Waiting on Wednesday: Day After Night

"Waiting on" Wednesday is hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, and is a way for bloggers to share the upcoming books that they're longing for.

My pick:

Day After Night; Anita Diamant

Scribner - September - 2009

About the book:

Set in 1945, in the summer immediately following the end of World War II in Europe, DAY AFTER NIGHT tells the stories of four young Jewish women -- survivors of four different kinds of hell. They make their way to the land of Israel where they confront an uncertain future haunted by the past.

The protagonists -- Leonie, Tedi, Shayndel and Zorah -- are interned when they arrive, locked up behind barbed wire fences in a place called Atlit, a prison camp run by the British, who ruled Palestine at the time. In Atlit, the women meet and befriend one another as they grapple with a new life in a new land.

Waiting on Wednesday; The Magicians

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:


The Magicians: A Novel

Author: Lev Grossman
Pub. Date: August 11th

(from Amazon)

Product Description: A thrilling and original coming of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

What's you W.O.W. pick this week?.

Waiting of Wednesday: A Better View of Paradise

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:



A Better View of Paradise: A Novel

AUTHOR: Randy Sue Coburn
PUB. DATE: July 14, 2009

FROM AMAZON:

Dramatic, moving, and exquisitely written, A Better View of Paradise explores the tender bond between fathers and daughters, ponders the delicate nature of healing, and celebrates the redemptive power of forgiveness and love.

Thirty-six-year-old Stevie Pollack has come into her own as a celebrated landscape architect. Her designs, famed for their evocative natural beauty, reflect her upbringing amid the splendor of Hawaii. But when critics blast her latest efforts and her boyfriend abruptly ends their relationship, Stevie seeks solace in her roots among the dazzling flowers, and comforting traditions of the islands and their calming waters. Still, in the back of her mind, Hawaii holds troubling memories of a childhood with Hank, her emotionally distant father, and a reserved British mother.

Despite her irascible father’s presence, the trip home promises Stevie a welcome departure from her trials on the mainland. But the shocking news that Hank is dying forces the pair’s reunion into high gear. As father and daughter attempt to rekindle their bond, Stevie discovers sides of Hank she never knew, including family secrets that have shaped their lives. And what started as a holiday escape for the beleaguered architect becomes a chance for transformation, one as exciting as it is uncertain. Inspired by her father’s insight, and energized by the attentions of an attractive local veterinarian, Stevie learns to surrender her inhibitions and seize the day.

What's your W.O.W. pick this week?

Waiting of Wednesday: A Disobedient Girl

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:


A Disobedient Girl: A Novel

AUTHOR: Ru Freeman

Pub. Date: July 21, 2009

About the Book (Ru Freeman's website)

“She loved fine things and had no doubt that she deserved them…”

As dawn breaks over a Southern coastal town in Sri Lanka, Biso, a desperate young mother, flees from her murderous husband, taking her children with her to find refuge and a better life in the hill country. In an upper-class home in the capital city of Colombo, Latha, a five year old, is brought in as a companion and lifelong servant to a girl her own age though, in her heart, Latha knows she was born for finer things, like the rose-smelling Lux soap she steals, the glasses of fresh lime juice that she helps herself to and the brand new shoes she begs for.

As Biso and Latha journey toward their separate fates, struggling to hold on to their independence, each will make a choice to betray the people they love, changing the course of their lives forever.

A Disobedient Girl is a compelling map of womanhood, its desires and loyalties, set against the backdrop of beautiful, politically turbulent, Sri Lanka.

What is your W.O.W. pick for this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Consequences of Love

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:




The Consequences of Love: A Novel

Author: Sulaiman Addonia

Pub. Date: August11, 2009


From Amazon:

Set against the repressive rules of Wahhabi Islam, this gripping novel introduces us to Naser, a twenty-year-old immigrant from the Sudan living in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah as a political refugee. A second-class citizen in Saudi society working in a menial job, Naser leads a lonely, bleak life. Everything abruptly changes when a girl furtively drops a note next to him saying that she wants to get to know him. Concealed from head to foot in a black robe and veil, she writes to Naser that she will be distinguishable by the pink shoes she wears especially for him.

