The Sunday Salon and There's a Buzz in the air, but not from the bees... it's from people talking about these 3 books...

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! 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 dests, 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. That is the Sunday Salon, but all virtually. Book Bloggers from around the world sharing their bookish finds with one another in a virtual place called The Sunday Salon. Thank you to Deb at ReaderBuzz for 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.

It has been a HOT, and I mean in the high 90's all week hot, in South Carolina this week. And then of course we get the thunderstorms to go along with that. So I spent some time outside because even though it's been hotter than, well you know, because it hasn't really been humid. But I have been able to escape into Central Air, which is a godsend (remind me to tell you about the hottest week in history last year and how our Central Air died). But whether I was in or out this week, I have found some great books! What kind of bookish finds do I have this week? Well, if you haven't had the opportunity to be in a  library, bookstore or other bookish place, let's talk about Zadie Smith...

Zadie Smith's newest book, The Fraud, came out this week. There has been so much buzz about this book! The Author is known for her stories to shine a light on religion, race, and cultures in a way that keeps us entertained but aware. They have a bit of humor added. And her writing just pulls you into whatever story she has written. Her newest addition to her long list of published works is winning readers over. Published by Penguin Press, coming in at 464 pages, and released this past tuesday. Here is what the publisher shares about the story...

It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.

Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also skeptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.

Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.

The “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . .

Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”

This is definitely on my wishlist! I can't wait to read it and see how all these characters come together to make another amazing story by Zadie Smith. You can read an excerpt on Penguin Press.

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Next on my list of "You HAVE" to put this on your TBR list, even if you are NOT a fantasy reader, is Rebecca Yarro's Fourth Wing. I am not usually a fantasy reader, but I think I need to rethink that. I picked this book up after hearing some buzz about it and opened the pages to find myself unable to tear myself away! OMG, I was enjoying this story so much and Rebecca's writing. Was it because the main character, Violet, is a girl with a lot of spunk, but quietly vulnerable trying to hide her weaknesses away so she can survive and I can empathize with her?  This book has gotten tons of love from Tiktok and just about everywhere. Here's the publisher's description...

Welcome to the brutal and elite world of Basgiath War College, where everyone has an agenda, and every night could be your last...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general - also known as her tough-as-talons mother - has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away... because dragons don't bond to 'fragile' humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter - like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Alliances will be forged. Lives will be lost. Traitors will become allies... or even lovers. But sleep with one eye open because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

There was a lot of nail biting when I got to the part where Violet was entering the school to start her training. And it's not all dragons and swords... there is also some romance. But I'm not finished yet and I shouldn't say anymore. I think if you enjoyed The Hunger Games, this would be a no brainer, but if you aren't into fantasy, dragon rider reads, I would say, you should give this a try I don't think you'd be disappointed. I haven't been... 

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarrow published by Entangled Publishing this past May, has a 514 page count. You'll want to read this soon because the sequel Iron Flame will be released November 7, 2023! 

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Finally this week, a book that has gotten an equal amount of buzz and has been called "A wrenching love story” by author Chris Bohjalian in his review in The Washington Post. It is based on the true love story of Anne Lister and Eliza Raines, two young girls who meet at their English boarding school. Here's what the publisher shares...

Adding to the already moving, richly told and gripping collection of historical fiction from Emma Donoghue, Learned By Heart is the breathtaking story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever.

Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains drawn wide, is bright with starlight. They talk in whispers, not to disturb the maids who lie sleeping on the other side of the box room. The question Eliza's been needing to ask swells like a great berry in her mouth, and all at once she's not scared to let it out, not scared at all, not scared of anything...

In 1805 fourteen-year-old Eliza Raine is a school girl at the Manor School for Young Ladies in York. The daughter of an Indian mother and a British father, Eliza was banished to this unfamiliar country as a little girl. When she first stepped off the King George in Kent, Eliza was accompanied by her older sister, Jane, but now she boards alone at the Manor, with no one left to claim her. She spends her days avoiding the attention of her fellow pupils until, one day, a fearless and charismatic new student arrives at the school. The two girls are immediately thrown together and soon Eliza's life is turned inside out by this strange and curious young woman.

Learned by Heart, Emma Donoghue's mesmerising new novel, tells the heartbreaking story of the tangled lives of two women whose intense, and unlikely, relationship will change them for ever.

