Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky... A Review

Sometimes I just love to linger in the moment after I read a really good book. I just don't want to let go of the characters... I'm experiencing that right now....

I felt the passion, the betrayal, the calmness as I wrapped myself into the story of Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky. I could smell the lavender and the jasmine. I began to love Quinnipeague as though it were real. And it did seem real. Barbara Delinsky created such a wonderful story, but also one full of depth, not only with the characters that could almost walk off the pages, but with the island itself; from the smells wafting from the herb gardens of the infamous Cecily Cole to the taste of Dorey Jewett's Chowdah at The Chowder House. Every detail beautifully and effortlessly painted.

What can I say... I loved this book! I loved the story of Charlotte & Nicole and how their friendship grows and develops through the story; and how the betrayal of one has us question what is forgivable and if we ourselves could forgive such an act.

I LOVED the love story and the passion between Charlotte and her Man. No names here, you'll have to read it to see who it is! And boy was it passionate!!! I loved the way the fictional book SALT, that everyone was reading in the story, vaguely mimicked Charlottes love story. (And Barbara, if you're reading this, I was so afraid that Charlotte's romance was going to end like SALT that it made me read feverishly into the wee hours of the morning!) The book within the book was a great addition to the plot!

I could empathize with what Nicole and her husband Julian were going through (a serious medical condition), but I didn't particularly like either one of these characters. In Julian's case, maybe a testament to the writing, because if Barbara Delinsky meant for Julian to be so shallow and self absorbed, and I didn't think the serious medical condition attributed to that at all, she did a good job. But this "subplot" added such substance to the story, and served as the thread that makes this book so much more than a romance.

Favorite character? Charlotte hands down, Leo a close second! And Bear just stole my heart!

Read this book! I could not put it down at the end... Light, airy, passionate, and well worth reading! Reading groups will have a field day discussing the depths of this book too!  And that's what my reading group will be discussing in September.

The Dog Days of Summer... Sunday Salon

The "Dog Days" of Summer are usually the hottest days of the year; so hot it's not fit for even a dog. It's the period of July 3rd through August 11th, when the Dog Star, Sirius, rises with the sun. It was thought that the combination of the brightest luminary of the day (the sun) and the brightest star of the night (Sirius) was responsible for the extreme heat that is experienced during that time...

Where did the summer go this year?! Already the mornings are cooler and there's just a hint of fall settling in. And I think, "Where are the Dog Days of Summer book choices?!" So before we get out of summer, let's talk about some great books when we're in a "doggish" mood!.... (BTW, that's BJ reading on the Kindle! For anyone not familiar with my little guy, here's my tribute I wrote for him last March, it really says it all!)

Unsaid by Neil Abramson... What Goodreads had to say... Unsaid explores the beauty and redemptive power of human-animal relationships and the true meaning of communication in all of its diverse forms. As a veterinarian, Helena was required to choose when to end the lives of the terminally ill animals in her care. Now that she has died, she is afraid to face them and finally admit to herself that her thirty-seven years of life were meaningless, error-ridden, and forgettable. So Helena lingers, a silent observer haunted by the life she left behind-her shattered attorney husband, David; her houseful of damaged but beloved animals; and her final project, Cindy, a chimpanzee trained to use sign language who may be able to unlock the mysteries of animal communication and consciousness.  When Cindy is scheduled for a research experiment that will undoubtedly take her life, David must call upon everything he has learned from Helena to save her. In the explosive courtroom drama that follows, all the threads of Helena's life entwine and tear as Helena and David confront their mistakes, grief, and loss and discover what it really means to be human.

I like the idea of Helena "lingering" around to see what happens after her death. I find that these type of characters usually have some great insight about what's going on in the present and are great at reflecting on their past life.

Bones Would Rain From the Sky by Suzanne Clothier... from Goodreads:  This extraordinary book takes a radical new direction in understanding our life with canines and offers us astonishing new lessons about our pets. From changing the misbehaviors and habits that upset us, to seeing the world from their unique and natural perspective, to finding a deep connection with another being, BONES WOULD RAIN FROM THE SKY will help you receive an incomparable gift: a profound, lifelong relationship with the dog you love.

