Friday Focus: BEA

Yesterday was the first day of Book Expo America 2013.  There were so many wonderful authors and so many fantastic new books.  Days 2 and 3 promise more of the same.  When I have a chance to catch my breath, I will share more about this fabulous event.

In the meantime, because a picture is worth a thousand words, I am sharing a photo that captures the thrilling moment when I met Sue Grafton, one of my all time favorite authors, and snagged an advance reader copy of W is for Wasted, the next book in her wildly popular series.

                                       

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Friday Focus: BEA was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Thursday Thoughts: Book Heaven aka Book Expo

I am in book heaven right now.  Yesterday I went to Library Journal's Day of Dialog, an all day event of author and librarian panels, with lots of books and advanced reader copies of forthcoming titles.  Among the authors who participated were Amy Tan, Richard North Patterson, and Simon Winchester.

This event was followed by an Association of American Publishers Librarians Dinner, hosted by author John Searles, with featured authors Martha and Ken Grimes, Nancy Horan, Meg Wolitzer, Donna Tartt, and Erica Jong, all of whom spoke about their latest works.  I came away with copies of Help for the Haunted by John Searles, Double Double: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism by Martha and Ken Grimes, Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, and a 40th anniversary edition of Fear of Flying by Erica Jong.

I start today with an author breakfast at Random House, and then it's on to Book Expo America at NYC's Javits Center for a Library Journal Librarians Lunch with more authors and their books.  The next three days at Book Expo will be spent meeting authors and getting signed copies of new and forthcoming books and galleys along with other book swag.

Check twitter for more timely updates (there are several tweets from Wednesday's Day of Dialog), and this blog at the end of the week/beginning of next for a more detailed progress report.

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Thursday Thoughts: Book Heaven aka Book Expo was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Waiting on Wednesday: TransAtlantic

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about a forthcoming book with other readers.

This week's anticipated book:

 

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

Publication Date: June 4, 2013

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Preorder now from online and bricks and mortar bookstores

From barnesandnoble.com:

In the National Book Award–winning Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann thrilled readers with a marvelous high-wire act of fiction that The New York Times Book Review called "an emotional tour de force." Now McCann demonstrates once again why he is one of the most acclaimed and essential authors of his generation with a soaring novel that spans continents, leaps centuries, and unites a cast of deftly rendered characters, both real and imagined.

Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators—Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown—set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, placing their trust in a modified bomber to heal the wounds of the Great War.

Dublin, 1845 and '46. On an international lecture tour in support of his subversive autobiography, Frederick Douglass finds the Irish people sympathetic to the abolitionist cause—despite the fact that, as famine ravages the countryside, the poor suffer from hardships that are astonishing even to an American slave.

New York, 1998. Leaving behind a young wife and newborn child, Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast, where it has fallen to him, the son of an Irish-American father and a Lebanese mother, to shepherd Northern Ireland's notoriously bitter and volatile peace talks to an uncertain conclusion.

These three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history. Beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, who crosses paths with Frederick Douglass, the novel follows her daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, and culminates in the present-day story of Hannah Carson, in whom all the hopes and failures of previous generations live on. From the loughs of Ireland to the flatlands of Missouri and the windswept coast of Newfoundland, their journeys mirror the progress and shape of history. They each learn that even the most unassuming moments of grace have a way of rippling through time, space, and memory.

The most mature work yet from an incomparable storyteller, TransAtlantic is a profound meditation on identity and history in a wide world that grows somehow smaller and more wondrous with each passing year.

My thoughts:  McCann spoke about his new novel last month at a Random House Open House event and captivated the audience.  I came away with an advanced reader copy and am looking forward to immersing myself in this author's lyrical prose and creative storytelling. 

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Waiting on Wednesday: Transatlantic was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #15 and Tuesday Teaser

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. It's an opportunity to share the first paragraphs of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, a book I recently received as a gift, which I'll start reading soon.

Read on after the intro for my Tuesday Teaser.

