Archive for the ‘fiction new releases’ Category
Monday, August 9th, 2010
Hardback fiction new releases:
08/10/10
Tough Customer (Sandra Brown)*
Displaced Persons (Ghita Schwarz)
Death on the D-List (Nancy Grace)
Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom (Susin Nielsen)*
The Vigilantes (Badge of Honor Series #10) (W.E.B Griffin)
Cure (Robin Cook)
Blind Man’s Alley (Justin Peacock)
The Eternal Ones (Kirsten Miller)*
The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise (Julia Stuart)*
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden (Helen Grant)*
The Body at the Tower (Agency Series #2) (YS Lee)
With Friends Like These (Sally Koslow)
Veil of Night (Linda Howard)*
Girl Parts (John Cusik)*
08/12/2010
Hot Shot (Gary Ruffin)
*Added to my TBR list
Friday, August 6th, 2010
Seems I’ve been on a trend of books written about widows lately. However, this one was NOTHING like “The Lovers”. Instead of focusing on the wife’s journey through memories, “As Husband’s Go” follows Susan B Anthony Rabinowitz Gersten’s quest to find out the truth behind her husband’s murder. The first chapter is her self-introduction where she immediately tells us how about her good looks, shallowness, and only moderately intelligence.
Perhaps on of the goals was to turn this woman from irritating narrator to a protagonist worth cheering for. And while she is unarguably stubborn, it wasn’t a trait I found admirable. Or rather, her motives did not appeal to me. She was not on a quest to clear her husband’s name or provide peace for her children. Her sole motivation was to prove that her life – and husband – was as perfect as she’d imagined. And here’s the rub – in view of the fact that she had just found out her husband, a high profile plastic surgeon, was found murdered in a prostitute’s apartment, it’s hard to blame her for her reaction. I felt like I SHOULD sympathize with her but I never did.
The supporting cast was flamboyant. All of them were over the top in some aspect or another. The storyline was standard and there were no major twists. The one big reveal was more of a “huh that’s interesting” rather than “WOW? REALLY?”. The plot didn’t keep me glued to the pages. And yet – it was enjoyable. It was simple, it was fun and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy summer read.
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
“As Husbands Go” by Susan Isaacs was released on July 6. Review coming Friday!
Whatever “a state of suspended animation” actually meant, I was suddenly in it – a cone of silence that wouldn’t lift until she spoke. Would I hear “He had no secret life?”
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Hardback fiction new releases:
08/03/10
Shades of Milk and Honey (Mary Robinette Kowal)
Babylon Nights: A David Spandau Novel (Daniel Depp)
Dancing Backwards (Salley Vickers)
Internecine (David J Schow)
Fragile (Lisa Unger)*
Slicker (Lucy Jackson)
Treachery in the Yard: A Nigerian Thriller (Adimchinma Ibe)
On Location (A Rita Farmer Mystery) (Elizabeth Sims)
The Superman Project: A Chico Santana Mystery (AE Roman)
Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme (Midnight Louie Series #22) (Carole Nelson Douglas)
Hangman (Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Series #19) (Faye Kellerman)
Scarlet Nights (Edilean Series #3) (Jude Deveraux)
I Curse the River of Time (Per Petterson)
Overexposed (Susan Shapiro)*
The Garden of Betrayal (Lee Vance)
My Hollywood (Mona Simpson)
The Stuff that Never Happened: A Novel (Maddie Dawson)*
The Stainless Steel Rat Returns (Stainless Steel Rat Series #11) (Harry Harrison)
Murder in the Air (A Dan Rhodes Mystery) (Bill Crider)
The Search (Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens)*
Black Mamba Boy (Nadifa Mohamed)
Red Star Rising (Brian Freemantle)
Stiltsville (Susanna Daniel)
An Ordinary Decent Criminal (Michael Van Rooy)
Villan (Shuichi Yoshida)*
In Harm’s Way (Walt Fleming Series #4) (Ridley Pearson)
Betrayal (Gillian Shields)
Burn (Anna Pigeon Series) (Nevada Barr)
The Good Psychologist (Noam Shpancer)*
I Am Number Four (Pittacus Lore)*
The Red Queen (Phillipa Gregory)
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June (Robin Benway)
Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex (Eoin Colfer)
Roy and Lillie: A Love Story (Loren Estleman)
Moscow Sting (Alex Dryden)*
Death’s Excellent Vacation (Charlaine Harris, etc)*
Dream Queen (Betsy Thornton)
08/05/2010
The Man Who Never Returned (Peter Quinn)
Service with a Smile (PG Wodehouse)
Simply From Scratch (Alicia Bessette)
How to be an American Housewife (Margaret Dilloway)
Bill Warrington’s Last Chance (James King)*
A Stranger Like You (Elizabeth Brundage)
08/09/2010
The Recessionistas (Alexander Lebenthal)
Perfect Alibi (Mike Daley Series #7) (Sheldon Siegel)
Three Sisters (Bi Feiyu)
City of Veils (Zoe Ferraris)*
*Added to my TBR list
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Here’s the weekly comparison of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Top 5 bestsellers in Fiction Hardback.
