New Release Tuesday... and My Top 3 (maybe 4) picks...

 

Happy New Release Day! There are always many new books to choose from on "New Releases Tuesday"! It's summer and thoughts turn to breezy sweeping stories that I can melt into. Here are my top picks for this week... (the last one is not a breezy story though 😲)

The River Muse by Laura Resau... 
A French chateau. A forest with secrets. A magical spring. Welcome to La Chanson, where lost souls are found again…

At the brink of summer, Callie arrives in a secluded village in the South of France with her young daughter, after barely escaping her menacing ex-partner. Desperate to hide, she rents a cottage on the grounds of the Chateau of the Lost. Her new home sings with flowing water, rustling olive trees, and whispering poppies—an otherworldly nook of hidden magic. Little by little, she warms to her quirky neighbors—a witchy landlady, an acclaimed truffle hunter, his kind veterinarian son, and their lovable dogs. Oh, and a mischievous ghost boy.

Slowly but surely, her new friends help her discover herself again. Years earlier, she gave up music at the insistence of her ex, but as she reclaims her voice, everyone finds that her songs open hearts and heal old wounds. When her ex tracks her down, the stakes grow deadly, and she must tap into her most powerful self to protect her newfound family.

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June Baby by Shannon Garvey...
Some summers never leave you.

In this moving debut novel, set over the course of one transformative summer in the lush, beachy enclave of Block Island, a young woman reckons with love, loss, and the choices she must make to move forward.

At seventeen, Ruth lost her mother to cancer, and her father, unable to handle his grieving daughter, shipped her off to Block Island with nothing but a name scribbled on the back of a receipt: Diana Beckett. Diana, a renowned photographer, took Ruth in for the summer, and Block Island became Ruth’s refuge, a place of beauty and creativity, a place where she could nurture her dreams of being a writer, a place where she could fall in love for the first time—with Diana’s nephew, Charlie.

Now, at twenty-seven, Ruth has spent the last ten summers living and working among the lucky few who get to vacation in this wealthy beach town, and the rest of the year just scraping by, yearning to return to the place where she feels safe and unburdened. But then Ruth’s world is upended by tragedy again. Desperate for an anchor, she reaches for the person she’s been pining for since she met him—Charlie—who has his own startling revelation to share. And when another surprise comes in the form of a box left to Ruth by Diana, its contents raise questions about just how well she knew the two women who raised her. Torn between what to believe about her past, and what her future might hold, Ruth is faced with another choice: does she dare to rewrite her story entirely?

Both a heartfelt coming-of-age story and a tender exploration of love and grief, set against a backdrop of golden dunes and seaside sunsets, June Baby shows us what it might look like to embrace a life shaped not by loss, but by possibility.

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The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline...
A boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.

Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined.

Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.

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The Anniversary by Alex Finley...
Every May 1st, a serial killer stalks a small town. Every year he comes for them . . 

On May 1, 1992, Jules Delaney and Quinn Riley hardly know each other.

Jules is high school queen bee in a small Midwestern town when she survives a brutal attack by the elusive May Day Killer―a predator who strikes every May 1st and then vanishes without a trace. Quinn, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested the same night after trying to break up a fight and nearly killing someone.

By morning, their lives are forever connected.

A year later, Jules is haunted by trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was she spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to devastating news―the unsolved murder of his mother.

Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year: May 1st.

As the years pass, secrets surface, lies unravel, and the paths of Jules and Quinn draw closer together. Two mysteries edge toward the truth―what really happened the night Jules was attacked, and who murdered Quinn’s mother? All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there.

And the clock is racing toward another anniversary.

Twisty, high-concept, and emotionally charged, The Anniversary is an addictive murder mystery and nail-biting thriller―but it’s also a tender, heartrending story about fate, innocence lost, and two people bound by a single day. With its masterful structure and propulsive tension, The Anniversary reaffirms Alex Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

First Lines Friday... and Taking a Trip to the Upstate of South Carolina

The Hammerhead Chronicles by Scott Gould... Your wife dies and you buy an expensive foreign bicycle, and yes, you know how that sounds, how cold and borderline brutal, how it possesses not even the tiniest speck of compassion, but you have been lusting after a bicycle much longer than she has been dying, and the two eents collide on a Thursday evening in late summer. Call it synchronicity. Call it whatever you want. Except don't call it unfeeling.