   

Published by St. Martin's Press

Publication date: 3/26/2013

PROLOGUE

------------------------------------------

Montgomery, Alabama

                                                                                                      December 20, 1940

Dear Scott,

    

     The Love of the Last Tycoon is a great title for your novel.  What does Max say?

     I've been thinking that maybe I'll brave an airplane ride and come to see you for New Year's.  Wire me the money, if you can.  Won't we be quite the pair?--you with your bad heart, me with my bad head.  Together, though, we might have something worthwhile.  I'll bring you some of those cheese biscuits you always loved, and you can read me what you've written so far.  I know it's going to be a wonderful novel, Scott, your best one yet.

     This is short so I can send it before the post office closes today.  Write me soon.

                                                                                                       Devotedly,

                                                                                                                   Z- 

     If I could fit myself into this mail slot, here, I'd follow my letter all the way to Hollywood, all the way to Scott, right up to the door of our next future.  We have always had a next one, after all, and there's no good reason we shouldn't have one now.  If only people could travel as easily as words.  Wouldn't that be something?  If only we could be so easily revised.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

------------------------------------

Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.

 

Here's my teaser from Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler:

"'Really, Baby, if you go out with no corset, men will think you're--'

 'Immoral?'

 'Yes.'

 'Maybe I don't care,' I said."

~ p. 11

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #15 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #19

Here's my recap of books that I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on the following blogs:
    hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
   hosted by the team at Tynga's Reviews 

    hosted by Vicky at  Books, Biscuits, and Tea  

My Week in Books . . . May 18-25, 2013 

Currently reading . . .

       

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin; Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear 

Finished reading . . .

          Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

My Review 

Borrowed from the library . . .

     The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Ebooks downloaded . . .

                                         

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton; Head to Head by Linda Ladd (Nook editions)

 

                      

Changing Lanes by Kathleen Long, Just This Once by Rosalind James, The Advocate's Betrayal by Teresa Burrell, Maids of Misfortune by M. Louisa Locke, and City of Beads by Tony Dunbar (Kindle editions)

Which books did you get this week?
   

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #19 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

                             

Saturday Shorts: Weekend Words

 A thought for Memorial Day weekend . . .

"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it.  And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."

~John F. Kennedy, U.S. President

 (1917-1963)

Read this and other John F. Kennedy quotes online at BrainyQuote.

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Saturday Shorts: Weekend Words was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Friday Focus: Reconstructing Amelia

 

 Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight is the story of single mother and work-obsessed attorney Kate Baron and her academically high-achieving teenage daughter Amelia. Kate, who often feels guilty because her demanding career keeps her from spending time with her daughter, works as hard as she does to provide the creature comforts of life in a Park Slope, Brooklyn brownstone and Amelia’s education at an exclusive private school.  As a result, Amelia spends a good deal of time unsupervised.  And although mother and daughter have a seemingly close relationship, when the unthinkable happens, Kate will discover that she doesn’t really know Amelia as well as she thought.

Overcome with grief from Amelia’s tragic death at school, which officials very quickly rule an impulsive suicide, Kate is driven to know more about her daughter’s daily life and final days.  In her heart, she cannot believe that Amelia would end her own life.  When Kate receives anonymous text messages suggesting that Amelia didn’t kill herself, she is more determined than ever to uncover the truth about the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s demise.  

Kate’s probing reveals secrets about Amelia’s activities and relationships that she finds shocking and totally out of character for the daughter she thought she knew.   Through Facebook status updates, texts, and alternating chapters written in Kate’s and Amelia’s voices, the author creates a contemporary and chilling look at teen vulnerability, the negative side of cliques and social media, the price of popularity, and the consequences of loyalty.  The hidden agendas, miscues, clouded judgment, and ulterior motives of parents and school officials add complex layers to the plot, with plenty of twists and turns.

Reconstructing Amelia is a compelling page turner that draws readers into a world of wealth and privilege, where parents use their power and influence for personal gain and high school students succumb to peer pressure.

