Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #37

Here's my recap of books that I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on the following blogs:

        

                                   

                       
Sunday Post hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer / Stacking the Shelves hosted by the team at Tynga's Reviews / Showcase Sunday hosted by Vicky at  Books, Biscuits, and Tea . . .

My Week in Books, September 22-28, 2013

Finished reading . . .
  The Star Attraction by Alison Sweeney

Currently reading . . .

   Love Rehab: A Novel in Twelve Steps by Jo Piazza

Print books purchased . . .
   The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

Ebooks downloaded . . .

                 
Kindle:  Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Cutting Right to the Chase by Stefania Mattana, Curious George by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey, and Curious George Librarian for a Day by H.A. Rey and Scott Gray

Which books did you get this week?
   

Catherine
---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------
Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #37 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Saturday Spotlight: Simon Winchester

Photo Source: simonwinchester.com

September 28 is the birthday of Simon Winchester, British author, journalist, and broadcaster, who was born in 1944.  Information about his life and books are available on his website, simonwinchester.com. 

Among his many informative, interesting, well-researched works are The Alice Behind Wonderland, a look at the inspiration for and creation of the children's literary classic; and The Meaning of Everything and The Professor and the Madman, which detail the conception of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Winchester has a new book coming out on October 15, which focuses on a group of America's forward-thinking individuals who influenced the course of the nation's history.  A synopsis of The Men Who United the States appears below.

 

From barnesandnoble.com:  For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum—"Out of many, one"—has been featured on America's official government seals and stamped on its currency. But how did America become "one nation, indivisible"? In this monumental history, Simon Winchester addresses these questions, bringing together the breathtaking achievements of those American pioneers who helped to forge and unify the new nation, and who toiled fearlessly to bond the citizens and geography of the United States from its very beginnings. This sweeping narrative details how these daring men, some famous, some forgotten, left their mark on America's natural landscapes, through courage, ingenuity, and hard work. 

Winchester follows the footsteps of America's most crucial innovators, thinkers, and explorers, from Lewis and Clark and the leaders of the Great Surveys of the West to the builders of the first transcontinental railroad and the curmudgeonly civil engineer who oversaw the creation of more than three million miles of highway. Winchester travels across vast swaths of the American landscape, from Pittsburgh to Portland, Seattle to Anchorage, Truckee to Laramie, using the five classical elements—Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, and Metal—to chart the contributions these adventurous leaders made to connect the diverse communities within the United States and ensure the future of the American project begun in 1776.

The Men Who United the States is an unforgettable journey of unprecedented scope across time and open spaces, providing a new lens through which to view American history, led by one of our most gifted writers.

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Saturday Spotlight: Simon Winchester was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #16

 It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

This week's selection:

 

 

Beginning:  I remember, in no particular order:

 

--a shiny inner wrist;

 

--steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it;

 

--gouts of sperm circling a plughole, before being sluiced down the full length of a tall house;

 

--a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams;

 

--another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface;

 

--bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door.

 

This last isn't something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed.

 

My thoughts:  I find the opening somewhat mysterious.  It has me wondering who the narrator is and where the story is headed.  This book, which won the 2011 Man Booker prize, has been on my TBR list for some time now.  The reason I am reading it now is because one of my book clubs selected it for our October meeting.

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

Page 56:  "For most of us, the first experience of love, even if it doesn't work out--perhaps especially when it doesn't work out--promises that here is the thing that validates, that vindicates life."

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

 

Overview from barnesandnoble.com: A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.

This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

 

 

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #16 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  

 

 

 

 

Waiting on Wednesday: New Elizabeth Gilbert Novel

 

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

 This week's anticipated book:

   

Publisher: Viking Adult 

Publication date: October 1, 2013

 

From barnesandnoble.com:  A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed.

 

In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe—from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert’s wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers.

