[bookshare-discuss] FW: Fiction A to Z October 2010

From: "Kim Friedman" <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bksvol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 20:55:31 -0700
Hi, Amber Wallenstein sent me this list of books you might like to know
about. Enjoy. Regards, Kim Friedman.
-----Original Message-----
From: Amber Wallenstein [mailto:amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 7:43 PM
To: Kim Friedman
Subject: Fw: Fiction A to Z October 2010


New and Recently Released!
Room: A Novel - by Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/13/2010
ISBN-13: 9780316098335
ISBN-10: 0316098337
Five-year-old Jack, the narrator of this riveting novel, has lived his
entire life in an 11-square-foot room; though their space never varies,
his mother
fills their days with lessons, love, games--and a television on which
they see what he thinks is an imaginary world. Suspense builds as their
captor, the
intrusive Old Nick, visits and readers get a glimpse of their captivity,
but Jack himself doesn't know that his situation is unusual. Jack's
perspective
on life as it remains the same and as it changes is, reviewers agree,
the beauty of this novel--The New York Times calls it a "pure triumph."
Table of Contents
Russian Winter: A Novel - by Daphne Kalotay
Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/07/2010
ISBN-13: 9780061962165
ISBN-10: 0061962163
Once a celebrated Bolshoi ballerina, 79-year-old Nina Revskaya lives an
isolated life in her Boston brownstone. But she's decided to auction off
her jewelry
collection to benefit the Boston Ballet Foundation, a decision that will
reawaken long-buried memories and secrets best left untouched.
Historical fiction
fans will love the detailed glimpses of life in Stalinist Russia, while
others will be drawn in by Nina's complex story.
Skippy Dies - by Paul Murray
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 08/31/2010
ISBN-13: 9780865479432
ISBN-10: 0865479437
Well, as the title says, 14-year-old Skippy does in fact die, but it's
not until after he's dead that we learn much about the Irish boarding
school student--or
about the forces that influenced his life. There was a girl (of course),
a drug-dealing rival in love, an assistant principal, and a friend
obsessed with
parallel universes. At nearly 700 pages, this is a doorstopper of a
novel, but it's chock-full not only of a vivid accounting of adolescence
but of life
in contemporary Ireland as well, with a smidgen of physics and
metaphysics thrown in. Booklist calls it "hilarious, haunting, and
heartbreaking."
Man in the Woods - by Scott Spencer
Publisher: Ecco
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/14/2010
ISBN-13: 9780061466557
ISBN-10: 0061466557
Two men come across each other in the woods; a misunderstanding arises,
the men fight, and one is left dead. This is the beginning of this
compelling novel,
but there are, of course, consequences for the survivor and the family
he has found for himself. Longtime readers of author Scott Spencer will
recognize
the surviving man's lover, writer Kate Ellis, who featured in A Ship
Made of Paper.
Bitter in the Mouth: A Novel - by Monique T. D. Truong
Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 08/31/2010
ISBN-13: 9781400069088
ISBN-10: 1400069084
Fans who enjoy character-driven tales will appreciate author Monique
Truong's second novel, which stars Linda Hammerick, a North Carolina
girl afflicted
with the ability to taste words, and her well-drawn (though not always
likeable) family members and friends. Though as a girl she is an outside
in her
tiny town, and never feels close to her mother, as an adult she is able
to find a place for herself. Add in North Carolina history, the
revelation of family
secrets, Truong's "mesmerizing prose" (Publishers Weekly), and you have
a great follow-up to the author's award-winning debut, The Book of Salt.
First Chapter
Focus on: Ghosts
Joplin's Ghost - by Tananarive Due
Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/20/2005
ISBN-13: 9780743449038
ISBN-10: 0743449037
At the age of ten, Phoenix Smalls, the biracial daughter of a jazz
club-owner and a touring band manager, is nearly killed by a piano once
owned by Scott
Joplin. Ten years later, as she's trying to make it as an R&B singer,
she starts to encounter his ghost, and in her sleep performs Joplin
music long thought
lost. As Joplin's influence intrudes ever more powerfully on Phoenix's
life, author Tananarive Due mixes historical fact with the supernatural
and powerfully
portrays the experience of black musicians in both Joplin's time and the
present day. For a lighter take on a musician who won't let death stop
him, try
Bonnie Marson's humorous Sleeping with Schubert, starring a Brooklyn
lawyer suddenly possessed by Austrian composer Franz Schubert.
First Chapter
Death of an Ordinary Man - by Glen Duncan
Publisher: Black Cat
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 01/15/2005
ISBN-13: 9780802170040
ISBN-10: 0802170048
Nathan is dead, but he doesn't know why, nor has he been able to retain
full memory of his life. At his funeral, he hovers above the mourners,
getting into
the minds of his family in a way he had never been able to in life. As
in Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, there is a tragic crime at the heart
of this
novel, but Death of an Ordinary Man focuses on the human limits of
courage and endurance as Nathan begins to remember his family
history--and the reason
for his death. It may take a while to understand Nathan's complicated
existence, but his insight into family life is well worth the effort.
First Chapter
The Dead Fathers Club - by Matt Haig
Publisher: Penguin Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 12/18/2007
ISBN-13: 9780143112945
ISBN-10: 0143112945
Eleven-year-old Philip Noble's father recently died in a car accident;
imagine his surprise when his father's ghost informs him that his
accidental death
was actually murder at the hands of Philip's uncle Alan, who has designs
on Philip's mother (and the family business). Dear old dad is doomed to
wander
unless his murder is avenged. Forget the slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune: in addition to (perhaps) plotting his uncle's death, Philip
must deal
with the slings and arrows of being 11, complete with bullies, peer
pressure, and a girlfriend. An "absolutely irresistible read"
(Booklist), peppered,
of course, with many clever allusions to Hamlet.
Ghost - by Alan P. Lightman
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/23/2007
ISBN-13: 9780375421693
ISBN-10: 0375421696
Here's a ghost story for the cerebral readers out there--written by a
theoretical physicist, Ghost requires you to set aside your
preconceptions about God,
the supernatural, and life after death. David Kurzweil is a former
banker turned by financial necessity into a mortuary assistant who
witnesses...something...hovering
over a body. Though he doesn't want to name what he saw, rumors fly fast
and furiously, and he's soon pursued by believers who want him to reach
loved
ones, reporters seeking a story, skeptics who want to disprove him, and
plenty of others. The turmoil around David is "brilliantly
orchestrated," says
Booklist.
First Chapter
The Night Country - by Stewart O'Nan
Publisher: Picador
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780312424077
ISBN-10: 0312424078
Almost one year ago, a Halloween car accident that killed three
teenagers left a fourth brain-damaged and a fifth suffering under the
debilitating weight
of survivor's guilt. As the one-year anniversary approaches, the ghosts
of the teens who died come together to simply observe the lives of those
who survived,
while the "lucky one" creates a horrific plan to deal with his misery
and the first person to arrive at the scene of the accident watches his
own life
disintegrate around him. Narrated by the ghosts of dead teens Mario,
Toe, and Danielle, The Night Country shows that ghosts are often simply
creations
of the living.
First Chapter
A Gracious Plenty: A Novel - by Sheri Reynolds
Publisher: Harmony Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 03/16/1999
ISBN-13: 9780609803875
ISBN-10: 0609803875
When she was four years old, Finch Nobles scalded herself so badly that
the disfiguring scars she was left with made her a permanent outcast in
her tiny
Southern town. After 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.
[bookshare-discuss] FW: Fiction A to Z October 2010

Other related posts:
