Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Additions to My 2012 Reading List

 I admit that I have no right to add more books to my 2012 reading list, but most book lovers know how that goes sometimes.  How can you say NO to a book that seems irresistible? So these are a few books I'm planning on reading in 2012.

(Sept 25th - Gallery Books)

Olivia Donatelli’s dream of a “normal” life shattered when her son, Anthony, was diagnosed with autism at age three. Understanding the world from his perspective felt bewildering, nearly impossible. He didn’t speak. He hated to be touched. He almost never made eye contact. And just as Olivia was starting to realize that happiness and autism could coexist, Anthony died.

Now she’s alone in a cottage on Nantucket, separated from her husband, desperate to understand the meaning of her son’s short life, when a chance encounter with another woman facing her own loss brings Anthony alive again for Olivia in a most unexpected way.

Beth Ellis’s entire life changed with a simple note: “I’m sleeping with Jimmy.” Fourteen years of marriage. Three beautiful daughters. Yet even before her husband’s affair, she had never felt so alone. Heartbroken, she finds the pieces of the vivacious, creative person she used to be packed away in a box in her attic. For the first time in years, she uncaps her pen, takes a deep breath, and begins to write. The young but exuberant voice that emerges onto the page is a balm to the turmoil within her, a new beginning, and an astonishing bridge back to herself.

In a piercing story about motherhood, autism, and love, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova offers us two unforgettable women on the verge of change and the irrepressible young boy whose unique wisdom helps them both find the courage to move on.

(Harper - August 21st)

At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Just as the girls begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, and the shattering tragedy that follows will set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect but also to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.

Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, Amanda Coplin weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune. She writes with breathtaking precision and empathy, and in The Orchardist she crafts an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in.
(Knopf - January 2012)

A debut of extraordinary distinction: through the life of her unforgettable heroine, Hattie Shepherd, the author tells the story of the children of the Great Migration, a story of bitterness and love and the promise of a new North, built on the backs of Hattie's children.

In 1923, seventeen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia for Philadelphia, where, though her first two babies die because she can't afford medicine, she keeps nine children alive with old southern remedies and sheer love. Saddled with a husband who will bring her nothing but disappointment, she prepares her children for a world she knows will not be kind to them. Their trials are the trials on which the history of America was forged, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, and a force stronger than love or trouble, the determination to get by and get through. A searing portrait of an unforgettable family, an emotionally transfixing drama of human striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, and a ferocious vision of humanity at its most threadbare and elemental, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie introduces a writer of the very first order.

Hogarth - Sept 25th

In this stylish, haunting novel, journalist and novelist Lawrence Osborne explores the reverberations of a random accident on the lives of Moroccan Muslims and Western visitors who converge on a luxurious desert villa for a decadent weekend-long party. 

David and Jo Henniger, a doctor and children's book author, in search of an escape from their less than happy lives in London, accept the invitation of their old friends Richard and Dally to attend their annual bacchanal at their home deep in the Moroccan desert – a ksar they have acquired and renovated into a luxurious retreat.  On the way, the Hennigers stop for lunch, and the bad-tempered David can't resist consuming most of a bottle of wine.  Back on the road, darkness has descended, David is groggy, and the directions to the ksar are vague.  Suddenly, two young men spring from the roadside, apparently attempting to interest passing drivers in the fossils they have for sale.  Panicked, David swerves toward the two, leaving one dead on the road and the other running into the hills.

At the ksar, the festivities have begun: Richard and Dally’s international friends sit down to a lavish dinner prepared and served by a large staff of Moroccans.  As the night progresses and the debauchery escalates, the Moroccans increasingly view the revelers as the godless "infidels" they are.  When David and Jo show up late with the dead body of the young man in their car, word spreads among the locals that David has committed an unforgivable act.

Thus the stage is set for a weekend during which David and Jo must come to terms with David's misdeed, Jo's longings, and their own deteriorating relationship, and the flamboyant Richard and Dally must attempt to keep their revelers entertained despite growing tension from their staff and the Moroccan Berber father who comes to claim his son's body.

With spare, evocative prose, searing eroticism, and a gift for the unexpected, Osborne memorably portrays the privileged guests wrestling with their secrets amidst the remoteness and beauty of the desert landscape.  He also gradually reveals the jolting back-story of the young man who was killed and leaves David’s fate in the balance as the novel builds to a shattering conclusion.

(Allen and Unwin - March 2012)

The unforgettable story of three young friends making their way in the world - told with warmth, music, clarity and simplicity, it speaks directly to the heart.

