New Arrivals!

Oh, I forgot to tell you all about these new books I got. It was before I went on holiday. I read two of them while I was away.

Books I got for review

Perfect by Rachel Joyce (ebook)

I read this one while on holiday and it was very good. It’s very different from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry so I can’t promise you’ll like this one if you liked that. But it’s another good read. From Netgalley (Random House UK) (ARC). It’s out in July.

The publishers say: “In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures.

Then Byron’s mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron’s perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?”

***

If You Were Here by Alafair Burke

From Harper for review (ARC). This sounds like a good mystery. 

The publishers say: “Manhattan journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks. When she locates a video that captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine, but is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier.

What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman—a search that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home…”

***

Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

From Harper for review (ARC). I read this one on holiday too and I thought it was very good. My first book by this writer and I will put the others on my wishlist!

The publishers say: “For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. Alas, her husband, Fletcher, a self-employed high-end cabinetmaker, now spurns the “toxic” dishes that he’d savored through their courtship, and spends hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

Rich with Shriver’s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much sacrifice we’ll make to save single members of our families, and whether it’s ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.”

***

Borrowed from a friend

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I borrowed this book from Ciska of Ciska’s Book Chest. She’s the newest member of my real-life book group and brought this book along to her first meeting with us. I have read several other books by Atkinson and this one in particular sounds very intriguing.

From Dutch online bookstore bol.com: “During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.

What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?

Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, she finds warmth even in life’s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here is Kate Atkinson at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.”

***

A book I bought

Shift by Hugh Howey

I bought this at the English (UK) bookshop Waterstone’s of which we have a store in Amsterdam. It seemed to be part of a trilogy and the shop assistant looked to see is there was a certain order to them. Well, he said, this is a prequel to Wool. I’d heard of Wool but got a bit confused: a prequel is something you read before the main story, right? But if the prequel is written after the main story, what then? Anyway, I liked this cover better and went for it. If it’s a prequel it should at the least be possible to read this independently of the other book(s). We’ll see!

Amazon.com says: “In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma.

A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind had discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened. This is the sequel to the New York Times bestselling WOOL series. Contains First Shift, Second Shift, and Third Shift.”

***

Have you read any of these books? Which of these would appeal to you?

New Arrivals!

At the moment, I seem to be reading faster than that I’m getting new books. That’s good news, because the to-be-read pile has almost reached a 100 – I hope to be able to stay below that number, it sounds way too many as it is. Anyway, the new books….

Books I got for review

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

For review from Harper. I’m not sure why I asked for a review copy of this book. It’s one of those books where someone finds a letter/book/object and then digs in the past to reveal a secret. Been there, done it. BUT: I read this and it was fantastic!!! I devoured this book. Really good!

From the publishers: “Newlywed Grace Monroe doesn’t fit anyone’s expectations of a successful 1950s London socialite, least of all her own. When she receives an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is drawn to uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor.

Weaving through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London, the story Grace uncovers is that of an extraordinary women who inspired one of Paris’s greatest perfumers. Immortalized in three evocative perfumes, Eva d’Orsey’s history will transform Grace’s life forever, forcing her to choose between the woman she is expected to be and the person she really is.”

***

The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs (ebook)

Leslie of Under my Apple Tree reviewed this book and it sounded like something I might like too. So, I asked for it via Netgalley (ebook). It seems like a great summer read. Now, where is summer?

From the publishers: “Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother’s beloved necklace—despite Tess’s advice. To Annelise, the jewel’s value is in its memories.

But Tess’s own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.

The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she’s never heard of.

Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.

And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don’t believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you’ve not made the right kind of memories.”

***

Books from the library

The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend

From the writer of the Adrian Mole books, a book about a mother of 17 year old twins, who has been wanting a break from it all since they were born. Now is her chance. This sounded great fun – and it was (I already read the book).

From the back of the book: “The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she’s wanted to yell at the world, ‘Stop! I want to get off’. Finally, this is her chance.

Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention-seeking. But word of Eva’s defiance spreads.

Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street, while her new friend Alexander, the white-van man brings tea, toast and an unexpected sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place, Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently.”

***

Books I bought

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

I read (and loved) The Passage, so I am very keen to read the next instalment of this trilogy. They had this book for the price of a magazine in my favorite UK supermarket.

