Kindle Deal for You... But Hurry... The Witch by Freida McFadden

The Witch by Freida McFadden...
When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling seventeenth-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear.

Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her.

Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41 a.m. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door.

As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692―and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. When decades of family lies begin to surface, Julia must confront a terrifying truth: Pemberton may be haunted by women whose voices refuse to stay silent.

Have you read author Freida McFadden? What do you think of her novels? I wanted to read The Housemaid BEFORE seeing the film, but I haven't had time to get to it, so it's still in my TBR pile.

I happened to come across her new book coming in October 6th, and it sounded really good. I love a good "ghost story". If you want to grab the pre-order Kindle book, it's only $4.99! (Do it quick because you never know when those prices will change).

I'm also looking forward to the cover reveal! I can never resist a pretty cover 😊

Published by Poisoned Pen Press (an imprint of Sourcebooks) and out on the shelves of your favorite bookseller Oct. 6, 2026!

#newbook #Kindle #Bookstagram #poisonedpenpress #bookrecommendations

 

The Sunday Salon and Villains, Vengeance & Midnight Magic: Meet My Latest Book Obsessions

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the place where Book Bloggers from around the world share their bookish finds with one another in a virtual place called The Sunday Salon. Thank you to for Deb at ReaderBuzz keeping us all together on Sundays and hosting The Sunday Salon now! I also visited with Kim at The Caffeinated Reader, another Sunday gathering place for us bookish people called The Sunday Post!

We are finally out of the cold in South Carolina! The last possible frost was suppose to be April 8th and my seed snails are officially enjoying the big bold outdoors. I put them in our little greenhouse Friday night and Saturday morning they still looked very happy. We are actually suppose to be in the high 80's during the day all this coming week. I've been enjoying the breeze on the front porch in the early evenings finishing The Beheading by Rebecca Lehmann. I'm in the last 40 pages now and am trying to read as fast as I can to see what happens! It's been a great read so far. I'll be posting my review next week, but let's just say it's bordering on 5 stars depending on if the ending lives up to the rest. If you like historical fiction, with a little bit of... I don't know... horror? fantasy? What would you call Anne Boylen getting her head chopped off and she wakes up to the horror of her head between her knees?

Also this past week I got a new spine bookcase. My favorite space saving bookcase and I needed one. Of course I've been finding so many great books lately, I filled it up immediately! Not only did I fill my new bookcase up, but I've been filling my Kindle up too! What, may you ask, did I fill up my Kindle and my bookcase with? Here are the top 4 this week...

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke (aka V.E.Schwab & Cat Clarke)... Six authors. One private island. Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives...

Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.

Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggling sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus.

It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.

This book got a lot of hype when it became known that 2 well known writers put their heads together and wrote this... and no one knew who the writers were. When it was revealed that it was none other than V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke, it got even more hype, probably more so because of V.E. Schwab. In any case, this is suppose to be a fun romp and I am definitely looking forward to cracking the spine on this one. Published by Harper Collins and on released this past Tueday... 

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab...

This is a story about hunger.

1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.

1827. London.

A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.

2019. Boston.

College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—

how it ends, and how it starts.

This book has gotten a lot of buzz since it was published last June by Tor. And it still is getting lots of praise. V.E. Schwab is a writer who creates these amazing worlds  & characters and is considered a historical fantasy writer. This book has been on my wishlist for a long time, and I finally bought it! I can't wait to read it!

A Stage Set for Villain by Shannon J. Spann... The gods are dead. All that’s left are the Players. The performers of the Playhouse are as worshipped as they are feared, their enchanting shows bending hearts, minds, and even reality itself. Vicious, godlike, lethal. Eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper knows the dangers better than anyone, after her own encounter with a Player resulted in a curse that is slowly killing her.

When the Playhouse announces the spectacle of a lifetime—a chance for one mortal to steal a Player’s immortality—Riven sees her last chance to live. Desperate for answers, she infiltrates the competition. There, she finds Jude, the Playhouse’s brilliant, merciless Lead Player, whose charm is as dangerous as his Craft, and strikes a deadly bargain to save her life.

But with time running out and the Playhouse’s secrets unraveling into a disturbing picture, Riven faces a grim possibility: she might not be the hero of her story after all. In fact, she may be the villain.

