Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers. First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea.

Title: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
Published July 2, 2013; Gallery Books

Opening sentences:

July 1963
My grandmother says she will pray for me every day. Which was funny, as I've only ever heard Mamie pray, "Dear Lord, give me strength." That sure sounded like a prayer for herself - and Mrs. Knopp in Sunday school always said our prayers should only ask for things for others. Once I made the mistake of saying that out loud to Mamie and got slapped into next Tuesday for my sassy mouth. My mouth always worked a whole lot faster than my good sense.

Book description:
From an award-winning author,  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.

Nine-year-old Starla Claudelle. born to teenage parents in Mississippi, is being raised by a strict paternal grandmother, Mamie, whose worst fear is that Starla will turn out like her mother. Starla hasn’t seen her momma since she was three, but is convinced that her mother will keep her promise to take Starla and her daddy to Nashville, where her mother hopes to become a famous singer—and that one day her family will be whole and perfect.

When Starla is grounded on the Fourth of July, she sneaks out to see the parade. Starla’s fear that Mamie will send her to reform school cause her to panic and run away from home. Starla is offered a ride by a black woman, Eula, who is traveling with a white baby. She happily accepts a ride, with the ultimate goal of reaching her mother in Nashville.

As the two unlikely companions make their long and sometimes dangerous journey, Starla’s eyes are opened to the harsh realities of 1963 southern segregation. Through talks with Eula, reconnecting with her parents, and encountering a series of surprising misadventures, Starla learns to let go of long-held dreams and realizes family is forged from those who will sacrifice all for you, no matter if bound by blood or by the heart. (publisher)

Based on the opening sentences and the book description, would you read on?

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy of this book.

Mailbox Monday: ARCs and Finding Colin Firth

This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey; to Mailbox Monday hosted by Book Obsessed; and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

New ARCs for review:

The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday).
A tantalizing re-imagining of a scandalous mystery that rocked the nation in 1930-Justice Joseph Crater's infamous disappearance-as seen through the eyes of the three women who knew him best. (Goodreads)

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford (Random House).
Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage since his mother’s death five years ago. On his birthday, at the historical Moore Theatre, William glimpses an actress by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song. Set in the Great Depression and the 1920s. (Goodreads)

Love All by Callie Wright ( Henry Holt).
Love, fidelity, sports, and growing up when you least expect it, told through the irresistible voices of three generations, Set in New York in 1994. (Goodreads)

Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen (Gallery Books).
A vivid and compelling novel about a woman who becomes entangled in an affair with Edgar Allan Poe—at the same time she becomes the unwilling confidante of his much-younger wife. Set in 1845, New York. (Goodreads)

Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea by Lisa Martin and Valerie Martin (Algonquin Young Readers)
A swashbuckling story of two very different cat brothers and their adventures at sea. For ages 8-12. 

and a paperback:

Finding Colin Firth by Mia March (Simon & Schuster)
A novel about three women, connected in secret and surprising ways, who are in for a life-changing summer when rumor has it that actor Colin Firth is coming to their Maine town to film a movie. (Goodreads)

What's in your mailbox this week?

Book Review: The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy

Title: The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy
Published June 11, 2013; Harper
Genre: literary fiction

My comments: The connections between seemingly disparate people with different lives and of different ages - Martin in modern New York; Mr. Hugo of England in 1981 and in France in 1944; young Sebastian in France in 1968; John in New York and in the war in France in the 1940s, Danny in Los Angeles in 2009, and Amelia in England in 2010 - come together slowly in the book and at the surprising end.

John, an American pilot in WWII France, encounters a German soldier on the battlefield. The German soldier later rescues a baby whose parents have been killed, and this leads to.....and this leads to.....surprising results.

A very worthwhile story of how our actions affect our lives and other lives as well, in the present and in the future. Written in a literary and charmingly poetic style, the book easily pulls you in as you read about separate people whose personal stories are not separate at all. Because of the war, some of the stories are sad, but eventually uplifting.

Book description:
This gripping, emotional story intertwines the stories of several compelling characters: a deformed German infantryman; a lonely British film director; a young, blind museum curator; Jewish-American newlyweds separated by war; a lost child on the brink of starvation; and a caretaker at a retirement home for actors in Santa Monica. The same world moves beneath each of them, and one by one, through seemingly random acts of selflessness, they discover the vital parts they have played in each other's lives, a realization that shatters the illusion of their separateness. Moving back and forth in time and across continents,

For more reviews, visit the Tour Schedule

Simon Van Booy is the author of two novels and two collections of short stories, including The Secret Lives of People in Love and Love Begins in Winter, which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is the editor of three philosophy books and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and the BBC. His work has been translated into fourteen languages. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.Visit Simon at his website and on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to the publisher/author and TLC Book Tours for a review ARC of this book. 

The Ninefold Heaven: a Novel by Mingmei Yip

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and The Friday 56 by Freda's Voice. Share the beginning of a book you are reading and select a quote from page 56. Include the title and author of the book for readers.

Title: The Ninefold Heaven by Mingmei Yip
Published June 25, 2013; Kensington
Genre: historical fiction

Prologue:

Three months ago, I was singing to loud applause in a Shanghai nightclub; a few days later, I became unexpectedly wealthy. But immediately I fled Shanghai in a fusillade of bullets to hide out in a run-down apartment in Hong Kong. 

Page 56: 

I felt a wave of anxiety. Was it coincidence this man asked for my signature song, or had he seen through my disguise?

Publisher's description:
 Mingmei Yip draws readers deeper into the exotic world of 1930s Shanghai first explored in her book, Skeleton Women, and into the lives of three unforgettable women: Camilla, Shadow, and Rainbow Chang.