Because she isn't really your wife when she passes away. Okay, technically, maybe on paper Peg is. But she is a month and a day from becoming your official ex-wife, what with South Carolina's odd, year-long waiting (contemplating? second-guessing?) period after you separate...

I did a google search the other day to see how many local authors there were near me in the Upstate of South Carolina. I found two authors that stood out... Susan Boyer, who writes the Lowcountry mysteries (the Lowcountry is Charleston, SC and that area) and Scott Gould, who I had never heard of before.

Then I googled Scott Gould and learned he has 6 books under his belt and has won numerous awards for his writing. Then I looked up his books and read a little bit of a few of them. From the small bit of writing I sampled of Scott, I really liked his writing. My library actually had a copy of Strangers to Temptation, Scott Gould's short story collection, which I promptly took out. AND, I bought a copy of The Hammerhead Chronicles so I could have a leisurely story to read of Scott's. Here's the blurb from the publisher about The Hammerhead Chronicles:

On the day Claude slaps down a credit card for an expensive racing bicycle, his soon-to-be-ex-wife passes away. As Claude begins a quest to pedal away from his marriage and his grief, we encounter the Southern eccentrics that orbit his world: his overly independent, rebellious teenage daughter; his foul-mouthed sister-in-law who deftly stalks her husband's mistress; twin, gay bookstore owners who serve the profitable underground Confederacy market out of their "special" back room; the math professor possessing an attic full of rats and a penchant for revenge; a skinny bartender-named for a Marine base-who preaches a suck-it-up philosophy; and Claude's recently deceased wife, observing it all from the Great Beyond, where she is annoyed by the lack of decent weather and by the troubled, tangled lives she left behind.

I love quirky characters and the stories that bring these types of characters alive. And I am really looking forward to reading all of these stories from Scott Gould! 

Would the First Lines of this book make you want to read it?

Hammerhead Chronicles was published by:

 University of North Georgia Press in 2022.

The Sunday Salon... and Spring has Sprung, or at Least Great Books are Popping up all Around Us!

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!

This week has been a crazy weather week in South Carolina. From 40 degrees to 80 degrees and rain here and there. I just bought some seed starter soil and plan to make some seed snails the beginning of the week. Have you heard about seed snails? Cut a waterproof feed bag or bubblewrap into 6 inch x 18 inches, lay it out flat and layer that with about an inch of damp seed starting soil. Leave about 4 inches without soil on the end. Roll it up. Then put your seeds on top, cover with a thin bit of soil, cover with a baggie and you're good to go! Put in a waterproof tray and put them somewhere sunny. We'll keep you updated on how that is going. Cross your fingers. It's the first time I'm trying this before actually planting them in the garden or seeding them in the garden. Spring is definitely in the air!

And speaking of the start of Spring, how about all the great books coming out now?!! Let me share my reading week now too...

She Fell Away by Lenore Nash... A State Department diplomat must confront the ghosts of her past as she searches for a missing American woman in New Zealand in this pulse-pounding and unputdownable thriller.

Lake Harlowe may not appear to be your typical State Department diplomat. With the number of skeletons in her closet exceeding the tattoos on her skin, she moves to a new country every few years to keep one step ahead of her personal demons. After two grueling years working in Cambodia, Lake’s desperate for a break and a new posting to sleepy Wellington, New Zealand, seems like a dream come true.

That is, until eighteen-year-old singer-songwriter Bowie Bishop mysteriously vanishes shortly after American NFL player Bruce Walter is found dead in his hotel room. An exchange student from Las Vegas, Bowie was a world away from her possessive, washed-up stage mom who won’t stop calling until Lake finds her superstar daughter.