My Thoughts:  I found out nearly a year ago that Elizabeth Gilbert was writing this novel, and have been counting down the days to its publication.  Although Gilbert is probably best known for her hugely popular memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, she is an accomplished author of fiction and nonfiction alike.  As I wrote in a post about Elizabeth Gilbert last year, she is a keen observer of life and culture whose intelligence and inquisitiveness come across on the page. In this novel, she turns her attention to the past, using her considerable talent to craft a family story set against the backdrop of  historical eras and distant places. Based on the description, it's bound to be one of those books that you curl up with and finish in one or two sessions.

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine
---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

 

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

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

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #32

 

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 paragraph(s) of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraph from The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian, a book I purchased this week, and that I will be reading for one of my book clubs. Club members were so impressed with The Sandcastle Girls, which we read last month, that we decided to select another book written by Bohjalian. 

   

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 

Publication date: July 9, 2013

Part One

_____

 "A woman is sitting before an art nouveau vanity, brushing her hair in the mirror.  It is, at least according to the police report, somewhere between midnight and three in the morning, on the first Tuesday of June 1955.  For dinner she ate a small portion of an impossibly rich pasta--a fettuccini with pecorino cheese and great ladles of truffle oil--at a restaurant popular with wealthy American and British expatriates five blocks west of the Uffizi and a block north of the Arno.  She was one of the few Italians there who weren't part of the kitchen or wait staff.  She has since bathed, soaping off both her own perfume and the cologne that was worn by her dinner companion--the fellow who had come back here to the apartment, made love with her on the thin bed no more than three feet from the vanity, and then left.  He was a suspect in the murder investigation, but only briefly.  If he had had even the slightest inclination to spend the evening, there is every chance that I would have executed him that night, too."

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  I am intrigued by the narrator's voice and the setting, not to mention that she appears to be a murderer.  Bohjalian's historical novels are well researched and I am looking forward to reading--and discussing--the author's latest work!

Catherine  

---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower or a new follower, please sign up via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader
 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #32 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #36

Here's my recap of books that I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on the following blogs:

        

                                   

                       
Sunday Post hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer / Stacking the Shelves hosted by the team at Tynga's Reviews / Showcase Sunday hosted by Vicky at  Books, Biscuits, and Tea . . .

My Week in Books, September 15-21, 2013

Finished reading . . .
  Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Currently reading . . .
  The Star Attraction by Alison Sweeney

Borrowed from the Library . . .

  

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes; The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters

Ebooks downloaded . . .

  
Nook:  The Rockin' Chair by Steven Manchester; Kindle:  The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson; Cry of the Peacock by V.R. Christensen

Which books did you get this week?
   

Catherine
---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------
Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #36 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Saturday Spotlight: Banned Books Week/September 22-28

Logo Source:  bannedbooksweek.org, a website of the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom

Tomorrow is the start of Banned Books Week, an event which celebrates the freedom to read.  A major component of this celebration is the compilation of a list of books that have been challenged, restricted, removed or banned.

Links to this year's list (2012-2013) and prior lists (1999-2000 through 2011-2012), put together by Robert P. Doyle, are available on this Illinois Library Association web page.

Have you read any of the 44 books on this year's list?  Authors on the list include Sherman Alexie, Margaret Atwood, Orson Scott Card, Stephen Chbosky, John Green, Stephen King, Walter Dean Myers, Curtis Sittenfeld, Jane Smiley, and Tom Wolfe.

Here are the books from this year's list that I've read:

              
               

For more information on Banned Books Week, visit ala.org/bbooks.

 

Enjoy life with the books of your choice...

Catherine

---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Saturday Spotlight: Banned Books Week was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #15

 

 It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

This week's selection:

  

Beginning: Mina Yetner sat in her living room, inspecting the death notices in the Daily News.  She got through two full columns before she found someone older than herself.  Mina blew on her tea, took a sip, and settled into her comfortable wing chair.  In the next column, nestled among dearly departed strangers, she found Angela Quintanilla, a neighbor who lived a few blocks away.

 

My thoughts:  Who is Mina and why is she so preoccupied with death?   What role will she play in Hallie Ephron's newest book, which is described as a novel of psychological suspense?

