(Audio)Book Talk; SECONDHAND SOULS by Christopher Moore, read by Fisher Stevens

(Audio)Book Talk; SECONDHAND SOULS by Christopher Moore, read by Fisher Stevens

Secondhand Souls: A Novel Christopher Moore (Twitter) (Facebook) Audiobook read by Fisher Stevens William Morrow Books (August 2015), hardcover (ISBN 0061779784 / 9780061779787) Fiction, 352 pages Source: Audiobook borrowed from Los Angeles Public Library via Overdrive (Harper Audio, August 2015; ISBN 9780062374103) ————————————————————————————————————-   There’s a colony of ghosts inhabiting the Golden Gate Bridge, and they’ve started talking to Mike Sullivan, the bridge painter. A banshee—harbinger of death—has been visiting retired police officer/reluctant soul-recoverer/bookselling Death […]

(Audio)Book Talk: IT’S WHAT I DO by Lynsey Addario, read by Tavia Gilbert

(Audio)Book Talk: IT’S WHAT I DO by Lynsey Addario, read by Tavia Gilbert

It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War Lynsey Addario (Twitter) (Facebook) Audiobook read by Tavia Gilbert Penguin Press (February 2015), hardcover (ISBN 159420537X / 9781594205378) Nonfiction: memoir/journalism, 368 pages Source: Purchased audiobook (Blackstone Audio, February 2015: ISBN 9781481505833, Audible ASIN B00SYNWZBC) This post contains affiliate links to IndieBound.   —————————————————————————————————————       Photojournalist Lynsey Addario has done much of her work in a post-9/11 world, in the part of the world […]

Book Talk; GOOD MOURNING by Elizabeth Meyer (via Shelf Awareness)

Book Talk; GOOD MOURNING by Elizabeth Meyer (via Shelf Awareness)

Good Mourning: A Memoir Elizabeth Meyer (Twitter) (Facebook), with Caitlin Moscatello Gallery Books (August 25, 2015), hardcover (ISBN 1476783616 / 9781476783611) Nonfiction: memoir, 288 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (September 11, 2015). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted. This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. Good Mourning is the story […]

Book Talk: THE ADMISSIONS by Meg Mitchell Moore (via Shelf Awareness)

Book Talk: THE ADMISSIONS by Meg Mitchell Moore (via Shelf Awareness)

The Admissions: A Novel Meg Mitchell Moore (Twitter) (Facebook) Doubleday (August 18, 2015), Hardcover (ISBN 0385540043 / 9780385540049) Fiction, 320 pages   A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (September 4, 2015). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted. This post contains affiliate links to IndieBound.   The Admissions is Meg Mitchell Moore’s account of a very eventful autumn for the Hawthornes of Marin […]

Book Talk: WHO DO YOU LOVE by Jennifer Weiner (via Shelf Awareness)

Book Talk: WHO DO YOU LOVE by Jennifer Weiner (via Shelf Awareness)

Who Do You Love: A Novel Jennifer Weiner (Twitter) (Facebook) Atria Books (August 11, 2015), Hardcover (145161781X / 9781451617818) Fiction, 400 pages $27.00   A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (August 28, 2015). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted. This post contains affiliate links to IndieBound.   ————————————————————————————————————— In Who Do You Love, Jennifer Weiner […]

(Audio)Book Talk: STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel, read by Kirsten Potter

(Audio)Book Talk: STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel, read by Kirsten Potter

Station Eleven: A Novel Emily St. John Mandel (Twitter) Audiobook read by Kirsten Potter Vintage (June 2015), trade paper (ISBN 9780804172448) Fiction, 352 pages Source: Audiobook borrowed from Los Angeles Public Library via Overdrive.com (Random House Audio, June 2014, ISBN 9780553397987)   This post contains affiliate links to Indiebound. I’m inconsistent in my response to “everyone’s talking about it” novels, but more often than not, I tend to wait until the talk has died down a bit. Everyone was talking […]

Book Talk: EVERYBODY RISE by Stephanie Clifford

Book Talk: EVERYBODY RISE by Stephanie Clifford

Everybody Rise: A Novel Stephanie Clifford (Twitter) St. Martin’s Press (August 2015), hardcover (ISBN 1250077176 / 9781250077172) Fiction, 384 pages Source: Ebook borrowed from Los Angeles Public Library via Overdrive (August 2015, ISBN 9781466889125)   This post includes affiliate links to IndieBound   ——————————————————————————————————————- “Work just gets in the way of life,” Camilla Rutherford observes to Evelyn Beegan somewhere near the halfway point of Stephanie Clifford’s debut novel, Everybody Rise. Who hadn’t felt that way […]

Reader’s Journal: Weather Stories and WHAT STANDS IN A STORM

Reader’s Journal: Weather Stories and WHAT STANDS IN A STORM

  I haven’t been a regular viewer of the Weather Channel since I moved to sunny coastal Southern California, but even this region does have its weather issues. (And when weather is a story here, it’s huge.) It’s literally been years since this mostly desert climate has received adequate annual rainfall, and that’s led to a wildfire “season” that lasts nearly year-round. The wildfires clear land that turns into mud and floods when we do get rain. […]

Picturing My September Reading ARC(s)

Picturing My September Reading ARC(s)

I think it’s too early yet for Halloween decorations, but apparently not for Halloween-ish reading. That’s one of the hazards of freelance book reviewing, though. I need to get reviews for October releases submitted during September, and that’s why I started reading Stacy Schiff’s The Witches: Salem, 1692 (out October 27) this weekend. Between Gods: A Memoir by Alison Pick (pub date October 20) is the second of the two October ARCs I plan to review […]

A Reader’s Journal: GO SET A WATCHMAN, by Harper Lee

A Reader’s Journal: GO SET A WATCHMAN, by Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman: A Novel Harper Lee Audiobook read by Reese Witherspoon Harper Books (July 2015), hardcover (ISBN 0062409859 / 9780062409850) Fiction, 288 pages Source: Public library/audiobook download via Overdrive (Harper Audio, July 2015, ISBN 9780062409898, ASIN B00TABW9Y0)   NOTE: The following contains potential spoilers for Go Set a Watchman. The story of Go Set a Watchman’s publication has almost overshadowed the story it tells. It may or may not be the first draft of what, after […]

Book Talk: ANCHOR AND FLARES: A MEMOIR OF MOTHERHOOD, HOPE, AND SERVICE by Kate Braestrup

Book Talk: ANCHOR AND FLARES: A MEMOIR OF MOTHERHOOD, HOPE, AND SERVICE by Kate Braestrup

Anchor and Flares: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope, and Service Kate Braestrup Little, Brown and Company (July 14, 2015), Hardcover (ISBN 0316373788 / 9780316373784) Nonfiction: memoir, 336 pages Shelf Awareness for Readers provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, but it was not submitted, published, or compensated by them because it was not completed by deadline. Kate Braestrup’s Anchor and Flares is subtitled “A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope, and Service.” I’d suggest that “hope” and […]

(Audio)Book Talk: LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME by Alexandra Fuller

(Audio)Book Talk: LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME by Alexandra Fuller

Leaving Before the Rains Come Alexandra Fuller Audiobook read by the author Penguin Press (January 2015), Hardcover (ISBN 1594205868 / 9781594205866) Nonfiction: memoir, 272 pages Source: Purchased audiobook (Recorded Books, Jan. 2015, ISBN 9781490654881, ASIN B00QVWQVSQ) ——————————————————————————————————————— As a daughter of White colonists in southern Africa during a time when those colonies were at war for the independence of their native Black populations, Alexandra Fuller’s youth would have been unsettled enough by virtue of the […]