THE LIST
Coffee Table Book
Michael Jackson: The Making of Thriller, Douglas Kirkland, Filipacchi, October 2010
Cookbook
My Sweet Mexico: Recipes for Authentic Pastries, Breads, Candies, Beverages, and Frozen Treats, Fany Gerson, Ed Anderson (Photographer), Ten Speed Press, September 2010
Music
Decoded, Jay-Z, Random House Publishing, November 2010
Poetry
Missing You, Metropolis, Gary Jackson, Graywolf Press, November 2010
Mystery
Christmas Mourning, Margaret Maron, Grand Central Publishing, November 2010
Crafts
Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People, Amy Sedaris, Grand Central Publishing, November 2010
Hot Sequel
Getting to Happy, Terry McMillan, Penguin Group USA, September 2010
Hot Fiction
Safe Haven, Nicholas Sparks, Grand Central Publishing, September 2010
Children’s Book
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, Barack Obama, Alfred A. Knopf Books For Young Readers, November 2010
Politics
Decision Points, George W. Bush, Crown Publishing Group, November 2010
Kid’s Series
The Ugly Truth (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series No. 5), Jeff Kinney, Amulet Books, November 2010
Religion
Long Time Coming, Vanessa Miller, Abingdon Press, November 2010
In My Father’s House by E. Lynn Harris, St. Martin’s Press, June 2010
Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer, Farrar, Random House Publishing, June 2010
The Passage by Justin Cronin, Random House Publishing, June 2010
Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson, Grand Central Publishing, June 2010
The Secrets of Newberry by Victor McGlothin, Grand Central Publishing, June 2010
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand, Little, Brown & Company, August 2010
The Lion by Nelson DeMille, Grand Central Publishing, June 2010
One Flight Up by Susan Fales-Hill, Simon & Schuster Adult, July 2010
Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook, Hyperion, June 2010
Love in Mid Air
by Kim Wright
Fiction
Grand Central Publishing
March 2010
Lately, men are getting a lot of flack for extramarital affairs, while women’s betrayals are somehow justified by the ever popular lovelorn fan club.
Well, here comes a reality check via Kim Wright’s debut novel, “Love in Mid Air.” The author’s not so subtle message is, “It takes two.”
“Love in Mid Air” is a fictional account of a love affair that puts us “love weary” critics in our places, and dumps the infidelity blame game on just about everyone.
The routine of marriage, housework, parenting, and a book club brings four women together. But the one thing that keeps them glued to each other, despite their differences, is their well orchestrated search for happiness. They want answers.
Can enduring love exist in a marriage?
What makes me happy?
Through Elyse’s eyes, Wright explores love, marriage, passion, and morality with the help of her steadfast bookclub friends. And with the author’s permission, you get a front row seat on sex acts so explicit, you are tempted to reread these passages just for the thrill of it.
The stark contrast between the bond that exists in friendship and the “noose” that strangles a couple in a rocky marriage is evident as Elyse attempts to make sense of it all.
You get a chance to eavesdrop on the emotional and sometimes chaotic lives of Elyse and her friends without getting caught. Lucky you.
MORE BOOKS PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT
Father of the Rain
by Lily King
Fiction
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
July 2010
What is Left the Daughter
by Howard Norman
Fiction
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
July 2010
Backseat Saints
by Joshilyn Jackson
Fiction
Grand Central Publishing
June 2010
- Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Grand Central Publishing, April 2010
- The Long Song by Andrea Levy, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2010
- How Clarissa Burden Learned To Fly by Connie May Fowler, Grand Central Publishing, April 2010
- The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier, Henry Holt & Company, March 2010
- Uptown by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, Simon & Schuster Adult, March 2010
- Innocent by Scott Turow, Grand Central Publishing, May 2010
- Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott, Penguin Group (USA), April 2010
- The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen, Random House Publishing, March 2010
- Invisible Boy by Cornelia Read, Grand Central Publishing, March 2010
Wench
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Fiction
Amistad/Harper Collins
January 2010
I celebrated Black History Month by reading.