BJ and I had a great relationship. I raised him from a puppy and it was love at first sight. I have always loved reading books that may offer some insight into the relationship we have with our furry companions, but I never had to really rely on any advice... There's a new furry girl in the house now. Her name is Pepper and she's my new hubby's dog. It's a little different not raising her from a puppy and her being "Daddy's Girl". She's three, smart and a pretty independent gal. We snuggle in the morning, go on walks and I love her. It's a new beginning for both of us. Maybe it's time to open up a book or two to brush up on starting a new relationship, so when I saw this book, I just had to buy it. Just like getting out of a rut with our human companions, I think sometimes we need to pay attention to our furry ones. I'll let you know about the book and how Pepper and I develop.


The Possibility Dogs by Susannah Charleson... from Goodreads: Charleson journeys into the world of psychiatric service, where dogs aid humans with disabilities that may be unseen but are no less felt. This work had a profound effect on Charleson, perhaps because, for her, this journey began as a personal one: Charleson herself struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder for months after a particularly grisly search. Collaboration with her search dog partner made the surprising difference to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learns to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, often plucking them from shelters at the last minute, and to train them for work beside hurting partners, to whom these second-chance dogs bring intelligence, comfort, and hope.  

Along the way she comes to see canine potential everywhere, often where she least expects it – from Merlin the chocolate lab puppy with the broken tail once cast away in a garbage bag, who now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks; to Ollie, the blind and deaf terrier, rescued moments before it was too late, who now soothes anxious children; to Jake Piper, the starving pit bull terrier mix with the wayward ears who is transformed into a working service dog and, who, for Charleson, goes from abandoned to irreplaceable.

When I read about Susannah Charleson and her work turning abandoned dogs into contributing members of the community and not only that buy saving the people they find as their forever person, I was intrigued. There is an organization that has developed after her work and the success of this book. Looks like an interesting read, and I look 

forward to  the stories of the turnaround these dogs and people make.

Survivors: The Empty City by Erin Hunter... from Goodreads: The time has come for dogs to rule the wild. Lucky is a golden-haired mutt with a nose for survival. He has always been a loner—roaming the streets of the busy city and relying on his instincts to get by. Other dogs have Packs, but Lucky doesn't long for the days he spent with his littermates. He stands alone. Then the Big Growl strikes. Suddenly the ground is split wide open. The Trap House is destroyed. And all the longpaws have disappeared. Now Lucky is trapped in a strange and desolate new world with no food, foul water, and enemies at every turn. He falls in with others left behind, including his littermate Bella, a Leashed dog. Relying on other dogs—and having them depend on him—brings new dangers that Lucky isn't prepared for, but he may not be able to survive on his own. Can Lucky ever be a true Pack dog?

OK, something a little fun here. Author Erin Hunter is known for her cats and bears, but now she creates a world for us dog lovers. Now people who are true fans of her Warrior series may find fault with some similarities between this series ( I just read some reviews), but I haven't read the Warrior series yet, and I'm hoping that the dystopian world she creates for the d0gs will capture my attention, and I'll have a fun and interesting read. I'll let you know about this too...

So, there you have this summer's Dog Day reading! Funny that what I'm reading right now has a great dog character in it... Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky! Bear is a minor character, but adds a certain dimension to the story. And what a story! OMG, I could not put this down and had to urgently read the last 20 or so pages in the wee hours of the morning to finish it because I had to know how it ended. I'm not telling, but look for my review coming this week. It was my reading groups August pick and it was a fantastic choice! 

Enough of what my picks are this week, what have you been reading?! Any "Doggish" reads to recommend?! I'd love to hear about it, and if you've read any of my choices here, let me know what YOU thought!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon with a Wrap up of Reading and Reading Independently, Literally...

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! It's been a busy two weeks since I've gotten back from Savannah. Connecticut has been HOT and I've spent the last two weeks trying to stay cool and catch up on all my reading! So, here's what I finished, about to finish and in the reading pile...

First, I finished The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip! What an incredibly fun read! I love Mingmei's writing style- it's light and airy, kind of dreamy and sprinkled with Chinese folklore. The stories she writes always have such depth that you might not notice right away because you are so into the characters that have become part of your life. Keep a look out for my review of The Nine Fold Heaven this week! Long story short is I really enjoyed it!

