This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Publisher/Publication Date: Grand Central Publishing/Sept 8, 2009
About the book: #1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.
Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.
The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels--first love, love between parents and children -- that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them. (from Barnes and Noble website)
About the author: Ever since The Notebook made Nicholas Sparks a word-of-mouth publishing sensation in 1996, he has maintained his status as a bestselling author of tragedy-tinged love stories. His spare, simply themed novels star ordinary people overcome by extraordinary emotions, and changed by them.
It's possible that Sparks might have enjoyed his level of popularity by writing these stories strictly from imagination, but in fact his family's struggles play an important role in many of his books, especially the earliest novels. (For exampleThe Notebook, his tale of a great love affair extending into old age, was inspired by his wife's grandparents; Message in a Bottle drew from Sparks' father's life story and A Walk to Remember from his late sister's.) In addition, a three-week trip he and his older sibling Micah undertook in 2003 became the basis for Three Weeks with My Brother, a unique memoir as moving and tenderhearted as any of his fiction.
Sparks is very methodical about his writing, an approach he makes transparent on his web site with several essays, updates on works in progress, and notes on the mechanics of his novels. Unsurprisingly, critics have faulted him for being too formulaic or cliched. Still, Sparks never fails to move his stories along quickly, maximizing emotional impact and featuring strong, down-to-earth characters. His endings also tend to depart from convention a bit, revealing tragedy where the walk into the sunset should be.
Although he is often classified as a Romance writer, Sparks is quick to point out that his books don't really satisfy the requirements of Romance publishers. Instead, he admits to writing love stories, a different genre altogether. Whatever he cares to call them, one thing's for sure: Nicholas Sparks continues to strike gold with his bittersweet novels of love and loss. (from Barnes and Noble website)
Publisher/Publication Date: Grand Central Publishing, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0446547567
400 pages
What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
6 comments:
I bet my stepmother is excited about this too. She's read all of his books. (I have read none.)
He is one of those authors I have always seen around but never got around to picking up one of his books. We'll see how the reviews go on this one! My Pick is up at The Burton Review
Have a Great Day!
Sounds interesting. I haven't read his book either. I'll be watching for reviews of this.
Love that cover. My SIL would love to read this one!
Another Nicholas Sparks. Cool. I love sharing these with my Mum when she visits.
That is a really pretty cover. I will be waiting for a review of this.
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