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Friday Focus: Reconstructing Amelia was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Thursday Thoughts: Challenge Check-In

In a Thursday Thoughts post on March 28th, I announced my participation in the Spring Reading Thing 2013 challenge hosted by Sandra at The Musings of a Book Addict.  Since it's now the half-way point of the challenge period (March 20th--June 20th), here's an update on my progress.

For this challenge, I committed to reading or finishing five books already in my possession.  I'm happy to report that I have read three of the five thus far:

      

This leaves two books to go:

 

Feeling good about the results, with success within reach!

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Thursday Thoughts: Challenge Check-In was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Bookman's Tale

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about a forthcoming book with other readers.

 

This week's anticipated book:

 

  The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession

 by Charlie Lovett

Publication Date:  May 28, 2013

Publisher:  Penguin Group (USA)

 Preorder now from online and bricks and mortar bookstores

 

From barnesandnoble.com:

A mysterious portrait ignites an antiquarian bookseller’s search through time and the works of Shakespeare for his lost love...

Guaranteed to capture the hearts of everyone who truly loves books, The Bookman’s Tale is a former bookseller’s sparkling novel and a delightful exploration of one of literature’s most tantalizing mysteries with echoes of Shadow of the Wind and A.S. Byatt's Possession.

Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn’t sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books. But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, Peter is shocked when a portrait of Amanda tumbles out of its pages. Of course, it isn’t really her. The watercolor is clearly Victorian. Yet the resemblance is uncanny, and Peter becomes obsessed with learning the picture’s origins.

As he follows the trail back first to the Victorian era and then to Shakespeare’s time, Peter communes with Amanda’s spirit, learns the truth about his own past, and discovers a book that might definitively prove Shakespeare was, indeed, the author of all his plays.

My thoughts:  This book combines history, mystery, romance, and travel in one interesting plot.  It's the newest entry on my to be read list.

 Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Waiting on Wednesday: The Bookman's Tale was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #14 and Tuesday Teaser

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. It's an opportunity to share the first paragraphs of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs of The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, a book I recently borrowed from the library which I'll start reading soon.

Read on after the intro for my Tuesday Teaser.

 

 From Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Publication date: 2/26/2013

"My father trusted me with the details of his death.  'Ania,' he would say, 'no whiskey at my funeral.  I want the finest blackberry wine.  No weeping, mind you.  Just dancing.  And when they lower me into the ground, I want a fanfare of trumpets, and white butterflies.'  A character, that was my father.  He was the village baker, and every day, in addition to the loaves he would make for the town, he would create a single roll for me that was as unique as it was delicious: a twist like a princess's crown, dough mixed with sweet cinnamon and the richest chocolate.  The secret ingredient, he said, was his love for me, and this made it taste better than anything else I had ever eaten.

We lived on the outskirts of a village so small that everyone knew everyone else by name.  Our home was made of river stone, with a thatched roof; the hearth where my father baked heated the entire cottage.  I would sit at the kitchen table, shelling peas that I grew in the small garden out back, as my father opened the door of the brick oven and slid the peel inside to take out crusty, round loaves of bread.  The red embers glowed, outlining the strong muscles of his back as he sweated through his tunic. 'I don't want a summer funeral, Ania,' he would say.  'Make sure instead I die on a cool day, when there's a nice breeze.  Before the birds fly south, so that they can sing for me.'"

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

------------------------------------

Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.

Here's my teaser from The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult: 

"Baruch Beiler turned, as if noticing for the first time that I was even present.  His eyes raked over me, from my dark hair in its single braid to the leather boots on my feet, whose holes had been repaired with thick patches of flannel.  His gaze made me shiver, not in the same way that I felt when Damian, the captain of the guard, watched me walk away in the village square--as if I were cream and he was the cat.  No, this was more mercenary."

~ p.3

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #14 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #18

Here's my recap of books that I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on the following blogs:
    hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
   hosted by the team at Tynga's Reviews 

    hosted by Vicky at  Books, Biscuits, and Tea  

My Week in Books . . . May 12-16, 2013  

Currently reading . . .
            