Next on the almost finished table is Bitter Blood by Jerry Bledsoe. It's a true crime novel that takes partly in place in Greensboro, NC, a place dear to my heart. I picked it as a book club book for two reasons. First, I've spent a lot of time in Greensboro, NC the last year and as everyone knew I was a voracious reader, they wanted to know if I had read about the gruesome murders that took place in town written about in Bitter Blood. I had not, so to the local bookstore I went. The second reason I picked it for the book club is, that most everyone in the group use to read murder mysteries and those types of books. The interesting thing that has happened over the years is that no one in the reading group reads much of that type of genre anymore. We kind of forced ourselves to read more "literature" and as time has passed (I think this year is the 9th year of the reading group?) our tastes have changed. One member in fact told me that he discovered that he didn't really like that type of book anymore. Reading groups can open up your reading horizons depending on the books you choose. I use to choose all the books for the group (and I enjoy all types of genres), but then suggested that we all take turns and pick books out. That suggestion opened up a floodgate of variety, made it fun for me to be surprised at what the next book was going to be and introduced new authors and subject matter. It also got the members more involved. I love our reading group and we always have a great time discussing our books. I always list our pick on the sidebar of this blog, so you can always check out what we're reading. And Bitter Blood? Well, I have enjoyed getting back to reading this genre, and Jerry Bledsoe really does his homework to cover the crimes with all the background and still make a good read that will have you turning those pages to see what's going to happen next. I'll be reviewing this the beginning of August.

Next on my reading plate is The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd. "Five years after her young husband’s death, Celia Cassill has moved from one Brooklyn neighborhood to another, but she has not moved on. The owner of a small apartment building, she has chosen her tenants for their ability to respect one another’s privacy. Celia believes in boundaries, solitude, that she has a right to her ghosts. She is determined to live a life at a remove from the chaos and competition of modern life. Everything changes with the arrival of a new tenant..." I have been dying to read this after so much great pre-release press! And thanks to the generosity of the folks at Macmillan, I am cracking the spine on this one today! (actually I cracked it already, but had to put it on hold to be polite to my other books!) Look for a review of The Affairs of Others coming soon... P.S. Don't you just love the cover?!

And this week on Chick with Books a return to talking about what's going on in the reading world. Sometimes we get wrapped up in just talking about the great books that are coming out, but there is so much more going on in the reading world and I've missed chatting about it on the blog. Like, what do you think about the J.K. Rowling admission that she wrote The Cuckoo's Calling? When it's initial release only sold 504 copies under Robert Galbraith, it then was revealed that J.K. actually wrote it,  and now the publisher is printing 300,000 copies (and I'm sure they will sell), what does that say about unknown writers? I have met "virtually" some great independent writers through my facebook page, (which has a link to a Chick with Books page...shameless promotion I know) and I am so impressed with their writing! These writers are publishing independently, digitally and paper, and silently making a surge in the reading community. I'll be highlighting some of these writers, and asking them to come aboard and tell us about their struggles and successes of publishing. Want to read a sample of one of them? ...

I talked to author Danielle Stewart after my trip Savannah, when I was beginning to organize a post on "Southern" fiction. She has begun this wonderful romance/suspense series called The Piper Anderson Series, and book one, Chasing Justice, which takes place in North Carolina, is FREE at all major digital retailers!!! (which includes Nook and Kindle). Here's a little about Chasing Justice from Goodreads...

Piper Anderson has been given a fresh start in the picturesque town of Edenville, North Carolina. But her plans of settling into a normal life are derailed when she witnesses a prominent judge in her community committing a violent assault. Running from her own past and fueled by a passion to make the judge answer for his crimes, Piper is forced to decide if she’ll play by the rules or achieve justice in her own way.

I've downloaded the book and am ready to dive in! The sample that I read showcases some great writing from Danielle, and brings to mind that you don't have to have a big name in publishing to be a wonderful writer. With the ever growing popularity of eBooks, these independent writers can satisfy your need to read. Stay tuned for more great writers and more about Danielle too! BTW, book two in Danielle's series just came out! It's called Cutting Ties and if you enjoyed book one, book two is a reasonable $2.99 right now for Nook or Kindle.