Because the Playhouse doesn’t just tell stories. It rewrites them.

And Riven’s might end in blood.

I had heard so many.

This was an immediate sensation on social media. Published this past February by Entangled Publishing, it was recently scooped up by Amazon MGM Studios for a major project down the road. I downloaded a copy for my Kindle, which is only $7.99 right now, and started reading it. OMG, I was immediately drawn into the story and the setting is so unique. Definitely pick this up if it sounds like your kind of read or if you want to try some romantasy and you have a Kindle, because who knows when that price will go to "normal" Kindle pricing, which is generally around $14.99! (remember when they were all priced at $9.99!?)

Starside by Alex Aster... Enter the world of Starside, where swords wield magic and power is not inherited...but claimed.

Hundreds of years ago, a brutal war split a land in two. Starside is the realm of magic and immortals—the descendants of the gods, living in a power-rich paradise. Stormside is where mortals fight for scraps of that magic.

Every fifty years, the gates between them open, and fifty challengers are allowed to journey across Starside on a deadly quest to access a pool of magic that can heal, grant wealth, or extend life. Everyone has their reasons for entering, but Aris has only one: vengeance. As a child, a goddess set fire to her village, killing her family. Aris isn’t after the gods’ magic—she’s going to kill them.

First, she must survive the Culling, the king’s deadly competition to choose his fifty challengers. An orphaned blacksmith’s apprentice, Aris doesn’t have the superior weapons of the heirs from the Great Houses. But the greatest swords—ones that contain power—are not inherited or bought, they are claimed, by both sides. And when Aris claims a great sword, it makes her not just a real competitor—but a target.

Getting past the gates is only the beginning. Starside is deadlier than it seems. If the ancient creatures, magic-wielding beasts, and bloodthirsty immortals weren’t dangerous enough, a new peril has even immortals fearing what rises from the ground at night. With a blade most would kill to claim, Aris can’t trust anyone. Especially not Harlan Raker, the merciless and mysterious king’s guard who betrayed her years ago—and who may now be the key to her survival.

But Aris is hiding a secret tied to her family’s death. And when it’s revealed, not even the gods will be able to stop what’s coming…

I first found Alex Aster when she was promoting her "enemies-to-lovers" rom-com, Summer in The City, which was published last March. Since then it seems, she's been on a writing spree with YA Fantasy, and that's where we find her today, but she's stepping out of the YA Fantasy genre and into the "adult" Romantasy genre with Starside. This book has been all over TikTok and Instagram with many MANY 5 star ratings. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, but it sounds like a great read and I put it on my wishlist when it came out in March. Recently I've been obsessed with these Romantasy books and I'm looking forward to starting this one soon. Published by Avon, March 31st (and I did tell you about it then, but I couldn't resist it when I finally saw it in person 😁. Did I tell you how pretty it is?!)

THOSE were some of the books I picked up this week. What about you?! Did you bring home any new books this week?

Now that we've talked about the new books I picked up, let me share what happened on the blog the last two weeks in case you missed anything...

Memoir Monday 3/30... Let's Hear it For The Girls! Memoirs from the ladies of a certain age (my age! )

Memoir Monday 4/6... Get Your Scalpel ready for this one!

New Book Tuesday 3/31... Magic, Destiny & Rising Stars You Need Now!

New Book Tuesday 4/7... New Releases and It's Stacked!

First Lines Friday 4/3... You'll Lose Your Head Over These!

First Lines Friday 4/10... Get Ready to be Swept Away!

Indie Next Pick for April... No Surprise Here and You Don't Want to Miss it!

Comedian Gillian Cosgriff... Sings us a little song about stress relieve (book related!) You really need to listen to this 😄.

What am I Listening To?... OMG! Old Lady Curmudgeon and a Great Narrator!

Happy Easter!... And a reading of Peter Rabbit.

I hope you found something to dig your teeth into... or at least found a good book! Share your good books right here in the comments! I'm always looking for recommendations!

Have a great week and Happy Reading... Suzanne

Three Souls by Janie Chang… A Review

What an amazing book Three Souls by Janie Chang is! It's heartbreaking and joyful, and will wrap itself around you and capture your heart. It's the Lovely Bones meets Amy Tan. This book is filled with family and friendship, romance & betrayal. The setting is China 1930's, Pre-WWII, with the Nationalists fighting the Communists, and the fear of Japan invading; and a time when women were treasured for their dowries, and their ability to have sons.