Relationships—even companionship—between unmarried men and women are outlawed in their strict Muslim culture, and as the couple grows closer and secretly begin to meet, the religious police inevitably target them. Unwilling to give up the one thing in their lives that has meaning—each other—Naser and his girlfriend bravely face the consequences of their forbidden love affair, as the novel comes to a terrifying and deeply moving climax.



What's your W.O.W pick?

Waiting of Wednesday: The Calligrapher's Daughter

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:

Title: The Calligrapher's Daughter: A Novel
Author: Eugenia Kim
Pub. Date: August 4, 2009

From Amazon:

Product Description

A sweeping debut novel, inspired by the life of the author’s mother, about a young woman who dares to fight for a brighter future in occupied Korea

In early-twentieth-century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny. Smart and headstrong, she is encouraged by her mother—but her stern father is determined to maintain tradition, especially as the Japanese steadily gain control of his beloved country. When he seeks to marry Najin into an aristocratic family, her mother defies generations of obedient wives and instead sends her to serve in the king’s court as a companion to a young princess. But the king is soon assassinated, and the centuries-old dynastic culture comes to its end.

In the shadow of the dying monarchy, Najin begins a journey through increasing oppression that will forever change her world. As she desperately seeks to continue her education, will the unexpected love she finds along the way be enough to sustain her through the violence and subjugation her country continues to face? Spanning thirty years, The Calligrapher’s Daughter is a richly drawn novel in the tradition of Lisa See and Amy Tan about a country torn between ancient customs and modern possibilities, a family ultimately united by love, and a woman who never gives up her search for freedom.

What's your W.O.W. pick this week?

Waiting of Wednesday: Secrets She Left Behind

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:



Title:Secrets She Left Behind

Author: Diane Chamberlain
Pub. Date: May 26, 2009

Product Description - from Amazon

One afternoon, single mother Sara Weston says that she's going to the store—and never returns. In her absence, she leaves her teenage son alone with his damaged past and a legacy of secrets.

Keith Weston nearly lost his life in an act of arson. He survived—but with devastating physical and emotional scars. Without his mother, he has no one to help him heal, no money, nothing to live for but the medications that numb his pain. Isolated and angry, his hatred has one tight focus: his half sister, Maggie Lockwood.

Nineteen-year-old Maggie Lockwood spent a year in prison for the acts that led up to the fire. Now she's back home. But her release cannot free her from the burden of guilt she carries. She grew up with Keith Weston, played with him as a child…and recently learned they share the same father.

Now the person Keith despises most is the closest thing he has to family—until Sara returns. If Sara returns….

What's your pick this week?

Waiting on Wednesday - Noah's Compass; Anne Tyler

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:




Title: Noah's Compass Anne Tyler
Pub. Date: September 29, 2009

From Amazon:
From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.

His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.

We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.

This sounds like something I would love (5 months away though). What is your W.O.W. pick?

Waiting on Wednesday; That Old Cape Magic; Richard Russo

Hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:

Title: That Old Cape Magic; Richard Russo
Pub. Date: August 4, 2009

From Amazon:

Thirty years ago, on their Cape Cod honeymoon, Jack and Joy Griffin made a plan for their future that has largely been fulfilled. He left Los Angeles behind for the sort of New England college his parents had aspired to, and now the two of them are back on the Cape—where he’d also spent his childhood vacations—to celebrate the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. Sure, Jack’s been driving around with his father’s ashes in the trunk, though his mother’s very much alive and often on his cell phone. Laura’s boyfriend seems promising, but be careful what you pray for, especially if it happens to come true. A year later, at her wedding, Jack has another urn in the car, and both he and Joy have brought new dates. Full of every family feeling imaginable, wonderfully comic and profoundly involving, That Old Cape Magic is surprising, uplifting and unlike anything this Pulitzer Prize winner has ever written. (I really enjoyed Empire Falls by this author).