And speaking of eReaders... I think I've mentioned before how a special someone bought me my Nook HD for Christmas (yes, new hubby Jim!). I love it! BUT, all of a sudden Google has taken over my Nook! Look for my post next week on how Nook was supposedly saved by Google, but readers may have another opinion!

And how was your week?! Any bookish things happening in your neck of the woods? What great books have you discovered this week? And what do you think about independent writers? Have you tried any? I'd love to hear all about it!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon and Savannah on my mind...

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! Grab a cup of Joe, sit back and relax... It's the time of the week to take a step back and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It's the time of the week we get to chat about the great books we've discovered in our travels...

My travels the past 2 weeks have taken me to Savannah, Ga., where the spanish moss drips from the massive oaks and creates such beauty as you walk along the city streets exploring the rich history, enjoy a ghost story or two, and of course enjoy all that River St. offers!

It was a road trip this time as my husband & I drove the 1300 miles to the city made famous in the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I had always wanted to visit Savannah since reading John Berendt's book. If you haven't read it, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is simply wonderful! With a cast of characters that will have you mesmerized, especially since they are all real people, John Berendt weaves a tale of the small Southern town, while investigating the mystery of a murder that took place in 1981. It's the kind of book that leisurely works its way to the ending you never want to have happen.

Although I brought books with me I had absolutely no time to read. But, I did manage to pick up a few books...

The Savannah Guidebook including 4 unique walking tours by Paul C. Bland... Historic photos, drawings and maps allow you to step back in time while experiencing her beauty today. The tours span Savannah's rich history from the earliest days as a British Colony to the modern day setting of books and movies with a few ghost and a little fun mixed in for good measure. 

We did not actually go on any of these walking tours, but this slim volume of 34 pages is the cat's pajama's when it comes to finding all the wonderful treasures Savannah has to offer. It has wonderful photographs of the favorite and important spots, along with a bit of history and how to get there. There is a great map in the back that shows the layout of Savannah's 22 squares and how to navigate them. The squares can be a bit confusing without a map, and you can get a free map of the streets, but this shows you where you can find all those places you're going to want to see. And unlike a lot of tour books, this one retails for $5.95! A real bargain! This book also serves as a great reminder of the places we have been and some we are going to go to when we go back to Savannah.

A trip to Savannah would not be complete without some great food! Seafood is the local choice, along with a serving of grits here and there, and we made the most of sampling some of the great food. I did try alligator tail while there... and yes, it does taste like chicken. 

Shrimp, Collards & Grits; Recipes, Stories and Art from the Creeks and Gardens of the Lowcountry by Pat Branning... "The South is a place where tea is sweet and accents are sweeter, macaroni and cheese is a vegetable, front porches are wide and words are long. Buttermilk pie is a staple. Y’all is the only proper noun. Chicken is fried and biscuits come with cream gravy. Everything is darlin’ and someone’s heart is always being blessed." 200 Lowcountry recipes, the full color, coffee table style cookbook features 150 fine art paintings by such noted Southern artists as Ray Ellis, Nancy Ricker Rhett, John Carroll Doyle and Joe Bowler among others.  Hardbound Coffee Style Book 144 pages. 

The lowcountry is what the coastal regions of South Carolin and Georgia are referred to. As we drove along, the landscape was flat and beautiful. That's what made a driving trip perfect, because we could really enjoy the changes in the landscape as we left Connecticut and headed South into NY, Pennsylvania, Va, West Va,  North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. This book is absolutely stunning with the wonderful reproductions of the paintings from local artists, and the beautiful full color photographs of the food and sites. All the recipes are well written out, not too long and complicated and cover a range of Southern food, from Deep South Hush Puppies, Sweet Potato Biscuits, Crab Bisque and Vidalia Onion Tart to Lowcountry Shrimp and Grits, Macaroni and Cheese, and Tailgate Pulle Pork Barbeque. I can't wait to give some of these recipes a try!

