[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Fiction A to Z October 2008
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:26:21 -0400
"Can a ghost find you, if she wants to?"
~ from Jodi Picoult's Second Chance
New and Recently Released!
Goldengrove: A Novel - by Francine Prose
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/1/2008
ISBN: 9780066214115
ISBN-10: 0066214114
One idyllic afternoon in a lake in upstate New York, 13-year-old Nico's golden
older sister Margaret inexplicably drowns as they swim from their rowboat
to their family's dock. As she struggles with her grief and with living in her
new sister-less world, Nico is essentially ignored by parents too involved
in their own mourning to be concerned with hers. Seeking solace, she falls into
a strange and uneasy relationship with the artistic boyfriend her sister
left behind, who is as mired in grief and guilt as Nico is. Booklist calls the
story of Nico's rapid coming-of-age "a ravishing novel of the mystery of
death and life's assertion."
Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 - by Annie Proulx
Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/9/2008
ISBN: 9781416571667
ISBN-10: 1416571663
If you've got a hankering to be out in the rough terrain of the American West,
this 3rd volume of Annie Proulx's Wyoming stories will instantly transport
you to the land made famous by the movie Brokeback Mountain, which was based on
a novella from the first collection. The stories in Fine Just the Way It
Is showcase couples struggling to maintain their homesteads and hardscrabble
livelihoods, dying cowboys, and an Iraq War veteran, but Proulx has included
two featuring the Devil (who's remodeling). And be sure to read The Sagebrush
Kid, which at least two reviewers have pointed to as the best of the bunch.
First Chapter
Table of Contents
Tomato Girl: A Novel - by Jayne Pupek
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 8/26/2008
ISBN: 9781565124721
ISBN-10: 1565124723
Until Ellie Sanders was about 11 years old, she and her father were close,
bonding as they cared for her troubled mother, who is prone to outbursts (in
their 1960s Virgina town, bipolar disorder is unknown, and she is medicated at
home with the occasional horse tranquilizer). Then Ellie's father brings
home Tess, the beautiful 18-year-old who keeps his general store stocked with
tomatoes. Ellie is left increasingly to herself as her father falls under
Tess' spell and her mother's grasp on reality weakens. This "absorbing,
unsettling debut" (Publishers Weekly) features a bad situation made worse, but
ends with hope.
The Silver Linings Playbook - by Matthew Quick
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/2/2008
ISBN: 9780374264260
ISBN-10: 0374264260
In Matthew Quick's quirky debut, middle-aged Pat Peoples has lost his job, his
home, and his wife, but he's determined to get it all back--after all, a
couple months in a neural health facility is merely a setback. Unfortunately,
he's actually spent several heavily medicated years there, and there's no
way his wife's taking him back. But though his situation seems bleak, Pat
maintains eternal optimism, convinced that success--for himself or his beloved
Philadelphia Eagles--merely takes some strategic sacrifices and a good
attitude. This book was optioned as a movie before it was even published--look
for
it on the big screen sometime soon.
First Chapter
Indignation - by Philip Roth
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/16/2008
ISBN: 9780547054841
ISBN-10: 054705484X
When Marcus Messner turned 18, his father, a kosher butcher in Newark, New
Jersey, became ridiculously overprotective (to be fair, it's 1951, the height
of the Korean War, and Marcus' father is worried his son will be drafted).
After attending college for a year while living at home, Marcus has had it with
his father, so he flees to rural, conservative Winesburg College in Ohio.
There, urban Marcus is a bit out of his depth, especially when confronted with
obnoxious roommates, the college dean, and pretty girls who are rather more
experienced than he. Readers of Philip Roth's other works will notice similar
themes here, but Indignation has pleasures--and surprises--all its own.
