Waiting on Wednesday: This World We Live In

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Publication Date: April 1, 2010

About the book: It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

About the author: SUSAN BETH PFEFFER's first two apocalyptic novels, Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone, were widely praised by reviewers as action-packed, thrilling, and utterly terrifying. Life As We Knew It received numerous starred reviews and honors and was nominated for many state awards. Ms. Pfeffer lives in Middletown, New York.

I just finished the second book in this series, The Dead and the Gone and can't wait for this third book to come out!!!

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Brava, Valentine

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Publisher/Publication Date: Harper, Feb 2, 2010

Adriana Trigiani's bestselling novels are beloved by millions of readers around the world. From the Big Stone Gap series to Lucia, Lucia, each is a sumptuous treat as Trigiani tells hilarious and romantic stories that we want to return to again and again.

Very Valentine, an instant New York Times bestseller, introduced the contemporary family saga of the Roncalli and Angelini families, artisans of handcrafted wedding shoes in Greenwich Village since 1903.

As Brava, Valentine begins, snow falls like glitter over Tuscany at the wedding of her grandmother, Teodora, and longtime love, Dominic. Valentine's dreams are dashed when Gram announces that Alfred, "the prince," Valentine's only brother and nemesis, has been named her partner at Angelini Shoes. Devastated, Valentine falls into the arms of Gianluca, a sexy Tuscan tanner who made his romantic intentions known on the Isle of Capri. Despite their passion for one another and Gianluca's heartfelt letters, a long-distance relationship seems impossible.

As Valentine turns away from romance and devotes herself to her work, mentor and pattern cutter June Lawton guides her through her power struggle with Alfred, while best friend and confidante Gabriel Biondi moves into 166 Perry Street, transforming her home and point of view. Savvy financier Bret Fitzpatrick, Valentine's first love and former fiancÉe who still carries a torch for her, encourages Valentine to exploit her full potential as a designer and a business woman with a plan that will bring her singular creations to the world.

A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Valentine from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal. Once unearthed, the truth rocks the Roncallis and Valentine is determined to hold her family together. More so, she longs to create one of her own, but is torn between a past love that nurtured her, and a new one that promises to sustain her.

Brava, Valentine, Trigiani's best novel yet, delivers a hilarious and poignant mix of colorful worlds and unforgettable characters as only she can create them.

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil by Robin Caroll
Publisher/Publication Date: B&H Academic, February 2010

A beautiful yet tough woman working in a beautiful yet tough setting, Brannon Callahan is a search and rescue helicopter pilot for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Strong faith and a decorated history of service have kept her one step ahead of on-the-job dangers, but there’s no precedent for what’s about to happen. After a blizzard takes down a small plane carrying U.S. Marshal Roark Holland (already haunted by a recent tragedy), Brannon must save him in more ways than one and safeguard the donor heart he’s transporting to a government witness on the edge of death. Otherwise the largest child trafficking ring in history—with shocking links from Thailand to Tennessee—will slip further away into darkness along the Appalachian Trail.

About the author: Born and raised in Louisiana, Robin Caroll is a Southerner through and through. Her passion has always been to tell stories to entertain others. Robin's mother, bless her heart, is a genealogist who instilled in Robin the deep love of family and pride of heritage--two aspects Robin weaves into each of her books.

Robin's books have finaled/placed/won in various prestigious writing contests: Book of the Year, 2008; Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, 2008; Bookseller's Best Award, 2009; Cover Cafe Cover Contest, 2009; and Book of the Year, 2009.

When she isn't writing, Robin spends time with her husband of twenty years, her three beautiful daughters, and their four character-filled pets at home--in the South, where else? An avid reader herself, Robin loves hearing from and chatting with other readers. Although her favorite genre to read is mystery/suspense, of course, she'll read just about any good story. Except historicals! To learn more about this author of deep South mysteries of suspense to inspire your heart, visit Robin's website at www.robincaroll.com.

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: An Unfinished Score

An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell

Unbridled Books, April 2010

As she prepares dinner for her husband and their extended family, Suzanne hears on the radio that a jetliner has crashed and her lover is dead. Alex Elling was a renowned orchestra conductor. Suzanne is a concert violist, long unsatisfied with her marriage to a composer whose music turns emotion into thought. Now, more alone than she’s ever been, she must grieve secretly. But as complex as that effort is, it pales with the arrival of Alex’s widow, who blackmails her into completing the score for Alex’s unfinished viola concerto.

As Suzanne struggles to keep her double life a secret from her husband, from her best friend, and from the other members of her quartet, she is consumed by memories of a rich love affair saturated with music. Increasingly manipulated by her lover’s widow and tormented by the concerto’s many layers, Suzanne realizes she may lose everything she’s spent her life working for.

A story of love, loss, sex, class, and betrayal, this psychologically compelling novel explores the ways that artists’ lives and work interact, the nature of relationships among women as friends and competitors, and what it means to make a life of art.



Elise Blackwell is the author of three previous novels: Hunger, The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, and Grub. Her books have been chosen for numerous “best of the year” lists, including the Los Angeles Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and Kirkus. Her short stories and cultural criticism have appeared in Witness, Topic, Seed, Global City Review, Quick Fiction, and elsewhere. Originally from southern Louisiana, she has lived in many others places and is currently Associate Professor of English at the University of South Carolina.

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Two YA series

I am posting something a little different this week for my WoW. I took my daughter to the library the other day and marched her over to the YA new releases (because she doesn't think there is anything out there after Harry Potter and Edward Cullen that she would like) - I got her to check out Evernight by Claudia Gray - she flew through it in a day. I have to find her the second book, Stargazer, now! I then gave her the copy of Gone by Michael Grant that I had just received off of Paperback Swap - She is almost done with it already - thankfully I have Hunger waiting in the wings. So my WoW post is for Book 3 in both of these series. I could not find a synopsis for either one of these books, so you will just have to check out the older books in each series to find out what they are about!

Lies by Michael Grant
Publisher/Publication Date: Katherine Tegen Books/May 4, 2010

Hourglass by Claudia Gray
Publisher/Publication Date: HarperTeen/March 9, 2010

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Listener

The Listener by Shira Nayman

Publisher/Publication Date: Simon and Schuster, Dec 29, 2009

TWO YEARS AFTER THE END OF WORLD WAR II, a mysterious figure, Bertram Reiner, appears at Shadowbrook, a private asylum whose elegant hallways, vaulted ceilings, and magnificent grounds suggest a country estate more than a psychiatric hospital. At first, the chief psychiatrist -- as genteel as his aristocratic surrounds -- considers his charismatic patient to be a classic, though particularly intriguing, case of war neurosis. But as treatment progresses, Dr. Harrison's sense of clarity clouds over, and he is drawn into Bertram's disquieting preoccupations.

Then, late one night, an intruder is sighted on the hospital grounds, the first in a series of uncanny events that appear to the doctor to be strangely linked; clues abound, yet the truth about Bertram seems always to slip away. Meanwhile, Dr. Harrison's own long-buried troubles reemerge with brutal force. As the careful contours of his existence begin to waver, the doctor is plunged into dangerous, compulsive territory.

When Dr. Harrison finds himself spying on his head nurse, Matilda, even following her one midnight through the underground tunnels that join the hospital buildings, he knows there is no turning back. He is desperate to get to the bottom of the intertwining mysteries connecting Bertram, Matilda, and himself, and senses that everything in his life -- and theirs -- is at stake.

Set against the backdrop of the insanity of war, The Listener explores the havoc historical trauma plays with the psyche, and illuminates the uncertain boundary between sanity and insanity. Shira Nayman's storytelling is mesmerizing. The Listener is a riveting tale of madness, mystery, and passion that excavates the dark corners of the human heart and mind. It is a work of rare depth and power.