All at once, Lake finds herself ensnared in a network of deception involving Bowie’s high-profile host family, a shadowy music producer, a casino magnate, and the US ambassador—her boss. Obsessed with finding the truth, Lake soon realizes that to find the missing girl, she must confront her own dark past in this unputdownable thriller that will keep you guessing until the final page.

I just started reading She Fell Away and was hooked right from the start with Lenore Nash's writing. I wasn't sure what to expect with a "State Department diplomat" as the lead character. Will she be on the sidelines and on the phones doing "diplomatic things"? Nope, she is right in the thick of things, currently standing and looking over a dead body. No, this girl definitely isn't just on the phone, although she is the liason between the victims and the families. I'm really looking forward to reading this! Published by Atria Books and coming out this TUESDAY, MARCH 10th!

(P.S. This is Lenore Nash's debut thriller, but her romances, under a different name, are wildly popular)

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Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood... An enemies-to-lovers spicy novella set in the world of video gaming from the New York Times bestselling author of Problematic Summer Romance—now in print and ebook!

Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, aka her archnemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her—and Viola has no idea why.

When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you.

But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one.

If you are a big Ali Hazelwood fan, and there a LOT of them, here's her newest book. I have heard so many wonderful things about it, and have seen it EVERYwhere! Now it is my house and ready for me to crack the spine thanks to my local library. I just happen to see that it was just checked in and no wait, which is a rare occurance, but I jumped at the chance. Especially since it is only a little over 200 pages, I should be able to fit this in with my other reading "obligations". I'm expecting a fun read. Published by Berkley.

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In Her Defense by Philippa Malicka...  As a sensational celebrity libel trial unfolds, a young woman at the periphery secretly wields the power to make or break the case. But with her own hidden past, will she dare to speak up?

Everyone is watching. Only one person knows the truth.

The whole country has been riveted by the trial: Beloved TV star and national treasure Anna Finbow, standing in court, accusing her daughter’s therapist Jean Guest of brainwashing her daughter Mary for her own financial gain. Jean insists Mary’s traumatic memories arise from her upbringing and her time studying at a prestigious art school in Rome; wounds only Jean’s therapy can heal. But as the trial unfolds, it’s Augusta “Gus” Bird, Anna’s former employee—a seemingly insignificant bystander, a nobody—who holds the key to unraveling the tangled web of lies and deceit.

What really happened to Mary in Rome? And if her memories can’t be trusted, how will they ever uncover the truth behind her estrangement? Twisty and propulsive, In Her Defense is a compulsively readable debut for fans of Lucy Foley and Laura Dave.

I also was able to grab this at my local library this week. It's been on my radar ever since Reese Witherspoon picked it for her February Book Club selection. I wasn't sure about the whole celebrity trial premise, but I usually enjoy Reese's picks, so it's in the TBR pile for the next 14 days. Published by Scribner.

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Oscar Movie Watch...

I'm still trying to get all those Best Picture Oscar nominated films under my belt. Last night was F1 with Brad Pitt. It's a racing movie, with Brad Pitt being the "Old guy" vs the young up and coming racer and they need to figure out how to work together to accomplish their common goal of winning for the team. I'm not into racing really, but I enjoyed the thrill of the track. And Brad Pitt... he looks like a young Robert Redford now that he's matured a bit. He was very good in the movie. I don't think it outshines Hamnet or Frankenstein (my secret choice before seeing Hamnet). P.S. When did renting a movie start to cost $20?!? I was able to borrow this movie from the library, but hesitate to pay $20 for a rental. Ugh. 

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Weekly Round-up...

Memoir Monday... Adult Braces by Lindy West was our Memoir for the week. Read about it HERE!

Tuesday's New Book Releases... Historical Fiction was the genre of choice for this Tuesday's releases! Check them out HERE!

First Lines Friday... Music gone missing! Or at least the woman behind the music in Wait For Me by Amy Jo Burns. Read about it HERE!

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That about wraps up this week in my reading week! How about you?! What have you been reading or has captured your attention? I hope you found something interesting here today! More books and bookish things next week!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon...and Did You Ever Hear About "The Women"?

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 ! It's been a while since I've shared a book or two. I have been reading and busier than ever since retiring, but I need to get back here... I miss sharing all the great reads I've been enjoying! So, this week, I wanted to share something recommended to me during a recent visit to the Vietnam Veterans display of The Wall that Heals...

This week, in my little town, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, The Wall That Heals came... displayed in a field, in beautiful farm land, not too far from where I live. The Wall That Heals is a replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial that is in Washington, DC. It also is an educational center as the trailer that brings in the memorial is turned into a learning experience with displays and information that brings what the Vietnam Veteran's experienced to life.

Even though this is a 3/4 replica of the original memorial in DC, it still has the power to move anyone who sees it. The over 58,000 names displayed is enough to silence the room, but seeing how the Veterans who visit are moved by their visit, brought tears to my eyes. 

One of the facts I learned during my visit to The Wall was that there are only 8 women whose names appear on The Wall. These 8 women were all nurses that died while serving in the Vietnam war. And on the day I visited The Wall, I sought out these women to see their names among the many. I had their names and their locations on the wall. As I stood in front of one of the panels I was approached by one of the Veteran volunteers. He asked me if I had any questions, and if I'd like to do a rubbing of any of the names on the wall. I explained to him, that I did not have any relatives engraved on the wall, but that I was amazed how there were only 8 women on the wall. We got to talking about those women and their histories. He shared his story with me, and I thanked him for his service and told him I was glad that he was able to come home and glad he was okay. "Okay is a relative word" he tells me. And I understood what he meant without further explanation... but then a strange thing happened. This Vietnam Vet, a man in his 70's, tells me if I am interested in these women, I should read, The Women by Kristin Hannah. He went on to tell me, that even though it is fiction, it really tells the story, the experience, of one woman during her time in Vietnam. He originally picked the book up because of the cover, which shows a helicopter flying over palm trees. He read it because of it's story... Here is the blurb about the book found on Goodreads...

Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

You can learn more about The Wall That Heals at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. You can learn more about the women "on the wall" by clicking on this link.

Have you read any books about the Vietnam War? 

Fiction or Nonfiction?

The Women by Kristin Hannah was published by St. Martins Press February of 2024. You can listen to an excerpt on the publishers page.

Summer time is coming and reading is heating up along with the weather in South Carolina. I'm looking forward to sharing some great reads...

Happy reading... Suzanne

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...

New Book from Fredrik Backman!

 For the fans of Fredrik Backman there's a new book on the horizon! It's called My Friends, will be published by Atria Books and available to purchase on May 20th of this year. Nice and hefty, the page count is 448 according to the publisher... and I love fat books! 

If you're not familiar with Fredrik Backman, he wrote A Man Called Ove, which was a massive hit and made into a pretty good movie. He has written more than just that book, with a total of a dozen including this newest one. 

Here's the blurb from the publisher about My Friends...

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

AND... I just received an ARC of My Friends by Fredrik Backman for my Kindle and can't wait to start reading it! So as we settle down into the new year, stay tuned for my review of My Friends by Fredrik Backman... 

P.S. Here's my review of Fredrik Backman's novella, And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, a beautifully written story about the effects of Alzheimers in a loved one. 

First Lines Friday...

HIS GAZE OVER the majestic panorama of Manhattan, 218 feet below, was interrupted by the alarm.

He had never before heard the urgent electronic pulsing on the job.

He was familiar with the sound from training, while getting his Fall Protection Certificate, but never on shift. His level of skill and the sophistication of the million-dollar contraption beneath him were such that there had never been a reason for the high-pitched sound to fill the cab in which he sat.                        

                 ... The Watchmakers Hand by Jeffery Deaver

Welcome back Lincoln Rhyme! I originally met Lincoln Rhyme, quadriplegic detective, in The Bone Collector (I think a lot of people did). It was a great book and a great movie starring Denzel Washington as the man himself. This is a murder thriller set in New York City. This will be published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 28, 2023! So mark your calendars! I received an eBook Galley from G.P. Putnam's Sons to review and I am in the middle of The Watchmaker's Hand and really enjoying it! Watch for my review coming soon...

