Here are the next few titles that I personally am looking forward to reading.
Adriana Trigiani has All the Stars in the Heavens coming out on October 13. After her Big Stone Gap series, she heads to the Hollywood of the 1930's and the real-life love affair of Loretta Young and Clark Gable. With this background the story focuses on Young's personal assistant - a young woman names Alda who had been studying to become a nun. How she deals with Hollywood while trying to maintain her high ideals is a struggle.
Faye Kellerman has The Theory of Death coming out on October 27. This is the 23rd in the Peter Decker series. Decker is now Chief of police in quiet Greenbury in upstate NY. It has been over a year since the last murder in town and he is enjoying the quiet pace. Then, the nude body of a man is found in the woods near town. It appears to be a suicide but with no personal items near the body, Decker has a hard time finding out who he is. An old friend, Tyler McAdams, shows up and both men start an investigation. Can they solve the twisted crime?
Mike Maden writes a series about high tech warfare. His third in the Troy Pearce series, Drone Command, arrives on October 16. Pearce and his high tech team is called in to diffuse a conflict between China and Japan. China claimed some waters in the East China Seas and Japan is willing to fight to have them remain open. Political intrigue from Maden who holds a PhD. in political science.
Sloane Crosley has penned her first novel, The Clasp arrives on October 6. Three friends in their late 20's meet at a college friend's wedding. The groom's mother tells one of them about a necklace that vanished in Nazi-occupied France. The three friends are off on a hunt for the necklace. It's hard for the three to meld the way they did in college with life having changed each. Told with heartfelt humor and suspense.
Kate Morton has The Lake House coming on October 22. Morton tells the story in two time periods starting in 1933 when a couple lived in a large lake estate with their 3 daughters and 11 month old son and other relatives. During a large midsummer party, the son disappears and is never found. Seventy years later, Sadie Sparrow is put on disciplinary leave from the London police department when she can not let a case go. She visits her grandfather in Cornwall and stumbles on the vacant, deserted house and learns about the disappearance. She investigate to occupy herself. One of the 1933 daughters has become a mystery author and now lives in an elegant Hampstead home. Sadie arrives with questions and brings the past back with all of its secrets.
Hope there is something here for you. Next time we start with November.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
October Titles
Our Children's Book Festival is tomorrow so I am busy and will be working tomorrow at the festival. Therefore, today's post will be short and not cover as much as I might like. Maybe I will have a chance next week to add to it.
Gregory Maguire, the author that has taken on the Wizard of Oz with his Wicked series, has taken on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with After Alice which comes out on October 27. Alice's friend who was briefly mentioned in the original tale, here take a starring role as she goes after Alice and also slides down the rabbit hole. Can she find Alice? What does she think about the happenings down in Wonderland? Read and find out.
John Katzenback has The Dead Student coming on October 6. Timothy Warner (a.k.a. Moth) is a PhD student and an alcoholic who has lost his license and is working toward sobriety attending AA meetings. His uncle Ed, who also attends meetings, doesn't show up and Moth goes to his office and finds him dead, shot in the head with a gun by his fingers. The police decide it is suicide but Moth does not believe that. Moth goes to an ex-girl friend to ask for help (someone has to drive) and investigates. There are more deaths. Can Moth make it out alive?
Felix Francis is following in his father's footsteps after assisting and even co-authoring on the last few titles. Front Runner is coming out on October 13. Jefferson Hinkley, an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, was introduced in Francis' Damage. Jeff is back in this title and in severe danger after a jockey comes to him confidentially about losing races on purpose. Strangely, the jockey is shortly found dead of an apparent suicide and there is an attempt on Hinkley's life. Of course he must investigate and, of course, someone wants to stop it.
Tess Gerritsen has Playing with Fire coming out on October 27. She has stepped outside of the Rizzoli & Isles series for this stand alone. Julia Ansdell is a violinist who while playing with a group in Rome picks up an old piece of sheet music, The Incendio Waltz. She returns home to her husband and 3 year old daughter and while playing the music, she blacks out and when awakening finds her daughter changed and very violent. When she expresses that her 3 year old is trying to kill her, her husband wants to commit her but she escapes to Venice, to find out about the music. Is she going crazy? Read and find out. Reviewers LOVED it.
Lastly, Deon Meyer has Icarus coming out on October 6. Meyer's has been described as the Ed McBain of South African crime. This title is the 5th in his Captain Benny Griessel series. Griessel is called to the scene of a multiple homicide involving a former colleague and after 4 years of sobriety, Griessel goes on a bender. When he emerges, he tries to quit the forc3e but instead is assigned to the murder of the tech person for MyAlibi, an Internet service that provides unfaithful partners with cover stories. Before long, an connection to a leading family winery is found and Griessel is again on the line.