What's your W.O.W. pick?

Waiting on Wednesday - Strangers; Anita Brookner

Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:

Title: Strangers: A Novel; Anita Brookner
Pub.Date: June 16, 2009


From Amazon:

Man Booker Prize–winning author Anita Brookner—called “one of the finest novelists of her generation” by The New York Times—returns with an exquisite novel about a man, three women, and a vibrant decision

Retiree Paul Sturgis lives a uniformly solitary life—resigned to his bachelorhood and the quietude of his London flat. Only occasionally does he pay obliging visits to his nearest living relative, Helena, his cousin’s widow.

To avoid the impolite complications of turning down Helena’s Christmas invites, Paul sets off for a holiday in Venice. There he meets Mrs. Vicky Gardner, an intriguing and lovely woman in the midst of a divorce and at a crossroads in her life. Although he is avoiding new acquaintances, who might shake up his rather monotonous existence, Paul is surprised to find himself warming to the woman. Then, upon his return to England, his former girlfriend Sarah reintroduces herself into Paul’s life. The two women spark a transformation within him—Paul’s steady and preferred isolation now conflicts with the stark realization of his aloneness and his need for companionship. This awareness brings with it a torrent of feelings as he reassesses his life, his fears of death, and his desire for change. Ultimately, Paul’s discoveries about himself lead him to make a shocking decision.

What is your W.O.W. Pick this week?

Waiting of Wednesday: The Wish Maker; Ali Sethi

Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:

Title:The Wish Maker; Ali Sethi
Pub Date: June 11, 2009


FROM AMAZON:
The unforgettable story of a fatherless boy growing up in a household of outspoken women, The Wish Maker is also a tale of sacrifice, betrayal, and indestructible friendship. Zaki Shirazi and his female cousin Samar Api were raised to consider themselves “part of the same litter.” Together they watched American television and memorized dialogue from Bollywood movies, attended dangerous protests, and formed secret friendships. In a household run by Zaki’s crusading political journalist mother and iron-willed grandmother, it was impossible to imagine a future that could hold anything different for either of them.

But adolescence approaches and the cousins’ fates diverge. Samar’s unconventional behavior—in which Zaki has played the role of devoted helper—brings severe consequences for her, while Zaki is sent out to discover the world for himself. It is only after years of separation from Samar that he is forced to confront the true nature of happiness, selfhood, and commitment to those he loves most.

Chronicling world-changing events that have never been so intimately observed in fiction and brimming with unmistakable warmth and humor, The Wish Maker is the powerful account of a family and an era, a story that shows how, even in the most rapidly shifting circumstances, there are bonds that survive the tugs of convention, time, and history.

What is your W.O.W pick?

Waiting on Wednesday: Into the Beautiful North

This weeks can't wait to read pick is:

Into the Beautiful North: A Novel;Luis Alberto Urrea
Pub. Date: May 19, 2009

From Amazon:
Nayeli, the Taqueria worker of Urrea's fine new novel (after The Hummingbird's Daughter), is a young woman in the poor but tight-knit coastal Mexican town of Tres Camarones who spends her days serving tacos and helping her feisty aunt Irma get elected as the town's first female mayor. Abandoned by her father who headed north for work years before, Nayeli is hit with the realization that her hometown is all but abandoned by men, leaving it at the mercy of drug gangsters. So Nayeli hatches an elaborate scheme inspired by The Magnificent Seven: with three friends, she heads north to find seven Mexican men and smuggle them back into Mexico to protect the town. What she discovers along the way, of course, surprises her. Urrea's poetic sensibility and journalistic eye for detail in painting the Mexican landscape and sociological complexities create vivid, memorable scenes. Though the Spanglish can be tough for the uninitiated to detangle, the colorful characters, strong narrative and humor carry this surprisingly uplifting and very human story.