| Wall Street Journal Top 5 |
New York Times Top 5 |
| The Rembrandt Affair Daniel Silva* |
The Rembrandt Affair Daniel Silva* |
| The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Steig Larsson |
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Steig Larsson |
| The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Stephenie Meyer |
The Help Kathryn Stockton |
| Fly Away Home Jennifer Weiner |
Fly Away Home Jennifer Weiner |
| The Help Kathryn Stockton |
Private James Patterson |
*New this week
Friday, July 30th, 2010
I don’t know what I expected from this book but I didn’t get it.
Scratch that. I DO know what I expected. But I didn’t get it.
That’s not to say the book isn’t good. It is. It’s just much more serious than I expected.
In “The Lovers”, Yvonne returns to the place of her honeymoon as a widow hoping to immerse herself in happier times. Instead she finds herself plagued by memories and regrets. I opened the cover looking for a character to sympathize, grieve and remember with. Instead I found Yvonne. I spent the entire narrative alternating between pitying her and well, not particularly LIKING her. And yet – she’s much more real than the woman I anticipated. I didn’t encounter a glossy widow traversing a painful but sweet grieving process. No, Yvonne was displayed in all her neurotic, past dwelling, self centered glory.
I loved that she is a history teacher as it elegantly encapsulates her personality. Her thoughts and emotions occupy the past to the exclusion of many present realities – including her daughter’s growth into a self sufficient woman. She is unable to even fully understand herself. On one hand she complains that everyone sees and interacts with her through the filters of “history teacher, widow, mother, etc” without recognizing her depth and complexity. And yet, she never actually displays any complexity. It is only after a trip gone even more awry than my expectations of the book, that she shows any sign of moving beyond her self- imposed walls. In the end is the beginning of redemption and the journey there is satisfyingly bumpy.
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Hardback fiction new releases:
07/27/10
Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel (Gary Shtenyngart)
The Pirate Devlin (Mark Keating)
One Flight Up: A Novel (Susan Fales-Hill)*
I Curse the River of Time (Per Petterson)
Dragongirl (The Dragon Riders of Pern) (Todd McCaffrey)*
The Dervish House (Ian McDonald)
The Clouds Beneath the Sun: A Novel (Mackenzie Ford)
The Reluctant Mage (Fisherman’s Children) (Karen Miller)
07/28/2010
More Church Folk (Michele Andrea Bowen)
The Four Fingers of Death: A Novel (Rick Moody)
Bunker (Andrea Maria Schenkel)*
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (Michael Swanwick)
07/30/2010
Clementine (Cherie Priest)
07/31/2010
Peresus: A Novel (Richard Matturro)*
The Juniper Tree & Other Blue Rose Stories (Peter Straub)
*Added to my TBR list
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
“The Scent of Rain and Lightening” by Nancy Pickard
Published May 4, 2010
The book starts with 26 year old Jody Linder watching her uncles park their trucks outside “her parents” house. Her parents have been dead (Dad) and missing (Mom) since she was three. She is immediately suspicious as the three ranchers are in clean clothes and have shown up unannounced. And in fact, they’re there to tell Jody that the man jailed for murdering her father 23 years before is being released.
