Reading Ahead: July 2013, part 3

Sometimes I really love a novel with substance, something I can sink my teeth into.  A family saga, a historical drama, a story that's deep and engrossing and serious.  For me, summer is often the perfect time for novels like this.  Long, lazy days, too hot to do much but sit in the shade, hope for a breeze and read.  Or a weekend of rained-out picnic and beach plans is a great opportunity to get some great reading time in.  Heck, if you haven't noticed by now, I can make just about any excuse to find some downtime with a book.  Here are a few that I'm looking forward to whiling away some hours with this summer.

The Light in the Ruins, by Chris Bohjalian

Fin and Lady, by Cathleen Schine

Sea Creatures, by Susanna Daniel

While the first may be a no-brainer (Bohjalian has a particularly deft touch with historical family sagas--this one takes place across generations in Tuscany), the other two titles may have you a little curious. 

Fin and Lady, written by Cathleen Schine (most recently notable for The Three Weissmanns of Westport) takes place in 1964--eleven-year-old Fin and his seventeen-year-old half-sister Lady have been orphaned, and Lady is now Fin's guardian and his only hope.  Lady brings Fin back to Greenwich Village with her from the dusty Connecticut farm he and their mother had been living on, and he promptly finds out that he will need to be as responsible for taking care of Lady as she is for taking care of him.  An unconventional family drama set in unconventional times.

In Susanna Daniel's second novel, Sea Creatures, (after 2010's popular Stiltsville) readers find Georgia moving back to her hometown of Miami with her sleep-disordered husband and mute three-year-old son, scandal and disappointment trailing in her wake.  In trying to change her circumstances, however, Georgia must deal with some steep consequences both for herself and her family.  This is getting a lot of critical praise, and I think it may be a great pick for book clubs and thoughtful readers alike.

Are you remembering that I promised you love stories and humor this week?  I haven't forgotten!  I'll be back on Thursday with the wrap-up of July's new release list.  Happy reading!

Reading Ahead: July 2013, part 2

The ladies of the thriller genre (the bad girls, if you will) are out in force this summer, so I hope you're ready to pick your poison.  I know I am!

Death Angel, by Linda Fairstein

Please Don’t Tell, by Elizabeth Adler

Unseen, by Karin Slaughter

Hunting Eve, by Iris Johansen

Stranded, by Alex Kava

Bombshell, by Catherine Coulter

Which ones do you foresee adding to your list?  I have one definite from this list, and I am all but salivating.  If you have been keeping up with my "What I've Been Reading" posts lately, you'll have already picked my favorite out of the list.  Which?  The new Will Trent novel by Karin Slaughter, of course: Unseen.   This latest finds Will working undercover in Macon, Georgia, cut off from his normal support as well as the woman he loves, Sara Linton.  When said woman's stepson is gunned down and the prime suspect is the man's wife, both Will and Sara wind up involved in the case without the other's knowledge.  No good can come of this...

Enjoy your weekend, happy reading, and I'll be back next week with love and humor titles coming out in July.

Reading Ahead: July 2013, part 1

With the sudden warmup at the end of last week, apparently summer has arrived and is here to stay.  In fact, the sudden influx of 90-degree temperatures here in CT were prompting a lot of my friends to post photos of snow and margaritas on their Facebook pages--everyone who had been wishing for summer suddenly wanted to cool off again!  Ah well, no one is happy all of the time, right?  Unless, of course, you're a fan of thriller novels looking ahead to see what chilling delights are being released this summer.  Might that be you?  I hope so, because the summer of the thriller is just getting started!

The Highway, by C.J. Box

Unleashed, by David Rosenfelt

The English Girl, by Daniel Silva

Light of the World, by James Lee Burke

The Curiosity, by Stephen Kiernan*

Hidden Order, by Brad Thor

Downfall, by Jeff Abbott

The Fire Witness, by Lars Kepler*

For the average thriller reader, you already are rubbing your hands together with glee and placing your holds.  However, I do want to point out two titles which are particularly worthy of note.  The first is Stephen Kiernan's debut novel, The Curiosity, which is being billed as a thoroughly original thriller about the nature of life and humanity.   A team of scientists in the Arctic make a stunning discovery--the body of a man frozen under layers of ice.  He is brought back to their lab and successfully reanimated.  When he begins to regain his memories, he shares that the last thing he remembers was falling overboard into the Arctic Ocean...in 1906.  I'm intrigued!