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents

A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer

Publisher/Publication Date: 5 Spot, Dec 23, 2009

Grace Hawkes has not spoken to her previously tight-knit family since her mother's sudden death five years ago. Well, most of the family was tight-knit-- her father walked out on them when she was 13 and she and her two brothers and sister bonded together even closer with their mother as a result.

She's been doing her best to live her new life apart from them, but when their estranged father has a stroke and summons them, Grace suddenly realizes she's done the same thing he had done...abandoned those who need her most.

And need her they do, for inside the hospital walls, a strange war is unfolding between the pseudo-kindly woman who is their father's second wife and the rest of the original Hawkes clan. Upon reconnecting with her brother and sisters, Grace will find a part of herself she thought was lost forever. As they unravel the manipulative deception of the second Mrs. Hawkes, Grace will finally be able to stand up for her family-- and to remember what a family is, even after all these years. (Amazon)

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents
Publisher/Publication Date: 5 Spot, Dec 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-0446698382
320 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: Alice I Have Been

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Publisher/Publication Date: Delacorte Press, Jan 12, 2010

Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.


But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?

Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.

That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice–he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war.

For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.

A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire. (Amazon)

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Alice I Have Been
Publisher/Publication Date: Delacorte Press, Jan 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0385344135
368 pages

Late Breaking Waiting on Wednesday Addition!

I am hardly into the first book, Marked, in the House of Night series and now they have added a sixth!

Tempted by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast will be out October 27th!

To read the first chapter of TEMPTED and listen to the first two chapters on audio,
click on House of Night.

Tempted
Publisher/Publication Date: St. Martins Griffin, Oct 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-0312567484
336 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: Veracity

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Veracity by Laura Bynum

Publisher/Publication Date: Pocket (Simon & Schuster), Jan 2010

Harper Adams was six years old in 2012 when an act of viral terrorism wiped out one-half of the country's population. Out of the ashes rose a new government, the Confederation of the Willing, dedicated to maintaining order at any cost. The populace is controlled via government-sanctioned sex and drugs, a brutal police force known as the Blue Coats, and a device called the slate, a mandatory implant that monitors every word a person speaks. To utter a Red-Listed, forbidden word is to risk physical punishment or even death.

But there are those who resist. Guided by the fabled "Book of Noah," they are determined to shake the people from their apathy and ignorance, and are prepared to start a war in the name of freedom. The newest member of this resistance is Harper -- a woman driven by memories of a daughter lost, a daughter whose very name was erased by the Red List. And she possesses a power that could make her the underground warriors' ultimate weapon -- or the instrument of their destruction.

In the tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Laura Bynum has written an astonishing debut novel about a chilling, all-too-plausible future in which speech is a weapon and security comes at the highest price of all. (Simon & Schuster)

LAURA BYNUM was born in Springfield, Illinois (Land of Lincoln) in 1968. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois, and earned an MA in Mass Media and Interpersonal Communications from Eastern Illinois University. She has extensive experience in marketing, corporate training and public relations. In 2006 she attended the Maui Writer's Conference and was awarded its top prize—the Rupert Hughes Prose Award—for an early draft of VERACITY. She is currently at work on a second novel. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Virginia.

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Veracity
Publisher/Publication Date: Pocket, Jan 2010
ISBN: 978-1439123348
384 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: When She Flew

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge

Publisher/Publication Date: NAL Trade, Nov 3, 2009

A new novel about faith, family, and finding the courage to do the right thing from the author of Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe.

Police officer Jessica Villareal has always played by the book and tried to do the right thing. But now, she finds herself approaching midlife divorced, estranged from her daughter, alone, and unhappy. And she's wondering if she ever made a right choice in her life.

But then Jess discovers a girl and her father living off the radar in the Oregon woods, avoiding the comfort - and curses - of modern life. Her colleagues on the force are determined to uproot and separate them, but Jess knows the damage of losing those you love. She recognizes her chance to make a difference by doing something she's never dared. Because even though she's used to playing by the rules, there are times when they need to be broken. . .(amazon)




What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

When She Flew
Publisher/Publication Date: NAL Trade, Nov 2009
ISNB: 978-0451227980
352 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: Under the Dome

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



Under the Dome by Stephen King

Publisher/Publication Date: Simon & Schuster, November 10, 2009

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out. (Amazon)

Stephen King has been one of my favorite authors since I was about 14! I am always excited when he comes out with a new book!



What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Under the Dome
Publisher/Publication Date: Simon & Schuster, Nov 10, 2009
ISBN: 978-1439148501
1088 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: The Time of My Life

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi

Publisher/Publication Date: Atria, Sept 29, 2009

In a career spanning more than thirty years, Patrick Swayze has made a name for himself on the stage, the screen, and television. Known for his versatility, passion and fearlessness, he's become one of our most beloved actors.

But in February 2008, Patrick announced he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Always a fighter, he refused to let the disease bring him to his knees, and his bravery has inspired both his legion of fans and cancer patients everywhere. Yet this memoir, written with wisdom and heart, recounts much more than his bout with cancer. In vivid detail, Patrick describes his Texas upbringing, his personal struggles, his rise to fame with North and South, his commercial breakthroughs in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and the soul mate who's stood by his side through it all: his wife, writer and director Lisa Niemi.

A behind-the-scenes look at a Hollywood life and a remarkable love, this memoir is both entertainment and inspiration. Patrick and Lisa's marriage is a journey of two lives intertwined and lived as one--throughout their years in Hollywood and at home on their working ranch outside Los Angeles, and culminating in the hope and wisdom they've imparted to all who know them. This book will open the door for families, individuals, and husbands and wives to grow, bond and discover entirely new levels of love and sharing, proving that life shouldn't be lived as a series of endings, but rather as the beginning of greater strength and love.(Amazon)

Who didn't love Patrick Swayze?


What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Sea of Poppies

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:


Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

Publisher/Publication Date: Picador, Sept 29, 2009

The first in an epic trilogy,Sea of Poppies is "a remarkably rich saga . . . which has plenty of action and adventure à la Dumas, but moments also of Tolstoyan penetration--and a drop or two of Dickensian sentiment" (The Observer [London]).

At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of Canton. With a panorama of characters whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, Sea of Poppies is "a storm-tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott" (Vogue).

Read an excerpt from Sea of Poppies.

AMITAV GHOSH is the internationally bestselling author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novel The Glass Palace, and the recipient of numerous prizes and awards. He divides his time among Kolkata and Goa, India, and Brooklyn, New York.



What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Come Back, Como

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:




Come Back, Como by Steven Winn

Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Collins, Sept 29, 2009

About the book: Steven Winn and his wife, Sally, held out for as long as they could. When the San Francisco couple finally gave in to their only child Phoebe's pleas for a dog, they adopted a scraggly terrier mutt from a local animal shelter. The new family pet, Como, turned out to hate men—especially the author—and proved to be a cunning escape artist. Traumatized, single-minded, and exceptionally clever, Como was bent on breaking Winn's sanity and self-respect, his bank account and his heart.

Come Back, Como is the story of one man's hilarious and poignant quest to win the trust of a dog who wanted nothing to do with him. With humor and pathos, Winn describes the maddening but ultimately rewarding effects Como had on his family, the misadventures and ordeals and terrifying events he and his dog endured together, and the greatest lesson Como taught him: that loving a dog can make us more human. (Harper Collins)

About the author: Steven Winn is an award-winning journalist and fiction writer who spent many years as a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. A Philadelphia native and founding staff member of the Seattle Weekly, he held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in fiction at Stanford University. His work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, National Lampoon, the New York Times, Parenting, Prairie Schooner, Sports Illustrated, and the Utne Reader. He lives with his family in San Francisco. (Harper Collins)

Come Back, Como
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Collins, Sept 29, 2009
ISBN: 978-0061802591
288 pages

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: John Dies @ the End

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

John Dies @ the End by David Wong

Publisher/Publication Date: Thomas Dunne Books, Sept 29, 2009

STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault.