The story centers around the spirit of Leiyin, stuck in-between life and the afterlife due to some unknown actions she must atone for. She needs to figure out what she did and how to correct the situation to move on, but how?! Along to help, but they have no choice either because they are stuck right along with her, are her three souls; her yin soul, her yang soul, and her hun soul. All three souls have their own distinct personalities, which we hear quite often as they chime in during the retelling of Leiyin's story. Her yin soul is her romantic side, her yang soul is her stern, practical & "scholarly" side, and her hun soul is her wise side, and they flood her with the memories of her life to help her figure out what she must atone for. We are whisked back in time to her carefree days as a student, as a number 2 daughter, as a very young, impressionable, and privileged girl surrounded by her large family and the first encounter with the man who will ultimately be the cause for much of the pain through out her short lived life...The story doesn't stop there though, because in order to atone for her actions, she's going to have to make some "afterlife" altering decisions too!

My Thoughts… I loved the main character, Leiyin. She was precocious, spontaneous, and full of life in a time where women were suppose to tow the lines of tradition. She was spunky in her past life, but I also liked Leiyin as she "matures" in the afterlife, which you see while she reflects on her past actions. I absolutely loved that the past and present were equal partners in the story, and Janie Chang did a beautiful job of seamlessly going back and forth between the two. I loved the idea of the three souls, and I enjoyed that they had their say in past events and interacted with Leiyin in some very interesting ways. (which I won't go into any detail about because I don't want to spoil it for you!). Actually I loved everything about this book...

"The moment the priest spoke the last prayer and sealed my coffin, I awoke and floated upward in a slow drift of incense smoke, until I could travel no farther. I settled in the rafters of the small temple, a sleepy wraith perched in the roof beams. I had knowledge, but no memory…"

Three Souls is historical fiction,  rich with the sights, sounds, and traditions of 1930's China. It's a coming of age novel. It's a romance. It's thought provoking. It's a novel that took hold of me and did not let me go until the last page and then I just lingered in the moment for days…

My recommendation… READ IT! You'll have to wait until Feb. 25th though, that's when William Morrow releases it. You can pre-order the paperback of Three Souls or The Kindle Edition with these links.

I won this book in a LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway! I want to thank William Morrow , a division of Harper Collins, for the opportunity to read this special book with an advance readers copy!

*P.S. This book fulfills a book for The Chunkster Challenge 2014 (it's 468 pages) and a Square (and book) for the 2014 Book Bingo Reading Challenge (one new book).

The Sunday Salon & The Best Books of 2013

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the day of the week we devote to talking books! So, pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of Joe and get comfy! Let's talk books……

I hope everyone's Christmas was nice! Did you get bookish presents?! Being a voracious reader has it's drawbacks when receiving gifts. Sometimes people hesitate to buy you books because they think you already have every book in the store, but we always appreciate a book and we readers simply do not have every book published! (or not quite)…

It's also the end of the year! And what do you always find in the media at the end of the year? The Best of Lists! Some of these lists actually start to come out way before the end of the year, but how can they have the best of when there's still months of publishing to go!?! So, I scoured the Best Books of 2013 lists that have come out recently to see what some of the big names have to say… that is Goodreads, The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Publisher's Weekly, and The Guardian, and found books that seem to be showing up on multiple lists. Here are some of the books that made the mark…

Some Notable Fiction:
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
A Constellaton of Vital Phenomenon
The Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey
The House Girl by Tara Conklin
A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Z A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Theresa Anne Fowler
Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey
                                Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang, a Graphic Novel


Some notable Memoirs & True Stories:
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
The Lost Girls: an unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

Some notable Children's books:
Mr. Wuffles by David Weisner
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

What books are missing? What did you read that is on YOUR Best Books of 2013 list? Here are a few that I enjoyed, aren't on any "The Best of" list and I recommend…

Wild by Cheryl Strayed… Memoir. Twenty-something girl screws life up, divorces her best friend, gets into drugs and hits rock bottom. Decides to take a hike… literally, and the result is this amazing journey and memoir. I loved it!

Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky… Romance. More than a romance, there's a  Perfect beach read. Wonderful story. I just fell in love with the characters and felt like I could feel the cool breeze off the lake on my skin as I read it!

The Last First Day by Carrie Brown… Fiction. Wonderful slow paced story of the life of a married couple. it will quietly hit you when your not expecting it at the end. The story stayed with me for some time afterwards.

Want to see what's on "The Lists"? Here is a sampling of the "Best Books 2013 Lists" and their links…..

Goodreads Choice Awards 2013 After 1,953,770 votes were cast, Goodreads put together this very comprehensive list, dividing the books up by genre, such as Best Horror, Best Historical Fiction and Best Food & Cookbooks. A great list!

The Atlantic Magazine serves us The Best Food Books 2013 This list is wonderful for the Foodie! I've heard of a few of the cookbooks, but I definitely will be checking out a few of these gems, such as the newly reissued Cooking for Crowds by Merry White and One Good Dish by David Tanis.

Publisher's Weekly Best Books 2013  shares their top 10 of the year.

NPR gives us their Guide to Best Reads 2013 The staff at NPR was tired of coming up with a list of Best Books, so they decided to reach out to their book critics and staff for recommendations of great reads. Their list comes from the 200 responses they received. Oops, sorry it's not a "list", it's a "book concierge". In any case, it's a great source with book descriptions if you hover your mouse over the title.

The New York Times lists their 10 Best Books of 2013 choices.

If you are a Kindle owner, Amazon has a Kindle Edition of their Best Books of 2013 selections, and it's free! Otherwise, here's the link to Amazon's Best Books of 2013 section of their website.

And if none of these satisfies your Best of Lists, you can always Google "Best Books of 2013" for pages and pages of what everyone else thinks. But what are these lists really for? Is it just a popularity list? Are these books the ones that got the most push from the publishers? Where as a name like J.K. Rowling means automatic success in selling a multitude of books, would her book be on a "best of list" if it weren't for that? My feelings on "The Best Books" list is that it's fun to see what everyone liked, and it's fun to see if the books you liked appear on any of the lists. Best Books lists are also great starting points in finding fresh reading for yourself.

The end of the year brings us "The Best of Lists" and the beginning of a new year brings us… resolutions! Or in the case of the reader… Challenges! So, next Sunday Salon, I'll be bringing you some reading Challenges hosted by some great reading blogs. All you need to participate in any of these challenges is the love of reading, and an internet connection, so you may want to join in on some of the fun! And starting January 2nd, I'll be posting what Challenges I'll be participating in! BTW, First one I've signed up for is The Chunkster Challenge, which is all about reading FAT books!

Hope you've found some interesting books here today! Share what is on YOUR Best Books of 2013 list! I'd love to hear about them! And I'll list them for everyone else to know too!

Happy reading… Suzanne

Memoir Monday & An American Bride in Kabul by Phyllis Chesler

Memoir Monday returns with a book that drops us into the heart of Afghanistan and in the life of a new bride. This bride is American though and Jewish as well. It is not simply a memoir of a young woman who falls in love and discovers afterwards the cultural differences that exist between her and her husband's family, An American Bride in Kabul is about the rights of women. Phyllis Chesler is a fierce supporter of women's rights, especially in Afghanistan, the Country where she once was captive. After 50 years, she has finally written her account of her marriage and life in Kabul.

An American Bride in Kabul by Phyllis Chesler... From the author's website: The dramatic, riveting, and timely tale of how one woman's harrowing ordeal in a harem in Afghanistan shaped her into a modern feminist leader and life-long defender of human rights. Eighteen years old and in love, Phyllis Chesler, a Jewish-American girl from Brooklyn, embarked on a passionate love affair with a glamorous foreign student, which led Chesler to her destiny and nearly to her death in Kabul —and to a journey which has lasted for more than half a century. Upon arrival, Afghan authorities seized her American passport, and Chesler found herself trapped as the property of her husband's polygamous family, without an ally and without any rights. Despite her seclusion, her mother-in-law's campaign to convert her from Judaism to Islam, and her husband's wish to permanently tie her to the country through childbirth, she escaped. Yet these lovers, a Muslim and a Jew, have remained connected ever since. Chesler draws upon personal diaries, correspondence, memories, and research in this vivid and eye-opening account of what she learned about central Asia and the nature of gender apartheid. Though she nearly died in Afghanistan, Phyllis nostalgically recreates this beautiful, ancient, and exotic culture and country, including its Buddhist and Jewish history. An American Bride in Kabul is the story of how a naïve American girl learned to see the world through eastern as well as western eyes. She re-creates a time gone by, a place that is no more, and shares the way in which Chesler turned adversity into a passion for freedom and women's rights.

