Boat Runner by Devin Murphy (read my review)
In the tradition of All The Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale comes an incandescent debut novel about a young Dutch man who comes of age during the perilousness of World War II.
Beginning in the summer of 1939, fourteen-year-old Jacob Koopman and his older brother, Edwin, enjoy lives of prosperity and quiet contentment. Many of the residents in their small Dutch town have some connection to the Koopman lightbulb factory, and the locals hold the family in high esteem.
On days when they aren’t playing with friends, Jacob and Edwin help their Uncle Martin on his fishing boat in the North Sea, where German ships have become a common sight. But conflict still seems unthinkable, even as the boys’ father naively sends his sons to a Hitler Youth Camp in an effort to secure German business for the factory.
When war breaks out, Jacob’s world is thrown into chaos. The Boat Runner follows Jacob over the course of four years, through the forests of France, the stormy beaches of England, and deep within the secret missions of the German Navy, where he is confronted with the moral dilemma that will change his life—and his life’s mission—forever.
Epic in scope and featuring a thrilling narrative with precise, elegant language, The Boat Runner tells the little-known story of the young Dutch boys who were thrown into the Nazi campaign, as well as the brave boatmen who risked everything to give Jewish refugees safe passage to land abroad. Through one boy’s harrowing tale of personal redemption, here is a novel about the power of people’s stories and voices to shine light through our darkest days, until only love prevails.
Buy The Boat Runner at Amazon
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan (read my review)
As England enters World War II's dark early days, spirited music professor Primrose Trent, recently arrived to the village of Chilbury, emboldens the women of the town to defy the Vicar's stuffy edict to shutter the church's choir in the absence of men and instead 'carry on singing'. Resurrecting themselves as "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir", the women of this small village soon use their joint song to lift up themselves, and the community, as the war tears through their lives.
Told through letters and journals, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir moves seamlessly from budding romances to village intrigues to heartbreaking matters of life and death. As we come to know the struggles of the charismatic members of this unforgettable outfit -- a timid widow worried over her son at the front; the town beauty drawn to a rakish artist; her younger sister nursing an impossible crush and dabbling in politics she doesn't understand; a young Jewish refugee hiding secrets about her family, and a conniving midwife plotting to outrun her seedy past -- we come to see how the strength each finds in the choir's collective voice reverberates in her individual life.
In turns funny, charming and heart-wrenching, this lovingly executed ensemble novel will charm and inspire, illuminating the true spirit of the women on the home front, in a village of indomitable spirit, at the dawn of a most terrible conflict.
Buy The Chilbury Ladies Choir at Amazon
For the reader who enjoys southern fiction
Slightly South of Simple by Kristy Woodson Harvey (read my review)Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.
Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.
Buy Slightly South of Simple at Amazon
The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry (read my review)
Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey's mother disappeared.
Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.
Buy The Bookshop at Water's End at Amazon
Three of My Favorite Books of 2017
The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain (read my review)The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.
When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?
Buy The Stolen Marriage at Amazon
The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash (read my review)
Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill’s owners—the newly arrived Goldberg brothers—white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and others workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May’s best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it’s the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband John has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever she can find.
When the union leaflets first come through the mill, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including lies, threats, and bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county’s biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movement—a decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her town—indeed all that she loves.
Seventy-five years later, Ella May’s daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the whole story of what happened to Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.
Intertwining myriad voices, Wiley Cash brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the now forgotten struggle of the labor movement in early Twentieth Century America—and pays tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent new novel confirms Wiley Cash’s place among our nation’s finest writers.
Buy The Last Ballad at Amazon
A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington (read my review)
Set in 1970, a watershed moment in American History, A Catalog of Birds tells the story of the Flynn family and the devastating impact of the Vietnam War. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between siblings Nell and Billy Flynn. Nell excels academically and is headed to college and a career in science. Billy, a passionate artist, enlists as a pilot to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying. He is the only survivor when his helicopter is shot down. When he returns home his wounds limit his ability to sketch or even hold a pencil. As Billy struggles to regain the life he once had, Nell and their family will have to do all that's possible to save him.
Lyrical and affecting, Laura Harrington has written an artful family drama about innocence lost and wounds that may never be healed. This is a tale of forgiveness: of ourselves, of those we love best. Illuminated by grief and desire, the novel is full of spirit, wonder and the possibilities of the future.
Buy A Catalog of Birds at Amazon
HAPPY SHOPPING!!!!
P.S. If you need more recommendations, check out Donna's 15 Books for the Reader in Your Life.
Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with her on Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.
Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today! Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.
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