OK - sorry for the short post but there are some pretty good titles above. Hope one is a keeper for you.
Gregory Maguire, the author that has taken on the Wizard of Oz with his Wicked series, has taken on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with After Alice which comes out on October 27. Alice's friend who was briefly mentioned in the original tale, here take a starring role as she goes after Alice and also slides down the rabbit hole. Can she find Alice? What does she think about the happenings down in Wonderland? Read and find out.
John Katzenback has The Dead Student coming on October 6. Timothy Warner (a.k.a. Moth) is a PhD student and an alcoholic who has lost his license and is working toward sobriety attending AA meetings. His uncle Ed, who also attends meetings, doesn't show up and Moth goes to his office and finds him dead, shot in the head with a gun by his fingers. The police decide it is suicide but Moth does not believe that. Moth goes to an ex-girl friend to ask for help (someone has to drive) and investigates. There are more deaths. Can Moth make it out alive?
Felix Francis is following in his father's footsteps after assisting and even co-authoring on the last few titles. Front Runner is coming out on October 13. Jefferson Hinkley, an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, was introduced in Francis' Damage. Jeff is back in this title and in severe danger after a jockey comes to him confidentially about losing races on purpose. Strangely, the jockey is shortly found dead of an apparent suicide and there is an attempt on Hinkley's life. Of course he must investigate and, of course, someone wants to stop it.
Tess Gerritsen has Playing with Fire coming out on October 27. She has stepped outside of the Rizzoli & Isles series for this stand alone. Julia Ansdell is a violinist who while playing with a group in Rome picks up an old piece of sheet music, The Incendio Waltz. She returns home to her husband and 3 year old daughter and while playing the music, she blacks out and when awakening finds her daughter changed and very violent. When she expresses that her 3 year old is trying to kill her, her husband wants to commit her but she escapes to Venice, to find out about the music. Is she going crazy? Read and find out. Reviewers LOVED it.
Lastly, Deon Meyer has Icarus coming out on October 6. Meyer's has been described as the Ed McBain of South African crime. This title is the 5th in his Captain Benny Griessel series. Griessel is called to the scene of a multiple homicide involving a former colleague and after 4 years of sobriety, Griessel goes on a bender. When he emerges, he tries to quit the forc3e but instead is assigned to the murder of the tech person for MyAlibi, an Internet service that provides unfaithful partners with cover stories. Before long, an connection to a leading family winery is found and Griessel is again on the line.
OK - sorry for the short post but there are some pretty good titles above. Hope one is a keeper for you.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
LibraryReads for October
They announced the LibraryReads for October yesterday and most of these are ones I would pick so I am excited about them. There are a couple of nonfiction that I might not have chosen but that is because I don't really read much nonfiction. So....the biggest vote getting this month was - - -
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. This is Hallberg's first novel and people in the know say it could be the book of the year. It begins with a killing in Central Park on New Year's Eve; follows a large cast of characters in New York City; meanders from 1959 to 1977; and culminates in the blackout of July of 1977. It is more than a mystery but at over 900 pages, it better be. All the characters are connected by the killing and by the blackout but go their own way and develop stories of their own. People have complained that it is overwritten and people have called the writing smooth and enthralling. If you want to read 'the possible book of the year' - this one is for you.
Next up, Jojo Moyes' After You. If you read Me Before You, then you have to read this one because it is the continuing story. I talked about this title last month because it actually comes out in September. As a reminder, it carries on with Louisa Clark who is forced to return home after an accident. She is trying to move on after loosing Will Traynor. One that makes you laugh and cry.
Elizabeth George is next with a Lynley and Havers novel, A Banquet of Consequences. This is the 19th in the series and is said to be better than the last few. If you have read her before, you will want this one. Once again Havers is definitely the more active investigator and Lynley is the brains behind the action. Havers has been disciplined and is trying hard to toe the line and Lynley is coming out of mourning for his wife and unborn child's death. Quite literary in tone and maybe more novel than police procedural. If you like her, you will like it.
If you read The Bone Clocks, you can not miss Slade House by David Mitchell as it takes place in the same world. Every nine years, Slade House appears in a grungy alley in London and every year, someone goes in it and goes missing. The book progress in 9 years leaps starting at Halloween 1979 and ending at Halloween 2015. Fantasy, haunted house or horror - you can decide. It is much shorter than The Bone Clocks so there is that. Said to be deeply satisfying for those who read TBC.