Visiting popular museums or attending local parades were not on my agenda. Instead, I just sat in my favorite chair with my favorite blanket pulled up to my chin. Surrounded by several shiny hardcovers, I savored the freedom to read.
You too can read with abandonment. Experience the pleasure that comes from turning the crisp pages of a well written book, and consider yourself fortunate.
Lizzie, Mawu, Sweet, and Reenie are not so fortunate in the debut novel “Wench,” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. At the Tawawa House resort in the free territory of Ohio, books are just one of many temptations that separates blacks from whites and stirs more than a bit of controversy among slaves and free blacks.
Perkins-Valdez writes flawless, historical fiction that reveals the restricted lives of four memorable slave women at a resort where their white slavemasters, minus the piercing eyes of their jealous wives, stake claim to their female property.
This is no ordinary summer vacation. Despite their tiresome, unending duties, these four black mistresses form an unpenetrable bond. Will their delicate friendship stand the test of time? What besides captivity do these four unique women have in common?
Each carries a torch for freedom, a desire to learn to read, a desire to protect their children born of an often unpleasant union, and a strong craving to be loved, even if this affection comes from an unyielding master.
Perkins-Valdez further examines the stormy relationship between black mistresses and wives, and house slaves and field slaves. Both enlightening and disturbing, fact or fiction, these forced bonds are deeply rooted in humiliation.
Lizzie, named Elizabeth at birth, is not entitled to her given name. She bears two children, a boy and a girl, by her slavemaster Drayle. Nate and “Rabbit” are deemed more important and an asset to their white father. How far will this advantage take them? Awaiting the plight of the mistresses and their offspring stirs mixed emotions – anger, surprise, and dread.
So, brace yourself for one of the most enlightening and entertaining works of historical fiction ever published. You will savor every every punctuation, every word, every paragraph, every page.
MORE DEBUT NOVELS PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT
A Reliable Wife
by Robert Goolrick
Fiction
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
January 2010
Union Atlantic
by Adam Haslett
Fiction
Knopf Doubleday Publishing
February 2010
Snow Angels
by James Thompson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
January 2010
Fiction
What’s the most fascinating crime novel you’ve ever read?
Well, I just devoured one erotic thriller that will change your mind – James Thompson’s ”Snow Angels.” Pages explode with murder, mystery, sex, and just enough gore to earn a prime spot on your reading list.
Thompson paints a sharp contrast between day and night, warmth and cold, trust and deception, calm and fear, and life and death. With the help of determined Inspector Kari Vaara and the memorable snowdrifts of northern Finland, this hard-to-put-down mystery is a puzzle with many shady players and even more missing pieces.
Visibly shaken, Finnish residents, in the small town of Kittila, are frightened when the discarded, brutalized body of a Somali movie actress is discovered. Her naked body is discarded like infectious rubbish on a secluded reindeer farm blanketed in fallen snow.
In the solitude of lifeless, arctic nights, and kaamos (Finland’s two weeks of darkness), it’s easy for a crimes (even ones as savage and as ruthless as this one) to go unnoticed and unsolved.
It’s not long before suspects become too familiar and too close to home, adding to the small police force’s difficult task of solving what appears to be an unsolvable crime. Is this case too big for Vaara and his sidekick Valtteri, a religious man?
Well, one thing’s for sure, with his Columbo-style tactics readers will wage a bet that this cool cat will eventually catch his prey. But what will he lose to solve this crime? What will he gain?
What’s most unique about Thompson’s debut thriller, “Snow Angels,” is his uncanny ability to introduce readers to believable characters whom they’ll never meet: Sufia Elmi, the first victim; Vaara’s deceased sister Suvi, who died 30 years ago; and Heiki, the son of officer Valtteri.
But the true measure of a true crime novel is the author’s creative gift of keeping the reader in the dark, like the Polar nights of Finland, from the first page to the very end. James Thompson achieves this incredible feat and much more.
The Inspector Vaara series will solve crimes and reader fatigue – one book at a time.
MORE BOOKS PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT
The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
Fiction
Little, Brown & Company
May 1991
Dear John
by Nicholas Sparks
Fiction
Grand Central Publishing
December 2009