Memoir Monday... or rather Ironing out the Truths of History

The Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann... On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is on all the Buzz lists. Descriptions like Masterful, a Tour de Force, Incredible have all been used to describe it. Although not a Memoir, the base of its' essence is memoirs. The diaries and journals David Grann could find to lay out all the players and their accounts of the HMS Wager and what happened to the ship and its' crew. Years of research. It sounds so interesting to me. And I am also curious as to the different accounts of what happened. Published by Doubleday ( and found on the Penguin Randomhouse website), The Wager is available at your favorite bookstore! 

The Sunday Salon... and Great Books in my eReader...

 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. Thank you to Deb at ReaderBuzz for keeping us all together on Sundays now and hosting The Sunday Salon! 

There are so many great books to talk about this week! I'm limited myself to the 3 I think you've got to hear about first and are availabe right now at your favorite book... 

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman... 

One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her? Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.

Alice Hoffman always writes wonderful, sink your teeth into stories. Some sprinkled with magic, it's been a few years since we've gotten a new story so this is exciting! Just published and released by Atria Books  August 15th, let's journey with Mia as she learns the strength that exists inside of her. This is waiting for me in my eReader courtesy of Atria Books! A thank you to them for the opportunity to review The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman! I can't wait!!

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Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death by Maria Vale... 

Death needs a do-over. Azrael--Grim Reaper, Destroyer, Angel of Death--has messed up. Instead of taking Molly Molloy's soul, he accidentally saves her from choking on a chicken wing. Molly has been visited by Death before. He took her parents, her grandparents. Her first love. But now this utterly unexceptional waitress at a breastaurant in New York can see him. Touch him. Talk to him. Say 'no' to him. Make him doubt. The Powers that Be are waiting for Death to fix his mistake but before he can, he makes one more...

He falls in love.

We've gotten a glimpse of the grim reaper in books and television (Dead Like Me fans should love this book) and it's always interesting to see another aspect of "his" personality. Of course he is the Grim Reaper, so he is gathering souls, but how does he manage to fall in love? This is waiting in my eReader for me too, courtesy of Wild & Ashe LLC who published the ebook. Sungrazer Publishing has published the paperback version. Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death by Maria Vale is now available at your favorite bookstore AND the Kindle version is only $4.99 right now!

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Someone Else's Shoes by JoJo Moyes... 

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes? Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself. Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.

I love JoJo Moyes writing! I interviewed her for Chick with Books in 2018, when she came out with her book Still Me, which continued the story of Louisa Clark, who we first met in Me Before You. ( You can find that interview HERE ). She writes these characters that just pull you in. Totally relatable, flawed but honest characters. Someone Else's Shoes sounds like a fun romp with the heartwarming characters JoJo Moyes is known for. Published by Pamela Dorman Books, a division of Penguin the beginning of 2023, you can find this at your favorite bookstore! Right now this is on my wishlist!

So, there you have it! 3 books that look like great reads and available right now! Next Sunday, I'll share some books that you should mark your calendars for because they are the ones you are going to want to read next!

What's on your Nightstand? or eReader?

Weekly Wrap-up:

Tuesday...

This week I've been reading about those "Golden Girls" of  a secret government agency taking care of business in Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. It's my Library Loot for this week and in my eReader. As I get to know these ladies and the story their story, I am obsessively turning those pages to get to what happens next. I love Deanna Raybourn's Victorian Mystery series and so far, the writing here is holding my attention. It's not a "gripping" read, more light reading with a good story. Stay tuned for the review coming...

 And just in case you missed... My Review on The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston. A mix of  Top Chef and a Rom Com.

Hope you've found something interesting here! Leave me a comment and let me know what piques your interest! Happy reading... Suzanne

Library Loot....