Next comes Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last. This is another one that I spoke about with the September books as it comes out on September 29. Atwood is an award winning Canadian author. The Handmaid's Tale has become a modern classic. This one is a reworking of her online Positron stories. Amazingly, some reviews have hated it but I think it is a must read for those who have loved her prior works. A young couple, Carmaine and Stan, are living out of their car when they find out about Consilience. This is a social experiment where people live in a comfortable home of their own
in the suburbs for one month and switch every other month with living in a jail cell. They begin to obsess about who is living in their home while they are gone. Some hate it / some love it. If you love her, you need to give it a try.
From Pulitzer prize winning author, Geraldine Brooks, comes A Secret Chord. This is a fictionalized account of the life of King David. The story is told mainly for other people's viewpoint. Reviewers are saying the writing is wonderful, the character's complex, and she really takes you back to living in that time. If you like t
Next comes a novel born from a series of twice-monthly podcasts in the style of a community update for a small desert town. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor is the story of 19 year old pawn shop owned Jackie Fierro and a mysterious man in a tan jacket who gives her a paper that she can't seem to put down. Described as weird and funny, only you can decide if you have to read it.
Now for the last fiction before taking aim at the 2 nonfiction books, Sarah Ward has the British mystery In Bitter Chill. A small town in Derbyshire, England is traumatised when 2 young girls are kidnapped in 1978. One of the girls is found but the other remained missing. When the mother of the still missing girl commits suicide over 30 years later, the case again attracts attention. The girl who was found can not remember a thing about what happened but since the suicide has brought press attention, she realizes that she needs to find out what happened years ago.
Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA by Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickery. The attorney who argued before the Supreme Court for the plaintiff in this case relates the story behind the news.
Lastly, We Were Brothers: A Memoir by Barry Moser. 2 brothers born of the same parents in a small Tennessee town were so different, right from the beginning, that they did not really care too much for each other. One was reflective and artistic and one was aggressive, outspoken and a racist. Barry left Tennessee and became and artist. For years, they did not speak to each other. This is Barry's story of growing up and eventually overcoming to find his brother again.
See if any of these sound interesting to you.
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. This is Hallberg's first novel and people in the know say it could be the book of the year. It begins with a killing in Central Park on New Year's Eve; follows a large cast of characters in New York City; meanders from 1959 to 1977; and culminates in the blackout of July of 1977. It is more than a mystery but at over 900 pages, it better be. All the characters are connected by the killing and by the blackout but go their own way and develop stories of their own. People have complained that it is overwritten and people have called the writing smooth and enthralling. If you want to read 'the possible book of the year' - this one is for you.
Next up, Jojo Moyes' After You. If you read Me Before You, then you have to read this one because it is the continuing story. I talked about this title last month because it actually comes out in September. As a reminder, it carries on with Louisa Clark who is forced to return home after an accident. She is trying to move on after loosing Will Traynor. One that makes you laugh and cry.
Elizabeth George is next with a Lynley and Havers novel, A Banquet of Consequences. This is the 19th in the series and is said to be better than the last few. If you have read her before, you will want this one. Once again Havers is definitely the more active investigator and Lynley is the brains behind the action. Havers has been disciplined and is trying hard to toe the line and Lynley is coming out of mourning for his wife and unborn child's death. Quite literary in tone and maybe more novel than police procedural. If you like her, you will like it.
If you read The Bone Clocks, you can not miss Slade House by David Mitchell as it takes place in the same world. Every nine years, Slade House appears in a grungy alley in London and every year, someone goes in it and goes missing. The book progress in 9 years leaps starting at Halloween 1979 and ending at Halloween 2015. Fantasy, haunted house or horror - you can decide. It is much shorter than The Bone Clocks so there is that. Said to be deeply satisfying for those who read TBC.
Next comes Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last. This is another one that I spoke about with the September books as it comes out on September 29. Atwood is an award winning Canadian author. The Handmaid's Tale has become a modern classic. This one is a reworking of her online Positron stories. Amazingly, some reviews have hated it but I think it is a must read for those who have loved her prior works. A young couple, Carmaine and Stan, are living out of their car when they find out about Consilience. This is a social experiment where people live in a comfortable home of their own
in the suburbs for one month and switch every other month with living in a jail cell. They begin to obsess about who is living in their home while they are gone. Some hate it / some love it. If you love her, you need to give it a try.