From the publisher: “The epic story of THE PASSAGE continues. Death-row prisoners with nightmare pasts and no future. Until they were selected for a secret experiment. To create something more than human. Now they are the future and humanity’s worst nightmare has begun.“

***

Have you read any of these books? Which of these would appeal to you?

New Arrivals!

A few more new books… .

Books I got for review

The Wish List by Jane Costello

Sometimes, I get an unsollicited book from Simon & Schuster UK. Usually, it’s a chicklit, and somehow they are always just what I want to read! So, a nice book for my recent long drive. Yes, I read this already, 4.5 stars, review to follow.

From the publishers: “There are six months left of Emma Reiss’s twenties. . . and she has some unfinished business.

Emma and her friends are about to turn thirty, and for Emma it’s a defining moment. Defined, that is, by her having achieved none of the things she’d imagined she would.

Her career is all wrong, her love life is a desert and that penthouse apartment she pictured herself in simply never materialised. Moreover, she’s never jumped out of a plane, hasn’t met the man she’s going to marry, has never slept under the stars, or snogged anyone famous – just some of the aspirations on a list she and her friends compiled fifteen years ago.

As an endless round of birthday parties sees Emma hurtle towards her own thirtieth, she sets about addressing these issues. But, as she discovers with hilarious consequences, some of them are trickier to tick off than she’d thought…”

***

Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley  (ebook)

This is a book that I found on Netgalley, and it sounded like something I would enjoy. Unfortunately, the book expires on May 1st, so I asked my Twitter friends whether I should read it. The answer: a resounding YES. So there. I read it more or less straight away and loved it, 5 stars, review to follow.

From the publishers: “A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone she’s convinced will follow them wherever they go–her husband. The girls, Amity and Sorrow, can’t imagine what the world holds outside their father’s polygamous compound. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Bradley, a farmer grieving the loss of his wife. At first unwelcoming to these strange, prayerful women, Bradley’s abiding tolerance gets the best of him, and they become a new kind of family. An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, AMITY & SORROW is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own.”

***

Books I won in a giveaway

The Littles by Tallulah Grace (ebook)

I got this book as a win by taking part in a Tweet chat at the Book Bloggers Twitter Conference, organised by Parajunkee. I enjoy a good thriller, so I hope this one will have me shake in my shoes! 

From Smashwords: “The mountains of rural Georgia will never be the same after a series of vicious murders rock the area to its core. Not only does the killer target children, his gruesome murders are designed to inflict the ultimate agony upon their parents and to instill extreme terror within the small communities.

An SSCD team, part of the FBI’s Special Serial Crimes Division, accepts the case and the conditional Governor’s liaison, a prosecutor with more baggage than anyone realizes. Travel with them over the hills of the mystical Blue Ridge Mountains as they hunt the psychopath stalking the innocent. Can they capture him before he strikes again? Will he turn the tables and ensnare one of their own in his devious trap?

This psychological thriller delves into the mind of a deranged serial killer as it follows the twists and turns of an SSCD manhunt. Action packed and filled with suspense, The Littles takes readers on a thrill ride they will not soon forget.”

***

Reprobate by Martyn V. Halm  (ebook)

Another win from the Book Bloggers Twitter Conference. This is a mystery taking place in Amsterdam and it seems the author is also Dutch. I always love stories that take place at locations that are familiar to me. I don’t know Amsterdam very well, but will likely recognise a few street names.

From amazon: “Blessed with an almost non-existent conscience, Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, views assassination as an intricate and rewarding occupation. Hidden behind her male alter ego Loki, Katla receives anonymous assignments, negotiates the terms with clients through electronic means, all to protect her identity. Her solitary existence satisfies her until she meets a blind musician whose failure to notice a ‘closed’ sign causes him to wander in on Katla’s crime scene. And Katla breaks one of her most important rules – never leave a living witness.”

***

Books I bought

Wild Abandon by Joe Dunthorne

This is a book that was recommended by a friend. When I discovered the author was part of a 20-author book club night, I got tickets for the two of us. As part of the ticket price, the book was sent to me. The idea is that at 20 different locations in Amsterdam (!), one evening in May, 20 authors will receive 25 readers each to discuss one of their books. I haven’t read any books by the UK writer Dunthorne yet, but my friend is a fan. I’m sure I’ll have a great read and a great evening!

From the publishers: “Kate and Albert, sister and brother, are not yet the last two human beings on earth, but Albert has high hopes. The secluded communal farm they grew up on is – after twenty years – disintegrating, along with their parents’ marriage. They both try to escape: Kate, at seventeen, to suburbia and Albert, at eleven, into preparations for the end of the world.

