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 […]
One Last Thing Before I Go Jonathan Tropper (Twitter) Dutton Adult (August 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0525952365 / 9780525952367) Fiction, 352 pages Source: ARC obtained at Book Expo America 2012 Reason for reading: Personal Opening lines: “This is Tuesday, just under three weeks before his wife will be getting married, and a few days before Silver will tentatively decide that life isn’t necessarily worth living when you’ve been doing it as poorly as he has. It is […]
The Barbarian Nurseries: A Novel Héctor Tobar Audiobook narrated by Frankie J. Alvarez Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 2011), Hardcover (ISBN 0374108994 / 9780374108991)* Fiction, 432 pages Source: Purchased audiobook (Blackstone Audio via Audible.com–Audible ASIN B005PTOP5M) Reason for Reading: personal interest, local/topical, “LA’s Summer Reading Guide” on CBSLA.com *paperback release scheduled September 2012 Opening lines: “Scott Torres was upset because the lawn mower wouldn’t start, because no matter how hard he pulled at the cord, […]
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 […]
ME, Who Dove Into the Heart of the World Sabina Berman (Blog) (Goodreads) Translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman Henry Holt and Co. (2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0805093257 / 9780805093254) Fiction, 256 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (August 17, 2012). Shelf Awareness provided an Advance Reader’s Copy (via the publisher) and monetary compensation. Opening lines: “1 … the sea … … and the white sand beach … […]
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 […]
Motherless Child Marianne Langner Zeitlin Zephyr Press (July 2012), trade paper original (ISBN 0983297053 / 9780983297055) Fiction, 300 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (August 3, 2012), which provided an advance reader’s copy and compensation. Opening Lines: “At nine-thirty on a cool November morning in 1977, Elizabeth Guaragna picked up a copy of the New York Times from a a vendor at her subway station and, in […]
Opening lines: “The streets of Seville are the size of sidewalks, and there are alleys leaking off from the streets. In the back of the cab, where I sit by myself, I watch the past rushing by. I roll the smeary window down, stick out my arm. I run one finger against the crumble-down of walls. Touch them for you: Hello, Seville.” Because I consider Beth Kephart a friend (and it goes both ways, I’m […]
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 […]
Rules of Civility: A NovelAmor TowlesAudiobook read by Rebecca LowmanPenguin Books (2012); Paperback (ISBN 9780143121169 / 0143121162 )Fiction, 352 pagesSource: purchased audiobook (ISBN 9780142429273, Audible ASIN B005EJFUYI)Reason for reading: Personal, 2012 Audiobook Challenge. #JIAM (June is Audiobook Month) Opening lines (Chapter 1): “It was the last night of 1937. “With no better plans or prospects, my roommate Eve had dragged me back to The Hotspot, a wishfully named nightclub in Greenwich Village that was four […]
Inside Alix Ohlin (Twitter) Knopf (June 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0307596923 / 9780307596925) Fiction, 272 pages A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (June 8, 2012). Opening lines: “At first glance she mistook him for something else. In fading winter light he could have been a branch or a log, even a tire; in the many years she’d been cross-country skiing on Mount Royal, she’d found stranger debris across her […]
The First Husband: A Novel Laura Dave (Twitter) (Facebook) Viking Adult (June 2011), Hardcover (ISBN 0670022675 / 9780670022670) Fiction, 256 pages Source: secondhand ARC Reason for reading: Personal Opening lines: “It feels important to start with the truth about how I got here. When everything gets messy and brutal and complicated, the truth is the first thing to go, isn’t it? People try to shade it or spin it or fix it. As though fixing […]