I know author Emma Donoghue by her book (which was also a good movie adaptation), Room. But she has written many more books than that one. As I was diving more into the story behind Learned by Heart, I discovered many historical references to Anne Lister, books written solely about her and her diary, and that there is actually an HBO Max series based on the life of Anne Lister. She seems like a very interesting woman. If you'd like to hear just a small bit of Anne's diary, Here is a clip from the reading of her diary by Sarah Waters of the group Historic England.

Published by Little,Brown , running 336 pages, Learned By Heart by Emma Donoghue was released on August 29th and should be available at your favorite bookstore!

This Week in Review...

Thursday... Pick Me, Pick Me, September book club selections from 2 of my favorite online book clubs.

Friday... First Lines Friday, They say the first lines of a book can make it or break it, and here are the first lines of a little book called  Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood

Also Friday... NEW Look for Chick with Books! It's been almost 25 years (next Feb will be 25years) and I thought it was time to update the look and feel of the blog. Tell me what you think!

Do you read fantasy books?

I hope you found something here that piqued your interest! These are a few of the books on my nightstand, in my Kindle, on my wishlist... I'll be sharing some more exciting finds during the week, so stop by soon...

Happy Reading... Suzanne

First Lines Friday...

Let me begin again.

Dear Ma,
I am writing to reach you- even if each word I put down is one word further from where you are. I am writing to go back to the time, at the rest stop in Virginia, when you stared, horror-stuck, at the taxidermy buck hung over the soda machine by the restrooms, its antlers shadowing your face. In the car, you kept shaking your head. “I don’t understand why they would do that. Can’t they see it’s a corpse? A corpse should go away, not get stuck forever like that.”
                                  …… On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel  by Ocean Vuong

In My Mailbox...

In My Mailbox... I've received some great books in my mailbox! And I decided I would join in on the fun sharing them with you and the other bloggers participating in Mailbox Monday!

Mailbox Monday is a weekly event for bloggers to share what books arrived in their mailboxes. Mailbox Monday was originally created by Marcia of To Be Continued and is now hosted by Vicki, Serena and Leslie at Mailbox Monday's own blog.

So, here are the books...

The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian... From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest Room comes a spine-tingling novel of lies, loss, and buried desire—the mesmerizing story of a wife and mother who vanishes from her bed late one night.

When Annalee Ahlberg goes missing, her children fear the worst. Annalee is a sleepwalker whose affliction manifests in ways both bizarre and devastating. Once, she merely destroyed the hydrangeas in front of her Vermont home. More terrifying was the night her older daughter, Lianna, pulled her back from the precipice of the Gale River bridge. The morning of Annalee's disappearance, a search party combs the nearby woods. Annalee's husband, Warren, flies home from a business trip. Lianna is questioned by a young, hazel-eyed detective. And her little sister, Paige, takes to swimming the Gale to look for clues. When the police discover a small swatch of fabric, a nightshirt, ripped and hanging from a tree branch, it seems certain Annalee is dead, but Gavin Rikert, the hazel-eyed detective, continues to call, continues to stop by the Ahlbergs' Victorian home. As Lianna peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Annalee's disappearance, she finds herself drawn to Gavin, but she must ask herself: Why does the detective know so much about her mother? Why did Annalee leave her bed only when her father was away? And if she really died while sleepwalking, where was the body?
     Conjuring the strange and mysterious world of parasomnia, a place somewhere between dreaming and wakefulness, The Sleepwalker is a masterful novel from one of our most treasured storytellers.

This sounds like a great read! I've been so into murder mysteries lately, this was a nice surprise from Doubleday Books as an eGalley to my Kindle! Thank you! Published by Doubleday Books with a release date of January 10, 2017.

The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge... From the award-winning author and New Yorker contributor, a riveting novel about secrets and scandals,  psychiatry and pulp fiction, inspired by the lives of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle.

Marina Willett, M.D., has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends--or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears. The police say it's suicide. Marina is a psychiatrist, and she doesn't believe them. A tour-de-force of storytelling, The Night Ocean follows the lives of some extraordinary people: Lovecraft, the most influential American horror writer of the 20th century, whose stories continue to win new acolytes, even as his racist views provoke new critics; Barlow, a seminal scholar of Mexican culture who killed himself after being blackmailed for his homosexuality (and who collaborated with Lovecraft on the beautiful story "The Night Ocean"); his student, future Beat writer William S. Burroughs; and L.C. Spinks, a kindly Canadian appliance salesman and science-fiction fan -- the only person who knows the origins of The Erotonomicon, purported to be the intimate diary of Lovecraft himself. As a heartbroken Marina follows her missing husband's trail in an attempt to learn the truth, the novel moves across the decades and along the length of the continent, from a remote Ontario town, through New York and Florida to Mexico City. The Night Ocean is about love and deception -- about the way that stories earn our trust, and betray it.

