Book Club Librarian: October 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday: New Mrs. Lincoln 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: Penguin Group (USA)

Publication Date: January 14, 2014

From barnesandnoble.com: The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Jennifer Chiaverini, reveals the famous First Lady’s very public social and political contest with Kate Chase Sprague, memorialized as “one of the most remarkable women ever known to Washington society.” (Providence Journal)

Kate Chase Sprague was born in 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second daughter to the second wife of a devout but ambitious lawyer. Her father, Salmon P. Chase, rose to prominence in the antebellum years and was appointed secretary of the treasury in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, while aspiring to even greater heights.

Beautiful, intelligent, regal, and entrancing, young Kate Chase stepped into the role of establishing her thrice-widowed father in Washington society and as a future presidential candidate. Her efforts were successful enough that The Washington Star declared her “the most brilliant woman of her day. None outshone her.”

None, that is, but Mary Todd Lincoln. Though Mrs. Lincoln and her young rival held much in common—political acumen, love of country, and a resolute determination to help the men they loved achieve greatness—they could never be friends, for the success of one could come only at the expense of the other. When Kate Chase married William Sprague, the wealthy young governor of Rhode Island, it was widely regarded as the pinnacle of Washington society weddings. President Lincoln was in attendance. The First Lady was not.

Jennifer Chiaverini excels at chronicling the lives of extraordinary yet little-known women through historical fiction. What she did for Elizabeth Keckley in Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and for Elizabeth Van Lew in The Spymistress she does for Kate Chase Sprague in Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival.

My thoughts: I am an historical fiction fan, and consider the Lincolns fascinating, complex characters who led interesting, and at times turbulent, lives. Jennifer Chiaverini successfully crafted a fictional account of Mrs. Lincoln's relationships in the bestselling Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, and this novel sounds every bit as good.

Enjoy life with books . . .

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

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #37

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 Coral Glynn by Peter Cameron, which I recently borrowed from the New York Public Library.

Coral Glynn

Part One

That spring--the spring of 1950--had been particularly wet.

An area at the bottom of the garden at Hart House flooded, creating a shallow pool through which the crocuses gamely raised their little flounced heads, like cold shivering children in a swimming class. The blond gravel on the garden paths had turned green, each pebble wrapped in a moist transparent blanket of slime, and one could not sit on either of the two cement benches that flanked the river gate without first unhinging the snails and slugs adhered to them.

The excessive moistness of the garden was of no concern to anyone at Hart House except for the new nurse, who had arrived on Thursday, and had attempted, on the two afternoons that were somewhat mild, to sit outside for a moment, away from the sickness and strain in the house. But she found the garden inhospitable, and so had resolved to stay indoors.

What do you think? Would you continue reading? The story, set in the English countryside after World War II, is about a nurse who is sent to an isolated mansion to care for an elderly woman who is dying. The plot thickens as the lives of other characters intersect with the inhabitants of the mansion. I saw this novel featured recently on another blog and it piqued my curiosity. I'm looking forward to starting it soon.

Enjoy life with books . . .

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #37 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #41

My bookish highlight from this past week was attending the Association of American Publishers, Inc. (AAP) Tri-State Book Buzz, a sneak peek preview for librarians of recently published and forthcoming books. I came away with a fantastic assortment of published books and ARCs of children's, young adult, and adult titles.

Special thanks to Sterling, Random House, Disney Hyperion, Macmillan, Scholastic, Penguin, Tor Teen, Sourcebooks, W.W. Norton, Workman, Soho Teen, HarperCollins, National Geographic, Simon & Schuster, Perseus, Ecco, Hachette, McGraw-Hill, Farrar Straus Giroux, and John Wiley & Sons for their interesting presentations and for providing me with exciting new reads.

Now for my full recap of the books I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on these 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 October 20-26, 2013

Finished reading . . .

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and The October List by Jeffery Deaver

Currently reading . . .
Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

Ebooks downloaded . . .
      The Wronged Princess: Book I

Aris Returns: A Vampire Love Story: An Infinity Diaries Novel

Nook: The Wronged Princess, Book I by Kae Elle Wheeler and Aris Returns: A Vampire Love Story by Devin Morgan; Kindle: Appointment in Mykonos by Casey Dorman and Bad News Travels Fast by Gar Anthony Haywood

Adult Titles from AAP Tri-State Book Buzz . . .

The Supreme Macaroni Company (Valentine Trilogy #3)

A Reader's Book of Days: True Tales from the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year

Healthy at Home: Get Well and Stay Well Without Prescriptions

How to Retire Happy, Fourth Edition: The 12 Most Important Decisions You Must Make Before You Retire

First row: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman, The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigjani, The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin; Second row: The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go, The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton, Saint Monkey by Jacinda Townsend, The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh; Third row: The Last Days of California by Mary Miller, Escape from Paris by Carolyn Hart, The Garden of Burning Sand by Corban Addison, A Reader's Book of Days by Tom Nissley; Fourth row: The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom, Healthy at Home by Tieraona Low Dog, How to Retire Happy by Stan Hinden

YA Titles from AAP Tri-State Book Buzz . . .

Perfect Ruin (Internment Chronicles Series #1)

First row: The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt, The Rule of Thre3 by Eric Walters, Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff, Save the Enemy by Arin Greenwood; Second row: Expiration Day by William Campbell Powell, Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens, Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano, Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor; Third row: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira, The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kelly, Alienated by Melissa Landers; Fourth row: Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy, Tease by Amanda Maciel

Which books did you get this week?

Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #19

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: That neglected triangle where the Camden, Holloway and Caledonian Roads intersect, long oppressed by soot and the continuous rumble of the railway, its bounds set by the gloomy bulk of the women's prison and the desolation of the empty Livestock Market, had been done for long before the Hitler War blasted every last vestige of respectability to smithereens.

My thoughts: This book's cover is unusual because it provides the story's location, time frame, and a mysterious teaser. The very long first sentence paints a stark picture of the town, and makes me curious about its post-war inhabitants.

Siân Busby died on September 4, 2012, a year before the publication of this, her last, novel. The author dedicated the book: "For my darling boys, with all my love." It includes an introduction written by her husband, Robert Peston, a touching commentary on Busby's life and work.

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Page 56: Why were there always so many obstacles in her life? Why did nothing ever go right for her? She knew that she ought to be grateful for them all having come through the war when so many others hadn't; she ought to be grateful, but she really wasn't. This was the deep, dark secret of her soul.

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From barnesandnoble.com: On a damp July morning in 1946, two schoolboys find a woman’s body in a bomb site in north London. The woman is identified as Lillian Frobisher, a wife and mother who lived in a war-damaged terrace a few streets away.

The police assume that Lil must have been the victim of a vicious sexual assault; but the autopsy finds no evidence of rape, and Divisional Detective Inspector Jim Cooper turns his attention to her private life.

How did Lil come to be in the bomb site – a well-known lovers’ haunt? If she had consensual sex, why was she strangled? Why was her husband seemingly unaware that she had failed to come home on the night she was killed?

In this gripping murder story, Siân Busby gradually peels away the veneer of stoicism and respectability to reveal the dark truths at the heart of postwar austerity Britain.

Enjoy life with books . . .

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #19 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday: New Mary Higgins Clark 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: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: April 1, 2014

From barnesandnoble.com: In this suspenseful novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark, a Manhattan ER doctor is brazenly murdered in front of his young son in a city playground. Five years later, his killer is still at large.

Meanwhile his widow, Laurie Moran, is now an award-winning TV producer. Still haunted by her husband’s murder, she has been raising their son alone. Laurie and her TV crew have just received the green light to produce a new “cold case” series. Revisiting unsolved crimes one at a time, she and her TV crew will gather a victim’s friends and family, who have lived under suspicion of guilt for many years. By getting paid to reenact the crime on TV, each will have the chance to clear their name—unless, of course, someone is guilty… The first case centers on the murder of a wealthy Westchester matron, who was killed overnight while her college-aged daughter and her three best friends were having a sleepover following their celebratory graduation party… Now grown, the four women reunite to re-create the scene of the crime…

From the reigning “Queen of Suspense” comes a fascinating mystery that once again demonstrates a true mastery of the craft that has made her books international bestsellers. Fast-paced, exciting, and expertly plotted, I’ve Got You Under My Skin is Mary Higgins Clark at her best.

My thoughts: I never miss a chance to read a Mary Higgins Clark book. Over the years, I have enjoyed her suspenseful tales and the local settings which have included Princeton and Spring Lake, New Jersey as well as New York City, places I know well. April seems like a long way off, but more likely than not, Clark's new novel is definitely worth the wait.

Enjoy life with books . . .

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

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #36

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 Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole, which I recently borrowed from the New York Public Library.

Letters from Skye

Chapter One

~

Elspeth

Urbana, Illinois, U.S.A.

March 5, 1912

Dear Madam,

I hope you won't think me forward, but I wanted to write to express my admiration for your book, From an Eagle's Aerie. I'll admit, I'm not usually a guy for poetry. More often, I can be found with a dog-eared copy of Huck Finn or something else involving mortal peril and escape. But something in your poems touched me more than anything has in years.

I've been in the hospital, and your little book cheered me better than the nurses. Especially the nurse with the mustache like my uncle Phil's . She's also touched me more than anything has in years, though in a much less exciting way. Generally I'm pestering the doctors to let me up and about so I can go back to my plotting. Just last week I painted the dean's horse blue, and I had hoped to bestow the same on his terrier. But with your book in hand, I'm content to stay as long as they keep bringing the orange Jell-O.

. . .

What do you think? Would you continue reading? This debut novel is told in letter format, spanning two continents and two world wars. I'm looking forward to reading this story because it puts me in mind of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, a favorite past read.

Enjoy life with books . . .

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #36 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Sunday's Weekly Book Recap #40

My bookish highlight from this past week was attending Simon & Schuster's Spring 2014 Book Preview for librarians and educators. I came away with a bagful of published books and ARCs of books that will be available either later this year or in early 2014.

Special thanks to Penguin and Simon & Schuster for filling my shelves with exciting new reads.

Now for my full recap of the books I'm reading or have acquired this week, which I am sharing on these 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 October 13-19, 2013

Finished reading . . .
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

Currently reading . . .

The October List by Jeffery Deaver

Received from Penguin . . .

Archetype by M.D. Waters

From Simon & Schuster Spring 2014 Preview . . .
The Next Time You See Me: A Novel

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage

First row: The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner, The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones, Above by Isla Morley, Safe With Me by Amy Hatvany; Second row: Gemini by Carol Cassella, Road to Reckoning by Robert Lautner, Bubble by Anders de la Motte, Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg; Third row: The Fall of Saints by Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes; Fourth row: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, The Sun and Other Stars by Brigid Pasulka (all ARCs, except The Flame Throwers and The Next Time You See Me).

Ebooks downloaded . . .
Thursday Morning Breakfast (and Murder) Club
by Liz Stauffer (Kindle edition)

Which books did you get this week?