This is not the first American woman to discover the cultural differences in a country new to her, but Phyllis Chesler's story puts us in the heart of these differences as a young bride dealing not only with her new Country, but her new family and what is expected of her, in what seems to be a total turnaround from the loving relationship she had with her new bridegroom. And even with all that had happened between them, the relationship between the author and her ex still seems to exist. I look forward to reading An American Bride in Kabul to learn how this woman survives her ordeal, but also to learn more about the culture of the country that Phllis Chesler also shares in her account. This book was released in early October by Palgrave Macmillan, and is available in Hardcover , Kindle and Nook Book.

The Last First Day by Carrie Brown... A Review

The Last First Day by Carrie Brown is simply amazing! The story innocently invites you in and wraps itself around you in a warm comfortable embrace. The story is a quiet one, but powerful. And I have to say, this is one my favorite reads of the year.

It is a love story, it is a story of the reflection of life as one looks back in their twilight years, and it is beautifully written.

The book opens with the first day at the New England Derry School for Boys, the school where Peter and Ruth have spent most of their adult lives, the place where Peter started as an enthusiastic teacher, with Ruth as the dutiful wife and where now, as the couple is in their eighties, and Peter approaching the need to retire as headmaster, is the place they must learn to live without. As Ruth drags the vacuum cleaner out to get ready for the annual first night get together at their home with the faculty, memories slowly emerge. And that is how we learn of the love story of Peter and Ruth. Through Ruth's eyes, the story of their lives unfold in perfect harmony with the present tense to let us experience their love, their passion, their struggles and commitment over the decades. It's also the story of Ruth, how she accepts her life, the role she chose for herself, and the life that she had no choice over.

The book itself is in two parts. The first part is Peter and Ruth on that "last first day" at Derry School, with the smattering of memories of their lives. The second part starts Ruth's story from the beginning- from when she was twelve, living out of a suitcase with her father, and her first sighting of Peter. We learn so much about Ruth in part two and understand her so much better. The love story, of Peter and Ruth, which really emerges from its' humble beginnings in the second part of the novel, is sweet & wonderful, sad & devastating, and ultimately blossoms into a full shared life together.

                              "What had Peter seen in her all this time?
                               It was a mystery, wasn't it, why people loved one another?"

I read this book in a day and a half... This is a story that will linger with me for quite some time. I loved the way Carrie Brown made this complex story flow so easily from the page, slowly unfurling & perfectly putting the words down on the page. It is honest, it is heartfelt, I thought it was wonderful... and I did cry at the end.

I want to thank Pantheon Books, a division of Random House for sending along The Last First Day by Carrie Brown for me review! Published in mid-September, The Last First Day is available in Hardcover , Kindle and Nook. If you enjoy good stories, stories where the characters reflect back on their lives,  or love stories, you will enjoy this book. It is a slow paced, wonderful story. Find yourself a comfy chair and read this book!

New Releases Tuesday

Tuesday's are the day you can find those much anticipated new releases from your favorite authors! And today I have 4 that I can't wait to share with you... Dystopian, Mystery, Courtroom thriller & Adventure.


Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Have you been reading the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth!? Allegiant is Book 3, the long anticipated final book to the series.... and it is finally out!!!

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

This is dystopian at its' best! Here are the links to grab a copy...

                  Available in Hardcover, Kindle or Nook.


Next, The Goldfinch by Donna Tart... a haunted odyssey through present day    
America and a drama of enthralling force and acuity. It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.  As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

I have read so many great pre-publication reviews about The Goldfinch. This sounds like it's going to be the book everyone is going to want to read! Here are the links for the Hardcover (which is just $11.68 on Amazon right now), Kindle and Nook!

