HUGE!!! MONTH LONG book hauls!!
Whether it seemed like it or not, I was away for nearly a month helping my mom get organized and doing some errands for her over February and part of this month. Meanwhile, the books kept coming in from my dear publishers and authors! I am so grateful, but am now backlogged with books to read and review, once again. Here are some of the ones I love, and I think there may be a couple of books I've shown you before, but bear with me....
Front and center, of course... I bought this one before it was published, naturally. My favorite author. I've yet to start it because I've been catching up on my reviewing commitments, but I'm hoping to get to it later this week. It's going to be a marathon read. One of Ms Oates gothic novels! She can be the new Edgar Allen Poe, you know...
A Small Summary:
"A major historical novel from "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation)—an eerie, unforgettable story of possession, power, and loss in early-twentieth-century Princeton, a cultural crossroads of the powerful and the damned.
Princeton, New Jersey, at the turn of the twentieth century: a tranquil place to raise a family, a genteel town for genteel souls. But something dark and dangerous lurks at the edges of the town, corrupting and infecting its residents. Vampires and ghosts haunt the dreams of the innocent. A powerful curse besets the elite families of Princeton; their daughters begin disappearing. A young bride on the verge of the altar is seduced and abducted by a dangerously compelling man–a shape-shifting, vaguely European prince who might just be the devil, and who spreads his curse upon a richly deserving community of white Anglo-Saxon privilege. And in the Pine Barrens that border the town, a lush and terrifying underworld opens up..."
A book that's already targeted to be one of the best of 2013. I'm so excited to have received this one from Little, Brown! Here's something about it:
"On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.
Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions."
This is a Simon & Schuster book which I can't wait to get into to...exotic and interesting subject, it seems. The author is one I've been meaning to read. Here's something about this book:
"THOUGH SHE WAS ORPHANED AT BIRTH, the wild and headstrong Korobi Roy has enjoyed a privileged childhood with her adoring grandparents, spending her first seventeen years sheltered in a beautiful, crumbling old mansion in Kolkata. But despite all that her grandparents have done for her, she is troubled by the silence that surrounds the circumstances of her parents’ death and clings fiercely to her only inheritance from them: the love note she found, years ago, hidden in a book of poetry that had belonged to her mother. As she grows, Korobi dreams of one day finding a love as powerful as her parents’, and it seems her wish has finally come true when she meets the charming Rajat, the only son of a high-profile business family."
I will be reviewing this one in the next month. It's being touted all over the publishing world and is one to be on the lookout for if you're interested in a new woman protagonist who's a hard line FBI agent. Thank you to Minotaur Books who sent me this to review! See this partial summary:
You have never met an (ex) FBI agent like Brigid Quinn.
“Keeping secrets, telling lies, they require the same skill. Both become a habit, almost an addiction, that’s hard to break even with the people closest to you, out of the business. For example, they say never trust a woman who tells you her age; if she can’t keep that secret, she can’t keep yours. I’m fifty-nine.”
Brigid Quinn's experiences in hunting sexual predators for the FBI have left her with memories she wishes she didn’t have and lethal skills she hopes never to need again. Having been pushed into early retirement by events she thinks she's put firmly behind her, Brigid keeps telling herself she is settling down nicely in Tucson with a wonderful new husband, Carlo, and their dogs.
I thought this was an interesting one sent by Weinstein Books. For any of us who watched "Little House on the Prairie" we'll remember this little girl... Here's the summary of the book which you can find on Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
"The Glass Castle meets The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in this dazzlingly honest and provocative family memoir by former child actress and current Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis.
When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous primetime soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. Despite her age, she was already a veteran actress, living a charmed life, moving from one Hollywood set to the next. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother, as fame and a mother’s ambition pushed her older sister deeper into the shadows."
Other books in that haul:
A White Wind Blew by James Markert: This one is about a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1920's Louisville, KY, and the "compelling questions about faith and confession, music and medicine, and the resilience of love." I'll be reviewing this one next week.
Pictures At An Exhibition by Camilla Macpherson: A WWII novel set in London and the National Gallery of Art..."Can a collection of war-time letters hold the key to happiness?" Happy to receive this one from the author and Random House/UK
The Monastery Murders~An Unholy Communion by Donna Fletcher Crow: Fans of Ms Crow will be delighted to have another of her books in this series! I was. Thanks to Donna and Lion Fiction.
