Library Finds: Contemporary Fiction

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.

I returned two books to the library yesterday and borrowed three more. I do hope to read them among the others I've downloaded from NetGalley and from amazon. Cross my fingers! 

How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz, published May 2015.
Genre: women's fiction, contemporary fiction

Book beginning:"Are you lost?" the man asked."No," she said."Where are you headed?"Don't know.""Seat taken?" he asked."As you can see, it's empty," she said.       

Re Jane by Patricia Park, published May 5, 2015.
Book beginning: Home was this northeastern knot of Queens, in the town (if you could call it a town) of Flushing....They say the neighborhood once contained a hearty swath of the American population, but when I landed here as an infant, Flushing was starting to give way to the Koreans.... This was my America: all Korean, all the time. 
Page 56:
The air was filled with excited chatter. Devon and I were the only ones not speaking Chinese. 

The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida, published June 2, 2015

Book beginning: When you find your seat you glance at the businessman sitting next to you and decide he's almost handsome. This is the second leg of your trip from Miami to Casablanca, and the distance traveled already muted the horror of the last two months. 

I have started to read The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty and find it intriguing and well written. A young woman takes off on her own to a foreign country and has to survive after her passport and wallet are stolen. 

What intriguing books have you discovered this week? 

Review: The Drowning by Camilla Lackberg

The Stonecutter, the third in the Fjallbacka crime series,  and The Drowning, the seventh and most recent novel, both have themes of bodies found in or near the sea. The cover of The Drowning has a picture of a young woman seeming to float under water.

This is a police procedural set in the town of Fjallbacka, Sweden, with detective Patrik Hedstrom as the main character, and Patrik's wife Erica working unofficially as his sidekick. Erica is pregnant with twins, but this doesn't stop her from her editing job in a publishing company or from trying to solve the death of a friend of her current author, Christian.

Christian has been receiving threatening letters, which he hides from everyone including his wife, until the truth is discovered by Erica and the detective team. Erica and Patrik both delve into Christian's past, looking for clues while more strange and threatening events begin to happen to Christian and his childhood friends.

Lackberg's writing is suspenseful, though the plot is slow in parts. The author throws out clues and events that seem unconnected, till the plot threads come together toward the end to reveal a startling and disturbing reality involving the author Christian and his friends.

The main characters, detective Patrik Hedstrom and his wife Erica, are likeable and realistic, as are the other members of  the police team.

Some themes: childhood trauma, family dynamics, police procedural, and interestingly, working pregnant women (there are three in the novel, two of them on the crime solving police team!)

My objective rating: 4.5/5
Thanks to Pegasus Crime for an advance reading copy of the book which was published September 2015.

First Chapter: The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor

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.

The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor, paperback published January 5, 2016 by Algonquin. 

First paragraph:

Later, in weaker moments, Lovell Hall reminded himself of the logical fallacy that young scientists so often committed: Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. After this, therefore because of this. Of course, without certain information - and in the face of other unfortunate realities - the timing of that evening with his wife was impossible to ignore. 

About the book:

“In The Daylight Marriage, there are two mysteries--the whereabouts of a missing woman and the vagaries of the human heart. Heidi Pitlor explores both of these enigmas with equal mastery, merging a shocking crime story with an incisive portrait of a failed marriage. The result is a novel that is fast-moving, emotionally complex, and ultimately heartbreaking.”—Tom Perrotta, author of Nine Inches 

 I don't know if I'm ready for a heartbreaking novel. I always prefer plots that have happy endings or promise better things in the future. But I'm curious about this one.

What book are you reading this week? 

Book Feature: No Cats Allowed by Miranda James

Visit Mailbox Monday, and Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

I am scheduled for a book review of this mystery, organized by the publisher. 

No Cats Allowed (Cat in the Stacks #7) by Miranda James, published February 23, 2016 by Berkley.

Librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat Diesel must clear a friend when the evidence is stacked against her…

Setting: Mississippi library

Cause for murder: The victim, library director Elwyn Dillard, is declaring all four-legged creatures banned from the stacks, among other things.....Is this the reason he is killed? 

Innocent suspect to be cleared: Melba, Charlie's good friend

Opening sentences: 

"He's out there again today, Charlie," Molly Gilley made the announcement as she strode hurriedly into my office at the Athena College Library. "Do you think we should call the campus police?"

Teaser:

Diesel, my Maine Coon cat, jumped down from his perch on the window ledge behind my desk and ambled around to greet Melba. The two adored each other, and if anyone could calm Malba down, Diesel could. 

This is the seventh in the series, featuring librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine coon cat, Diesel. 

Are you a cat and mystery lover? This series is for you!

Thanks to publisher for a review/feature copy of this book. 

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.