Focus on: Ghosts
More Than You Know: A Novel - by Beth Gutcheon
Publisher: Perennial
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 4/1/2001
ISBN: 9780060959357
ISBN-10: 0060959355
Looking back over the events of the summer she was 17, elderly Hannah Grey
shares a tale of love and loss--and of the ghost who haunted her and the boy
she loved. That summer, Hannah accompanied her dour stepmother to a rented
house on Maine's coast, where she saw a ghostly figure radiating hatred and
fell in with a local boy who's had similar experiences. Her story is interwoven
with that of Claris Osgood, who in 1858 married a taciturn man named Danial,
bore two children, and eventually lost both her son (to drowning) and her
husband (to, most likely, murder). If you're looking for an evocative "humdinger
of a ghost tale" (Publishers Weekly), you're in the right place.
First Chapter
Eva Moves the Furniture - by Margot Livesey
Publisher: Picador USA
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/1/2002
ISBN: 9780312421038
ISBN-10: 0312421036
After her mother dies in childbirth, Eva McEwen is raised by her father and his
practical sister, Lily. Eva's life is full of love, but that doesn't prevent
her from being lonely, so when she's visited by invisible companions, she takes
some comfort in them. However, keeping the secret of the existence of her
invisible friends tends to shut her off from the world, and leads to the loss
of some important relationships. Who these companions are and their roles
in Eva's life form the center of this intriguing story, which likely will have
you pondering unanswerable questions long after you've read the last page.
Sleeping with Schubert: A Novel - by Bonnie Marson
Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 6/1/2004
ISBN: 9781400060412
ISBN-10: 1400060419
Brooklyn lawyer Liza Durbin has problems, but they're not insurmountable--and
they come with the ability to play the piano like a master, which is exactly
what Liza is after the spirit of 19th-century composer Franz Schubert possesses
her. Having taken a leave of absence from her law firm to train for her
debut at Carnegie Hall, Liza receives critical acclaim amidst a media frenzy.
Liza's formerly staid life will never be the same again, and readers looking
for a light-hearted read about an ordinary girl in an extraordinary situation
will be glad they tried Sleeping with Schubert.
First Chapter
Second Glance: A Novel - by Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 4/8/2003
ISBN: 9780743454506
ISBN-10: 0743454502
Much as he would like to reunite with his dead fiancée, nothing brings ghost
hunter Ross Wakeman closer to her, no matter how much he puts his life at risk.
His work as an investigator of paranormal phenomena doesn't do it either, but
when he moves in with his sister in a small Vermont town, he's brought back
to life, so to speak, by the discovery of a long-hidden murder that haunts the
town. It probably doesn't hurt that he's met a beautiful young lady who's
somehow connected to what happened; he's also been asked to investigate strange
things that are happening around town. There's more to it, but all in all,
Second Glance "makes for a memorable ghost tale" (Kirkus Reviews).
First Chapter
A Gracious Plenty: A Novel - by Sheri Reynolds
Publisher: Harmony Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 3/16/1999
ISBN: 9780609803875
ISBN-10: 0609803875
When she was four years old, Finch Nobles scalded herself so badly that the
disfiguring scars she was left with resulted in Finch becoming an outcast in
her tiny Southern town. Following the deaths of her parents, Finch takes over
her father's job as gravekeeper, where she befriends not the living but those
who haunt the graveyard and control the seasons (the dead are responsible for
everything from directing the wind to pollinating flowers). With such an
intriguing set-up in addition to the memorable, personable Finch, this
lyrically written novel is sure to charm.
Hotel World - by Ali Smith
Publisher: Anchor Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/1/2002
ISBN: 9780385722100
ISBN-10: 0385722109
In a hotel in northern England, a 19-year-old chambermaid named Sara Wilby fell
to her death after climbing into a dumbwaiter on a bet. Sara's ghost now
haunts the hotel, among other places (including her coffin, where her corpse
isn't interested in chatting). Four other women are given voice in this literary
novel--Lise, a disgruntled receptionist; Else, a homeless woman; Clare, Sara's
distraught sister; and Penny, a journalist--all of whom help Sara relearn
who she was and what life was like. Since Hotel World is not written in a
linear style, it may not appeal to everyone, but those looking for a challenge
as well as an intriguing tale will find it worth checking out.
First Chapter
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