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

Page 56:  "Evie texted him back a terse Sorry, can't make it, shoved the phone back in her pocket, and got back to work."

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

 

Overview from barnesandnoble.com: There Was An Old Woman by Hallie Ephron is a compelling novel of psychological suspense in which a young woman becomes entangled in a terrifying web of deception and madness involving an elderly neighbor.

 

When Evie Ferrante learns that her mother has been hospitalized, she finds her mother’s house in chaos. Sorting through her mother’s belongings, Evie discovers objects that don’t quite belong there, and begins to raise questions.

Evie renews a friendship with Mina, an elderly neighbor who might know more about her mother’s recent activities, but Mina is having her own set of problems: Her nephew Brian is trying to persuade her to move to a senior care community. As Evie investigates her mother’s actions, a darker story of deception and madness involving Mina emerges.

In There Was an Old Woman, award-winning mystery author Hallie Ephron delivers another work of domestic noir with truly unforgettable characters that will keep you riveted.

 

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #15 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  

Waiting on Wednesday: New Jeffery Deaver Novel

 

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

 This week's anticipated book:

    

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing 

Publication date: October 1, 2013

From barnesandnoble.com:   The shocking end is only the beginning . . .

#1 bestselling author Jeffery Deaver has created the most riveting and original novel of the year-a race-against-the-clock mystery, told in reverse.

THE OCTOBER LIST

Gabriela waits desperately for news of her abducted daughter.
At last, the door opens.
But it's not the negotiators. It's not the FBI.
It's the kidnapper.
And he has a gun.

How did it come to this?

Two days ago, Gabriela's life was normal. Then, out of the blue, she gets word that her six-year-old daughter has been taken. She's given an ultimatum: pay half a million dollars and find a mysterious document known as the "October List" within 30 hours, or she'll never see her child again.

A mind-bending novel with twists and turns that unfold from its dramatic climax back to its surprising beginning, THE OCTOBER LIST is Jeffery Deaver at his masterful, inventive best.

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine
---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

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

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #31

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 paragraph(s) of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs from Final Sentence, the first book in the new Cookbook Nook Mystery series, which I purchased last week and hope to begin reading soon.  The author is Daryl Wood Gerber, an Agatha Award winner who writes the Cheese Shop Mystery series under the pseudonym Avery Aames. 

   

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) 

Publication date: July 2, 2013

 Chapter 1

"Aunt Vera, STOP twirling me," I yelled.

But she didn't.  She continued to spin me in a circle.  My eyes pinballed in my head.  My braids whipped my cheeks--right, left, right, left.  I didn't ordinarily wear braids, but cleaning up a shop that closed thirty years ago, over a year before my birth, was almost as dirty a business as having a garage sale.  I had dressed for the occasion: cutoffs and T-shirt, so I wasn't worried about my clothes.

"Stop," I repeated.

My aunt cackled with glee.  "Jenna Starrett Hart, I am so excited."

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  I am a pushover for new cozy mystery series, especially ones where books, bookstores, libraries, or librarians are part of the story.  The opening caught my attention...why is Aunt Vera so excited, especially if heavy-duty cleaning is involved?

 

 Catherine  

---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower or a new follower, please sign up via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader
 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #31 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #35

Here's my recap of books that I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on the following blogs:

        

                                   

                       
Sunday Post hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer / Stacking the Shelves hosted by the team at Tynga's Reviews / Showcase Sunday hosted by Vicky at  Books, Biscuits, and Tea . . .

My Week in Books, September 8-14, 2013

Finished reading . . . 
   The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio

Currently reading . . .
    Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Ebooks downloaded . . .

Nook: Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson;  Kindle:  One Just Man by Stan I.S. Law; A Family Affair by Mary Campisi

Purchased . . .
      Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber

Which books did you get this week?
   

Catherine
---------------------
If you are already a GFC follower, or if you are a new follower, please sign up to follow the Book Club Librarian Blog via Bloglovin'.  Let me know if you're a follower and leave me a link to your blog so that I can follow you back.  Thanks!
---------------------
Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #35 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.