[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Fiction A to Z June 2010
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:14:20 -0700
Fiction A to Z June 2010
If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect.
~ Ted Turner, American media mogul
New and Recently Released!
The Lonely Polygamist - by Brady Udall
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/03/2010
ISBN-13: 9780393062625
ISBN-10: 0393062627
Golden Richards is a shy, awkward man with four wives, 28 children, three
houses, and a struggling construction business. He's also got the hots for
another
woman, misses terribly a daughter who died unexpectedly (and whose playhouse is
his only sanctuary), and is renovating a brothel in Nevada--though he's
told people at church that it's a senior center. And despite his huge family
and all the demands that come with it, Golden is feeling increasingly isolated,
while trouble brews in the form of a disenchanted wife and a son plotting
revenge for a disappointing birthday. The draw here is the humorous,
warm-hearted
portrayal of the overextension so common in modern life--and you don't need
multiple spouses to empathize with that.
The particular sadness of lemon cake - Aimee Bender
Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9780385501125
ISBN-10: 0385501129
The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose
magical gift is really a devastating curse.
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the
periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into
her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical
gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift
to her horror, for her mother--her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do
mother--tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her
life,
food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.
The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep
hidden--her mother's life outside the home, her father's detachment, her
brother's
clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and
becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.
"The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" is a luminous tale about the enormous
difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is
heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender's place as "a
writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language" ("San
Francisco Chronicle").
First Chapter
The Stormchasers: A Novel - by Jenna Blum
Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/27/2010
ISBN-13: 9780525951551
ISBN-10: 0525951555
Charles Hallingdahl has always chased storms--he likens their out-of-control
power to his own mental illness--but the devastating consequences of one chase
led him to disappear from his twin sister's life when they were only 18. Now,
20 years later, Karena has received a phone call about him, only to find
that he has disappeared once more. A newspaper reporter, Karena uses a story
she's writing about summer stormchasers as an excuse to join a stormchasing
tour and seek out Charles' whereabouts. With its discourses on extreme weather
and the challenges of bipolar disorder, this novel of fraught family
relationships
is a strong follow-up to the author's bestselling debut, Those Who Save Us.
The Pregnant Widow: A Novel - by Martin Amis
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/11/2010
ISBN-13: 9781400044528
ISBN-10: 1400044529
It's 1970, and 20-year-old Keith Nearing is spending the summer in a
mountainside castle in Italy, along with several striking women--and his
on-again,
off-again girlfriend. Keith's efforts to take advantage of the burgeoning
sexual revolution and secretly bed the stunning (but really quite dull)
Scheherazade
have lasting repercussions--it may be a revolution, but actions do have
consequences, as Keith will learn by the time he's middle-aged and
thrice-married.
Despite all the hormones and all the talk, not much happens during this endless
summer, but Publishers Weekly nevertheless calls it a "smart, meaty novel."
Read it to find out why.
Anthropology of an American Girl: A Novel - by H. T. Hamann
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/25/2010
ISBN-13: 9780385527149
ISBN-10: 0385527144
Anthropology of an American Girl was first self-published in 2003, but the
edition you'll find on the new-books shelf today has been significantly
re-edited.
It covers five years (1979-1984) of an American girl's coming of age in East
Hampton, NY. Eveline is 17 at the beginning of the book, and right off the
bat she must contend with two personal tragedies. She's a complicated,
reflective, and observant figure who will remind some readers of The Catcher in
the Rye's Holden Caulfield, but she is also all her own, and her manner of
dealing with the world around her forms the heart of the novel. So far,
reviewers
seem to love it--Publishers Weekly says that if "publishers could figure out a
way to turn crack into a book, it'd read a lot like this."
First Chapter
Ilustrado - by Miguel Syjuco
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/27/2010
ISBN-13: 9780374174781
ISBN-10: 0374174784
When esteemed Filipino author Crispin Salvador is found dead in the Hudson
River, his protégé and friend Miguel Syjuco seeks to uncover what really
happened--both
to Salvador and to his work in progress, an exposé of centuries of Filipino
corruption. He returns to Manila and dives into both Filipino history and
Salvador's
body of work, excerpts of which appear interspersed with Syjuco's own story.
This unusual debut novel won both the Man Asian Literary Award and the Palanca
Grand Prize (the Philippines' highest literary award) in 2008 while still in
manuscript form.
