Sunday Salon: Reviewing from ARCs

  Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Also visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; Showcase Sunday at Books, Biscuits, and Tea; Mailbox Monday at Book Dragon's Lair, and  It's Monday: What Are You Reading? at Book Journey. Also Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

It's a rainy day today and a good time for reading and blogging.

I often review books for book tours and post reviews of books I receive in the mail, many of them uncorrected proofs or advance readers copies. I enjoy getting books in advance and don't mind the occasional errors in the galleys/proofs. What I do find inconvenient is that I can't quote from the ARCs in my reviews as the quotes may differ or not be included at all in the final copies. Reviewers are warned not to quote from the galleys or to check the final version first.

Problem is, I don't have time or patience to hunt the books down in the library or bookstore to make the comparisons, so I land up not using quotes. This I think hurts the review as I do like to give readers a taste of the writing and style, so important to anyone thinking of buying or borrowing a book.

I received one finished book and three uncorrected proofs/advance readers copies last week and am eager to read them, nevertheless.

Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell, a finished novel courtesy of Atria Books

The Pursuit of Mary Benner: A Pride and Prejudice Novel by Pamela Mingle, to be released November 26, 2013, courtesy of William Morrow

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, to be published January 21, 2014, courtesy of Ballantine Books. This is the turbulent love story of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his American wife Fanny.

Stormbird (Wars of the Roses #1) by Colin Iggulden, historical fiction to be released October 10, 2013, courtesy of Penguin.

Let us know what you got in the mail, finished books or ARCs. I am always interested in new books and soon to be released books, regardless of my griping.

Book ARCs on My Shelves

The guilt factor is at work this morning. I look at my list of ARCs to be read and I find the stack facing me creeping up faster than I have time to read these days. The cool weather this past week should be good for reading, but my thoughts are turning elsewhere. What's a reader to do?

Here are some new ARCs.

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth - A girl struck by lightning hundreds of times holds the fate of the world in her hands.
The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks - Reporter Carter Ross investigates an unusual obituary.
Sacrilege by S. J. Parris, historical mystery
As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson, mystery
Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz,  mystery
The Watchers by Jon Steele, thriller
Gypsy Boy: My Life in the Secret World of the Romany Gypsies by Mikey Walsh, memoir
The Technologists: A Novel by Matthew Pearl, literary and historical fiction
The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen by Thomas Caplan, thriller

Do you have a system of what books you read first, apart from the publication date?

New ARCs

It was a great pleasure to  have these ARCs arrive - some solicited, others won or a surprise. Two of them were published in October; four will be published late 2011 or in 2012.

I was especially waiting to read:

Title: The World We Found: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar
 (A Shelf Awareness giveaway). Publication: January 3, 2012
The story of four women who grew up in Bombay and the indelible friendship they share.

Title: Nanjing Requiem: A Novel by Ha Jin
 (from Amazon Vine). Publication: October 18, 2011
An American missionary in the city of Nanjing tries, at times unsuccessfully, to save tens of thousands of homeless women and children in one of the darkest moments of the 20th century: the Rape of Nanjing in war torn China, 1937.

Title: Falling Together: A Novel by Marisa de los Santos
(from Amazon Vine). Publication: October 4, 2011
When three college friends reconnect at a college reunion after six years have gone by, a collision of past and present sends them on a journey across the world, one that will change everything.

Title: Helpless, a thriller by Daniel Palmer
(from the author). Publication: January 31, 2012
Navy Seal and high school soccer coach Tom Hawkins must clear his name when an anonymous blog post accuses him of sleeping with one of his players. He has to unravel lies about his past that someone may kill to keep a secret.

Title: Three Weeks in December by Audrey Schulman
(from Europa Editions). Publication: Jan. 31, 2012
Two stories set in East Africa in 1899 and 2000 are told in alternating perspectives of an American engineer and an ethnobotanist.

Title: A Vine in the Blood: A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation
(from the author). Publication: Dec. 27, 2011
Three weeks before the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the soccer star Tico’s mother, is kidnapped. The pressure is on Chief Inspector Mario Silva to get her back.

Happily, four of the ARCs have been printed with the same covers as their final copies. I'm looking forward to reading all six - two set in Asia, one in Africa, one in Brazil, and two in the U.S. A good trip around the world with contemporary fiction, two thrillers, and some good literary fiction.