However, Don, the group’s leader and their father, is convinced he can save everything, if only he can bring his followers into the modern age. How? By force of personality, strict self-sufficiency and a rave with a 10k sound system. Understandably, Albert and Kate have other ideas . . .”

***

Have you read any of these books? Which of these would appeal to you?

New Arrivals!

I’ve got some really nice books recently. Here they are… .

Books I got for review

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

The new Joe Hill, for review from William Morrow. I am not really into the horror genre, but I previously read  Horns by this writer, which I enjoyed a lot. And this sounds like another good, if strange, book.

The publisher says: “NOS4A2

Don’t slow down

Victoria McQueen has an uncanny knack for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. When she rides her bicycle over the rickety old covered bridge in the woods near her house, she always emerges in the places she needs to be. Vic doesn’t tell anyone about her unusual ability, because she knows no one will believe her. She has trouble understanding it herself.

Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own. He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland. Mile by mile, the journey across the highway of Charlie’s twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor.

And then comes the day when Vic goes looking for trouble . . . and finds her way, inevitably, to Charlie.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, the only kid ever to escape Charlie’s unmitigated evil is all grown up and desperate to forget.

But Charlie Manx hasn’t stopped thinking about the exceptional Victoria McQueen. On the road again, he won’t slow down until he’s taken his revenge. He’s after something very special—something Vic can never replace.

As a life-and-death battle of wills builds—her magic pitted against his—Vic McQueen prepares to destroy Charlie once and for all . . . or die trying. . . .”

***

Books I won in a giveaway

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

A win from Hutchinson, part of Windmill Books, my favorite UK publishers. A book in letters between two very different people. It sounds interesting!

The publisher says: “March 1912: Twenty-four-year-old Elspeth Dunn, a published poet and a fisherman’s wife, has never seen the world beyond her home on Scotland’s bucolic Isle of Skye. So she is astonished when a fan letter arrives from an American college student, David Graham.

As the two strike up a correspondence — sharing their favorite books, wildest hopes, and deepest secrets — their exchanges blossom into friendship, and eventually into love. But as World War I moves across Europe and David volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western front, Elspeth can only wait for him on Skye, hoping he comes back alive.

June 1940: More than twenty years later, at the start of World War II, Elspeth’s daughter, Margaret, has fallen for her best friend, a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Her mother warns her against finding love in wartime, an admonition Margaret doesn’t understand. And after a nearby bomb rocks Elspeth’s house, and letters that were hidden in a wall come raining down, Elspeth disappears.

Only a single letter, sent decades before by a stranger named David Graham, remains as a clue to Elspeth’s whereabouts. As Margaret sets out to discover who David is and where her mother has gone, she must also face the truth of what happened to her family long ago . . .”

***

Books I bought

The Donor by Helen Fitzgerald

I’ve had my eye on this book for a while, since I love Helen Fitzgerald’s books (I read The Duplicate and Bloody Women). I got it (in the Dutch translation) from a book sale at a publisher’s on their open day last week. 

From the publisher: “Will’s 47. His wife bailed out when the twins were in nappies and hasn’t been seen since. He coped OK by himself at first, giving Georgie and Kay all the love he could, working in a boring admin job to support them. Just after the twins turn sixteen, Georgie suffers kidney failure and is placed on dialysis. Her type is rare, and Will immediately offers to donate an organ. Without a transplant, she would probably never see adulthood. So far so good. But then Kay gets sick. She’s also sixteen. Just as precious. Her kidney type just as rare.

Time is critical, and he has to make a decision. Should he buy a kidney – be an organ tourist? Should he save one child? If so, which one? Should he sacrifice himself? Or is there a fourth solution – one so terrible it has never even crossed his mind?”

***

The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyer

Another book I got from the publisher’s book sale. I have seen this book around and I love the Dutch cover, very curious about the book.

From the publishers: “Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love with a man she could never have. Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way. When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave up her baby for adoption.

Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she’s questioning whether she’s cut out for the role of wife and mother.

Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a solid marriage, two beautiful young sons, and a thriving business. Then she discovered Nathan’s affair. He promised he’d never stray again, and she trusted him.

