Sunday Salon: Book Titles Found on Social Media

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.

I have started a couple of new books, ARCs, and then put them down, disappointed. It's easier to do than before, as there are so many other books to read.

I have a list of book titles I've jotted down from other blogs, from FB, and from the web, and hope to try the library for these. They include

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Lover by Marguerite Dumas
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

A 1,000 Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Expatriates by Janice K. Lee
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

Have you read any of these? Which do you recommend?

Review: Under the Influence by Joyce Maynard

Under the Influence by Joyce Maynard, to be released February 23, 2016 by William Morrow, contemporary fiction. This review may contain a few "spoilers."

Helen has lost her husband, and because of a DUI conviction, also loses her young son to her ex-husband and his new wife. She is "saved" from despair and alcoholism after meeting Ava and Swift, a wealthy and generous couple who give her a job photographing their extensive art and items in their impressive home, and who become Helen's life and best friends now that she is a single mom who only gets to see her son Ollie occasionally. 

Swift becomes a good influence on Ollie, teaches him to swim, and encourages him to want to spend more time with his mother Helen. In the meantime Helen is busy with projects Ava wants her to help with. But something happens to question the true nature of Helen's new friends and patrons.

The title, Under the Influence, seems to refer to two things: Helen's initial dependence on alcohol and later on, her dependence for her livelihood on her persuasive and wealthy new friends, Ava and Swift. 

The plot reminds me a bit of Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, pointing a finger at a group of wealthy people who might do anything to protect themselves and maintain their status quo.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of the book for review. 

Review: Killer Cupcakes by Leighann Dobbs

Visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

Killer Cupcakes is the first in the Lexy Baker Baker Mysteries by Leighann Dobbs, a free ebook that I found among the others in my Kindle. Though I rarely read ebooks, it was the perfect read for lying in bed - a light cozy with a delightful main character - the owner of a cupcake bakery who has turned amateur sleuth.

In the plot, Lexy's ex-boyfriend has been killed and she becomes the main suspect when her cupcake tops are found to be the vehicle for the murder = poison. Despite warning from a strange man at the funeral, Lexy investigates the murder and enlists sleuthing help from her grandmother and her friends who have formed a detective club at their senior retirement home - using only their iPads and their curiosity online, of course.

Love is in the air as well, as the detective investigating the case takes an interest in the cupcake maker at the same time as he investigates her as a suspect.

First chapter, first paragraph: 

"Sprinkles - no!"Lexy hissed at her dog who was wriggling through a gap in the backyard fence. With a sigh of resignation, she padded out into the yard in her bare feet, her pink cotton pyjama bottoms fluttering around her calves in the late night summer breeze. The glow of the full moon lit the yard well enough for her to see where she was going without a flashlight.

I hope to read more of the series when in the mood for a light cozy mystery, and I may try a few in the author's other series as well.

Green Belt Sudoku by Frank Longo

I figured I could handle Green Belt sudoku, a second degree level, having played easy sudoku for some years. So I've graduated to this book, though I have tackled harder levels too with varied amounts of success.

Green Belt Sudoku describes a slightly different way to solve the puzzles, and combined with my old techniques, has helped my success rate! I use a pencil so I can start over if I mess up, as not all of these puzzles are easy.

My new sudoku book rivals my reading and I don't mind as I can do the puzzles while the TV is on, something I can't do well when I'm in the middle of a book.

And I don't knit or crochet, so.....

Review: Dead to the Last Drop by Cleo Coyle

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers. Also share a teaser from the book with Teaser Tuesday at A Daily Rhythm.

Dead to the Last Drop by Cleo Coyle,  published December 1, 2015 by Berkley.

Genre: cozy mystery

First chapter:"Gardner, get off the phone. "
"Why?" 
 "Just do it!"

Clare Cosi, coffeehouse manager and master roaster, has moved temporarily to Washington DC to open a new coffeehouse. She is asked to provide the coffee for a White House event, but she has to hide the fact that the President's daughter Abby has been sneaking out of the White House to play piano at the coffeehouse's weekly Open Mike jazz sessions. 

When a mysterious man dies at the coffeehouse and Abby goes missing along with the drummer Stan, Clare becomes a suspect for kidnapping and murder. Clare' boyfriend, Detective Mike Quinn takes her into hiding as Clare tries to clear her name, find the President's daughter, and get back to the business of running her coffeeshop.

Mix in DC politics into this coffeehouse mystery and you have an intriguing and suspenseful read. Kudos to Cleo Coyle for her unusual and entertaining plot and an excellent cozy read.

Teaser: (ch. 80)

"They are going to drag the river in the morning for their bodies. And it's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

Objective rating: Five stars

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

Sunday Salon: Winter Reading

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

A few books came in the mail for review, ending a small book drought.

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz, to be released  March 1, 2016 by Simon and Schuster.
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan, published December 1, 2015 by William Morrow. I have already read and reviewed this book, so I'll be passing on this copy to another reader. A really good suspense read.
The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor, paperback published January 5, 2016 by Algonquin. 
Wicked Sexy Liar by Christina Lauren, to be published February 2, 2016 by Gallery Books. Not really my kind of book, so this one I'll be passing on as well.

Books from my shelves that I hope to read this winter:

Under the Influence by Joyce Maynard, to be released February 23, 2016 by William Morrow, contemporary fiction
Dear Lucy by Julie Sarkissian, contemporary fiction
The Drowning by Camilla Lackberg, crime fiction

What books are on your reading list this week? 

Romantic Mystery: JAMAICA INN by Daphne Du Maurier

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier, a novel published September 1, 2015 by William Morrow Paperbacks.

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o'clock in the afternoon the pallour of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach.The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and here must have been a small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark blue stain like a splodge of ink.The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coast as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man.  (first chapter)

So atmospheric, this first paragraph. I love reading DuMaurier's prose and enjoy the plots and characters in all of her romantic mystery novels, including this one set in Cornwall, a 2015 reprint.

Page 56: 

Even the horses appeared to understand the need for silence, for they stood motionless.

Would you keep reading, if you have not already read this novel?