Sycamore Row by John Grisham... Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history. Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

I use to be addicted to John Grisham novels. His courtroom novels are just a thrill to read, fast paced and gripping. Sycamore Row revisits the site of his first novel A Time to Kill, written in 1989. If you enjoy courtroom thrillers, you should enjoy this one! And if you missed A Time to Kill, it's available on Kindle for just $2.99! You do not need to read A Time to Kill first, Sycamore Row is a fresh story. Here are the links for Sycamore Row in Hardcover , Kindle and Nook. And here's the link for A Time to Kill on Kindle at that great price!

Outlaw by Ted Dekker... The story of how I, Julian Carter, and my precious two-year old son, Stephen, left Atlanta Georgia and found ourselves on a white sailboat, tossed about like a cork on a raging sea off of Australia's northern tip in 1963, is harrowing. But it pales in comparison to what happened deep in the jungle where I was taken as a slave by a savage tribe unknown to the world. Some places dwell in darkness so deep that even God seems to stay away. There, my mind was torn in two by the gods of the earth. There, one life ended so another could begin...  an epic adventure of two worlds that perhaps only he could write. Full of harrowing twists, sweeping violence, and wild love, Outlaw takes us beyond the skin of this world to another unseen.

Ted Dekker is such a diverse writer. I love his psychological thrillers, but he also writes Christian books. Whatever he writes, he knows how to tell a story! His thrillers have you at the edge of your seat and heart pounding. When I heard Ted Dekker was coming out with a new book, I was excited! And this sounds like a great adventure! This is on my wish list! Here are the links to get yourself a copy: It's available today in Hardcover , Kindle and Nook.

*Stop by next tuesday for some other great books being released Oct. 29th!

The Sunday Salon and Books with Buzz!

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! It's the time of the week to kick back and relax, grab a cup of java and talk books... It's been a while since you've read a Sunday Salon here, but don't worry, I've been reading and finding some great books and we're going to share them all starting today!


First, let's look at two new novels at the top of my reading list...

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, from the authors website...Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their fatherand stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters.

To Abdullah, Pari – as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named – is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their heads touching, their limbs tangled.

One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand.

Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways in which we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us.

It's been six years since Khaled Hosseini has given us a gift of his writing, and his newest offering has gotten so much positive praise and hype that I have to read it and I can only hope that it lives up to the wonderful writing I experienced in The Kite Runner. A friend of mine just told me that she thinks it's better than The Kite Runner. Published by Penguin Group, this book available right now at your local bookstore. This book is also Kindle Ready! AND Nook Ready!



The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls: A Novel by Anton DiSclafani... From the publisher: It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes. High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls’ friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is far removed from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea shared with her twin brother on their family’s citrus farm—a world now partially shattered. As Thea grapples with her responsibility for the events of the past year that led her here, she finds herself enmeshed in a new order, one that will change her sense of what is possible for herself, her family, her country.

Weaving provocatively between home and school, the narrative powerfully unfurls the true story behind Thea’s expulsion from her family, but it isn’t long before the mystery of her past is rivaled by the question of how it will shape her future. Part scandalous love story, part heartbreaking family drama, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is an immersive, transporting page-turner—a vivid, propulsive novel about sex, love, family, money, class, home, and horses, all set against the ominous threat of the Depression—and the major debut of an important new writer.

I just love these "coming-of-age" novels. (Now that I think about it, I'll have to write a post on some of the great books that come to mind!) The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls sounds like the perfect summer read. Scandalous, mysterious, plenty of drama, with a strong flawed female protagonist that may both pull at our hearts and infuriate us. I've heard mixed reviews, but the majority opinion is, that this is the "IT" novel of the summer. It is on my wish list! Published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin, it went on sale June 4th and is available at your local bookstore! This book is Kindle Ready! And Nook Ready too!


IN other bookish news... BEA, BookExpo America wrapped up June 1st with a great look, maybe a tease since I wasn't able to attend this year, at some great authors with new books and some great books from authors we are just getting to know. Next week we'll look at a few of the top choices from BEA, and boy am I excited!!


eReaders are all the rage. Lots of reading choices out there. Amazon has announced it's going to offer the KindleDX again. Its' 9.7inch E-Ink display is at a premium price of $299. Is there a market for the KindleDX with the price of full color tablets at almost the same price?