But when Juliette intercepts a letter to her husband from Tia that contains pictures of a child with a deep resemblance to her husband, her world crumbles once more. How could Nathan deny his daughter? And if he’s kept this a secret from her, what else is he hiding? Desperate for the truth, Juliette goes in search of the little girl. And before long, the three women and Nathan are on a collision course with consequences that none of them could have predicted.

Riveting and arresting, The Comfort of Lies explores the collateral damage of infidelity and the dark, private struggles many of us experience but rarely reveal.”

***

Wink Murder by Ali Knight

Yet another book from the publisher’s sale. Yes, it was a “3 for…” sale (10 euros, only!) so this was my third book. I had not heard of it although the author’s name does sound familiar.

From the publisher: “Kate Forman has an enviable life: a loving family and a perfect husband, Paul. But one night she finds Paul drunk and covered in blood, mumbling about having killed something – or someone.

When a young and attractive woman who works for Paul is found murdered, Kate’s suspicions about what he has really done send her on an increasingly desperate search for the truth that threatens to smash her carefully constructed life.

Doing the right thing should seem obvious, but as the lies multiply, the truth is not as straightforward as it seems; how well do you know the person you’re married to?“

***

Books I swapped

Fiona Range by Mary McGarry Morris

From bookmooch, this book had been on my wishlist for a while. I read two or three other books by Mary McGarry Morris, A Hole in the Universe, which I positively loved, and Songs in Ordinary Time which I loved first time I read it, and enjoyed the second time.

From the publisher: “Abandoned by her young mother, unsure of her father’s identity, and raised by her prominent aunt and uncle near Boston, thirty-year-old Fiona Range has developed a high threshold for emotional pain. Her recklessness, generosity, and poor judgment have landed her in more scrapes than her affluent family-or small-town community-can tolerate.

Beautiful, volatile and smart-tongued (or trashy, erratic, and wild, depending on whom you ask), Fiona hits rock bottom after she ends a party with a strange man in her bed. Alienated from relatives and friends but determined to change, Fiona turns to the men in her life-among them, cruel and unstable Patrick Grady, who denies she is his daughter. The arrival home of her gentle cousin Elizabeth with fiance in tow sparks a storm where past mistakes and current passions collide.”

***

Books I was gifted

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

This book I got from the same publisher’s as where I bought the books above. It was an open day with lots of author talks and this book is from the goodie bag. It’s a flipback edition, which actually is quite nice to read (I read The Dinner by Herman Koch as a flipback book recently). I am not sure I’d like this book but some people in my book group read and loved it.

From the publishers: “In a country ruled by fear, no one is innocent.

Stalin’s Soviet Union is an official paradise, where citizens live free from crime and fear only one thing: the all-powerful state. Defending this system is idealistic security officer Leo Demidov, a war hero who believes in the iron fist of the law. But when a murderer starts to kill at will and Leo dares to investigate, the State’s obedient servant finds himself demoted and exiled. Now, with only his wife at his side, Leo must fight to uncover shocking truths about a killer-and a country where “crime” doesn’t exist.”

***

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu

This was another book in the goodie bag (a paperback format this time). I’ve heard of this book and I am curious about it. A great find in the goodie bag!

From the publishers: “Yael, Avishag, and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain.

Yael trains marksmen and flirts with boys. Avishag stands guard, watching refugees throw themselves at barbed-wire fences. Lea, posted at a checkpoint, imagines the stories behind the familiar faces that pass by her day after day. They gossip about boys and whisper of an ever more violent world just beyond view. They drill, constantly, for a moment that may never come. They live inside that single, intense second just before danger erupts.

 In a relentlessly energetic and arresting voice marked by humor and fierce intelligence, Shani Boianjiu, winner of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35,” creates an unforgettably intense world, capturing that unique time in a young woman’s life when a single moment can change everything.”

***

Have you read any of these books? Which of these would appeal to you?

New Arrivals!

Not many new books, but those that I did get, look really good! I bought and swapped books, and got one for review.

 

Book for review

Fondly by Colin Winnette (ebook)

For review from Atticus books. I have reviewed a few of their other books and they tend to be odd, but special and good fun to read. This book contains two novellas. It sounds pretty weird but I think I’ll love it.

From the publishers: “In two artfully crafted novellas, Colin Winnette offers a sly and sinister portrayal of lineage and loss, and the roles we all play in writing our own family history. Written in a seamless, entrancin style, Gainesville follows the twisted branches of a restless family tree in a small Texas town. As tragedy strikes each generation in increasingly skewed fashion, what remains is the relentless passage of time toward an eerily familiar pattern of violence.