 "Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire—it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller"

Library cards are a great thing to have... and this week I used my Pickens County Library Card and downloaded Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. A light, "fun" read by a writer that is primarily known for her 2 Victorian Mystery series that star bright female protagonists. Killers of a Certain Age is set in contemporary times, starring 4 women who were recruited while in college and trained to be international assasins for a group working outside of the "system". They've been at it for 40 years now and are on their retirement cruise... but it's not all fun and games and something is afoot on that ship...

Buzzfeed summed up its' review of this book as "The Golden Girls meets James Bond thriller."

Do you have a library card? 

Published September of last year by Penguin Random House,  be on the lookout for my review...

Memoir Monday...

One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank... With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment one Saturday afternoon to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Sephardic Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium. Neither of them could know this was the first of one hundred Saturdays that they would spend in each other’s company as Stella traveled back in time to conjure what it felt like to come of age on this luminous, legendary island in the eastern Aegean, which the Italians won in 1912 as the Ottoman empire was disintegrating, began officially governing as a colonial possession in 1923, and transformed over the next two decades until the Germans seized control and deported the entire Juderia to Auschwitz in July of 1944.

Probing and courageous, candid and sly, Stella is a magical modern-day Scheherazade whose stories reveal what it was like to grow up in an extraordinary place in an extraordinary time—and to construct a life after that place vanished. One Hundred Saturdays is a portrait of one of the last survivors, drawn at nearly the last possible moment; it is also an account of a tender and transformative friendship that develops between storyteller and listener as they explore the fundamental mystery of what it means to collect, share, and interpret the deepest truths of a life deeply lived.

In the vein of Tuesday with Morrie, Michael Frank spends 100 Saturdays, nearly 6 years, talking with Stella Levi in her Greenwich Village apartment. A chance meeting at a lecture turns into a wonderful friendship and of Stella sharing her story, her life.

One Hundred Saturdays was listed under the Indies Next selections as one the 6 Now in Paperback selections for September 2023. Originally this book was in the running for the Indie Next pick in September of 2022, but didn't win the #1 spot. But that's how I found this book... reading about Septembers' picks. And it intrigued me. I generally shy away from books about the Holocaust. They just depress me. But this book takes place in an area I'm unfamiliar with: Rhodes, Greece. But not only is this a story of survival, but it also is a coming of age story. I like how the author and Stella Levi meet and how the author takes the next 100 saturdays to listen to Stella recount her life to him. 

On my nightstand, published by Avid Reader Press, a division of Simon & Schuster last September, it is now available in paperback.

Book Spotlight on... The Queen, Her Life by Andrew Morton

The Queen, Her Life by Andrew Morton... Biographer Andrew Morton provides the definitive, most comprehensive account of Queen Elizabeth II's legendary reign. 

Painfully shy, Elizabeth Windsor’s personality was well suited to her youthful ambition of living quietly in the country, raising a family, and caring for her dogs and horses. But when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated, she became heir to the throne—embarking on a journey that would test her as a woman and as a queen.

Ascending to the throne at only 25, this self-effacing monarch navigated endless setbacks, family conflict, and occasional triumphs throughout her 70 years as the Queen of England. As her mettle was tested, she endeavored to keep the monarchy relevant culturally, socially, and politically, often in the face of resistance from inside the institution itself. And yet the greatest challenges she faced were often inside her own family, forever under intense scrutiny; from rumors about her husband’s infidelity, her sister’s marital breakdown, Princess Diana’s tragic death, to the recent departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Now in The Queen, renowned biographer Andrew Morton takes an in-depth look at Britain’s longest reigning monarch, exploring the influence Queen Elizabeth has had on both Britain and the rest of the world for much of the last century. From leading a nation struggling to restore itself after the devastation of the second World War to navigating the divisive political landscape of the present day, Queen Elizabeth has been a reluctant but resolute queen. This is the story of a woman of unflagging self-discipline who will long be remembered as mother and grandmother to Great Britain, and one of the greatest sovereigns of the modern era.