What's your pick?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Weight of Heaven; Umrigar

Title: The Weight of Heaven
Author: Thrity Umrigar
Pub. Date: April 14, 2009

(I am so thrilled to have received this ARC this week. I really love this author's writing).

Publisher Harper Collins, April 2009

From the bestselling author of The Space Between Us comes an emotionally charged story of life, death, despair, and hope, and the lengths we will go to in the name of love.

When Frank and Ellie Benton lose their only child, seven-year-old Benny, to a sudden illness, the perfect life they'd built is shattered. Filled with wrenching memories, their Ann Arbor home becomes unbearable and their marriage founders. But an unexpected job half a world away offers them an opportunity to start again. Life in Girbaug, India, holds promise-and peril-when Frank befriends Ramesh, a bright, curious boy who quickly becomes the focus of the grieving man's attentions. Haunted by memories of his dead son, Frank is consumed with making his family right-a quest that will lead him down an ever-darkening path that will have stark repercussions.

Glowing with vibrant realism, The Weight of Heaven is a rare glimpse of a family and a country struggling under pressures beyond their control. A devastating look at cultural clashes and divides, it is also a wonderful narrative that illuminates how we recover from unforgettable loss, how easily good intentions can turn evil, and how far a person will go to build a new world for those he loves.

What is your pick this week?

Waiting on Wednesday - Shanghai Girls; Lisa See

Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:


Shanghai Girls: A Novel; Lisa See
Pub Date: May 26, 2009



Ever since I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, I've become a huge Lisa See fan. I was excited to received an ARC yesterday of her soon to be released book. I'll be sure to post my review once I've read it.

From Amazon:

May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides.

But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)—where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months—they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.

A novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while bound to the old, Shanghai Girls is a fresh, fascinating adventure from beloved and bestselling author Lisa See.

What's your pick this week?

Waiting on Wednesday - Honolulu; Alan Brennert

Here's my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection:

Honolulu; Alan Brennert
Pub Date: March 3, 2009

From Amazon:

Honoluluis the richly imagined story of Jin, a young “picture bride” who leaves her native Korea—where girls are so little valued that she is known as Regret—and journeys to Hawaii in 1914 in search of a better life. Instead of the prosperous young husband and the chance at an education she has been promised, Jin is quickly married off to a poor, embittered laborer who takes his disappointments out on his new wife, forcing her to make her own way in a strange land.

Struggling to build a business with the help of her fellow picture brides, Jin finds both opportunity and prejudice, but ultimately transforms herself from a naive young girl into a resourceful woman. Prospering along with her adopted city, which is fast growing from a small territorial capital to the great multicultural city it is today, Jin can never forget the people she left behind in Korea, and returns one last time to make her peace with her former life.

With its passionate knowledge of people and places in Hawaii far off the tourist track, Honoluluis a spellbinding story of the triumphs and sacrifices of the human spirit that is sure to become another reading group favorite.

What's your pick this week?

Waiting on Wednesday - Pursuit; Karen Robards

This week's Waiting on Wednesday that I have been looking forward to is:

Pursuit; Karen Robards
Pub. Date: March 24, 2009

About the book: (Publishers Weekly)

Jessica Ford is a young lawyer trying to rise in a powerful Washington, D.C., law firm. Her life gets thrown for a loop when she gets into a car accident that kills the first lady. Jessica wakes in the hospital to find someone trying to kill her as well-tipping her off that the crash wasn't just an accident and she never should have survived it. In steps Secret Service agent Mark Ryan, the head of the first lady's security detail. As bodies start piling up around Jessica, she and Mark have no one to turn to except each other, and as the conspiracy begins to point to some very high places, the duo begin to realize the key to saving their lives is locked away in Jessica's memories. Jessica and Mark make a superb team, and even if their romance feels tacked on and the big twist contrived, Robards's fans will enjoy this fast-paced and action-packed romantic thriller.