Reviews coming soon... My World Book Night book choice was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. What a fun book. A chapter book for young readers, which celebrated its' 50th anniversary not too long ago, is a children's book with hidden delight for us older folks. If you like words (and what reader doesn't) you will love this book! I Also read a great novel set in the Vietanam era that centers around 2 brothers. The Turtle Warrior by Mary Relindes Ellis is set in a rural town in Wisconsin and will be pulling at your heartstrings. Overwhelmingly sad at some points, the story just wraps itself around you pulling you in. One of the best books I've read in a long time. AND I also read two great graphic novels recently- Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel, a great YA novel that mixes folklore and history with great fiction and The Mail Order Bride by Mark Kalesniko, which is definitely an ADULT graphic novel. The drawings are beautiful, the story funny and yet poignant. I can't wait to tell you about that one!

How was your week?! What great books are on your nightstand? Share your reading! I always love to hear about a good book!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Kindle Korner... or What .99 Can Buy You Today!

                  

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake...

It has been so long since we talked about eBooks! And since we did, so many people I know have either reluctantly been given one (yes Steve, I'm talking about you!) or have made the plunge. I myself have always had mixed feelings about eReaders. I love the feel and heft of a paper book in my hand, and yet my house is filled to the brim with books and no place left for any more. Cost is another consideration... if an ebook is about the same price as its' paperback, I am prone to buy the paperback. Why? I guess it's because of my physical love of books. It feels like you really own something when you buy that paperback. But when the ebook is A LOT cheaper than the paperback, it's time to hit that purchase button for my Kindle. And the Kindle is not the only eReader I own, as you probably remember. I love my Sony eReader maybe even more, but it is so much easier to give my money to Amazon when it comes to downloading, because I don't have the Sony Wifi eReader... (yet).

But what I thought I'd pass along today is some great eBook deals from Harper Perennial! For the whole month of August, Harper Perennial is offering 20 of their favorite eBooks for just .99 cents! And we're talking what looks to be like some great reading! Not only is it great to get eBooks for under a dollar, but it's a great opportunity to try some authors without breaking the bank! Thank you Harper Perennial for the special treat!

There is a variety of books to choose from, but here are the top three that caught my eye...

The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen... More than two decades after moving to Saudi Arabia and marrying powerful Abdullah Baylani, American-born Rosalie learns that her husband has taken a second wife. That discovery plunges their family into chaos as Rosalie grapples with leaving Saudi Arabia, her life, and her family behind. Meanwhile, Abdullah and Rosalie’s consuming personal entanglements blind them to the crisis approaching their sixteen-year-old son, Faisal, whose deepening resentment toward their lifestyle has led to his involvement with a controversial sheikh. When Faisal makes a choice that could destroy everything his embattled family holds dear, all must confront difficult truths as they fight to preserve what remains of their world. The Ruins of Us is a timely story about intolerance, family, and the injustices we endure for love that heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new voice in contemporary fiction.


The Ruins of Us interested me because of it's setting in Saudi Arabia and what I hope will be an interesting take on cultural differences. I also like the idea of the love story between Abdullah and Rosalie and how we see their relationship changes due to the culture that surrounds them as they go back to live their lives in Saudi Arabia. This reminds me a bit of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which showcased the cultural differences between generations, and the strife it can cause. And speaking of cultural differences, Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez, a true story, was a wonderful read. It was a love story and a cultural triumph for women all rolled up in one. Here is the Kindle link.



Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin... From Publishers Weekly: A blend of road novel and not-quite hard luck story, the latest from Vlautin begins when 15-year-old Charley Thompson and his father move from Spokane, Wash. to Portland, Ore., to give starting over yet another try. When Charley's dad takes up with a married secretary and stops coming home, Charley takes a job with Del Montgomery, a crank based out of the nearby racetrack who, among other things, shoots up a horse with vodka. After Charley's father dies from wounds suffered during a fight with his lover's husband, Charley, whom Vlautin has conveniently given the pastime of running, runs away with Pete, a horse and his only friend. This is where the narrative sours; Charley's trek across the West, occasionally on horseback, is dominated by an unbelievable stretch of luck: men appear to dispense food and money, miraculously uninhabited trailers contain washers and dryers, and his hitchhiking is eerie, but not dangerous. Still, Vlautin's characters, despite their unrealistic arcs, shine with his sparse style. It might be difficult to believe Charley's bottomless cache of silver linings, but it's remarkably easy to root for the kid.