I haven't read one Andrew Morton book, but I love the Queen. Somehow I just see Andrew Morton as a sensationalist, putting gossip into print. I don't know why, it's just the impression I get from celebrity biographies that aren't authorized by the subject of the book. Andrew Morton did get authorization from one of his subjects... Princess Diana, for his book Diana, Her True Story in Her Own Words. With the recent passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, Andrew Morton's book will be published November 15th by Grand Central Publishing. The book was originally scheduled for release in 2023. Grand Central Publishing generously sent me an eGalley to read. One point to note is that this book is suppose to be an "update" to his book published last year for the Queen's Jubilee. I'm looking forward to reading this. It has gotten good reviews and Grand Central Publishing generously sent me an eGalley to read & review. So mark your calendars for Nov 15th, when The Queen by Andrew Morton will be available at your local bookstore! And keep your eyes out for my review coming soon...

It's Banned Books Week!

Memoir Monday...

The Puzzler by A.J. Jacobs... What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A.J. Jacobs—four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder—set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost.

In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters (sometimes with his family in tow) any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw. Chock-full of unforgettable adventures and original examples from around the world—including new work by Greg Pliska, one of America’s top puzzle-makers, and a hidden, super-challenging but solvable puzzle that will earn the first reader to crack it a $10,000 prize*—The Puzzler will open readers’ eyes to the power of flexible thinking and concentration. Whether you’re puzzle obsessed or puzzle hesitant, you’ll walk away with real problem-solving strategies and pathways toward becoming a better thinker and decision maker—for these are certainly puzzling times.

I'm a puzzle solver and a scrabble player. I love a good word search. I love Wordle. I guess you could call me a word nerd. The Puzzler by A.J. Jacobs sounds like a fun read... and it is contains a puzzle too. Published by Crown just this past April, this read is on my wishlist.

Memoir Monday... and a Great Father's Day Gift!

The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski... A magnum opus from acclaimed baseball writer Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 is an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write. The entire story of baseball rings through a countdown of the 100 greatest players in history, with a foreword by George Will.

Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious,​The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski that tells the story of the sport through the remarkable lives of its 100 greatest players. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize–winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than 200 years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?”

Baseball’s legends come alive in these pages, which are not merely rankings but vibrant profiles of the game’s all-time greats. Posnanski dives into the biographies of iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. He doesn’t rely just on records and statistics—he lovingly retraces players’ origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseball’s past and present. Just how good a pitcher is Clayton Kershaw in the twenty-first- century game compared to Greg Maddux dueling with the juiced hitters of the nineties? How do the career and influence of Hank Aaron compare to Babe Ruth’s? Which player in the top ten most deserves to be resurrected from history?

No compendium of baseball’s legendary geniuses could be complete without the players of the segregated Negro Leagues, men whose extraordinary careers were largely overlooked by sportswriters at the time and unjustly lost to history. Posnanski writes about the efforts of former Negro Leaguers to restore sidelined Black athletes to their due honor, and draws upon the deep troves of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and extensive interviews with the likes of Buck O’Neil to illuminate the accomplishments of players such as pitchers Satchel Paige and Smokey Joe Williams; outfielders Oscar Charleston, Monte Irvin, and Cool Papa Bell; first baseman Buck Leonard; shortstop Pop Lloyd; catcher Josh Gibson; and many, many more.

The Baseball 100 treats readers to the whole rich pageant of baseball history in a single volume. Chapter by chapter, Posnanski invites readers to examine common lore with brand-new eyes and learn stories that have long gone unheard. The epic and often emotional reading experience mirrors Posnanski’s personal odyssey to capture the history and glory of baseball like no one else, fueled by his boundless love for the sport.

When I read about this book, I immediately thought of my husband. He's such an avid baseball fan. But fan doesn't even come close to his knowledge of baseball and it's subtle intricacies. I can see him debating the choices and the players that Joe Posnanski ranks in his 100 of the greatest players of baseball and I think that any fan of the game would have fun doing it as well. Published by Avid Reader Press (a division of Simon Schuster) in 2021, I think this would make a great Father's Day gift for the guy who loves baseball...