Speaking of recipes... how about adding a little honey to all that from The Savannah Bee Company! Wandering the little shops in Savannah's squares, we happened upon this little store that sold the most incredible honey - edible and non-edible. I sampled the raw honeycomb, which is hand cut from the frame, and was hooked. Then I tried the Winter White Honey, which is a whipped creamy honey.... oh my gosh! But I also appreciate the origins of the company and how they use 99% all natural ingredients!

Savannah Bee founder Ted Dennard was first introduced to honey as a 12-year old boy on his father’s Coastal Georgia retreat property when a battered old pickup carrying beehives rattled into his life. The bee-covered driver of that flatbed truck was Roy Hightower, an elderly beekeeper scouting sites suitable for gathering “Swamp Honey” from the White Tupelo tree. In return for a place to keep his bees, Roy offered young Ted an education in that magical, buzzing world, but with a prophetic word of caution, “Son, bees sort of become a way of life.” 

Ted has traveled "the world to see bees making medicinal manuka honey in New Zealand, rubber honey in Vietnam, logwood honey in Jamaica, heather honey in Ireland, and the famous tilleul lavender honey of France." And he still raises his bees a hop, skip and a jump from Savannah. 

What I came home with from the Savannah Bee Company were two things... first, this amazing Royal Jelly Body Butter made from the most "precious product of the hive." This is what the future queen bee is fed daily as she develops. Their products have no animal testing and the Royal Body Butter is 99% natural ingredients, no paragons, no petroleum derived ingredients and feels like butter going on your skin. My fascination didn't stop with the honey samples or the body butter... the second thing I picked up was a copy of The Beekeeper's Bible: Bees, Honey, Recipes & Other Home Uses by Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeney-Lynch....

The Beekeeper’s Bible is as much an ultimate guide to the practical essentials of beekeeping as it is a beautiful almanac to be read from cover to cover. Part history book, part handbook, and part cookbook, this illustrated tome covers every facet of the ancient hobby of beekeeping, from how to manage hives safely to harvesting one's own honey, and ideas for how to use honey and beeswax. Detailed instructions for making candles, furniture polish, beauty products, and nearly 100 honey-themed recipes are included. Fully illustrated with how-to photography and unique etchings, any backyard enthusiast or gardener can confidently dive into beekeeping with this book in hand (or daydream about harvesting their own honey while relaxing in the comfort of an armchair).

This book is a big beautiful treatise on bees. Everything you'd want to know about the little guys with these amazing recipes that include full color photos! It weighs a ton (broke the PAPER bag they gave me to carry everything in), but I'm glad I lugged it around. If you are fascinated by bees, and they are an important part of how we grow crops, you will enjoy this book!

Of course Savannah wouldn't be Savannah without the ghost stories that float from every dark street corner. I love the lure of a good ghost tale and there are plenty of ghost tours to be had on every street corner on River st, which is the "festive" part of Savannah. We opted for a late night private carriage ride along the historic squares. Our host, Blake, and our horse, Bob, clip clopped along the romantically lit streets sharing the history of what we were riding by along with some great ghost stories of the houses and squares we saw...

Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales by Margaret Wayt DeBolt... Some seventy storiess skillfully interwoven with the heritage of the area's colorful past, and illustrated with over thirty photos and sketches. Incidents of precognition, extrasensory perception, deja vu and possible reincarnation are included in this personal and highly readable account.

Almost 300 pages, this was recommended to me as a great collection of ghost stories of Savannah. After reading a few, I don't think I will be disappointed. The writing pulls you in because it infuses the history with the story. 

Ghosts and Gravestones of Savannah Georgia by John F. Stavely... Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever wondered what exists beyond our normal senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing? Are you curious? 

This slim, 87 page, book includes 29 tales with accompanying black & white photographs. The author is involved with creating some of the ghost tours given in town, so this little book would probably be great to read before hopping on board for one of them, but also adds some great flavor to the homes and cemeteries that call Savannah home. 

Now that we are home, along with the great memories of oysters, grits & a frozen Margarita or two, I have some wonderful books that can bring me back to the place where the shadows may whisper your name and Southern hospitality is at a premium. Ever been to Savannah? What were your favorites? But if not Savannah, where did your travels take you this week? What good books can you share this week?

