Archive for May, 2010
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Hardback fiction new releases:
06/01/2010
The Spy (Clive Cussler)
Bullet (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series #19) (Laurell K Hamilton)
Day One (Bill Cameron)
Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Objective (Eric Van Lustbader)
Cum Laude (Cecily von Ziegesar)
The Time Weaver (Shane Abe)*
The Mountain Between Us (Charles Martin)
Zendegi (Greg Egan)
Fade to Midnight (Shannon McKenna)
Silver Guilt (Lina Townsend Series #2) (Judith Cutler)
Mouse and Dragon (Sharon Lee/Steve Miller)
My Name is Memory (Ann Brashares)
The One That I Want (Allison Winn Scotch)
Forbidden Fruit (Corinna Chapman Series #5) (Kerry Greenwood)
Passing Strange (Generation Dead Series #3) (Daniel Waters)
American Music (Jane Mendlesohn)*
The Infinity Gate (Darkglass Mountain #3) Sara Douglass*
The Rule of Nine (Paul Madriani Series #11) (Steve Martini)
The Burning Wire (Lincoln Rhyme Series #9) (Jeffery Deaver)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender)*
Beautiful Maria of My Soul (Oscar Hijuelos)
Seven Year Switch (Claire Cook)
The Rebellion of Jane Clark (Sally Gunning)
The Secret Child (Marti Healy)*
Frozen Stiff (Mary Logue)
Available June 5 The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Stephanie Meyer)
* Added to my TBR list
Monday, May 31st, 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 |
| Spirit Bound Richelle Mead* |
61 Hours Lee Child* |
| 61 Hours Lee Child* |
Storm Prey John Sanford* |
| Storm Prey John Sanford* |
Dead in the Family Charlaine Harris |
| The Red Pyramid Rick Riordan |
The Help Kathryn Stockett** |
| Dead in the Family Charlaine Harris |
Innocent Scott Turow + |
*New this week
** #8 on WSJ
+ #7 on WSJ
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
We’re (my family, not CKY) moving this week. In the process of packing up all the books, I kept getting distracted by titles I hadn’t picked up in awhile. And that, in my cardboard box addled mind, led to thinking about the bookshelf memes that were going around a “few” months ago. I LOVED looking at/reading them but somehow never got around to participating. Better late than never, right? (Besides – I’m kinda hoping you guys will jump in as well and let me play voyeur to your bookcases!)
I decided to use the meme that began over at “A Striped Armchair” I’m going to break the rules right away and not tag anyone specifically. (1) I don’t play favorites among our readers and (2) I want to see EVERYONE’S responses! And now, let’s talk about…
The book that’s been on your shelf the longest… Okay this one is a bit hard. I have a collection of books that started out on my grandmother’s shelves and were passed to me. Those are packed away in storage until I have enough space to display them safely. The Thornbirds (Colleen McCullough) is by far my favorite in that collection, as it was my grandmother’s. This is obvious from the frayed, worn pages to the cover that isn’t actually attached anymore. The book(s) that have been on in my personal care the longest would be the Narnia series (CS Lewis).
a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time, etc.)…
Well we’ve already discussed the books from my Grandmother so I’ll pick something else. The Chronicles (Dragonlance, Weiss/Hickman) will always remind me of my freshman year (or was it 8th grade?) – specifically science class. My newest friend passed it over my shoulder and my love affair with all things fantasy began.
a book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used book store, prize, etc)… The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) – I had wanted to read this since…well…forever but I hate to buy books new. And of COURSE it was impossible to find in a used book store. And the waiting list at the library was approximately 50,353 people long. Approximately. I’d put it out of my mind completely when I wandered into a local used bookstore on a whim. Lo and behold the cashier was reading The Time Traveler’s Wife. I refrained from pouncing on her and instead commented (mostly) calmly that I’d been looking for a copy. She said they’d just gotten it in and she would call me as soon as she finished reading it. I showed remarkable restraint in NOT hugging her on the spot. She called me the next day and I may or may not have devoured it the same day.
the most recent addition to your shelves… Hmm…this would probably be The Time Traveler’s Wife again. Sorry! That’s not very interesting. Oh wait! No. The first two books of the Percy Jackson series (Rick Riordan) just came into my house and although they’ll be housed on the “boys” bookshelf, I’ll be reading them.
a book that’s been with you the most places… That would probably be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (JK Rowlings). It was with me on an ill fated trip in which I was stuck in airports for longer than I was at my destination, including being told on the return trip that all flights to my home had been canceled. It (and I) saw the Indianapolis, Chicago, Little Rock, and DFW airports as well as some driving miles in there. Not as glamorous as many answers I’ve seen but there it is.
a bonus book you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions…For a month after reading The Stand (Stephen King), whenever someone sneezed or coughed, I flinched. I finished Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) in one day (and night)…sitting in a rocking chair that started off very comfy but after twelve hours I could barely move. And I didn’t care. I’m sure I could wax nostalgic for awhile here but I’ll wrap it up.
What about YOU? What would your answers be?
Monday, May 24th, 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 |
| Dead in the Family Charlaine Harris |
Dead in the Family Charlaine Harris |
| The Red Pyramid Rick Riordan |
Heart of the Matter Emily Griffin* |
| Heart of the Matter Emily Griffin* |
Fever Dream Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child* + |
| The 9th Judgment James Patterson |
Innocent Scott Turow |
| Innocent Scott Turow |
The 9th Judgment James Patterson |
*New this week
+ #6 on WSJ
Hardback fiction new releases:
05/25/2010
Finding My Place (Traci L. Jones)
The House on Salt Hay Road (Carin Clevidence)
The Terrorist (Peter Steiner)
Blockade Billy (Stephen King)
The Necromancer (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel #4) (Michael Scott)
Sidney Sheldon’s After the Darkness (Sidney Sheldon/Tilly Bagshawe)
Infinity (Chronicles of Nick Series) (Sherrilyn Kenyon)
Elliott Allagash (Simon Rich)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium TrilogySeries #3) (Stieg Larson)
Speak to the Devil (Dave Duncan)
Dangerous (Diana Palmer)
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Allies (Christie Golden)
The Dragon’s Secret (Donna MacQuigg)
The Poet Prince (Kathleen McGowan)
The Confession of Catherine de Medici (CW Gortner)
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Stephen King had quite the impact on my life. I spent weeks cringing anytime someone sneezed after reading The Stand and my dislike of clowns was fully cemented through It. (I was already mildly terrified of spiders which didn’t help matters.) I can still visualize random scenes from various King novels as vividly as some of my own memories. So when I found out (a few years late) that his son had published horror novels under the name Joe Hill, I knew immediately that I HAD to read them. And I was right. These books needed to be read, but not because the author is Stephen King’s son. Joe Hill may have followed in his father’s footsteps by writing horror but it is his voice, and his alone, that colors the stories.
I began with The Heart Shaped Box and as I’ve noted in a previous post, managed to give myself the creeps within the first few chapters. The summary seems simple enough. An aging rockstar who collects morbid items is contacted about purchasing a dead man’s suit with the idea that the ghost will follow said suit. Of course the suit is purchased. The problem is the transaction was a set up and the ghost has a personal vendetta against our star. Sounds like a standard horror plot. However the ghost was just the surface fright, the equivalent of a formulaic scary movie. As Hill moves his characters deeper into the plot, the true terror is revealed not in the supernatural, but in the depths of corrupted human minds. While the idea of a ticked off ghost is disturbing enough, the realization that it was simply the continuation of a truly twisted psyche gave me chills.
Hill continues this theme in Horns. A man loses the love of his life in a brutal rape/murder that most of the town believes he committed although there’s no evidence. He spends a year in his own personal purgatory until he wakes up one morning hung over, with a raging headache and a pair of horns. People tend to overlook the horns though and are instead compelled to admit their deepest, darkest fantasies & thoughts. Through this and the ability to read memories through touch, the protagonist quickly learns the actual events of his beloved’s death while Hill simultaneously reveals that the horror lies not with the emerging Devil, but with the humans and their capacity for pure selfishness and evil. Even with the overwhelming intensity of malevolence exhibited by the revealed killer, it is still the everyday human thoughts that were most upsetting.
Human depravity is much more frightening than any boogeyman. It’s the monsters that lurk within our psyches that terrify me. Those are real. Those walk among us, and within us, every day. Hill skillfully wraps that idea in layers of the bizarre to present stories that not only entertained me but also had me considering night lights.
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
We get this question at least once daily. What types of books do you buy? I’ve entered several ISBN’s and received no offers, what is going on?
