Sunday Salon: Historical, YA, Thriller, Contemporary Fiction

New book arrivals:

The Song of the Jade Lily

The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning, May 14, 2019, William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: historical and contemporary fiction
Setting: Vienna, Shanghai, Australia

I'm enjoying reading this novel about a Jewish family escaping from Nazi occupied Austria, traveling to Shanghai, China as refugees. We follow young Romy and her parents in Shanghai, moving back and forth in time to when Romy has her own family and grandchildren in Australia after leaving China at the end of WWII. And we see Romy's granddaughter Alexandra, trying to find her way in the present, 2016, through her family's wartime history. 

The Great Pretenders

The Great Pretenders by Laura Kalpakian, Publication April 16, 2019, Berkley Books
Setting: Hollywood in the 1950s
Roxanne forges a career unique for women in the 1950s, becoming an agent for hungry young screenwriters. When she sells a script by a blacklisted writer under the name of a willing front man, more exiled writers seek her help. 

Cygnet

Cygnet by Season Butler, June 25, 2018, Harper
Genre: coming-of-age tale
A 17-year-old young woman comes of age in a community of the elderly rejecting the promise of youth.

Setting: an isolated island off New Hampshire populated by a community of the elderly

All of Us With Wings

All of Us With Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil, Soho Press

YA fantasy debut about love, found family, and healing is an ode to post-punk San Francisco through the eyes of a Mexican-American girl

The Snakes

The Snakes by Sadie Jones, June 25, 2019, Harper
Genre: contemporary fiction
Bea and Dan, recently married,  visit Bea’s dropout brother Alex at the hotel he runs in Burgundy, France. Disturbingly, they find him all alone and the ramshackle hotel deserted, apart from the nest of snakes in the attic.

The Perfect Fraud

The Perfect Fraud by Ellen LaCorte, June 18, 2019, Harper
Genre: contemporary fiction
Claire works in the family business and calls herself a psychic, but she doesn’t really have “the gift” and hasn’t for a long time. She’s a fraud. When she meets Rena and Rena's disturbed daughter, events collide.

Which of the above books would you read first? Why?

Memes: The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date., and Mailbox Monday.

Review: When You Read This by Mary Adkins

Review: When You Read This by Mary Adkins

When You Read This

Published February 5, 2019, Harper
Genre: epistolary novel (told through letters/email), contemporary fiction

This novel was brilliant. The story is told through blog posts and emails of many different characters, primarily Smith and his former secretary Iris, her sister Jade, and Smith's company intern, Carl. 

We learn at the beginning that Iris has died of cancer and has left Smith her blog posts to publish as a book after her death, her blog written while she was ill and undergoing chemotherapy.  Smith's public relations company is failing but things begin happening when he hires Carl, the college student intern, to replace Iris for a summer. Carl sets things in motion, through bumbling, interfering, and general nosiness about his boss, the business, and about publishing Iris's blog. 

The novel has a lot of humor, as in the emails and readers' responses to Iris's blogs. It also has pathos, sentimentality, and is in part a love story. It will have the reader crying and laughing at the same time, and is a book that I would call brilliant, excellently written and conceived.

Thanks to the publisher for an advance copy for my possible review. 

First chapter, first paragraph:

Simonyi Brand Management

New York, NY 10014

June 18

Dear Mr Simonyi:

I came upon your company on the Stanford University Employers Forum, on which your firm is listed as a place where Stanford students have had positive internship experiences previously. Grace Wang ('16) wrote that she had a wonderful summer working with you and your colleague Iris. While "wonderful" is rather nebulous and uninformative, her point is well made. I see that you have not posted a fall internship opening, but I am writing to express my interest in interning for you come September....

....

Sincerely,

Carl Von Snyder III

---------

Meme: Each Tuesday, Vicki, from I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where  readers post the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book that they are reading or plan to read. 

Sunday Salon: J'ai du Rever Trop Fort by Michel Bussi

Reading in the French language

J'ai du rever trop fort

J'ai du rever trop fort by Michel Bussi, February 28, 2019, Presses de la Cite
Setting: Barcelona, Montreal, Paris
Genre: contemporary French fiction, romance

Thanks to my built-in French-English dictionary, I'm able to use my college French to read this novel as it hasn't yet been translated into English, as many of the Bussi's other books have. What seems to be a pure romance in exotic cities has a bit of mystery added, as do his other books, many of which are more thrillers than romance. 

But I'm really enjoying this one, brushing up on my French language as well as  reading a well-written mystery and romance novel. 

