Flight Behavior: A Novel Barbara Kingsolver (Facebook) Harper (November 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0062124269 / 9780062124265) Fiction, 448 pages Source: ARC from publisher, received at BEA 2012 Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour Opening Lines: “A certain feeling comes from throwing your good life away, and it is one part rapture. Or so it seemed for now, to a woman with flame-colored hair who marched uphill to meet her demise. Innocence was no part of this. […]
These Things Happen Richard Kramer (Facebook) (Twitter) Unbridled Books (2012), Hardcover (ISBN 1609530896 / 9781609530891) Fiction, 272 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour Opening lines: “A lot can happen in a day, sometimes. Not every day, of course. Most have one event, and that’s if you’re lucky. Many have less, which seems especially true in our school, which is hard to get into and committed to serving the community but is also, […]
The Forgetting Tree: A Novel Tatjana Soli St. Martin’s Press (September 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 1250001048 / 9781250001047) Fiction, 416 pages Source: ARC from publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour (featured in CBSLA’s Summer Reading Guide) Opening lines: “He was a respectable and loyal man, Octavio Mejia, the father of six children, and he had been late to leave that day, treating an infestation of whitefly on the newly planted Valencia trees. It was a […]
The Baker’s Daughter: A Novel Sarah McCoy (blog) (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads) Crown (January 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0307460185 / 9780307460189) (paperback edition publishing August 2012) Fiction, 304 pages Source: Publisher Reason for Reading: TLC Book Tour Opening lines: “Long after the downstairs oven had cooled to the touch and the upstairs had grown warm with bodies cocooned in cotton sheets, she slipped her feet from beneath the thin coverlet and quietly made her way through the […]
So L.A.Bridget Hoida (Facebook)Lettered Press (2012), trade paperback original (ISBN 0985129433 / 9780985129439)Fiction, 384 pagesSource: publisherReason for Reading: TLC Book Tour, CBS LA’s Summer Reading Guide Opening lines: “The nine people I know in Los Angeles—and by know, I don’t mean people I lunch with, I mean the nine people who have seen me naked—those nine people would never believe it, but sometimes in the San Joaquin Valley it gets so hot the fields spontaneously […]
The Flight of Gemma Hardy: A Novel Margot Livesey (Facebook) (Twitter) Harper Perennial (June 2012), Paperback (ISBN 0062064231 / 9780062064233) Fiction, 480 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour Opening lines: “We did not go for a walk on the first day of the year. The Christmas snow had melted, and rain had been falling since dawn, darkening the shrubbery and muddying the grass, but that would not have stopped my aunt from […]
The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation Stephen Prothero (Twitter) HarperOne (2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0062123432 / 9780062123435) Nonfiction (history/commentary), 544 pages Source: Publisher, for TLC Book Tours Book description, from the publisher’s website: Since Thomas Jefferson first recorded those self-evident truths in the Declaration of Independence, America has been a nation that has unfolded as much on the page and the podium as on battlefields or in statehouses. Here Stephen […]
The Chaperone Laura Moriarty (Facebook) Riverhead (June 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 1594487014 / 9781594487019) Fiction, 384 pages Source: ARC from publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour (last stop!) Opening lines: “The first time Cora heard the name Louise Brooks, she was parked outside the Wichita Library in a Model-T Ford, waiting for the rain to stop. If Cora had been alone, unencumbered, she might have made a dash across the lawn and up the library’s stone […]
I Am Forbidden: A Novel Anouk Markovits Hogarth (2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0307984737 / 9780307984739) Fiction, 320 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour Opening lines: “Light, fast, Zalman’s heels rapped the ground as he ran, naked, down the center aisle of the House of Prayer. His hands reached toward the Torah scroll raised above the altar, but the embroidered mantle slid up and out of sight. The scroll spread open, revealing a passage […]
The Western Lit Survival Kit: An Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner Sandra Newman Gotham (January 2012), Paperback Original (ISBN 1592406947 / 9781592406944) Nonfiction/literary criticism, 304 pages Source: ARC from publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour From the Introduction: “This book treats Western lit like an amusement park. It offers a guide to the rides, suggesting which ones are fun for all ages, which are impossibly dull for all ages, and […]
(This is a revised/updated post reflecting my thoughts upon finishing this novel. It was originally published on December 8, 2011 to meet a commitment for a TLC Book Tour date.) The Personal History of Rachel DuPree: A Novel Ann Weisgarber Penguin (Non-Classics) (2011), Paperback (ISBN 0143119486 / 9780143119487) Fiction (historical), 336 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour Opening lines: “I still see her, our Liz, sitting on a plank, dangling over that […]
The Betsy-Tacy Treasury: The First Four Betsy-Tacy Books Maud Hart Lovelace Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2011), Trade Paperback (ISBN 0062095870 / 9780062095879) Fiction (children’s), 736 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: TLC Book Tour Book description, from the publisher’s website: There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy’s age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she […]
