Reading Ahead: February 2013, part 3

While there are always thrillers being published, and that seems to be the most popular genre being published of late, the "serious fiction" titles tend to ebb and flow.  There are a few selections of note coming out in February, though.  (As a side note, any of this would make an excellent book club selection in the coming year.)

Calling Me Home, by Julie Kibler

The Storyteller, by Jodi Picoult

A Week in Winter, by Maeve Binchy

The first, Calling Me Home, is a debut novel but one that is already garnering lots of attention.  Strong women from different backgrounds find common ground in this novel about love in its many incarnations.  Full of secrets, racial tension and heartbreak, this novel may be the first break-out hit of 2013.  

Readers have come to expect novels rich with hard choices and unexpected consequences from Jodi Picoult, and this latest is sure not to disappoint.  Grieving in the wake of her mother's death, Sage makes an unlikely friend, elderly Josef Weber, through her grief support group.  When Josef confesses a terrible secret, he asks Sage for a favor, and one that could have long-reaching ramifications, both moral and legal.  Fans will devour it.

Finally, the last novel by the much-beloved Maeve Binchy, who passed away in July of last year, A Week in Winter follows an unlikely collection of characters through a week spent at an old hilltop mansion refurbished into a cozy getaway.  Told with Binchy's classic gentle humor and grand storytelling, this is one to embrace.

I'm back with the final wrap-up next week.  In the meantime, happy reading!