First Lines Friday... The Wedding People by Alison Espach

"...now Phoebe stands before a nineteenth-century Newport hotel in an emerald silk dress, the only item in her closet she can honestly say she still loves, probably because it was the one thing she had never worn. She and her husband never did anything fancy enough for it. They were professors. They were easygoing. Relaxed. So comfortable by the fire with the little cat on their laps. They liked regular things, whatever was on tap, whatever was on TV, whatever was in the fridge, whatever shirt looked the most normal, because wasn't that the point of clothing? To prove that you were normal? To prove that every day, no matter what, you were a person who could put on a shirt?

   But that morning, before she got on the plane, Phoebe woke and knew she was no longer normal. Yet she made toast. Took a shower. Dried her hair. Gathered her lecture notes for her second day of the fall semester. Opened her closet and looked at all the clothes she once bought simply because they looked like shirts a professor should wear to work. Rows of solid-colord blouses, the female versions of things her husband wore. She pulled out a gray one, held it up in front of the mirror, but could not bring herself to put it on. Could not go to work and stand at the office printer and hold her face in a steady expression of interest while her collegue talked at length about the surprising importance of cheese in medieval theology.

   Instead, she slipped on the emerald dress..."

                                    The Wedding People by Alison Espach

This book has gotten so much great buzz and was a Jenna Book Pick in last August. It is in my TBR pile and I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into it. It's all about love and friendship... what do you think about the excerpt? Does it make you want to read more? It did me...

Memoir Monday... On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves

Growing up in the late 60's and 70's was so different than now. The concept of "Freedom" was a lot of "Drugs, Sex and Rock & Roll". Hitchhiking was a way to get from one place to another without fear.  The idea of "seeing the world" was joining the Peace Corps or striking out with your bestie to Europe and learning what hostels were... and Rick Steves lived that adventure... or at least the "striking out with your bestie to Europe" and specifically the “Hippie Trail”, an adventure route from Istanbul to Kathmandu.

When I read about Rick's book, it brought back the anticipation of adventure that was part of my soul growing up. For me, it was venturing out to "the City", art galleries, and road trips to places I've never been... and for a lot of us, that sense of adventure settles down into going to college, finding your place in the world and the soulmate you were meant to be with...

On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves...                                                                                                                              From the publisher... "In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world. This book contains edited selections from Rick’s journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey changed his life. Stow away with Rick Steves on the adventure of a lifetime through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               This book is on my wishlist and was published Feb. 4th by Rick Steves. 

Exciting news for Harlan Coben fans... Nobody's Fool coming this March!

 

Harlan Coben writes suspense... and he's really good at it! Nobody's Fool is his newest thriller coming out March 25th of this year, and I just received a review copy from the publisher! Let me tell you, I was hooked from the first innocent line..."Did it all go wrong the moment I saw you?"... The prologue introduces you to college graduate Sami Kierce who's taking the summer off to backpack through Europe with his college roommate and his jock friends, but a chance encounter the night before the trip, changes Kierce's plans and life... 

I am turning those pages as fast as I can! Did I say, Harlan Coben writes really good suspense? Yes, I think I did. And for good reason... "His suspense novels are published in forty-six languages and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries, with eighty million books in print worldwide"... and I am hooked on Nobody's Fool.

Here's the blurb from the publisher... "Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts—and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna. It’s unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day. His investigation will bring him face-to-face with his past—and prove, after all this time, he’s nobody’s fool."

Nobody's Fool will be published by Grand Central Publishing on March 25th and will be available at your favorite bookstore... come back soon for my full review...