My Year in Books: 2011
There are about 185 books on this list; I need to add a few more. I’ll continue to format/update through tomorrow, but I wanted to at least put the list up today. At the request of several friends and colleagues, I’ll also try to give brief annotations for each book, but if my fingers seize...
FridayReads: Full Disclosure from @TheBookMaven
UPDATE: As most of you will have seen by now, I’ve been trying to approve all comments on this post as quickly as I’ve been able to get to them. I have two comments that were negative that I’m holding because they come from Twitter followers who wrote particularly thoughtful responses, and I’d like to...
UPDATED: A FridayReads LIVE Twitter Book Tour Event: “Enjoy Every Sandwich” by Lee Lipsenthal, MD
On Thursday, November 17th at 7:30 p.m. ET, Rebecca Joines Schinsky and I will be hosting the first-ever FridayReads Live event. We will be discussing a new title from Crown Publishing: Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day As If It Were Your Lastby Lee Lipsenthal, MD. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read the book, or not–come join...
FridayReads EXTRA Giveaways
Desperate times call for desperate measures, they say. I really want FridayReads to hit 8K this week. IF WE HIT 8K–and only if we do–I will give away three extra prizes. Here they are: 1. A set of three slipcased, signed Indiespensables titles: Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett,...
Club Read 2011 Book Blogger Challenge
Club Read 2011 is brought to you by the fine folks at SIBA/NAIBA and Book Club Girl, and it’s a 24-hour readers’ wonderland being held on October 15-16 in Huddleston, Virginia at The Mariner’s Landing Resort and Conference Center. A dozen authors (Adriana Trigiani! Gretchen Rubin! Greg Olear! MORE!) will join a few more dozen readers...
What I Did on My Summer Vacation (Hint: Books Were Involved)
Yes, summer technically ends on September 21st, but we all know it really is officially over when the sun sets on Labor Day each year. Instead of “Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome,” it’s all “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, did you remember to pack the towels from the outdoor shower?” OK, well at least that’s what I...
Further Reading – THE HYPNOTIST by Lars Kepler
International crime fiction has been all the rage recently with the now famous Millennium Trilogy, featuring the titles The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, but Stieg Larsson isn’t the only crime author that will make it big internationally. The newest sensation...
Further Reading – Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
Maine, J. Courtney Sullivan’s followup novel after her bestseller Commencement, is an amazing family drama, set on the beach in Maine, that examines the lives of three generations of Kelleher women. There is the cold matriarch Alice, her daughter Kathleen, her daughter-in-law Anne Marie, and Kathleen’s daughter Maggie. What Maine does so brilliantly is the...
Further Reading – Untold Story by Monica Ali
There are certain events that live on in all of us. Everyone remembers exactly where they were when the world changed. It’s natural to want to look back and think, “What if….” What if it had been different? What if it had never happened at all? Monica Ali does that in her new novel Untold...
Further Reading – Centuries of June
Centuries of June, the newest novel by author Keith Donohue, is about a man named Jack who has just woken up on his bathroom floor and he’s trying to figure out exactly what happened and how he ended up there. To help him figure it out, 8 women from throughout history visit him and add...
Further Reading – Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner
The immigrant story: a ubiquitous part of world literature. Vaclav & Lena, the newest addition to this theme from Haley Tanner, is a delightful spin on the coming-of-age tale. Vaclav and Lena are both Russian immigrants living in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Though Vaclav speaks English well, he meets Lena in an ESL class when they...