Maybe a love story between a boy and his horse? Maybe a bit of a coming of age story, as Charley is forced to grow up fast? Will we get a peak at the American West on horseback? My hope for Lean on Pete is to have all of that and more. Here is the Kindle link.

Daughters of the North by Sarah Hall... In her stunning novel, Hall imagines a new dystopia set in the not-too-distant future. England is in a state of environmental crisis and economic collapse. There has been a census, and all citizens have been herded into urban centers. Reproduction has become a lottery, with contraceptive coils fitted to every female of childbearing age. A girl who will become known only as "Sister" escapes the confines of her repressive marriage to find an isolated group of women living as "un-officials" in Carhullan, a remote northern farm, where she must find out whether she has it in herself to become a rebel fighter. Provocative and timely, Daughters of the North poses questions about the lengths women will go to resist their oppressors, and under what circumstances might an ordinary person become a terrorist.


Dystopian fiction is so interesting. Posing the question of "What if?". Laying out scenarios that are usually not too far fetched and where you try and imagine how you would handle things. I enjoy dystopian fiction. The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist and Delirium by Lauren Oliver both come to mind. They are on my top ten list for this type of genre. (And if you haven't read these books, you should!) Daughters of the North seems to have all the qualities of great dystopian fiction, and a reluctant but strong heroine is one of those qualities I look for and it has! Here is the Kindle link.

Don't be discouraged if you don't own a Kindle, Harper Perennial is offering the eBook deals for Nook fans, Kobo fans, Google Book fans as well as iBook fans. Use the "eBook deals from Harper Perennial" link above to go right to Harper Perennial's facebook page, which has the full list and links for all the available eBook sources, or search for the books that interest you via your eReader and check out the deals. Make sure of the price before you buy, just in case they change the pricing!

Here is the complete list of the eBooks offered by Harper Perennial with their Kindle links...

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter
Flatscreen by Adam Wilson
Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau
The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen
Daughters of the North by Sarah Hall
In the Hot Zone by Kevin Sites
Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love by Andrew Shaffer
The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen
Nothing by Blake Butler
Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
Everything is Wrong with Me by Jason Mulgrew
Dishwasher by Pete Jordan
Skinny by Diana Spechler
Two for Sorrow by Nicola Upson
The London Train by Tessa Hadley
Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? by John Brockman
Seeds by Richard Horan
The Great Lover by Jill Dawson
What He's Poised to Do by Ben Greenman

Have you been using your eReader lately? What books have you read lately? Find any great eBook deals? Share what's been on your eReader lately!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

Memoir Monday presents... My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe

My Korean Deli : Risking It All For A Convenience Store by Ben Ryder Howe... "It starts with a gift, when Ben Ryder Howe's wife, the daughter of Korean immigrants, decides to repay her parents' self-sacrifice by buying them a store. Howe, an editor at the rarefied Paris Review, agrees to go along. Things soon become a lot more complicated. After the business struggles, Howe finds himself living in the basement of his in-laws' Staten Island home, commuting to the Paris Review offices in George Plimpton's Upper East Side townhouse by day, and heading to Brooklyn at night to slice cold cuts and peddle lottery tickets. My Korean Deli follows the store's tumultuous life span, and along the way paints the portrait of an extremely unlikely partnership between characters with shoots across society, from the Brooklyn streets to Seoul to Puritan New England. Owning the deli becomes a transformative experience for everyone involved as they struggle to salvage the original gift—and the family—while sorting out issues of values, work, and identity."

I read the review of this book in the New York Times Book Review last Sunday, I knew I had to blog about it for Memoir Monday. This sounds like a fantastic read! Not simply because of the unlikely ownership of the Deli by Ben Ryder Howe who is a senior editor for one of my favorite literary magazines, The Paris Review, but because of the flavorful characters that we are promised to meet along our reading journey. Corby Kummer, who reviewed My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe for the New York Times Book Review on Sunday March 2o, 2011, points out that this memoir "places careful, loving attention squarely on other people rather than the author." And goes on to say that it's "a rollicking, made-for-the-movies story in a wonderfully funny deadpan style." This all adds up to a book worth reading to me! It was published earlier this month by Henry Holt and Co. And is available for Kindle too!