So begins a classic mystery with an emotional undertow of a raging river. Jody is an intriguing character: independent yet fiercely family centered, strong yet suspiciously wary of good times. She grew up sheltered by her grandparents but simultaneously in the fishbowl of a small farming community where her family’s tragedy was the biggest scandal…ever.
Pickard draws out the story and its players beautifully. After the initial scene, the story flashes back to the events leading up to the murder/disappearance. It then proceeds linearly until catching back up to present day and moving into the resolution. Although the facts seem clear cut, the fate of Jody’s mother infuses the pages with a suspense that seeps into other aspects. I found myself questioning everything…and being wrong with every theory. The end was completely unexpected without any hint of contrivance.
I’m very glad I picked up “The Scent of Rain and Lightening”. Fair warning – once you pick it up, you’re not going to want to put it down.
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Here’s the weekly comparison of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Top 5 bestsellers in Fiction Hardback.
| Wall Street Journal Top 5 |
New York Times Top 5 |
| The Search Nora Roberts* |
The Search Nora Roberts* |
| The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Stephenie Meyer |
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Steig Larsson |
| Private James Patterson |
Private James Patterson |
| The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Steig Larsson |
Sizzling Sixteen Janet Evanovich |
| Sizzling Sixteen Janet Evanovich |
The Help Kathryn Stockton |
*New this week
Hardback fiction new releases:
07/20/10
Hemingway Cutthroat: A Mystery (Michael Atkinson)
The Blood of Lorraine (Barbara Pope)
Caper (Stanley Hastings Series #17) (Parnell Hall)
The Bird of the River (Kage Baker)
Suck it Up (Brian Meehl)*
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (Sean Williams)
A Brush with Death (Elizabeth J Duncan)*
The Anatomy of Wings (Karen Foxlee)*
The Rembrandt Affair (Daniel Silva)
Wanting Shiela Dead (Gregor Demakrian Series #25) (Jane Haddam)
No Place for Heroes (Laura Restrepo)*
Dead in the Dregs: A Babe Stern Mystery (Peter Lewis)
The Past is a Foreign Country (Gianrico Carofiglio)
A Spider on the Stairs (Cassandra Chan)
Shadow Play (Rajorshi Chakraborti)
Internecine (David J Schow)*
Shadow Zone (Iris and Roy Johansen)*
Troublemaker, Book 1 (Alex Barnaby Series #3), Vol 3 (Janet Evanovich)
Power Slide: A Darcy Lott Mystery (Susan Dunlap)
People of the Longhouse (W Michael & Kathleen O’Neal Gear)
07/22/2010
The Doctor and the Diva (Pamela Dorman Books) (Adrienne McDonnell)
*Added to my TBR list
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Hardback fiction new releases:
07/13/10
The Whisperers (Charlie Parker Series #9) (John Connolly)
Damaged (Maggie O’Dell Series #8) (Alex Kava)
Lucy (Laurence Gonzalez)*
Beautiful Malice (Rebecca James)*
Fly Away Home (Jennifer Weiner)
Shadow Hills (Anastasia Hopcus)
Faithful Place (Tana French)
Rules of Betrayal (Christopher Reich)
Captive Queen of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alison Weir)
Tongues of Serpents of Temeraire (Naomi Novik)
Layover in Dubai (Dan Fesperman)
Red Hook Road (Ayelet Waldman)*
Corduroy Mansions (Alexander McCall Smith)
Linger (Maggie Stiefvater)
Savages (Don Winslow)
Siren (Tricia Rayburn)*
The Glass Rainbow (Dave Robicheaux Series #18) (James Lee Burke)
Memory Wall: Stories (Anthony Doerr)
Live to Tell (Detective D.D Warren Series #4 ) (Lisa Gardner)
07/15/2010
The Surf Guru (Doug Dorst)
Lady of the Butterflies (Fiona Mountain)*
The Taken (Hazel Micallef Mysteries) (Inger Ash Wolfe)
*Added to my TBR list
