Tuesday, January 22, 2013

New! New! New! for 2013


Here is a list of books either hot off the presses or coming soon that I cannot wait to enjoy!  These are the titles at the top of my 2013 reading list.  Be sure to take a look.  They are books you will be hearing all about.


Last Runaway
by Tracy Chevalier (January 8)

It’s Chevalier’s latest historical saga.  Set in 1850 in Ohio, Chevalier introduces Honor Bright.  Honor is an English Quaker who has a tough time adjusting to her new surroundings.  Feeling sick from leaving England because of family tragedy, Honor is lost in a land she does not recognize.  Both alienated and alone in Ohio she has no choice but to rely on strangers whose principles count for little despite the community’s endeavor for human equality.  Strikingly written with a compelling narrative Chevalier outdoes herself in her latest novel.


Lonely Planet: Better than Fiction
by Various Authors (February 5)

Sit back and relax while you journey through the pages of this original collection of travel stories.  With 32 of your favorite fiction writers as your guide you will become the very best armchair traveler.  You will no doubt marvel at each and every author’s remarkable tale, from Mexico to a host of mysterious and not-so-exotic places.  Author’s like Joyce Carol Oats, Tea Obreht and Alexander McCall smith will have you packing your bags and on your way, globetrotting from one place to another. 



Girls Guide to Love and Supper Clubs
by Dana Bate (February 5)

The perfect sweetly frosted February read; Dana Bate’s second novel brings you to Washington D.C. where you meet Hannah a successful young woman at the height of her career.  Hannah has a dream job at an influential think tank company.  She lives in a posh apartment with her very accomplished boyfriend.  Her life sounds perfect, but Hannah isn't interested in any of it, not her dream job, or chic apartment and certainly not her accomplished, over achieving boyfriend.  After her relationship ends, Hannah takes the leap and does what she has always wanted to do, she organizes a supper club.  Among the flavorsome aromas and satisfying treats Hannah takes on her new adventure with liberated excitement and a teaspoon of trepidation.  So enjoy Bate’s delightfully amusing comedy about a young woman, her ambitions and her scrumptious path to achieving her bliss.


A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life
of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley
by Neal Thompson (May 7)

This biography tells the life and tales of the mysterious cartoonist turned world-traveling millionaire. Robert Ripley attained international fame by celebrating the world's oddities and peculiarities. His shocking showmanship educated us and allowing us to accept, as truth, the unbelievable. His book is filled with what you'd expect, may bizarre and interesting facts. In addition you'll be pleasantly pleased and more often than not entertained.



Family Pictures
by Jane Green (March 19)

In classic Jane Green style Family Pictures is a gripping story of two women.  These two women live on opposite coasts, but are connected in ways they never would have imagined.  Both women have families; with children going off to college and a husbands who travel too much.  Both are feeling bareness neither had predicted.  When a shocking secret is exposed, both women’s lives are pushed to their limits.  Will these secrets destroy their families; will these women who have never met, but are simultaneously experiencing the same events, be able to forgive; if not for themselves, for the sake of their children?


Salt Sugar Fat
by Michael Moss (February 26)

Investigative reporter, Michael Moss, addresses the explosive story of the rise of the processed food industry and how it is linked to the growing obesity epidemic. Through his book Salt Sugar Fat Moss addresses how such companies have reeled us in and caused our addictions to all the bad stuff; salt, sugar and fat.  More importantly, Moss tells us how we can fight back.  How obesity can be stopped and how we can take back our control over what we eat.


The Burgess Boys
by Elizabeth Strout (March 26)

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout has done it again.  Her ability to animate the everyday with such amazing energy is unparalleled in the writing profession.  The Burgess Boy is every bit as prevailing and poignant as any work in current literature.  Jim and Bob Burgess, two brothers from small town Maine are haunted by the awful death of their father and soon find themselves fleeing Maine for the big streets of New York City.  After making a life in New York they are urgently called home to Maine by the sister they left behind.  They find that what they so desperately wished to leave behind has only a thin layer of dust covering it up. The Burgess Brothers return to the place of their childhood and to the long-ago-buried tensions they left so many years earlier. Neither Jim nor Bob are able to escape the shadows of their adolescent past. Both realize that what they hoped would be forever forgotten is about to resurface and what they had hoped would forever stay buried is about to be undone.



Best Kept Secret (The Clifton Chronicles
 by Jeffery Archer (May 14)

The third installment of the Clifton Chronicles picks up right where Harry and Emma left of in Sins of the Father.   As Harry and his family begin to build the life they've always wanted an awful, nasty and dangerous enemy resurfaces.  Each installment of The Clifton Chronicles paints a strategic picture of what life and times were like in Harry and Emma’s world.  Just because you’d like to live a life of happiness and comfort doesn't mean you’ll get to.




Tuesday, January 8, 2013


2012 Favorites

It’s that time of year.  2012 has come to an end and here is my list of favorite reads from the past 12 months.  Take a look at what I’ve enjoyed!

Novel- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Mystery/ Thriller/ Suspense - Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Literary Read - Home by Toni Morrison






New Author - Gilly Salt Sisters by Tiffany Baker

Historical Fiction - The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman

Series – Sins of the Father (book two in the Clifton Chronicles Series) by Jeffery Archer

Non Fiction - Wild by Cheryl Strayed






Prize Winner/ Notable Book- The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Book I can’t Believe I Read - Fifty Shades of Grey Series!

Summer/ Vacation Read - On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

Favorite to Recommend - The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Chicklit - Where We Belong by Emily Griffin










Accidental Find - Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In & Out of the Kitchen by Alyssa Shelasky

That book I wasn’t going to read, but I’m glad I did - Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward


Crossover Title - Fault in Our Stars by John Green










Memoir/ Biography - Blood Bones & Butter: the Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton