Faith: A Novel Jennifer Haigh Harper (May 2011), Hardcover (ISBN 0060755806 / 9780060755805) Fiction, 304 pages Source: ARC from publisher, via TLC Book Tours Reason for reading: Blog tour, personal interest (known author) Opening lines*: “Here is a story my mother has never told me. “It is a day she’s relived a thousand times, the 21st of June, 1951, the longest day of that or any year. A day that still hasn’t ended, as some […]
The Uncoupling Meg Wolitzer Riverhead Hardcover (2011), Hardcover (ISBN 159448788X / 9781594487880) Fiction, 288 pages Source: Publisher, via TLC Book Tours Reason for reading: blog tour Opening Lines: “People like to warn you that by the time you reach the middle of your life, passion will begin to feel like a meal eaten long ago, which you remember with great tenderness. The bright points of silver. The butter in its oblong dish. The corpse […]
Skipping a Beat: A Novel Sarah Pekkanen Washington Square Press (2011), Edition: Original, Paperback (ISBN 1451609825 / 9781451609820) Fiction, 352 pages Source: purchased e-book (Kindle) (ASIN B0043RSK94) Reason for reading: personal Opening Lines: “When my husband, Michael, died for the first time, I was walking across a freshly waxed marble floor in three-inch Stuart Weitzman heels, balancing a tray of cupcakes in my shaking hands. “Shaking because I’d overdosed on sugar—someone had to heroically step […]
The Weird Sisters Eleanor Brown Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam (2011), hardcover (ISBN 0399157220 / 9780399157226) Fiction, 336 pages Source: purchased e-book (Kindle) (ASIN B00475AXHY) Reason for reading: personal Opening Lines: “We came home because we were failures. We wouldn’t admit that, of course, not at first, not to ourselves, and certainly not to anyone else. We said we came home because our mother was ill, because we needed a break, a momentary pause before setting out […]
This Is Where I Leave You: A Novel Jonathan Tropper Plume (2010), Trade Paperback (ISBN 0452296366 / 9780452296367) Fiction, 352 pages Source: purchased e-book (Kindle) (ASIN B002GEDEKQ) Reason for reading: personal Opening lines: “‘Dad’s dead,’ Wendy says off handedly, like it’s happened before, like it happens every day. It can be grating, this act of hers, to be utterly unfazed at all times, even in the face of tragedy. ‘He died two hours ago.’ “‘How’s […]
Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel Armistead Maupin Harper (2010), Edition: 1, Hardcover (0061470880 / 9780061470882) Fiction, 304 pages Source: purchased e-book (Kindle) (ASIN B003VIWNK8) Reason for reading: favorite series Opening Lines: “There should be a rabbit hole was what she was thinking. There should be something about this hillside, some lingering sense memory – the view of Alcatraz, say, or the foghorns or the mossy planks of the planks beneath […]
Certain Women: A Novel Madeleine L’Engle HarperOne (1993), Paperback (ISBN 0060652071 / 9780060652074) Fiction, 368 pages Source: purchased/personal copy Reason for reading: Jan./Feb. 2011 selection for Faith and Fiction Roundtable discussion; personal re-read Opening Lines: “The Portia, a shabbily comfortable fifty-foot boat, was tied up at the dock of a Haida Indian village a day’s sail out of Prince Rupert. Emma Wheaton perched on the side of the bunk in the pilothouse, where her father […]
The Lotus Eaters: A Novel Tatjana Soli St. Martin’s Press (2010), Hardcover (ISBN 0312611579 / 9780312611576) Fiction (historical/20th century), 400 pages Source: Publisher, via TLC Book Tours Reason for reading: Blog tour Opening Lines: “The city teetered in a dream state. Helen walked down the deserted street. The quiet was eerie. Time running out. A long-handled barber’s razor, cradled in the nest of its strop, lay on the ground, the blade’s metal grabbing the sun. […]
As befits a book-blogging accountant, I’ll begin this look back at the year in reading with a little number-crunching: Total books read: 56 Fiction: 45 Adult: 33 YA: 12 Nonfiction: 11 Memoir: 8 History: 2 Other: 1 (music) Number of pages read: No idea, although I suppose I could do the math…but I’m really not all that interested in crunching this particular number at this point, so never mind! (Do you keep track of […]
Beautiful Maria of My Soul Oscar Hijuelos Hyperion (2010), Hardcover (ISBN 1401323340 / 9781401323349) Fiction, 352 pages Source: ARC provided by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers Reason for reading: Review, sequel to earlier novel Opening Lines: “Over forty years before, when Nestor Castillo’s future love, one Maria Garcia y Cifuentes, left her beloved valle in the far west of Cuba, she could have gone to the provincial capital of Pinar del Rio, where her […]
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror Christopher Moore (blog) William Morrow (2004), Edition: 1st, Hardcover (ISBN 0060590254 / 9780060590253) Fiction, 288 pages Source: Personal/purchased copy Reason for reading: Seasonally appropriate re-read (not previously reviewed) Note: There’s a second edition of this novel available with a new chapter added (ISBN: 0060842350) – that’s not the edition I have. Opening Lines: “Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing: dragging garland, ribbon, […]
Stiltsville: A Novel Susanna Daniel Harper (2010), Hardcover (ISBN 0061963070 / 9780061963070) Fiction, 320 pages Source: Provided by publisher Reason for Reading: Participation in online book club discussion (today), hosted by Gayle at Everyday I Write the Book Opening Lines: “On a Sunday morning in late July, at the end of my first-ever visit to Miami, I took a cab from my hotel to Snapper Creek marina to join a woman named Marse Heiger, whom […]