From Pulitzer prize winning author, Geraldine Brooks, comes A Secret Chord. This is a fictionalized account of the life of King David. The story is told mainly for other people's viewpoint. Reviewers are saying the writing is wonderful, the character's complex, and she really takes you back to living in that time. If you like t
Next comes a novel born from a series of twice-monthly podcasts in the style of a community update for a small desert town. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor is the story of 19 year old pawn shop owned Jackie Fierro and a mysterious man in a tan jacket who gives her a paper that she can't seem to put down. Described as weird and funny, only you can decide if you have to read it.
Now for the last fiction before taking aim at the 2 nonfiction books, Sarah Ward has the British mystery In Bitter Chill. A small town in Derbyshire, England is traumatised when 2 young girls are kidnapped in 1978. One of the girls is found but the other remained missing. When the mother of the still missing girl commits suicide over 30 years later, the case again attracts attention. The girl who was found can not remember a thing about what happened but since the suicide has brought press attention, she realizes that she needs to find out what happened years ago.
Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA by Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickery. The attorney who argued before the Supreme Court for the plaintiff in this case relates the story behind the news.
Lastly, We Were Brothers: A Memoir by Barry Moser. 2 brothers born of the same parents in a small Tennessee town were so different, right from the beginning, that they did not really care too much for each other. One was reflective and artistic and one was aggressive, outspoken and a racist. Barry left Tennessee and became and artist. For years, they did not speak to each other. This is Barry's story of growing up and eventually overcoming to find his brother again.
See if any of these sound interesting to you.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
October's Big Names
There are several very popular authors who are publishing titles in October. I think there is probably something here for everyone. Take a look.
Robin Cook has Host coming out on October 20. Cook is known for his medical thrillers and this one is no different. When a 4th year medical student's boyfriend's routine surgery, ends up with him being brain dead, Lynn Peirce must investigate. What she uncovers results in death threats. Can she and her lab partner find the answers before two big medical companies close their mouths forever? It is truly a desperate race.
Before Vince Flynn died, he was said to be co-authoring a book with Brian Haig. Unfortunately, that has not yet come to fruition. Instead, Flynn's estate has asked Kyle Mills to continue the Mitch Rapp series. I have always enjoyed Mills' own work so I think they put it in good hands. The Survivor comes out on October 6. Vince had written the first 2 chapters of this work before passing so Mills had something to start with. His own work is not dissimilar to Flynn's but with a touch more sarcasms so I will be interested in seeing if Rapp's personality changes at all. This work follows the event in The Last Man. Joseph "Rick" Rickman stole a massive amount of top secret data and offered it to Pakistani secret forces. Now he is dead but no one knows where the info is. Rapp must find Rickman's accomplices and the data which is being slowly leaked to the world. Let's see how Mills does.
The ever popular John Grisham has Rogue Lawyer coming out on October 20. Because I haven't read Grisham for a while and I don't expect I will read this one, I am going to quote from the Kirkus review. "Another by-the-numbers legal procedural, at once gritty and lethargic, by longtime practitioner Grisham.Sebastian Rudd, the rogue lawyer, carries a gun, works out of his car, and sleeps in a different hotel room every week, precisely because he runs up against so many bad guys who mean him harm. Some of them are cops. Why? Because Sebastian, though jaded and cynical, as literary lawyers are required to be, apparently still believes in justice Rudd finds himself in a Podunk burg where a client is fighting for his life against the charge that he's brutally murdered two little girls in a spectacularly gruesome crime. Indirection and misdirection abound, with lots of talky exposition, the requisite maverick-y norm-flouting and the usual sarcastic world-weariness Unfortunately, the reader can see most of the mystery coming from a long way off, making the yarn less effective than most. .(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2015). If you like Grisham, you will read it anyway.
Debbie Macomber has a Christmas novel coming out on October 6. We can start the holiday season with Dashing Through the Snow, the story of a graduate student and a former army intelligence officer who are forced to share a rental car to Seattle so one can visit with family and the other can get to a job interview. Within the confines of the car, they open up to each other and start to develop feelings. Let's just say that the ride is not without it's share of mishaps and adventures. Will they make it to Seattle in time?
George R. R. Martin has A Knight for Seven Kingdoms coming on October 6. This is the first US edition of the first 3 official prequel novellas to A Song of Ice and Fire. They recount the time when the Targaryen line still held the throne and the memory of the last dragon was fresh on their minds. For all those who are having trouble waiting for the next volume in the series.