Now of course, Savannah is a great setting for fiction too, but let's save that for another day....

Happy reading.... Suzanne

Reading a Good Book...

I'll be taking a journey myself for 2 weeks! Bringing a few good books and heading down to Savannah, Ga. (from CT.) with stops along the way as we drive the 2600 miles round trip. See ya'll in a couple of weeks!

The Sunday Salon and Books with Buzz

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the time of the week we talk about all things bookish. So, grab a cup of Java, pull up a chair and relax!

It's been a crazy week as I try to plan for our vacation- a road trip down South that will end up in Savannah, Ga! I have always wanted to visit Savannah ever since reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, who described it as a "hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks", and whose book was absolutely wonderful. Because of our "road trip', I was thinking of making this Sunday Salon all about "road trip" books - friends hopping in a car and heading out to parts unknown, or books about travel. But then as I started to try and figure out what books I'm going to bring with me ( and we always bring something to read, don't we?!) I thought "let's just talk about some great books that have poked their spines up for me to find in my week of travels." So no themes this week, just books that sound great and are going in my wish list...

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer...

“They say there are many worlds,” she explains. “All around our own, packed tight as the cells of your heart. Each with its own logic, its own physics, moons, and stars. … And in those other worlds, the places you love are there, the people you love are there. . . . So what if you found the door? And what if you had the key? Because everyone knows this: That the impossible happens once to each of us.”   

From the publisher... 1985. After the death of her beloved twin brother, Felix, and the break up with her long-time lover, Nathan, Greta Wells embarks on a radical psychiatric treatment to alleviate her suffocating depression. But the treatment has unexpected effects, and Greta finds herself transported to the lives she might have had if she'd been born in a different era.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "what if I was born 100 years ago, what would my life be?"What if I could go back just a little bit and meet my true love in a different era?" I LOVE time travel novels! I loved The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's always fascinating to see the "what if's". The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells has gotten a lot of great reviews, "Magically atmospheric, achingly romantic", and it looks to have the potential to sweep you off your feet in that romantic time travel kind of way. In the book, Greta is transported back in time, but with her same family and surrounding people. She's aware of the shift, but can she really enjoy herself? Just published this week by Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is available right now from your local bookstore (and it's on my wish list!)!

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Readl Magic by Emily Croy Barker... Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman.  During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty.  Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true.

Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school.

This book sounds like a fun romp! I like the elements of magic and the fairy tale gone wrong scenario. I also would like to see how the author merges the modern day with the fantasy world. This is coming to your local bookstore August 1st and is published by Penguin.

 We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler... Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and our narrator, Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “I spent the first eighteen years of my life defined by this one fact: that I was raised with a chimpanzee,” she tells us. “It’s never going to be the first thing I share with someone. I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion, I’d scarcely known a moment alone. She was my twin, my funhouse mirror, my whirlwind other half, and I loved her as a sister.”

Just reading the description tugged at my heart. Don't you just want to know what happened to Fern?! Reading just a small sample of this book, the story slowly draws you in and I enjoyed the writing. Of course Karen Joy Fowler is the author of the wildly popular The Jane Austen Book Club, which swept through book clubs and put Jane Austen on the map with new readers.

What do you think of the title? I passed this by the first time I saw the title, because I thought it was a bit wordy and it didn't really compel me to open the book. I think that would be a great post one of these days - good books, not so good titles. Of course, I'm sure the title has to do with the loss of Fern, but on first sight... Anyway, We are Completely Besides Ourselves is available from your local bookstore and is published by Marian Wood Books/Putnam a division of Penguin.

So, now I'm going to stop looking at the books I am putting on my wish list and am going to start packing away the books I'm taking. I'm also packing away my Nook HD, which has a lot of books already loaded in my TBR pile. We'll have to talk about eReaders again too. It's been a while and there are even more choices including the advent of Tablets, which were not part of the discussion last time we talked digital reading. For Christmas, my hubby gave me a Nook HD, which I was pining for. I debated a long time on the Kindle Fire and the Nook HD. Finally deciding on the Nook HD because of it's size (it's definitely lighter and way thinner) and resolution. Although with Barnes & Noble hooking up with Google, there is an App that allows me to read my zillions of Kindle books now too! Best of both worlds... BUT if you are thinking of getting the Kindle Fire HD, it is on SALE on Amazon for $169 with adds for "a limited time'!