The other book I'd like to give some special attention to is, the latest Lars Kepler's latest Detective Inspector Joona Linna novel, The Fire Witness.   Flora Hansen makes her living as a medium, claiming to speak with the dead.  But after a gruesome murder at a home for wayward girls, Flora begins to have very real, vivid visions.  When she calls the police to report what she has seen, no one listens to her.  No one, that is, except for Joona Linna.  For fans of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole novels or Steig Larsson's work, I highly recommend this Swedish series--start with The Hypnotist. 

You may have noticed that today's list featured only male authors.  No worries--I'll share this summer's bad girls of thriller novels in Thursday's post.  In the meantime, happy reading!

What I've been reading: May 2013

It has been a great spring for reading--cool, rainy, lots of occasions to curl up with a good book.  I've been on a bit of a streak, so here's what I've been reading the last few weeks...

Triptych, by Karin Slaughter.  You know how it is when you find a new-to-you author and you just devour every title you can get your hands on?  That's what I currently have going on with the works of Ms. Slaughter.  In this cross-over between her Will Trent and Grant County series, readers follow Michael Ormewood and Angie Polaski, co-workers, former lovers, and now enemies as they both attempt to catch a killer whose signature crosses the lines of race and class.  And then there's the hapless ex-con trying desperately to keep his nose clean, when he finds himself unexpectedly caught up in the case in the most unlikely ways.  Phenomenal.  I never wanted to put it down.  392 pages

Fractured, by Karin Slaughter.  Still on a roll here.  Detective Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, is called in to aid in the investigation surrounding a murder/kidnapping in one Atlanta's most high-end neighborhoods, Ansley Park.  The abducted girl's mother has killed the intruder, but Trent quickly uncovers clues that turn the whole case upside down.  Slaughter plots so tightly--nothing is left to chance, but readers will never know it until the very last second.  388 pages

Paris, by Edward Rutherfurd.  Rutherfurd's sweeping multi-generational sagas have followed great achievements and catastrophes through history in a variety of settings:  London, Russka, and New York, among others.  In his latest novel, we find ourselves immersed in the magnificent city of Paris, moving seamlessly among centuries from the machinations of Cardinal Richilieu to the invasion of the Nazis, from the glory of Versailles to 1968 student revolt and beyond.  Vast, epic, and captivating.  862 pages

Whiskey Beach, by Nora Roberts.  Roberts has a knack for making her characters fallible, relatable, human.  And while I fully admit that her novels qualify as somewhat fluffy, light reading, I also find it reassuring that I know what I'm going to get sometimes, especially after something weighty and huge like Rutherfurd's Paris.  In Roberts's latest, Boston lawyer Eli has returned to the family house at Whiskey Beach on the North Shore to decompress after an intense year of being accused of (but not arrested for) the murder of his estranged wife.  Bluff House is standing empty when he arrives, but jill-of-all-trades Abra Walsh keeps house and keeps an eye on Eli's well being.  Local history, a series of break-ins and a long-standing vendetta throw them together even as they try to untangle a mystery.  Fun, easy reading. 484 pages

The Sandcastle Girls, by Chris Bohjalian.  This is my book club's choice for our June meeting, and while I was initially uncertain about the premise, I ultimately wound up completely enthralled in the stories.  Told in two parts, both contemporary and set in 1915 Syria, the story follows a group of people, Armenian refugees and American relief workers, through the spread of the First World War in Europe and beyond.  Part love story, part tragedy, Bohjalian draws upon his own Armenian history and the stories told by his grandparents for a novel that is so richly detailed and emotionally nuanced, I have a newfound respect for his work.  Brilliant.  299 pages

The Plague & I, by Betty MacDonald.  On the advice of some fellow readers, I made it a priority to find a copy of this book through Interlibrary Loan.  MacDonald, best known as a children's author (including the tales of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle)  in the early half of the 20th century, also wrote several autobiographical works, The Plague & I among them.  This particular work chronicles MacDonald's nine-month stay in the Firlands tuberculosis sanitarium.  I would honestly not have ever thought a non-fiction work about tuberculosis published in 1948 could be funny, but I found myself laughing out loud repeatedly.  Off-beat and surprisingly hilarious.  254 pages