David Wong has updated the Lovecraft tradition and infused it with humor that rather than lessening the horror, increases it dramatically. Every time I set the book down down, I was wary that something really was afoot, that there were creatures I couldn't see, and that because I suspected this, I was next. Engaging, comic, and terrifying.--Joe Garden, Features Editor, The Onion

"Wong is like a mash-up of Douglass Adams and Stephen King... 'page-turner' is an understatement."

--Don Coscarelli, director, Phantasm I-V, Bubba Ho-tep

"That rarest of things--a genuinely scary story."--David Wellington, author of Monster Island, Vampire Zero

"JOHN DIES AT THE END has a cult following for a reason: it's horrific, thought-provoking, and hilarious all at once. This is one of the most entertaining and addictive novels I've ever read."--Jacob Kier, Publisher, Permuted Press

DAVID WONG is the pseudonym of Jason Pargin, online humorist, National Lampoon contributor, and editor in chief of Cracked.com.

John Dies @ the End
Publisher/Publication Date: Thomas Dunne Books, Sept 29, 2009
ISBN: 978-0312555139
384 pages

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Evil at Heart

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain

Publisher/Publication Date: Minotaur Books, September 1, 2009

STARRED review--After his last encounter with bewitching serial killer Gretchen Lowell (Sweetheart, 2008), Portland, Oregon, police detective Archie Sheridan checked himself into a mental hospital. And why not? The man has suffered enough at Gretchen’s beautiful but deadly hands. Let’s recap: first she tortured him unmercifully, cutting out his spleen sans anesthesia, before inexplicably letting him live (Heartsick, 2007); then, after escaping from prison, she drew him into her web again, seduced him, and sliced his jugular vein, not quite badly enough to kill him. But, of course, Gretchen isn’t through with Archie.

When bodies with missing spleens start turning up around Portland, usually in locations where Gretchen has plied her trade in the past, Archie’s police colleagues come calling at the loony bin: they need his help if they are to have any chance at catching the “Beauty Killer” this time. But is Gretchen really back, or has she spawned a generation of copycats whose taste for removing internal organs is every bit as voracious as her own? A few more spleens are sacrificed before that gets sorted out, and Cain packs plenty of surprises for us along the way (don’t even ask by which male part one hapless fellow is suspended), but don’t panic: it isn’t all spectacular gore. Cain continues to display her remarkable ability to probe the psyches of her characters the way Gretchen probes our squishy parts. She’s no slouch at narrative strategy, either. Remarkably, both Gretchen and Archie are offstage more than on this time around, but that proves a clever ploy, both because it heightens our anticipation for the inevitable confrontation and because it gives more screen time to punky, spunky reporter Susan Ward, whose charisma demands a starring role eventually. Popular entertainment—the kind that mixes crime, horror, and even a little comedy—just doesn’t get much better than this. (Booklist)

"...Popular entertainment - the kind that mixes crime, horror, and even a little comedy - just doesn’t get much better than this."

--Booklist, STARRED review

(EVIL AT HEART)

"We've been down Hannibal Lecter Avenue many times, and these two books shouldn't work...but they do. Chalk it up to excellent writing and Cain's ferocious sense of humor."

--Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly | Top 10 Books of 2008

(HEARTSICK & SWEETHEART)

And that's not all! If you want to be a little freaked out - read the excerpt of Evil at Heart!


Evil at Heart
Publisher/Publication Date: Minotaur Books, Sept 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0312368487
320 pages

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: Last Night in Twisted River

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:




Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel by John Irving

Publisher/Publication Date: Random House, Oct 27, 2009

About the book: In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable’s girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County–to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto–pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them.

