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. […]
Sutton J.R. Moehringer (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads) Hyperion (September 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 1401323146 / 9781401323141) Fiction (20th-century historical), 352 pages Source: ARC received at Book Expo America 2012 Reason for reading: Review copy/personal interest Opening lines: “He’s writing when they come for him. “He’s sitting at his metal desk, bent over a yellow legal pad, talking to himself, and to her–as always, to her. So he doesn’t notice them standing at his door. Until they run […]
When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories Molly Ringwald (Facebook) (Twitter) It Books (August 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0061809462 / 9780061809460) Fiction, 256 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: Personal (with a strong nudge from Beth Kephart) Opening lines (from the collection’s first story, “The Harvest Moon”): “As far as Greta knew, there was nothing in the sky that night. “Lying on her back in the bathroom on the cool of the white marble […]
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, […]
My participation in Creative Alliance ’12 prompted much consideration of my approach to my online life. As a book blogger, that life clearly includes books and authors…but it hasn’t included many from the swelling ranks of the “non-traditionally published.” Today it does, in the first of several posts on the topic of “indie authors” I have planned for this month (somehow, NaNoWriMo seems like good timing for it). Loretta Squirrels. The Tarnations. Morty Portnoy. Scarlett […]
Block 11 Piero degli Antoni (translated by Erin Waggener) St. Martin’s Press (October 2012), hardcover (ISBN 1250001021 / 9781250001023) Fiction, 240 pages A version of the following was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (October 30, 2012) as a compensated review assignment. An advance reader’s copy of the book was provided to facilitate the assignment. Opening lines: “’Wake up. Wake up, my darling.’ “The old man sleeping next to her opened his eyes with great […]
The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern (Twitter) (Facebook) Audiobook performed by Jim Dale Doubleday (2011), hardcover (ISBN 0385534639 / 9780385534635) Fiction, 400 pages Source; purchased audiobook (Audible ASIN B005MM7F7W) Reason for reading: personal, seasonal Opening lines: “The circus arrives without warning. “No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. “The towering tents are striped in white […]
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn (Facebook) Crown (2012), Hardcover (ISBN 030758836X / 9780307588364) Fiction, 432 pages Source: purchased e-book (E-ISBN 9780307588388) Reason for reading: personal, seasonal Opening lines: “When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles of it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or […]
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty: A Novel Joshilyn Jackson (Facebook) (Twitter) Audiobook read by the author Grand Central Publishing (September 2012), Paperback (ISBN 0446582360 / 9780446582360) Fiction, 352 pages Source: purchased audiobook (Audible ASIN B0071H413M) Reason for reading: personal Opening lines: “My daughter, Liza, put her heart in a silver box and buried it under the willow tree in our backyard. Or as close to under that tree as she could anyway. The thick web of […]
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton Speak (1997), Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0881030392 / 9780881030396) Fiction (YA), 192 pages Source: personal copy Reason for reading: re-read for Banned Books Week 2012 Opening lines: “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.” Book description (via Scholastic Teacher Resources): In Ponyboy’s world there are two types of people. […]
The Chocolate War Robert Cormier Laurel Leaf (1986), Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0440944597 / 9780440944591) YA fiction, 272 pages Source: personal copy Reason for reading: re-read for Banned Books Week 2012 Opening lines: “They murdered him. “As he turned to take the ball, a dam burst against the side of his head and a hand grenade shattered his stomach. Engulfed by nausea, he pitched toward the grass. His mouth encountered gravel, and he spat frantically, […]
Between Heaven and Here Susan Straight McSweeney’s (September 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 1936365758 / 9781936365753) Fiction, 208 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (September 25, 2012). Opening lines (from the Advance Reader’s copy): “When Sidney came out of the taqueria and headed down the alley, he saw Glorette Picard on her knees, her back to a shopping cart parked near the fence, her face held up to the […]