In One Story, The Two Sisters is woven from an array of beautifully haunting short stories. It details the lives of two sisters, both cast as wildly imaginative entities, each more bizarre than the next. Winnette joyfully plays with life forms as he presents the sisters as (1) an olive at the bottom of a dirty martini; (2) Shel Silverstein; (3) transoceanic swimmers, and so on. The result is an entertaining, skillful meditation on art, love, family, the creative impulse, and what can and cannot be communicated in a single story, or a single life.”

***

Books I bought

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

I saw this book mentioned last year in the BEA Buzz Book (an ebook with extracts from to-be-published books) and it looked wonderful. Post-apocalyptic, I love that! I had a voucher for Amazon that I used to import this beautiful hardback from the USA. 

From the author’s website: “Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and pretend that things are the way they used to be.

But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life–something like his old life–exists beyond the airport. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return–not enough fuel to get him home–following the trail of the static-broken voice on the radio. But what he encounters and what he must face–in the people he meets, and in himself–is both better and worse than anything he could have hoped for.”

***

Schroder by Amity Gaige

We’ll be reading this in my real-life book group next month. I don’t know much about it, but have heard good and less good things about the book. I’m keeping an open mind. This one I bought at my local bookstore, who have quite a good selection of current English books.

From the publishers: “From a correctional facility where he awaits news of his trial, Erik Schroder writes to his estranged wife about the seven day road trip he took with their daughter, Meadow. But the police and the press are calling it a kidnap and are asking why this man has lived under a different name since childhood. Schroder’s record of events is his only hope of freedom – and of seeing his daughter again.

This is a story about the power of parental love – and the agony of separation. Alternatively lovesick and ecstatic, Amity Gaige’s dazzling novel offers a profound meditation on the many identities we take on in our lives – those we are born with and those we construct for ourselves.”

***

A book I swapped

This Year it Will be Different by Maeve Binchy

I used to read a lot of Binchy, but after a lesser book, I haven’t read her the last few years. This is a collection of Christmas stories which will be fun to read nearer the end of the year. I got it via Bookmooch.

From the publishers: “From the New York Times bestselling author of Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake comes This Year It Will Be Different, a stunning new work that brings us the magic and spirit of Christmas in fifteen stories filled with Maeve Binchy’s trademark wit, charm, and sheer storytelling genius. Instead of nostalgia, Binchy evokes contemporary life; instead of Christmas homilies, she offers truth; and instead of sugarplums, she brings us the nourishment of holidays that precipitate change, growth, and new beginnings.”

 ***

Did you get any exciting new books recently?

New Arrivals!

Books have been arriving in some quantities again. This list is short, but I also got a number of Dutch books which I won’t mention here. I was in the library, thinking I should NOT borrow any books, saw some that have been published recently in the Netherlands, and got them anyway. When will I read them? I don’t know! When’s the next read-a-thon, I am in dire need of one!

The books below are mainly for review. A great way to get one’s hands on good books.

Books for review

There Was an Old Woman by Hallie Ephron (ebook)

For review from William Morrow, an imprint from Harper Collins, via Edelweiss. I love a good thriller and this sounded great.

From the publisher: “ “Don’t let him in until I’m gone.” That’s what Mina Yetner’s neighbor whispers to her just before the EMTs take her to the hospital. Mina writes down the message—at nearly ninety, she has to write down most things lest she forget—and calls Sandra’s daughter Ginger, telling her that once again her mother needs help.
Evie Ferrante is dismayed when she gets the call from her sister: this time it’s Evie’s turn to see what their mother’s done to herself. But when Evie arrives home—where she hasn’t been in months—she’s shocked by the state of her mother’s house: it’s in terrible disrepair, much worse than Ginger led her to believe. And as Evie cleans and organizes, she finds things that don’t make sense: expensive liquor in the garage, pricier than their mother’s usual brand, a new flat-screen television on the wall. Where was her mother getting all this money?”

***

Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge (ebook)

This book is about a woman who loses her memory and that always intrigues me. From Gallery Books via Netgalley.

From Amazon.com: “A bittersweet masterpiece filled with longing and hope, Jennie Shortridge’s emotional novel explores the raw, tender complexities of relationships and personal identity.