The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors: A Novel - by Michele Young-Stone
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/13/2010
ISBN-13: 9780307464477
ISBN-10: 0307464474
Becca Burke survived her first lightning strike at eight, but her family's
disinterest and disbelief caused a rift in their relationship, and Becca
eventually
fled for greener pastures. At 13, Buckley Pitank's life was changed forever by
lightning that never even touched him; he grew up to become an expert on
lightning strikes. Readers who appreciate character-driven tales will be drawn
in by Becca's and Buckley's stories, which eventually converge. And if you're
a fan of Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Berg, Library Journal suggests that The
Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors will be right up your alley.
First Chapter
Focus on: Shamelessly Self-Promoting Books
Authors, publishers, and publicists do what they can to ensure that their books
sell, but usually this doesn't extend to advertising within a book's title.
Though the books below weren't necessarily named to increase readership, their
titles do merit a second look. (The most well-known example of this, Dave
Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was an almost-instant
bestseller--but that's more likely due to Eggers' talent, rather than the
title.)
This Book Will Save Your Life - by A. M. Homes
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/03/2007
ISBN-13: 9780143038740
ISBN-10: 0143038745
Richard Novak is so successful at trading stocks at home that he wants for
nothing. Until, that is, a health scare forces him to realize that, bar 9-1-1,
there is no one to call who might care. This epiphany/crisis brings the
divorced, middle-aged everyman out of the house and into the world, where
experiences
with strangers ease him back into relating to others with kindness. From the
donut shop owner and the woman in the supermarket, Richard eventually moves
on to reestablish relationships with his brother, son, and ex-wife in a
transformation that The Guardian says is "packed with unexpected pleasures."
The Great American Novel - by Philip Roth
Publisher: Vintage Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/01/1995
ISBN-13: 9780679749066
ISBN-10: 0679749063
Aspiring writers who wish to pen the great American novel will be disappointed
to learn that Philip Roth has beaten you to it, having published The Great
American Novel in 1973. Those who think that perhaps Nathaniel Hawthorne or
Mark Twain or any number of other authors deserve the honor are out of luck
too. (In all honesty, however, Roth's not the only author who's taken this
route, though he and William Carlos Williams are arguably the most well known.)
At any rate, this version of the great American novel takes the national
pastime of baseball and gives it an alternate history--complete with a Communist
plot and a capitalist scandal. Among other readers, baseball fans shouldn't
miss it.
Strange But True: A Novel - by John Searles
Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/01/2005
ISBN-13: 9780060721794
ISBN-10: 0060721790
Five years ago, Ronnie Chase died in a limo accident on prom night, shattering
his family. His girlfriend at the time, Melissa Moody, has now shown up at
the Chases' home, claiming to be pregnant with Ronnie's baby. Ronnie's
devastated mother is desperate to believe that what Melissa says is true, while
his brother, Philip--who never quite got out from under the shadow of his
golden-boy brother--is more skeptical. In vignettes that alternate between the
present and five years previously, readers will learn more about the characters
and their inability to let go of the past. Danger threatens, as well, adding
tension to an already mysterious situation.
First Chapter
How I Became a Famous Novelist - by Steve Hely
Publisher: Black Cat
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/08/2009
ISBN-13: 9780802170606
ISBN-10: 0802170609
Pete Tarslaw is an opportunistic slacker who wants to attain fame and fortune
the easy way--by writing a bestselling book. Having done his research (by
looking at bestsellers lists) on what people like to read (he dismisses writing
a thriller as too "exhausting," a memoir because his childhood was too
happy), Pete eventually settles on literary fiction (because at dull parts, he
can just describe a meal). Shockingly, the book he writes by following the
simple rules he gleaned from comparing bestsellers (Rule 2: Do not waste energy
making it a good book) does indeed become a bestseller, and Pete gets what
he wanted--sort of. Strewn with excerpts of Pete's bestseller and those of
other authors, this meta-novel is sure to be enjoyed by readers who get the
joke.
First Chapter
Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad
Weather - by Jincy Willett
Publisher: Picador
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780312424237
ISBN-10: 031242423X
In the interest of full disclosure, this book is not actually a winner of the
National Book Award. Book lovers will enjoy it anyway, mostly for the twin
sisters at its heart. Sharp-tongued Dorcas, who prefers the literary world to
the base needs of human life, is a librarian; promiscuous Abigail can't resist
temptation. The sibling rivalry between the two comes to a head when
misogynistic Conrad Lowe enters their lives, seeking out first one, then the
other,
to torment and victimize. What happens when he marries Abigail is the stuff of
tabloids--and eventually of the tell-all she writes, excerpts of which are
found within this blackly humorous novel.
First Chapter
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