Broken, by Karin Slaughter.  Another crossover between Slaughter's Grant County and Will Trent series, this one finds Trent investigating in a town where the police force is intent on protecting its own, even as he tries to determine how the death of a prisoner and a policewoman's possible role in the former police chief's death might be related.  Really, if you like a good thriller and you haven't read these, you are missing out.  402 pages

Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Fowler.  Who is Zelda Fitzgerald, nee Sayre, other than the wife of the famous, and often infamous, F. Scott Fitzgerald?  Is she the "ungettable" Southern debutante from a wealthy family and a sheltered upbringing?  Is she the wild child with the scandalous bobbed hairdo and flapper fashion sense who parties with members of the Lost Generation, including Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein?  Or is she the fragile woman with the broken brain, spending years in a sanitarium trying to regain her sanity and spirit after so much time spent battling not only her own demons, but those of her husband?  Gorgeous, thoughtful, and compulsively readable.  375 pages


May totals:
8 titles
3,456 pages

Year-to-date totals:
35/75 titles = 46%
13,544/35,000 pages = 39%

Making excellent headway.  How about you?  Read anything share-worthy lately?  Let me know in the comments!

Top 10 on Tuesday: Aussie reads

*

Since the last week of May is Australian Library and Information Week, I thought I'd show my Aussie colleagues, authors, and readers some love.  Some of my favorite books just so happen to have been written by Australian authors, so I thought I'd share the wealth!

1) Geraldine Brooks.  Her 2005 novel, March, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  I'm also a huge fan of two of her other novels, A Year of Wonders and People of the Book.  Read her work--she is amazing.

2) The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman.  Australian native Stedman may be rather reluctant when it comes to the limelight, but her first novel is a staff darling here at the Trumbull Library.  On a remote Australian island, a childless couple live a quiet life running a lighthouse, until a boat with a baby washes ashore. 

3) Kate Morton.  I fell in love with her style and story-telling when I first read The Forgotten Garden.  She's a favorite among staff and book clubs here at the library.

4) The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.  This is a title that shows up a lot this time of the year, as it is on many a summer reading list.  Accessible to adults and teens, Zusak's novel finds Death trying to make sense of WWII, relating the story of the story-telling book-stealing Liesel, a young German girl helping her family, the Jewish family they are hiding, and her neighbors. 

5) Peter Carey.  Two time Booker Prize winner.  Finalist for the U.S. National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize.  The man is a legend in his native country, and deserves more recognition here in the states, too.


6) The Hypnotist's Love Story, by Liane Moriarty.  All about the crazy things we do for love, with some really nice plot twists.  You can read my full review here.  Fun, funny, and surprising.



7) If fantasy is your genre of choice, you need to be reading Sara Douglass.  Though she sadly passed in 2011, her series live on and are magnificent. 

8) I think I'd be remiss if I was talking about Australian authors and neglected to mention Colleen McCullough.  Really, The Thorn Birds is timeless.  She writes in other genres, too, including thrillers and historical novels, so try them all!

9) Kate Grenville.  I loved The Lieutenant, and her 2005 novel The Secret River was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She, like Peter Carey, is hugely popular in Australia and well deserving of a wider readership in the U.S.

10) For teens and adults, John Marsden is definitely one to check out.  My personal favorite would be Letters from the Inside, about two girls who connect through writing letters.


I'm back Thursday with an update on what I've been reading.  In the meantime, enjoy!



*no koalas were harmed in the writing of this post.

Reading Ahead: June 2103, part 5

So you're not in the mood for a thriller, or a love story, or a family saga, OR something a little more serious?  How about funny?  Can you handle funny?  I hope so, because this is the last of the June releases on my list!

The Heist, by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg.  From the book's description: "High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if [partners] O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first."  How can you not be intrigued?

Bad Monkey, by Carl Hiaasen.  Hiaasen is back doing what he does best--a fierce, wickedly funny tale in which the greedy and the corrupt get their comeuppance in the most ingenious, entertaining fashion. 

Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, by Lauren Weisberger.  Ten years ago, Andy Sachs quit a job that was ruining her life, a job that a million other girls would kill for.  Now, she runs a successful business and has found the love of her life, but discovering a secret on the eve of her wedding turns everything upside-down.  Karma, it so happens, really is a bitch.

I'll be back next week with some fiction from down under, in honor of Australia's Library and Information week celebration!  Enjoy the holiday weekend!