Who is Lucie Walker? Even Lucie herself can’t answer that question after she comes to, confused and up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay. Back home in Seattle, she adjusts to life with amnesia, growing unsettled by the clues she finds to the selfish, carefully guarded person she used to be. Will she ever fall in love with her handsome, kindhearted fiancé, Grady? Can he devote himself to the vulnerable, easygoing Lucie 2.0, who is so unlike her controlling former self? When Lucie learns that Grady has been hiding some very painful secrets that could change the course of their relationship, she musters the courage to search for the shocking, long-repressed childhood memories that will finally set her free.”

***

Harlequin‘s Costume by Leonid Yuzefovich

The description of this book reminds me of another one set in Russia around 1880. What was it again? I remember loving the setting and I hope this book will be similar in that respect. A book for review from Glagoslav Publishing in the UK. 

From the publishers: “Imagine St. Petersburg in the end of the 19^th century. Ivan Putilin, chief of detectives in the local police department, takes on a very important case where his failure to close it may cause an international conflict. A notorious diplomatic figure has been murdered, throwing suspicion on several people. Among them is the diplomat’s mistress and her cuckolded husband. All the ongoing takes place in the absurd, dark and gloomy atmosphere of the old Petersburg, making the novel a unique piece of literature for the Western reader. [...]

This retro-detective story by Leonid Yuzefovich is part of an award winning trilogy about detective Putilin, recently successfully filmed in Russia. Brilliantly translated by Marian Schwartz, Harlequin’s Costume is now for the first time being published in English.”

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Dark Tide by Elizabeth Haynes (ebook)

I read Haynes’  previous book, Into the Darkest Corner, which I thought was very good. So when I came across this new title on Edelweiss, I immediately requested a review copy. I’ve just started reading it. For review from Harper.

From the publishers: “The first time Genevieve saw it, she knew it was the one: Revenge of the Tide, “an odd sort of a name for a boat.” Genevieve had finally escaped the stressful demands of her London sales job and achieved her dream–to leave the city behind and start a new life aboard a houseboat in Kent. She left the boat’s name as it was. Revenge had character after all, and living in a marina made her feel a bit safer, a little less lonely; almost as if the boat looked after her, hid her away from view.

But her dreams are shattered the night of her boat-warming party when a body washes up, and to Genevieve’s horror, she recognizes the victim as a close friend from nights dancing on-stage at a private members’ club, the Barclay. She isn’t about to tell the police, though; next to no one knew what Genevieve did every Friday and Saturday night to save money for her escape, and she sees no reason to reveal her past. The death can’t have anything to do with her. Or so she thinks.

Soon the lull of the waves against Revenge feels anything but soothing, as Genevieve begins to receive mysterious calls and can’t reach the one person who links the present danger with her history at the club. And then there is the parcel on her boat she’s meant to be safekeeping for an old flame, which seems to be putting her in jeopardy. As Genevieve begins to fear for her safety, she recalls the moment when it had all started to go horribly wrong: the night she recognized her day-time boss in the crowd of customers at the Barclay. . . .”

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A book I bought

MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche

I’ve seen this book on several blogs and it was on my wishlist for a while. Then I decided I might as well buy it! So I did. Looking forward to reading this.

From the author’s website: “When Rachel Bertsche first moves to Chicago, she’s thrilled to finally share a zip code, let alone an apartment, with her boyfriend. But shortly after getting married, Bertsche realizes her new life is missing one thing: friends. Sure, she has plenty of BFFs—in New York and San Francisco and Boston and Washington DC. Yet in her adopted hometown, there’s no one to call at the last minute for girl-talk over brunch or a reality TV marathon over a bottle of wine. Taking matters into her own hands, Bertsche develops a plan: she’ll go on fifty-two friend-dates, one per week for a year, in hopes of meeting her new Best Friend Forever.

In her thought-provoking, uproarious memoir, Bertsche blends the story of her girl-dates (who she meets everywhere from improv class to friend-rental websites) with the latest in social research to examine how difficult—and hilariously awkward—it is to make new friends as an adult. She asks why women will happily announce they need a man but are embarrassed to admit they need a BFF. And she uncovers the reality that no matter how great your love life, you’ve gotta have friends.”

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Did you get any exciting new books recently?

New Arrivals!

Some new books again. All look very good so I hope to read them soon!

Books for review

Flamenco Baby by Cherry Radford

I read the first book by this author last year, Men Dancing. I enjoyed that very much, so when the author asked me whether I wanted to review her new book, of course I said Yes. Dancing seems to be a recurring theme. 