I've heard so many wonderful comments about this book, I was thrilled when I found this in my mailbox! Thanks Penguin! Published by Penguin Press with a release date of March 7, 2017.

The Lady's Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran... The next steamy historical romance in USA TODAY bestselling and RITA award-winning author Meredith Duran’s “wonderfully indulgent” (Publishers Weekly) Rules for the Reckless series.

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL...
Trapped in the countryside, facing an unwanted marriage and the theft of her fortune, Jane Mason is done behaving nicely. To win her freedom, she’ll strike a deal with the most dangerous man she knows—a rising star in politics, whose dark good looks mask an even darker heart.

...NEVER GOES TO PLAN.
The bitter past has taught Crispin Burke to trust no one. He’ll gladly help a lovely young heiress, provided she pays a price. Yet when a single mistake shatters his life, it is Jane who holds the key to his salvation. And in a world that no longer makes sense, Crispin slowly realizes that she may be the only thing worth fighting for...

How do you get through a cold winter?! With some HOT reading! Both this book by Meredith Duran and the story collection below, by some of the top romance writers of the decade, make for some steamy reading on a cold winter’s night! Thank you Pocket Books! Release date of Feb. 28th, 2017.

What Happens Under the Mistletoe, a story collection by Sabrina Jeffries, Karen Hawkins, Candace Camp and Meredith Duran… New York Times bestselling authors Sabrina Jeffries, Karen Hawkins, and Candace Camp, and USA TODAY bestselling author Meredith Duran come together for a sizzling historical romance holiday anthology.

Stunned by the heat of an unexpected kiss on a cold winter’s eve, two strangers from vastly different worlds turn hotheaded principles into burning passion in Sabrina Jeffries’s delightful yuletide story, "The Heiress and the Hothead". 

In the snowy Scottish countryside, Karen Hawkins’s rakish duke has an unforgettable holiday encounter in "Twelve Kisses" when the alluring lady he surprises under the mistletoe is not who he expected, but a long-lost love with a score to settle. 

In "By Any Other Name", Edinburgh is aglitter for Christmastime as Candace Camp sends a curious gentleman in hot pursuit of an intriguing lady in disguise—one who refuses to reveal her true identity, though she fears he has already stolen her heart with his kiss. 

In "Sweet Ruin", will the festive spirit of the season sweep Meredith Duran’s feisty heroine beneath the mistletoe—and back into the arms of the dashing rogue whose carelessness soiled her reputation and sent her into exile in London?

In this all-new story collection sparkling with sexy charm and heartwarming wit, four beloved bestselling authors reveal the mix-ups and make-ups, the missed chances and golden opportunities that come but once a year.

This story collection was published by Pocket Books and released in October of 2015, which means you can pick up a copy NOW! 

Memoir Monday and The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja Mills

About the Book, from the author's website… To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. But for the last fifty years, the novel’s celebrated author, Harper Lee, has said almost nothing on the record. Journalists have trekked to her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where Harper Lee, known to her friends as Nelle, has lived with her sister, Alice, for decades, trying and failing to get an interview with the author. But in 2001, the Lee sisters opened their door to Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills. It was the beginning of a long conversation—and a great friendship.

In 2004, with the Lees’ blessing, Mills moved into the house next door to the sisters. She spent the next eighteen months there, sharing coffee at McDonalds and trips to the Laundromat with Nelle, feeding the ducks and going out for catfish supper with the sisters, and exploring all over lower Alabama with the Lees’ inner circle of friends.

Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practiced. As the sisters decided to let Mills tell their story, Nelle helped make sure she was getting the story—and the South—right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family.

The Mockingbird Next Door is the story of Mills’s friendship with the Lee sisters. It is a testament to the great intelligence, sharp wit, and tremendous storytelling power of these two women, especially that of Nelle.

Mills was given a rare opportunity to know Nelle Harper Lee, to be part of the Lees’ life in Alabama, and to hear them reflect on their upbringing, their corner of the Deep South, how To Kill a Mockingbird affected their lives, and why Nelle Harper Lee chose to never write another novel. 

Here's another wonderful example of a recluse author opening up for us all to enjoy. The reviews of this book point out that there is nothing earth shattering revealed here, but a wonderful testament to Southern hospitality and a wonderful way of life. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books, and I look forward to The Mockingbird Next Door! On my TBR list!