Air France hostess Natalie travels around the world at least three times each month, leaving her husband Olivier to tend to their young daughter in Paris. She meets Ylian on her trip to Montreal and meets him again in Barcelona. Their story is one of passion and intrigue, coincidences that are unexplained so far, and even some danger. I'm half way through and enjoying the mini travelogues to the cities that also include Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana. Looking forward to Jakarta later on in the novel!

What books are you reading this week?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date

An Artless Demise by Anna Lee Huber: Book Beginning

What new books are you reading this weekend? 

An Artless Demise

An Artless Demise by Anna Lee Huber, April 2, 2019, Berkley Prime Crime Books
Genre: historical mystery
Lady Kiera Darby is threatened with secrets about her late husband’s involvement with body snatchers in 1831 London. Seventh in the mystery series. 

Book beginning:

November 5, 1831
London, England 

I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for the poor fellow. For all his tailored clothing and the jaunty angle of his hat, which refused to stay on his head properly, he was in a ragged state. A straggly tuft of hair flopped over one eye and his arms dangled limply at his sides, hindering rather than assisting the pair of footmen who struggled between them to guide him into his place.

Page 56:

"Oh, Kiera, we just heard the news last night," exclaimed Charlotte. "Of all the utter nonsense!"

Memes: 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

Book Review: Those People by Louise Candlish

Book review: Those People by Louise Candlish

Those People by Louise Candlish, publication June 11, 2019, Berkley

This is a psychological thriller, a novel of suspense, with the story beginning when a strange couple move into the quiet upscale neighborhood, into the home of a woman who had died. The couple begin running a business next door even though this is a residential neighborhood. Not only that, but they litter their yard with old, used cars they are fixing or selling, and park the vehicles up and down the street, creating an eyesore for the neighbors.

Things get worse when there is loud music well into the nights, swearing, and lots of drinking, banging and house repairing going on at all hours. The neighborhood are at a loss as to what to do and get no response from these new interlopers.

Of course there is murder or attempted murder, but by whom and against who? The story focuses more on the neighborhood and its people than on the newcomers who are causing the trouble. How they react or attempt to cope is the focus of the story line.

I read to the end, a bit surprised by the people involved in the deaths, and think this was a fair to good suspense novel.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC sent for my possible review.

All the Rage by Darcy Lockman: First Chapter, First Paragraph

Nonfiction

All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership

by 

Darcy Lockman

All the Rage

All the Rage by Darcy Lockman, publication May 7, 2019, Harper
Genre: non-fiction
Gender inequality that has not changed: the unequal amount of parental work that falls on women, no matter their class or professional status.

Opening paragraph (text may change in the final copy)

Introduction 

The Problem That Has No Name 

Married with Children 

Am I being unfair to my husband? 

It is a gray spring Saturday in 2016, the day before Mother's Day. There've been ten days of rain preceding this one;, and I've spent half of those in Michigan with my kids without their father, visiting my parents. I love taking my daughters to Detroit, but solo-parenting Liv and Tess is draining, not least because I am the only person available to issue and enforce the dreary commands of early childhood, the one that begin upon waking and do not cease until it is night and the weight of their petal-soft eyelids has finally become too heavy to resist. Use the potty. Brush your teeth. Put on your socks. Put on your shoes. Don't hit your sister. Clean up the basement....

Author Darcy Lockman is a former journalist turned psychologist. Her first book, Brooklyn Zoo, chronicled the year she spent working in a city hospital's psychiatric ward. She lives with her husband and daughters in Queens.

Meme: Each Tuesday, Vicki, from I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where  readers post the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book that they are reading or plan to read. 

Sunday Salon: Novel Inspired by Jackie K. Onassis

Novel inspired by Jackie Kennedy Onassis:

The Editor

The Editor by Steven Rowley, publication April 2, 2019, Putnam
Genre: fiction
Jackie Kennedy, book editor, encourages budding author James Smale to write an authentic ending to his telling autobiography.

Historical fiction set in Georgian England:

The Confessions of Frannie Langton

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins, publication May 21, 2019, Harper
Genre: historical drama
A former Caribbean slave is accused of murdering her former employer and his wife in Georgian England, but she believes she is innocent.

Psychological suspense:

The Last Time I Saw You

The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine. publication May 7, 2019, Harper
Genre: psychological suspense, mystery 
A murderer taunts the daughter of a woman killed, while her best friend, a bestselling mystery author, tries to help her. 

Historical mystery:

Who Slays the Wicked

Who Slays the Wicked by C.S. Harris, publication April 2, 2019, Berkley Books
Genre: #14 in the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, stand-alone novel
St. Cyr is called in to solve the death of a fiendish nobleman in Regency-era England

What books are you reading this week?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date., and Mailbox Monday.