From the author’s website: “Musician and dance enthusiast Yolande has just finished with yet another faithless boyfriend, even though her body clock is ticking wildly and she longs for a child. However much gay best friend and ideal man Jeremy adores her, he refuses to be the father.

Should she relent and take back her repentant ex? Conceive with a sperm donor? She has become entranced by flamenco, music of the outcasts… Could seeds secretly planted at a London flamenco evening with enigmatic dancer Fernando Morales begin to flower into a ‘flamenco baby’?

Then, while Yolande starts a cosy relationship with a teacher on her flamenco course in Granada, Jeremy becomes drawn to Fernando – and so begins a whirl of secrecy, love and jealousy that has them all wondering if, in the spirit of flamenco, they dare to give the truth…”

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Pieces of Light by Charles Fernyhough

For review from Harper (ARC). I love non-fiction about memory, in fact, in my study of Experimental Psychology, I chose some extra courses on the topic. That was a while ago, so I’m not up-to-date any more. So this sounds like a great book for me. Non-fiction.

From the publisher: “A new consensus is emerging among cognitive scientists: rather than possessing fixed, unchanging memories, we create recollections anew each time we are called upon to remember. As the psychologist Charles Fernyhough explains, remembering is an act of narrative imagination as much as it is the product of a neurological process. In Pieces of Light, he eloquently illuminates this compelling scientific breakthrough via a series of personal stories—a visit to his college campus to see if his memories hold up, an interview with his ninety-three-year-old grandmother, conversations with those whose memories are affected by brain damage and trauma—each illustrating memory’s complex synergy of cognitive and neurological functions.

Fernyhough guides readers through the fascinating new science of autobiographical memory, covering topics including imagination and the power of sense associations to cue remembering. Exquisitely written and meticulously researched, Pieces of Light brings together science and literature, the ordinary and the extraordinary, to help us better understand the ways we remember—and the ways we forget.”

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The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver

Also for review from Harper (ARC). You know me, I’m easily tempted by a nice cover. This one reminds me of The Light between Oceans and Beautiful Ruins, and if it’s anything like either of those, I know I’m in for a treat.

From the publishers: “A place out of time, Ashaunt Point—a tiny finger of land jutting into Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts—has provided sanctuary and anchored life for generations of the Porter family, who summer along its remote, rocky shore. But in 1942, the U.S. Army arrives on the Point, bringing havoc and change. That summer, the two older Porter girls—teenagers Helen and Dossie—run wild. The children’s Scottish nurse, Bea, falls in love. And youngest daughter Janie is entangled in an incident that cuts the season short and haunts the family for years to come.

As the decades pass, Helen and then her son Charlie return to the Point, seeking refuge from the chaos of rapidly changing times. But Ashaunt is not entirely removed from events unfolding beyond its borders. Neither Charlie nor his mother can escape the long shadow of history—Vietnam, the bitterly disputed real estate development of the Point, economic misfortune, illness, and tragedy.”

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A book I won

It’s Fine by Me by Per Petterson

I won this from Kim at Reading Matters. I’ve been wanting to read something by Per Petterson for ages and this slim novel seems a good start.

From the publishers: “Audun is the only one of his family who remains with his mother in working-class Oslo. He delivers newspapers when he is not in school and talks for hours about Jack London and Ernest Hemingway with his best friend – but there are some things Audun won’t talk about. Stories about his family, the weeks he spent living in a couple of cardboard boxes, and the day of his little brother’s birth, when his drunken father fired three shots into the ceiling.”

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A book I swapped

England, England by Julian Barnes

I got this book via Bookmooch, the book swap site. This book was on my wishlist for a very long time, so I’m very glad to finally own the book. 

From the author’s website: “Sir Jack Pitman creates a theme park on the Isle of Wight that duplicates the tourist spots of England. Within easy walking distance are replicas of Big Ben (half size), Princess Di’s grave, Harrods, Stonehenge, and the white cliffs of Dover. Martha Cochrane is hired by Sir Jack as his official cynic. The novel follows her development from childhood to retirement as a nation struggles to retain its cultural identity. One of Barnes’s finest and funniest novels, England, England calls into question the idea of replicas, truth vs. fiction, reality vs. art, nationhood, myth-making, and self-exploration.”

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Did you get any exciting new books recently?