"..From the top of the tower at the College of Transfiguration, voices rise in song. Felicity's delight turns to horror when a black-robed body hurtles over the precipice and lands at her feet. Her fiance' Father Antony recognizes the corpse as Hwyl Pendry, a former student who has been serving as Deliverance Minister in a Welsh diocese..."
The Mystery Box edited by Brad Meltzer: New stories collected by such greats as: Laura Lippman, Tom Rob Smith, R.L. Stine, Katherine Neville, Karin Slaughter, and many others! Can't wait to slip into this one!!! Thanks to Grand Central Publishing!
The Last Telegram by Liz Trenow: Published by Sourcebooks, this one is about a disaster of a decision a young girl made in WWI that haunted her with grief for many years and how she finally overcame its consequences through love and forgiveness. (Paraphrased from the book jacket summary.)
Angel Baby by Richard Lange: "To escape the awful life she has descended into, Luz plans carefully. She takes only the clothes on her back, a Colt .45, and all the money in her husband's safe. The corpses in the hallway weren't part of her plan. Luz needs to find the daughter she left behind years earlier, but she knows she may die trying..." Sent by Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company...I'm excited to read this one.
Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus: International best seller! This one was sent to me by Minotaur/St. Martin's Press. Thanks to Minotaur! I'm very interested to start this one this week. It's supposed to be a very scary and super suspenseful thriller about disappearing girls in a small village and a pair of (man and woman) police detectives who solve the case.
Murder As A Fine Art by David Morrell: Dean Koontz called this author, "An absolute master of the thriller." It's a historical thriller about the author of "Confessions of an Opium Eater" who is a suspect in a series of London murders. I'll be reviewing this one next month. Also a Mulholland/Little, Brown published book.
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2nd HAUL!!!!
What could make me happier than a book by my favorite suspense/thriller author? I don't know... I just gasped and stomped with pleasure the minute I opened this one from Grand Central Publishing!! Many hugs and thanks to them. This is #10 in the Lincoln Rhyme series for those of you who follow.
Here's the summary:
It was a "million-dollar bullet," a sniper shot delivered from over a mile away. Its victim was no ordinary mark: he was a United States citizen, targeted by the United States government, and assassinated in the Bahamas.
The nation's most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is drafted to investigate. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim's steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems.
When a deadly, knife-wielding assassin begins systematically eliminating all evidence-including the witnesses-Lincoln's investigation turns into a chilling battle of wits against a cold-blooded killer.
This beautiful little book was sent by the author and Viking Press. I love it... Here's a summary:
"A magical debut about an enchanted house that offers refuge to women in their time of need
Distraught that her academic career has stalled, Alba is walking through her hometown of Cambridge, England, when she finds herself in front of a house she’s never seen before, 11 Hope Street. A beautiful older woman named Peggy greets her and invites her to stay, on the house’s usual conditions: she has ninety-nine nights to turn her life around."
Summary bit follows:
"Following her perilous fall from a throne she'd scarcely owned to begin with, Mary, Queen of Scots, has fled to England, hoping her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, will grant her asylum. But now Mary has her sights on the English crown, and Elizabeth enlists her most trusted subjects to protect it.
Justine Thornleigh is delighting in the thrill of Queen Elizabeth's visit to her family's estate when the festivities are cut short by Mary's arrival. To Justine's surprise, the Thornleighs appoint her to serve as a spy in Mary's court. But bearing the guise of a lady-in-waiting is not Justine's only secret."
OTHERS IN THIS HAUL:
The Baker Street Translation (A Mystery) by Michael Robertson:
Sent by Minotaur/St. Martin's this one has lots of Holmes inclusions and is one of the series written by Mr. Robertson. The Heath brothers, lawyers, lease the famous residence of Sherlock Holmes and are caught up in a modern mystery including an heiress, an actress and everyone in between. Library Journal says: "The characters here are charming and the tone is humorous...Recommended for Robertson devotees and cozy mystery enthusiasts."
Finally, I thought this one an intriguing one sent by request from the author who is an award-winning one for her previous book, "Miriam the Medium." One of the best of new contemporary women's authors, Jillian Medoff (I Couldn't Love You More reviewed here last year) says about this book, "Whip-smart, funny, and all-too-relatable, Kaylee's Ghost will stay with you long after you've turned the last page." Isn't the cover pretty? I'm looking forward to trying it for review in the Summer.
So Ends My Humongous Haul for February and So Far in March.
I'm grateful to the Publishers and Authors Who Have Entrusted Me with Their Books for Review...
What do you think? Which ones interest you? What are you reading?
Deborah/The Bookish Dame