Now that I've shared what new books I found, what are you reading? What are you waiting for to be released?! I'd love to hear all about it! You can share it right here in your comment!!!

Have a great week... Suzanne

First Lines... " I was born of cold copulation..."

"I was born of cold copulation, white-fleshed and waxy like a crust of fat on beef broth left outside in winter. I was born of seed that would have seized with frost if spilled on the newlyweds' bed. I was born on the twenty-seventh of September because in the month of January my parents had been sealed in a wedding chamber made of ice." 

The Age of Ice by J.M. Sidorova                                      (Scribner- Pub. date of July 23, 2013)

"An epic debut novel, boldly imagined, beautifully written, and infused with Russian history and scientific wonder... a bold and romantic work of historical imagination about a lovelorn eighteenth-century Russian noble cursed with an immunity to the cold."

"This novel screams "Sweeping Russian Storytelling" at its best! Thank you to Scribner (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) for sending this my way! I can't wait to sink my teeth into this story!

Memoir Monday... and The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

They had the perfect marriage, the perfect smiles, they were married to American Hero's, they were the "Astronaut Wives". I really didn't give The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel a second thought when it started getting some buzz. But then I read a post (Ever Wish for an Out-of-this World Romance? America's Astro Wives Had It, and It Wasn't All Moonbeams) on the Huffington Post by the author, Lily Koppel, that had me wanting more. I loved the title of her article, but it was her writing more than the subject matter that captured my interest. There are enough "celebrity" stories out there that sometimes they all just blend together- different people, same kind of story. Lily Koppel made me want to crack the spine on this one. Maybe it was the tidbit about astronaut Jim Lovell seeing how beautiful the Earth was & how his love for his family, and his wife, grew after seeing the beauty and realizing that all he loved was on that small beautiful planet. Maybe it was Lily Koppel's reference to the astronauts and their wives as "Moon Couples". But in any case I really liked Lily Koppel's writing from that small sample and hope that The Astronaut Wives Club will be a page turner. Here's the blurb from the publisher...

As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons.

Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was proclaimed JFK's favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived on base with a secret. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, meeting regularly to provide support and friendship. Many became next-door neighbors and helped to raise each other's children by day, while going to glam parties at night as the country raced to land a man on the Moon.

As their celebrity rose—and as divorce and tragic death began to touch their lives—they continued to rally together, and the wives have now been friends for more than 50 years. THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history.

I have always liked strong female protagonists, and The Astronaut Wives Club looks like it has 49! My hope is that The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel, is to the Space Program what Laura Hillenbrand and her book Seabiscuit is to horse racing... And if you haven't read Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand,  it is simply a great book and you should! (here is my review on that great nonfiction book!)

Happy reading... Suzanne

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The Sunday Salon or How to Survive the Apocalypse...

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 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...

Do you ever get up and gingerly make your way to the coffee maker? Eyes half closed, hair messed, legs a little stiff?... I'm not sure if I also have those dark circles under my eyes (big no no to look in the mirror so early!), but if I stay up a little too late, sometimes I kinda feel like a ZOMBIE in the morning! And these days as a reader, I'm in good company because Zombies and the Apocalypse are all the rage! 

My love of dystopian fiction should meld well with Zombies, but I have to confess, I haven't read too much Zombie fiction. Although what I have read I have enjoyed. I think it was right after the Vampire craze started that I read The Reapers are The Angels by Alden Bell, which I loved. Good versus evil, a great strong female protagonist, and even a sprinkling of Zombie humor. 

So, what's a girl to do? I can solve my Zombie problem with a little coffee. How do other people deal with zombies? I thought maybe I'd check out the literary side of Zombies today in The Sunday Salon... 