When Shadow, a gifted, ambitious magician, competed with the beautiful Camilla for the affections of organized crime leader Master Lung, she almost lost everything. Hiding out in Hong Kong, performing in a run-down circus, Shadow has no idea that Camilla, too, is on the run with her lover, Jinying--Lung's son. Now their only hope of freedom lies in joining forces to eliminate the ruthless Big Brother Wang.

Despite the danger, Shadow, Camilla, and Jinying return to Shanghai. Camilla also has her own secret agenda--she has heard a rumor that her son is alive. And in a city teeming with spies and rivals--including the vengeful Rainbow Chang--each battles for a future in a country on the verge of monumental change.

From the opening sentences and the excerpt, what is your impression? See my review of the first book, Skeleton Women/ I'm looking forward to this follow-up.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary review copy of this book. 

Cozy Feature: STEAMED TO DEATH by Peg Cochran

Title: Steamed to Death by Peg Cochran
Published June 4, 2013; Berkley
Genre: cozy mystery

Alice let out a tiny shriek and jumped up from the chaise. "Oh, no, we're busted!"
The sounds of footsteps echoed on the wooden back stairs.
"Quick" - Gigi made a sweeping gesture with her arm - "let's hide in the bathroom. At least we won't be visible from the open bedroom door." (ch. 6)

Publisher description: "Gourmet health food caterer Gigi Fitzgerald is used to helping dieters drop a dress size. But when her clients start dropping dead, she’s ready to switch her chef’s hat for a detective’s cap and track down a killer. . .

Soap star Felicity Davenport wants to revamp her image, and she’s using Gigi’s Gourmet De-Lite to help shed unwanted pounds. When Felicity is found murdered in her sauna, things start getting too hot for Gigi. The list of suspects is a mile long, and Gigi’s best friend, Sienna, is at the top. Gigi is determined to hunt down the real killer. But she will have to be careful or she could be the next one burned."

Have you read the first book by Peg Cochran, Allergic to Death? She has such imaginative plots.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Book Review: Slingshot by Matthew Dunn

Title: Slingshot: A Spycatcher Novel by Matthew Dunn
Genre:  thriller

Published June 25, 2013; William Morrow

I read the first in the series, Spycatcher, and thought it was an excellent book. Here is a quote from my review:

The usual superlatives go to a thriller that is uncommonly good: action packed, gut wrenching, suspenseful, and at the same time quite realistic. I was sympathetic to the main character, (Will Cochrane) a British agent who works in secret and who is unknown, even to  British intelligence service MI6, of which he a part.  (review of Spycatcher)

I missed reading the second in the series, Sentinel, and caught up with the third, Slingshot. Slingshot is all spy novel, as the book description below shows, and I missed the personal side of Will that made the first book so good. I would have liked a more developed subplot or subplots and earlier in the novel. As it is, the book is all top notch spy action and it was hard to sympathize with any of the characters. This could have been because the plot seemed far fetched, though the reality may very well be close to what actually takes place behind the scenes. To get into the series, I would suggest you start with the first book, Spycatcher. There is a giveaway of a set with both books below.

Publisher description: Master spy Will Cochrane must catch a missing Russian defector as well as one of Europe’s deadliest assassins. Will monitors the streets of Gdansk, Poland—waiting for a Russian defector, a man bearing a top secret document. But suddenly everything goes sideways. The target shows up, but so does a team from Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) hell-bent on keeping the man from walking. Then, in a hail of crossfire, a van snatches the defector out from under them all. Everyone wants the man and the codes he carries—but now he’s gone.

Then Will learns that the Russians have tasked their own ‘spycatcher’—an agent just as ruthless and relentless as Will—to retrieve the document. Now Will  faces two clever and deadly adversaries, who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims.

For other reviews of this book, see the tour schedule.
Thanks to Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours and the publisher for a review copy of this book.


Author info: As an MI6 field officer, MATTHEW DUNN recruited and ran agents and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the world, conducting approximately seventy missions, all successful. He lives in England. His novels in the series are: Spycatcher, Sentinel, and Slingshot. He is at work on the fourth Spycatcher novel.

GIVEAWAY:

Partners in Crime and the publisher is offering one set Mass Market edition of Spycatcher and Slingshot to a reader. To enter, leave a comment with an email address indicating you wish to be entered in the contest. No P.O. box addresses, please. U.S. residents only. A winner will be randomly selected July 3 and informed by email. A response will be due by July 5. Good luck!

UPDATE: The giveaway winner is Naida, chosen by random.org Thank you all for entering the contest. 

Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Ch. 1

"Samuel watched his brother's big hands walk over the steering wheel, turning the pickup into the campus parking lot. He should have driven himself. No one who saw his prematurely graying hair would mistake him for a teenager, even as small as he was, but being dropped off still felt juvenile.The stupid things he did to make his brother feel useful. Samuel shifted, adjusting his seat belt, and double-checked to make sure the bus schedule was in his pocket."

Title: Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman
Published June 18, 2013; Gallery Books
Genre: fiction, romance

Publisher's description: Samuel Cooke knows most women wouldn't give him a second glance. He's the cripple with the crutches, the nerdy computer genius. When he leaves his lucrative career to teach programming to high schoolers, Greta Cassamajor catches him off guard. She is the sarcastic gym coach with zero sense of humor, and no beauty - not even on the inside. But an inexplicably kind act toward Samuel makes him realize she is interesting.

Samuel is certain she won't accept his invitation to dinner - so when she does, he's out of his depth. All he knows is that he'll do whatever it takes to keep her as long as he can. Ramsey Hootman upends traditional romance tropes to weave a charming tale of perseverance, trust, and slightly conditional love."

Based on the opening sentences/teaser, would you continue reading?