John Sandford has an entirely new type of book coming out on October 6, Saturn Run. Sandford wrote this work with Ctein, who I am going to assume is an engineer. This story is about a space age rush between the US and the Chinese to reach Saturn where a space ship is noticed by Caltech intern. The US tried to keep it secret but when the Chinese find out, the race is on. Who will be the first to reach Saturn. This takes place in 2066 so I'm not fooling you when I say it is different than his others. Kind of a science fiction thriller with lots of technical information.
Lastly, Stuart Woods has a new Stone Barrington work , Foreign Affairs, coming on October 13. Stone is informed at the last minute about a mandatory meeting in Europe. When he rushes off, his trip seems to be cursed because it is plagued by suspicious accidents. When Stone investigates to see what the source of these 'accidents' are, the adventure begins. Who will scare who off?
Many different types of novels here. Hope you find one to love.
Robin Cook has Host coming out on October 20. Cook is known for his medical thrillers and this one is no different. When a 4th year medical student's boyfriend's routine surgery, ends up with him being brain dead, Lynn Peirce must investigate. What she uncovers results in death threats. Can she and her lab partner find the answers before two big medical companies close their mouths forever? It is truly a desperate race.
Before Vince Flynn died, he was said to be co-authoring a book with Brian Haig. Unfortunately, that has not yet come to fruition. Instead, Flynn's estate has asked Kyle Mills to continue the Mitch Rapp series. I have always enjoyed Mills' own work so I think they put it in good hands. The Survivor comes out on October 6. Vince had written the first 2 chapters of this work before passing so Mills had something to start with. His own work is not dissimilar to Flynn's but with a touch more sarcasms so I will be interested in seeing if Rapp's personality changes at all. This work follows the event in The Last Man. Joseph "Rick" Rickman stole a massive amount of top secret data and offered it to Pakistani secret forces. Now he is dead but no one knows where the info is. Rapp must find Rickman's accomplices and the data which is being slowly leaked to the world. Let's see how Mills does.
The ever popular John Grisham has Rogue Lawyer coming out on October 20. Because I haven't read Grisham for a while and I don't expect I will read this one, I am going to quote from the Kirkus review. "Another by-the-numbers legal procedural, at once gritty and lethargic, by longtime practitioner Grisham.Sebastian Rudd, the rogue lawyer, carries a gun, works out of his car, and sleeps in a different hotel room every week, precisely because he runs up against so many bad guys who mean him harm. Some of them are cops. Why? Because Sebastian, though jaded and cynical, as literary lawyers are required to be, apparently still believes in justice Rudd finds himself in a Podunk burg where a client is fighting for his life against the charge that he's brutally murdered two little girls in a spectacularly gruesome crime. Indirection and misdirection abound, with lots of talky exposition, the requisite maverick-y norm-flouting and the usual sarcastic world-weariness Unfortunately, the reader can see most of the mystery coming from a long way off, making the yarn less effective than most. .(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2015). If you like Grisham, you will read it anyway.
Debbie Macomber has a Christmas novel coming out on October 6. We can start the holiday season with Dashing Through the Snow, the story of a graduate student and a former army intelligence officer who are forced to share a rental car to Seattle so one can visit with family and the other can get to a job interview. Within the confines of the car, they open up to each other and start to develop feelings. Let's just say that the ride is not without it's share of mishaps and adventures. Will they make it to Seattle in time?
George R. R. Martin has A Knight for Seven Kingdoms coming on October 6. This is the first US edition of the first 3 official prequel novellas to A Song of Ice and Fire. They recount the time when the Targaryen line still held the throne and the memory of the last dragon was fresh on their minds. For all those who are having trouble waiting for the next volume in the series.
John Sandford has an entirely new type of book coming out on October 6, Saturn Run. Sandford wrote this work with Ctein, who I am going to assume is an engineer. This story is about a space age rush between the US and the Chinese to reach Saturn where a space ship is noticed by Caltech intern. The US tried to keep it secret but when the Chinese find out, the race is on. Who will be the first to reach Saturn. This takes place in 2066 so I'm not fooling you when I say it is different than his others. Kind of a science fiction thriller with lots of technical information.
Lastly, Stuart Woods has a new Stone Barrington work , Foreign Affairs, coming on October 13. Stone is informed at the last minute about a mandatory meeting in Europe. When he rushes off, his trip seems to be cursed because it is plagued by suspicious accidents. When Stone investigates to see what the source of these 'accidents' are, the adventure begins. Who will scare who off?
Many different types of novels here. Hope you find one to love.
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