Due to a death in the family, I was in need of a little help. My extremely well read writer pal Lynne M Favreau offered to guest blog, and so I asked her to write about a few things that were up her alley - Books is one of them. Soon to come - her non-fiction picks! Thank you Lynne!
Every writer I know is a reader first and foremost and not coincidentally they give great books as gifts. Here are some of my favorite picks from this year that are on my own wish list. –Lynne
Everything I Never Told You Lydia is dead. From the first sentence of Celeste Ng’s stunning
debut, we know that the oldest daughter of the Chinese-American Lee
family has died. What follows is a novel that explores alienation,
achievement, race, gender, family, and identity--as the police must
unravel what has happened to Lydia, the Lee family must uncover the
sister and daughter that they hardly knew. There isn’t a false note in
this book, and my only concern in describing my profound admiration for Everything I Never Told You
is that it might raise unachievable expectations in the reader. But
it’s that good. Achingly, precisely, and sensitively written. --Chris Schluep
Every writer I know is a reader first and foremost and not coincidentally they give great books as gifts. Here are some of my favorite picks from this year that are on my own wish list. –Lynne
Everything I Never Told You Lydia is dead. From the first sentence of Celeste Ng’s stunning
debut, we know that the oldest daughter of the Chinese-American Lee
family has died. What follows is a novel that explores alienation,
achievement, race, gender, family, and identity--as the police must
unravel what has happened to Lydia, the Lee family must uncover the
sister and daughter that they hardly knew. There isn’t a false note in
this book, and my only concern in describing my profound admiration for Everything I Never Told You
is that it might raise unachievable expectations in the reader. But
it’s that good. Achingly, precisely, and sensitively written. --Chris Schluep
$26.99
New Hardcover
As preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair set Chicago and the nation
on fire, Louis Tiffany—heir to the exclusive Fifth Avenue jewelry
empire—seizes the opportunity to unveil his state-of-the-art, stained
glass, mosaic chapel, the likes of which the world has never seen.
But
when Louis’s dream is threatened by a glassworkers’ strike months
before the Fair opens, he turns to an unforeseen source for help: the
female students at the Art Students League of New York. Eager for
adventure, the young women pick up their skirts, move to boarding
houses, take up steel cutters, and assume new identities as the “Tiffany
Girls.” BUY for $12.08
$15.99
| Save 24% at Barnes and Noble
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting,
and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. Truly an amazement—and a great gift for
its readers.
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
"Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of
Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, he is a compulsive
liar and a melancholy weakling. When Lucy accepts employment assisting
the majordomo of the remote, forbidding castle of the Baron Von Aux he
meets thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and a puppy. He also meets Klara, a
delicate beauty who is, unfortunately, already involved with an
exceptionally handsome partisan soldier. Thus begins a tale of polite
theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery and cold-blooded murder in
which every aspect of human behaviour is laid bare for our hero to
observe. Lucy must stay safe, and protect his puppy, because someone or
something is roaming the corridors of the castle late at night."
“With the same level of
intrigue and attention to detail that drew readers to The Art Forger,
The Muralist focuses on the early days of WWII and the dawn of Abstract
Expressionism. Shapiro brings to life New York City artists Mark Rothko
and Jackson Pollock, who are both inspired by the novel's brave and
talented protagonist, Alizee Benoit. As these struggling artists find
traction within their trade, Benoit attempts to bring awareness to the
plight of European refugees and to defuse anti-Semitic politics in the
U.S. through her art. Moving from past to present, readers will cheer
for Benoit's grandniece, Danielle, who is researching her family history
to find the truth about Alizee's mysterious disappearance and shed
light on the sacrifices and contributions she made through art. Shapiro
delivers another fascinating and compelling story.”
—Anderson McKean, Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
—Anderson McKean, Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
BUY for 26.95 list price, see your local independent store for prices.
Come back to look for her post on non-fiction this week - and CLICK HERE to check out the entire category of past posts about great books to give.
An erotic psychological thriller about a British woman named Julia who is tormented by guilt when her younger sister, Katie, is murdered leaving a bar in Paris. In an effort to belatedly understand her sister, Julia snoops online and learns that Katie was visiting chat rooms for sex, virtual and otherwise.
Julia finds herself drawn into this online demimonde and discovers that simply pressing the "delete" key can't erase her own desire, once awakened. Watson introduces her novel with two epigraphs about sexuality and danger, one from Michel Foucault and the other from W.B. Yeats. Those quotes also signal the literary ambitions of this nuanced thriller whose end, I guarantee, you'll never see coming.
Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.
Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?
Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?
Come back to look for her post on non-fiction this week - and CLICK HERE to check out the entire category of past posts about great books to give.
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Tremendous.
Devastating. Torturous. Hard-to-take hurts-your-heart scenes of the
deep and dark sides of humanity. I could not stop reading this novel
with its wonderful, flawless writing and memorable, haunting characters.
I dare you to read A Little Life! Recommended By adriennec, Powells.com
- See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Tremendous.
Devastating. Torturous. Hard-to-take hurts-your-heart scenes of the
deep and dark sides of humanity. I could not stop reading this novel
with its wonderful, flawless writing and memorable, haunting characters.
I dare you to read A Little Life! Recommended By adriennec, Powells.com
- See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Brace
yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and
profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the
darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably
breaks through into the light. - See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Tremendous.
Devastating. Torturous. Hard-to-take hurts-your-heart scenes of the
deep and dark sides of humanity. I could not stop reading this novel
with its wonderful, flawless writing and memorable, haunting characters.
I dare you to read A Little Life! Recommended By adriennec, Powells.com
- See more at:
http://www.powells.com/book/little-life-9780385539258/62-0#sthash.0hvOJFxA.dpuf
Comments