What to read or what am I reading?

Just a quick mystery recommendation post to help you quench even the most curious of minds.
I've been asked lately for some good mystery recommendations, so here is what I've been suggesting.  (These are suggestions apart from the usual Patterson, Connlley, James, Meltzer and Baldacci thrillers.)
 


Literary Mysteries: Listed in no particular order!
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
In The Woods by Tana French
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger

New Releases or Soon to be Available Titles!
Life Without Parole by Clare O'Donohue
Harmless as Doves by P.L. Gaus
The Yard by Alex Grecian
Never Tell by Alafair Burke
The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg

Happy Reading, Enjoy!

Reading for Spring!

Raising timeless questions of the heart, The Three Weissmanns of Westport conveys a world of ironic insight.  This story made for a chatty book club discussion as the novel dove into the character’s own reasoning versus their need for love.

The novel begins with Betty Weissmann, age seventy-five, and used to her life of privilege in her adored upper West side apartment.  Betty has just been dumped by her husband of more than 45 years.  She is thoroughly surprised when her husband announces he wants a divorce, and he freezes her assets, leaving her unable to manage the costs of her privileged lifestyle.

Betty and her grown, middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, venture off to Cousin Lou’s vacant Westport beach cottage.  The girls claim they are helping their mother get acquainted with her newly exiled life away from New York, yet they have issues of their own.  Miranda, a tough-as-nails publishing agent faces bankruptcy after her business unveils a number of scandals.  Then Annie, a presently divorced romantic falls for the brother of her father’s young girlfriend.

Banning together, as only mothers and daughters can do, the three Weissmann women help each other through a storm of impending predicaments.  These women, Betty, Miranda and Annie hold each other together, while each of them discovers new strength.  While the Weissmanns take refuge in their cousin’s run-down cottage they realize that they have more strength than they knew of, more courage to face the obstacles they may encounter and more love for one another.

If this sounds a lot like something you’ve already read, that’s because TheThree Weissmanns of Westport is a modern-day, re-embodiment of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.  If you are a diehard Austen fan this story has all the makings of a much loved half-sister, with its modernized foundation of Sense & Sensibility plot and a few fresh twists and turns, this novel makes an enjoyable read for an Austenite and the like.

Not an Austenite, haven’t read the original or seen one of the Sense & Sensibility movies, no worries.  The Three Weissmann of Westport is a great standalone novel of woman’s fiction.  Yet as those familiar with Austen’s novel, you may enjoy anticipating events, comparing the Weissmanns to the Dashwoods and recognizing the similarities between the two stories.

Love & Italy, What More Could You Ask For?

In classic Trigiani fashion, The Shoemaker’s Wife is set at the turn of the century, in the Italian Alps.  The main characters meet as teenagers, despite the proximity of their villages, and fleetingly see their futures filled with happiness and love together.

Ciro, the strapping young mountain boy from Vilmonre and Enza, a practical beauty are quickly forced apart, leading separate lives, due to a scandal Ciro witnessed, involving a priest and was therefore banished from his village and sent to live in America as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Little Italy.  Not long after a devastated Enza and her farther journey to New York in serch of a more secure future for their family.

The invisible tie of fate reunites both Ciro and Enza, but has too much time already past; Ciro will be going off to fight in World War I and Enza, unwavering forges a life without him as an impressive seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera House, which sweep her into the glamorous salons of Manhattan and into the life of the international singing sensation, Enrico Caruso.

From their first meeting to chance encounters, from the houses of Carnegie Hill, to the cobblestone streets of Little Italy, over the risky cliffs of northern Italy, to the white-capped lakes of northern Minnesota, these star-crossed souls meet and are forced to separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever.

Both richly woven and reminiscent, told in provocative detail and deepened with lovable, unforgettable characters, The Shoemaker's Wife is a depiction of the times, the places and the people who well-defined the immigrant experience, claiming their share of the American dream with determination and resolution, shaping it to fit their needs like a premium piece of Italian cloth.

This spellbinding historical story of love and family, war and loss, peril and fate is the novel Adriana Trigiani was always supposed to write, one motivated by her own family history and the love of tradition that has pushed her body of bestselling novels to international success. Like all her works, The Shoemaker's Wife expresses an era with lucidity and grandeur, with an operatic range and a rich cast of characters who will undoubtedly live on in the minds of readers long after they have finished reading the last word.

Adrianna Trigiani will be speaking and signing copies of The Shoemaker’s Wife at the Book Revue in Huntington on April 10^th at 7pm.  For further details visit the Book Revue website.

For more titles by Adriana Trigiani or just to learn more about her please visit her website by clicking on her name above.