Alison, July is almost over, what gives??
Things have been a little busy in Book Marks Land, so I apologize for leaving you to fend for yourselves while you pack your beach bags. Then again, many of you are not shy and have e-mailed me for recommendations...I loved getting those e-mails, by the way! Let me know how I'm doing!
Fun Beach Reads:
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
I learned what the term "beach read" meant after I read one of Elin's books. The pages turn quickly, but she doesn't write fluff. Her characters are complex, her story lines have heart, and her settings are always beach side.
The Island recently came out in paperback, but her most recent title is
Silver Girl, which I have on my eReader ready to go for my beach vacation! (see, I practice what I preach!)
Big Stone Gap by Adriani Trigiani
I am a new fan of Adriana's, but she's got me for life! I'm currently making my way through her books and loving each and every one. So far, all of her books center around Italian-American families, but Big Stone Gap is a series which takes place in her own home town. I can't wait to dive into this one! (Also recommend her book:
Lucia, Lucia)
The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
I have yet to meet a book by SAA that I didn't love. Her recipe for success: North Carolina, love, friendship, history, and a little touch of magic. It was tough to choose which book to list, because I love them all. (
The Sugar Queen is another great one.)
Also available in paperback!
Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
If you're looking for hilarious, sexy mysteries, look no further than Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. The most recent is Smokin' Seventeen, but if you're new to Stephanie's adventures, the first one is One For the Money. The series has the added bonus of having beautiful Trenton, New Jersey, as it's backdrop. Leave your brain at the door and prepare to have a good time.
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Tina Fey is hilarious. My only caveat is this - I recommend you listen to the audio version. Download it to your iPod and you'll have your hands free to build sand pies, and your eyes free to watch that your little one doesn't eat it.
Now for the Meaty Stuff:
Room by Emma Donoghue (In paperback from Back Bay Books, May 2011)
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan (Knopf, July 2011)
Here is a powerful, definitive new version of the werewolf legend—mesmerising and incredibly sexy. In Jake, Glen Duncan has given us a werewolf for the twenty-first century—a man whose deeds can only be described as monstrous but who is in some magical way deeply human.
Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister (Putnam, June 2011)
At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate's recovery from cancer. Wineglass in hand, Kate strikes a bargain with them. To celebrate her new lease on life, she'll do the one thing that's always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they'd never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (Amy Einhorn, January 2011)
The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there.
See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.
The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff (Knopf, July 2011)
Tells the story of Charlotte Gold and Jack Harrington, two fiercely independent attorneys who find themselves slowly falling for one another while working to defend the brother of a Holocaust hero against allegations of World War II–era war crimes.
The defendant, wealthy financier Roger Dykmans, mysteriously refuses to help in his own defense, revealing only that proof of his innocence lies within an intricate timepiece last seen in Nazi Germany. As the narrative moves from Philadelphia to Germany, Poland, and Italy, we are given glimpses of the lives that the anniversary clock has touched over the past century, and learn about the love affair that turned a brother into a traitor.
Some of My All-Time Favorites:
HAPPY READING!!
**If anyone would like me to help them with a recommendation within a certain genre, or something more obscure, I would love to help! Either leave me a comment below or feel free to e-mail me at APSkap at comcast dot net.
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