Here is a list of the types of items we buy on a daily basis. This list shows a general overview of the types of items we buy on a regular basis.
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
This past weekend the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. held their annual banquet and announced their picks for 2009. The results were:
Novel: The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi)
Novella: The Women of Nell Gwynne’s (Kage Baker)
Novelette: Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast (Eugie Foster)
Short Story: Spar (Kij Johnson) (Warning: Link is to the story published online at Clarkesworld Magazine & contains strong language)
Ray Bradbury Award: District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
Andre Norton Award: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Catherynne M. Valente) (Originally published online but will be published by Feiwel & Friends in May 2011)
+++++++++++++++
Although I claim to be a fan of the sci-fi/fantasy genres, I now have to humbly admit that the only title I recognized was District 9. I’m slinking off to acquire the others now and will let you know what I think. How about you? Have you read any of these?
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Hardback fiction new releases:
05/18/2010
Amandine (Marlena de Blasi)
Supreme Justice (Phillip Margolin)
The Enemy (Charlie Higson)
Frenzy (Dreamhouse Kings Series #6) (Robert Liparulo)
Love Bites (Vampire Kiss Series #7) (Ellen Schreiber)
A Secret Affair (Mary Balogh)
Blood Oath: The President’s Vampire (Christopher Farnsworth)*
61 Hours (Jack Reacher Series #14) (Lee Child)
Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5) (Richelle Mead)
Storm Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #20) (John Sandford)
Should an Eagle Fall (Ken Hodgson)
Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker (Amy Myers)
The Dragon’s Secret (Donna MacQuigg)
Monday, May 17th, 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 |
| Dead in the Family Charlaine Harris* |
Dead in the Family Charlaine Harris* |
| The Red Pyramid Rick Riordan* |
The 9th Judgment James Patterson |
| The 9th Judgment James Patterson |
Innocent Scott Turow* |
| Burned P.C Cast, Kristin Cast |
The Help Kathryn Stockett** |
| Innocent Scott Turow* |
Deliver Us From Evil David Baldacci*** |
*New this week
** Dropped to #6 on WSJ
*** Dropped to #7 of WSJ
Friday, May 14th, 2010
“The Wives of Henry Oades” (Johanna Moran) starts with the move of Henry and Margaret Oades (and their children) from England to New Zealand. They’re a young, happy couple with a comfortable, loving relationship that’s enviable in its closeness. But as these things go, tragedy strikes. Natives kidnap Margaret and the kids while Henry is out. Though he is determined to leave no stone unturned, eventually he gives them up for dead sending him further into a distraught state of mind. After mourning inconsolably for months, he flees to America, leaving New Zealand and the memories behind. There he slowly heals and eventually starts a new life, even marrying a young widow who has a new baby. They find happiness together…until Margaret and the kids escape and show up on their doorstep.
None of this is a spoiler. You can read a similar synopsis on the back of the book. What it doesn’t tell you is that the book doesn’t truly hit its stride until the reunion in America. That despite everything the young family endures – an uncomfortable journey, a horrific kidnapping & captivity, severe illness, and traumatizing searches – the real story, the true drama doesn’t start until the first and second Mrs. Oades stand face to face. From there the story finds its rhythm and catapults the reader headlong onto an emotional rollercoaster. As the narration switches between the two wives, it’s impossible to decide loyalty, to feel more sympathy towards one than another. It’s fascinating to watch from their eyes, to see how they view each other (and life) compared to how they see themselves. Despite the title, Henry Oades is almost a peripheral character. Obviously he’s necessary to the plot but it’s the women who drive the story. It’s the women who have to make the hard decisions. They don’t take the easy or the popular path (although there were a few points I almost WANTED them to, just to end the misery). They do what women have done for centuries; they consider what’s best for the children and husband and act accordingly despite their personal desires.
My husband asked me about halfway through the book if it was good. My reply was “NO! Well, kind of. Yes. I don’t know…” Then he leaned in closer and incredulously said “Are you CRYING?” This was not a comfortable story to read. I found myself wanting to cling to my husband a little more, inexplicably feeling a little possessive and protective. I ran the gamut of emotions from embarrassment to anger (both towards and for the characters). There’s no fairy tale ending and yet, it’s unexpectedly happy. This isn’t about plural marriage. It’s about respectable people, making the best of an unusual situation. I’m glad I read it. I would be interested to hear a male viewpoint on the book though.
