Book Review: Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Also visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey, and Mailbox Monday each week. Also visit Tynga's Reviews at Stacking the Shelves.

Went to the outdoor pool at the gym today. Glorious, and not too busy. Got swim exercises and some reading done. Trying again tomorrow in between watching soccer games on TV.

I have finished reading the newest Jodi Picoult book, Leaving Time, to be released October 14. Thanks to the publisher for sending an Advanced Reader's Edition. Here are the comments I posted on Goodreads, which did not give away the crucial elements of the plot, as the author has requested:

My first Jodi Picoult book. How lucky to have read this one as my first. Part mystery, part science, it's mainly a novel about close but sometimes tenuous mother-daughter relationships that are mirrored in the animal world - among wild elephant herds, the bond between these animal mothers and daughters last all through their lives. Extremely moving on the human level, this novel is also a plea to help elephants abused in captivity or prevent their slaughter by poachers who sell their ivory. 

The novel is engrossing, with believable, sympathetic, and captivating human (and animal) characters. The plot has surprises as it goes along - one of the marks of  excellent writing.

I later realized I had read an earlier Picoult, Songs of the Humpback Whale, which I also liked. I gave Leaving Time a 5 star rating and highly recommend it. It caught my attention as soon as it arrived in the mail and I read it right away!

Also on my To Be Read list of new books are:

Once Upon a Time in Rio by Brazilian playwright, Francisco Azevedo, a novel about three generations of a family whose kitchen contains the secret ingredient for happiness. Published June 24, 2014 by Atria Books.

Vertigo 42 by Martha Grimes - the inimitable Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury returns in the 23rd in the detective series. This one has "literary references from Thomas Hardy to Yeats," a sure draw for lovers of mystery and literature. Published June 3, 2014 by Scribner.

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King goes in a new direction. This one is a thriller, not horror, in which three unlikely heroes "try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands." Since King is a master of the art of writing, I have high hopes for this one. Published June 3,2014 by Simon & Schuster.

I Stand Corrected: How TEaching Western Manners in China Became Its Own Unforgettable Lesson by Eden Collinsworth is "a fusion of memoir, manners, and cultural history from a successful businesswoman well versed in the unique challenges of working in contemporary China." I am also looking forward to reading this one. Publication October 7, 2014 by Nan A. Talese


I picked up a publishing mystery from my TBR pile and am reading

A Dangerous Fiction by Barbara Rogan. It's intriguing as a mystery involving literary agents and demanding and sometimes vengeful? unpublished writers.We'll see who the culprit of some nasty tricks turns out to be.....The book was published July 25, 2013 by Viking Adult.

I'll be reading The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson for a book tour early July.

Happy July 4th holiday coming up!

New Books for Review

A few books and ARCs/galleys arrived for review. Here is a preview.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane  by Neil Gaiman
Publication date: June 18, 2013; William Morrow
Genre: fantasy, magic
Publisher description:
A fable that reshapes modern fantasy.
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive. 

His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. 

I don't normally read magical novels or fantasy, but this one seems unusual.

The Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
Publication date: July 2, 2013: Gallery Books
Genre: coming of age fiction
Publisher: 
A wise and tender coming-of-age story about a nine-year-old girl who runs away from her Mississippi home in 1963, befriends a lonely woman suffering loss and abuse, and embarks on a life-changing roadtrip.

I've seen this story line before in several Southern novels but I'm eager to see where this one goes. 

More Bitter Than Death by Camilla Grebe and Asa Traff
Publication date: June 18, 2013; Simon and Schuster
Genre: thriller. Scandinavian crime novel
Publisher:
Five-year-old Tilde witnesses the death of her mother by an unknown man. The novel focuses on domestic abuse...the search for healing and the ability to love again are soon transformed into a hunt for Tilde’s mother’s killer.

I've liked Scandinavian thrillers, especially those  by Larsson and Adler-Olsen. These are new  authors to me. 









A Dangerous Fiction by Barbara Rogan
Publication date: July 25, 2013; Viking Adult
Genre: mystery
Publisher:
A publishing mystery that introduces Jo Donovan, literary agent-cum-detective, in a new series by the author. Jo has to face a stalker as well as an old flame, NYPD detective, Tommy Cullen.

This seems to be a mix of mystery and romance, a great combination.

The Prodigal: A Novel by Michael Hurley
Published June 1, 2013; Ragbagger Press
Genre: adventure, suspense, romance
Publisher: 
A cross-genre novel of religious mystery, suspense and adventure about a disbarred lawyer, trying to rebuild his life on Ocracoke Island, who finds love and destiny when an old schooner with a mysterious past drifts ashore. "The supernatural elements—a religious relic, a gypsy woman out of legend—depict island and nautical life.” (Kirkus Review)


This one is for those who love being on the water. 






Josh Whoever by Michael Guillebeau
Published March 20, 2013; Five Star
Genre: adventure, thriller
Publisher: 
Josh is forced into the role of hero in the Army, walks away from the fame and becomes a small-time con man with a drinking problem. His latest scam convinces the Russian mob he is a private detective who can find Mother Romanov's missing daughter, Kiev....He needs to save the girl, stay sober, and keep his idetity hidden - or die.

Reads like a modern day swashbuckler.

The new mystery novels that keep coming out are always amazing to me. I also enjoy books that involve children as the main characters who learn new things and overcome odds. 

Thanks to the authors and publishers for the galleys/books for review. What did you get in your review box recently?