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin and Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

 

Ebooks downloaded . . .

 

 

Deliver Me by Farrah Rochon, Huntress Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff, Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Black Jasmine by Toby Neal (Kindle editions) and Sanctus by Simon Toyne (Nook edition)

 

Received as a gift . . .
 Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Which books did you get this week?
   

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #18 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Saturday Shorts: Weekend Words

 

"Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable."

--Louisa May Alcott, American author (1832-1888)

Read this and other Louisa May Alcott quotes online at BrainyQuote.

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Saturday Shorts: Weekend Words was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Waiting on Wednesday: All the Summer Girls

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about a forthcoming book with other readers.

 

This week's anticipated book:

 

 All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue

Publication Date:  May 21, 2013

Publisher:  HarperCollins Publishers

Preorder now from online and bricks and mortar bookstores

 

From barnesandnoble.com:

In Philadelphia, good girl Kate is dumped by her fiancé the day she learns she is pregnant with his child. In New York City, beautiful stay-at-home mom Vanessa finds herself obsessively searching the Internet for news of an old flame. And in San Francisco, Dani, an aspiring writer who can't seem to put down a book—or a cocktail—long enough to open her laptop, has just been fired . . . again.

In an effort to regroup, Kate, Vanessa, and Dani retreat to the New Jersey beach town where they once spent their summers. Emboldened by the seductive cadences of the shore, the women begin to realize just how much their lives, and friendships, have been shaped by the choices they made one fateful night on the beach eight years earlier—and the secrets that now threaten to surface.

My thoughts:  I enjoy a book with strong bonds of female friendship and shared experiences.  Adding a beach setting and a few deep, dark secrets sweetens the deal.

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Waiting on Wednesday: All the Summer Girls was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #13 and Tuesday Teaser

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. It's an opportunity to share the first paragraphs of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs of Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight, a book I recently borrowed from the library which I have selected as my next read.

Read on after the intro for my Tuesday Teaser.

 

  From HarperCollins Publishers

Publication date: 4/2/2013

"gRaCeFULLY

SEPTEMBER 5TH

______________________________________________________

Because there are 176 definitions for the word loser on urbandictionary.com.

Don't Be a Statistic

_________________________________________________

Hey bitches!

Ah, the beginning of another school year.  And I'm back with all the shit that's not fit to print . . .

 

So while you've all been whiling away the summer in Southampton, or on Nantucket or in the South of France, perfecting your tennis game or your pas de deux, or training for your first marathon, or basking in your latest chess championship, I've spent the summer keeping track of the back and forth of our dear faculty members.  Mr. Zaritski went out to UC Berkeley to teach at a science camp for crazy-smart kids.  Word has it the parents had him fired week two because he SMELLED.  Mrs. Pearl took a Latin lover and learned to pole dance in Miami.  Kidding.  She didn't actually have a lover, of course.  Who would ever want to sleep with her?

Ah, and sweet delicious Mr. Woodhouse.  Who wouldn't have wanted to see him in a Speedo somewhere?  Alas, his whereabouts lo these sultry months is unknown, though I have it on good authority that he spent at least one long weekend snuggled up with our beloved English prof Liv.  To which I say, bravo."

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  The opening page (partially quoted above) is a blog post, which is quickly followed by several text and Facebook messages.  Regular chapters come next, introducing readers to attorney and single mom Kate and her teenage daughter Amelia, the main characters in this debut legal thriller. There is a lot of buzz about this book, and it looks like a page-turner.

  

------------------------------------

 

Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.

 

Here's my teaser from Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight:

""Listen, Amelia, I know we don't know each other very well, and there's a reason for that.  I looked through your file before you got down here, and it's basically flawless--outstanding grades, two varsity letters, head of the French club, four honors classes.  You've never even been marked late.  And now this? Why?'"

~ p. 100

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #13 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.