In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River–John Irving’s twelfth novel–depicts the recent half-century in the United States as “a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.” From the novel’s taut opening sentence–“The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long”–to its elegiac final chapter, Last Night in Twisted River is written with the historical authenticity and emotional authority of The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is also as violent and disturbing a story as John Irving’s breakthrough bestseller, The World According to Garp.

What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author’s unmistakable voice–the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller. Near the end of this moving novel, John Irving writes: “We don’t always have a choice how we get to know one another. Sometimes, people fall into our lives cleanly–as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct flight from Heaven to Earth–the same sudden way we lose people, who once seemed they would always be part of our lives.” (Amazon)



About the author: John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times–winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story “Interior Space.” In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules–a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Last Night in Twisted River is John Irving’s twelfth novel. (Amazon)

Last Night in Twisted River
Publisher/Publication Date: Random House, Oct 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-1400063840
576 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: Once in a Blue Moon

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Once in a Blue Moon by Eileen Goudge

Publisher/Publication Date: Vanguard Press, Oct 6, 2009

About the book: Lindsay and Kerrie Ann are sisters who have known hardship from an early age. Without guidance from their neglectful mother, their only aid came from an unlikely source, a retired exotic dancer by the name of Miss Honi Love. When the girls’ mother was sent to prison, Miss Honi tried unsuccessfully to save them from being separated and sent into foster care.

Thirty years later, Lindsay is still trying to reconnect with her sister. The owner of a bookstore in the sleepy California seaside town of Blue Moon Bay, she was lucky enough to have been adopted by a loving couple. Unbeknownst to her, Kerrie Ann has suffered a very different life. Bounced from one foster home to the next, she ran away as a teenager before becoming a drug-addicted single mother. Now, newly sober, Kerrie Ann is fighting to regain custody of the little girl who was taken from her.

Neither sister’s expectations are met when they’re finally reunited. But as the two sisters engage in the fiercest battles of their lives, they are at last drawn together despite their differences, restoring belief in the unshakable bond of family. (Amazon)

About the author: Eileen Goudge is the New York Times bestselling author whose novels include The Diary, Domestic Affairs, Woman in Red, One Last Dance, Garden of Lies, and Thorns of Truth. There are more than five million copies of her books in print worldwide. She lives with her husband, entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon, in New York City. (Amazon)

Once in a Blue Moon
Publisher/Publication Date: Vanguard Press, Oct 6, 2009
ISBN: 978-1593155346
336 pages

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Waiting on Wednesday: The First Star

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:




The First Star by Lars Anderson

Publisher/Publication Date: Random House - I have found mixed information on the publication date - Random House fall catalog says Oct 20, Amazon says Dec 29. . .

I chose this book this week as I am always on the lookout for books I think my husband would read. He is not a big reader, but if he finds something that sparks his interest, he will read... And you can't live near Chicago without being a football fan!

About the book: One of the most talented football players in history, Red Grange made his name at the University of Illinois in the early 1920s, scoring thirty-one touchdowns and drawing the sport’s biggest crowds. But it was what he did next that made news: he went pro. At the time, the NFL was a backwater organization—playing second fiddle to the college game, struggling to attract fan and players, and often settling for high school-age talent to fill its rosters. However, one man saw great potential. C. C. Pyle, who in his day promoted just about everything, became Grange’s agent with the wild promise of a $100,000 payday.The man who helped him make good on that promise was the Chicago Bears’ George Halas. Together, Grange, Pyle, and Halas constructed the event that tipped the balance towards pro football over college: a brutal barnstorming tour that called for Grange and his new Bears teammates to play nineteen games in seventeen cities in sixty-six days.

The 1920s were the Golden Age of American Sport, and there was no shortage of heroes, including Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. But for a short time, Red Grange was bigger than them all, and The First Star explains why. (from Random House catalog)

The First Star
Publisher/Publication Date: Random House/Oct 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6729-9
352 pages

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.