Before I go Colleen Oakley Simon and Schuster “It’s back,” Daisy Richmond tells her husband Jack. And with those words, the young couple’s life takes another unexpected turn. Three years ago Daisy battled cancer and, so far, seemed to have won. She and Jack picked up life where they left off—Daisy doing graduate work in …
As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust (DRC) Alan Bradley Delacorte Press Release date: January 6, 2015 If you haven’t caught Flavia fever by now, you’re missing out on something special. Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is a chemist prodigy-turned-sleuth who has solved any number of thefts, murders, and kidnappings in her six previous adventures. At the …
The Perfect Mother Nina Darton Plume Jennifer Lewis leads a perfect life—her Connecticut home is oh-so-shabby-chic, her lawyer husband handsome and successful, her three children active and popular. Jennifer herself gave up a career as a model and TV actress so that she could dedicate all of her time to family. Jennifer is the Perfect …
The Boston Girl Anita Diamant Scribner release date: December 9 In Anita Diamant’s latest novel, eighty-five-year-old Addie Baum tells her granddaughters the story of her life as a girl growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century. Arriving with her family from a small village in Russia, Boston might offer refuge from pogroms, but …
I’ve already established in another post (link) that I’m a picky reader. Best Seller Lists (even the revered New York Times BSL) don’t help me much, nor do the Staff Recommends shelf talkers in bookstores. In my book selling days, I relied on my managers and publisher’s sales reps to pass on good titles, usually as …
The Life We Bury (Edelweiss DRC) Allen Eskens Seventh Street Books I usually pass over mystery or crime novels–but something in the blurb for this title pulled me in. It could have been that the main character, Joe Talbot, was an English major . It could have been the mention of his autistic brother. Or it could …
Mill River Redemption (NetGalley DRC) Darcie Chan Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence—Plato Josi DiSanti had taken refuge in Mill River twenty-some years earlier after the death of her husband Tony. With daughters Emily and Rose snuggled in beside her and Aunt Ivy at the wheel, her small …
Knopf October 7, 2014 I heard an interview with Jane Smiley the other day on NPR. You can listen to it here (link). I am someone who has loved all things Smiley–Moo, Private Life, Ordinary Love and Good Will (0kay, so how can a writer fail with an incredible title like that last one?!) Surprisingly, her …
NetGalley ARC Houghton Mifflin release date: Oct. 2 I read Zac & Mia because The Fault In Our Stars has been such a phenomenon with my kids at school–and the blurb sounded enough like Stars to think this might be another YA favorite. So while I might not want kids to jump into a novel simply because it …
The Illusion of SeparatenessSimon Van BooyHarper Collins We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh Martin. Mr. Hugo. Sebastien. John. Amelia. New York, France, England, Los Angeles. A Nazi soldier, a baker; an orphaned baby and a U.S. fighter pilot. Writer Simon Van Booy tells their stories in …
This is my symphony 