World War Z by Max Brooks... The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

This a little different from a "normal" story with a plot, this is written as an oral history and thus the book is set up with interview questions from Max, who is making a record of the War, and the answers from the interviewee. Before the interview, and there are plenty, is the background of what the person is going to be talking about, so you can get a feel for what was happening and where, and this in turn is creating the story from just before the outbreak to the end. Just glancing at the preview of this book made me want to read more. I think it is such a great concept to write the story this way. Some may think that the way the book was written could have been a cop out, something a lesser writer may have done to cover up his poor writing, but from what I have sampled, this definitely is NOT the case! The story was pulling me in and I had only read the beginning. Max Brooks writing is gripping. I look forward to cracking the spine on this one. 

BTW, little did Max Brooks know in 2006, when he published World War Z, that it would become a major motion picture. There was actually a bidding war between Leonard DiCaprio's production company and Brad Pitt's. (Brad Pitt's won). Am I going to see the movie version? Possibly. I like to read the book first because there are no spoilers that way. Of course some movies change the endings, add characters, change characters... But that's another post altogether! Do you like reading the book for or doesn't matter to you?

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion... R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, noidentity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Warm Bodies proves that not all Zombies are bad! This sounds funny, heartbreaking, and touching. A doomed romance that you just may be rooting for anyway.  Just the first lines of the book made me feel empathy for "R", our Zombie with a heart (not a blood pumping one of course)...

"I AM DEAD, but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it. I’m sorry I can’t properly introduce myself, but I don’t have a name anymore. Hardly any of us do. We lose them like car keys, forget them like anniversaries. Mine might have started with an “R”, but that’s all I have now. It’s funny because back when I was alive, I was always forgetting other people’s names. My friend “M” says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can’t smile, because your lips have rotted off."

Warm Bodies has gotten a lot of great reviews! (It's also coming out on the big screen). This is currently in my eReader, so you can expect a review coming. I'm crossing my fingers that it's going to be as good as my first impressions have me believe. Part of those first impressions were Isaac Marion's writing, which I found refreshing. This past year, Isaac also published the prequel to Warm Bodies called The New Hunger. Seems that this is a short novella and only available digitally. I'll be trying Warm Bodies first though.

The 5th Wave by Rich Yancey... After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

This book has gotten so much hype prior to its publication and is making the rounds with lots of great reviews. It's a YA novel that's been called a cross between The Passage and Ender's Game. It's aliens and Zombies and looks to be the start of a great series! This has dystopian written all over it, and some of the words used to describe it are exhilarating, gripping, and breathtaking. This is on my nightstand waiting for its turn and I just hope that it's all that it's said to be. 


 As I was researching "Zombie Fiction", I came across another series called The Zombie Chronicles (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) by Chrissy Peebles. Here's the description from Amazon... Val was bitten by a zombie and now she’s scheduled for lethal injection. Breaking all the rules, eighteen year old, Dean Walters snags an experimental serum. But it can’t be tested until Val turns into a zombie: something authorities won’t allow. Her execution is scheduled to happen before transformation is complete, giving Dean only hours to break her out. When their helicopter crashes straight into the heart of Zombie Land, his rescue mission becomes a fight for survival…and giving up on Val is NOT an option.

I read the first few sample pages and thought the writing was good. AND you can download this for Kindle for FREE right now! So what do you have to lose?! It's always nice when the author releases the first book in a series for free. I think it's a win win situation for both the author and the reader. I get to discover a new author and see if I enjoy her writing, and the author possibly gets a new reader who'll be buying more of his/her books.  Looks like there are 5 books in the series right now, and the books seems to have gotten really good reviews. 

P.S. If you would like to try a great zombie graphic novel series, The Waking Dead by Robert Kirkman is a great choice. A great story and wonderful graphics. I love a good graphic novel, but I need one that has great artwork and this fits the bill. You may be familiar with the television series which is based on these books. The Walking Dead, Book 1 encompasses the first 12 issues of the series and would be a great place to start. 

So, are you going to try a bit of Zombie fiction? Have you read any that you'd like to share? And what do you think of all these books to movies? Good thing or bad?

Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear what you're reading (Zombie or no zombie!), so share what you're reading week has been like!

Happy reading... Suzanne

P.S. Tomorrow is Monday, and I have a great Memoir monday ready to post! It's out of this world...