The Sunday Salon: My Week In Books

Happy Sunday Saloners! I still can’t get over the fact that it’s August already! Where has the year gone? I’ve had a pretty exciting book week and I thought I’d share it with all of you today here at the Salon.

This has been a very exciting week for me. My friend Lisa at Books On The Brain and Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin? have started a new online venture called TLC Book Tours and they’ve invited me to be one of the first hosts of a book tour in September! How happy was I to have been thought of??!! The author I will be hosting is Kathleen McCleary, the author of HOUSE AND HOME, a book I just recently read and reviewed. (Read review here) She will be my very special guest on Wednesday, September 10th, so please stop by! It’s my first author guest appearance, so I’m very excited and grateful to Lisa and Trish! Be sure to check out their website for additional tours and information on upcoming authors.

Now on to the books! I finished DRIVING SIDEWAYS by Jess Riley this week and I’ve been working on that review. I should have it in the next day or two. It took me a little longer to read it, but I had other things going on that kept me away from the book. I received several books in the mail this week that I’m excited about. Two were from Random House and two were from the authors. Library Thing picked me to review MY HUSBAND’S SWEETHEARTS by Bidget Asher this month. Here’s little about the book.

From Publishers Weekly:
Faced with the imminent death of her charming, cheating and estranged husband
Artie, Lucy Shoreman decides to call the names in his little black book and
invite the ladies to his Philadelphia home to say a final farewell. For her
part, 30-ish Lucy, who's 18 years Artie's junior, can't decide whether she loves
or hates the man, while her much-married mother insists he deserves forgiveness.
As a broad spectrum of his ex-lovers arrives, including a surprised
mother-and-daughter duo and a troubled young woman Lucy takes under her wing,
Artie's previously undisclosed and estranged grown son, John, shows up and seems
as wickedly appealing as Dad. Asher, a pen name of prolific author Julianna
Baggott, takes the edge off her sharply drawn characters with a succession of
familiar sentiments. But flashes of wit and a parade of memorable women keep
pages turning as Lucy grows increasingly and endearingly confused about her
feelings toward Artie, John and the rest.
Sounds like it could be pretty interesting. I’m ready for a juicy story! MY HUSBAND’S SWEETHEART’S goes on sale August 19th.



Another book I received this week was CHASING WINDMILLS by Catherine Ryan Hyde. She wrote the book PAY IT FORWARD that became a movie starring Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacy. If you haven’t seen the movie, read the book first! The movie is great, but books are always even better! This is her latest release about two young people who meet while riding the New York City subway and how their relationship evolves and impacts each of their lives. Here’s what’s being said about it:

"A sweet tale openly modeled on West Side Story… a gentle tale centering how people come to grip with their pasts.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Simple and captivating. It is [Sebastian's and Maria's] voices–at once utterly credible and heartbreakingly naive–that make the book, and while this is being billed as an adult novel, its closest stylistic relative is S.E. Hinton's YA classic The Outsiders.” –Publishers Weekly

“Hyde writes evocatively of the visceral nature of first love. Her characters are well developed, and she describes settings economically but effectively. The ending is realistic and satisfying. Short chapters make for a page-turning read and the distinct voices are sweet, soul-baring, and honest.” –School Library Journal

Needless to say, I was thrilled when Ms. Hyde asked me if I’d like to review this book for her. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Another author sent me two of his books this week to review. His name is J.F. Englert and he has a series of mysteries called The Bull Moose Dog Run Mysteries. He’s just released the second in the series titled, A DOG AMONG DIPLOMATS that follows A DOG ABOUT TOWN, the first release. The interesting thing about these books is that the main character is Randolph, a black lab. A very high brow black lab. I’ve heard these books are very entertaining. I received an email after the author had noticed my earlier review of THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, another canine-narrative.

In reading the blogs this past week, there was one book that was mentioned on a few different sites that has really caught my attention. It’s called THE LACE READER by Brunonia Barry, a first time author. It’s a murder mystery set in modern day Salem and it is getting a lot of attention, all positive. Originally self-published, it is being re-released and there’s talk of a trilogy. Check out Jill’s post at Breaking The Spine for a great preview of this much anticipated book.

I just have to mention one more thing before closing this post. When I got up this morning I was flipping channels on the tv and came across To Kill A Mockingbird. It had been years since I saw that movie, so I watched it. It made me remember how much I loved the book. I read it for the first time in the 10th grade. Unfortunatly I lost my copy years ago, but I intend to find a copy for my collection. I typically don't re-read many books, but that is the exception to my rule. Is there a book that you love that you would read over and over again? Well, I hope all of you had an interesting week as well. I look forward to reading your blogs and catching up!