Abandoned as a young child, Kalu, a cheeky street kid, has against all odds carved out a life for himself in rural India. In the quiet village of Hastinapore, Kalu makes friends: Bal, the solitary buffalo boy, and Malti, a gentle servant girl, who, with her mistress, Ganga Ba, has watched out for Kalu from the first day.

Perched high in the branches of a banyan tree, Kalu chooses a leaf, rolls it tightly and, doing what he's done for as long as he can remember, blows through it. His pure simple notes dance through the air attracting a travelling healer whose interest will change Kalu's life forever, setting him on a path he would never have dreamed possible, testing his self-belief and his friendships.

With all the energy and colour of India and its people, Dancing to the Flute is a magical, heart-warming story of this community's joys and sorrows, the nature of friendship and the astonishing transformative powers of music.

(#6 - John Corey Novel-my guilty pleasure)
Oct 16th - Grand Central Publishing

Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield have been posted overseas to Sana'a, Yemen—one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. While there, they will be working with a small team to track down one of the masterminds behind the USS Cole bombing: a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative known as The Panther.

Ruthless and elusive, he's wanted for multiple terrorist acts and murders—and the US government is determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. As latecomers to a treacherous game, John and Kate don't know the rules, the players, or the score. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment than meets the eye—and that the hunters are about to become the hunted.

Do any of these sound good to you?

22 comments:

  1. I really want to read Love Anthony and The Orchardist too!

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  2. Now, look at what you've done to my wish list! I put most of these on it! ;-)

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  3. New John Corey!! New John Cory! YES! Off to preorder now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    (Can you tell I'm excited?)

    And I just got an ARC of Love Anthony today.

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  4. The Orchardist -- without question.
    I loved Still Alice by Genova, but didn't like Left Neglected at all. However, I'm sure I will read Love Anthony nonetheless.

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  5. I have Love Anthony on my TBR shelf right now, and hope to get to it soon. Enjoy all of your new additions because I agree that it is impossible to "just say no"!

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  6. Love Anthony, The Orchadist The Twelve Tribes and The Forgiven sound absolutely amazing. Looking so very forward to your eventual reviews.

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  7. These all sound good, and they sound perfect for you. I can't wait for your thoughts on them.

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  8. I would definitely add the Lisa Genova book, and I like the covers on the Twelve Tribes of Hattie and Dancing to the Flute. Funny, I don't have a reading list. I just read books as they come to me or I snag them from the book shelves.

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  9. I am expecting Love Anthony from Vine...maybe today! The Orchardist looks good, too. And The Twelve Tribes of Hattie grabbed my interest....

    Thanks for sharing.

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  10. I think it's almost impossible to stop adding the the TBR list for us booklovers. :) I haven't read that Lisa Genova book, but I probably should - I loved her first two books.

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  11. Oh the new Genova!!! I'm looking forward to that one (haven't got it, yet). I've got an ARC of The Orchardist, and I hope to read that in the next few weeks (I'm a little behind with review copies).

    I tried a different book by Nelson Demille but I don't think I finished it. I hope you'l enjoy your copy, though. Happy reading!

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  12. I'm looking forward to your reviews of all but the DeMille book. They all sound terrific!

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  13. I put Love Anthony on my list when I first saw it. The Orchardist looks interesting.

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  14. Such nice additions! My list is getting soooooooo long that I might actually have to start reading some of them!

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  15. I'll have to tell TBG about Nelson's book, he'll be so excited! Looking forward to your thoughts on these. Hope your summer is going well, Diane!

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  16. Hard to resist just a few more books! Dancing to the Flute sounds especially wonderful!

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  17. I couldn't say no to Love Anthony either. The Orchardist sounds interesting too. I hope they are all enjoyable reads!

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  18. Lisa Genova writes some really compelling fiction, and I have both of her previous books on audio. It seems like this would be another that I would love, and I am waiting for it too. Rather exciting list here today! Lots of good stuff coming up!

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  19. I can't wait to read Genova's new novel. The Orchardist looks really good too.

    Love Genova's story to becoming a bestselling author, and I love knowing I read Still Alice long before anyone knew who she was/is.... that doesn't happen often for me since I don't read a million books! :)

    Enjoy your books - can't wait to see what you love.

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  20. Well, there you go adding more books to my already ridiculously long wish list! Can't wait to read what you think of these.

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  21. Your blog is becoming hazardous to my health. I absolutely have to read Lisa Genova's latest....her writing is always special. I'm thinking several of these are going onto Mt. Toobie, although they may not get read before the end of the year. Enjoy.

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  22. They all look wonderful. I only have the first one on your list but I'm sure once you've read and posted about them, I will be adding these books to my lists!!

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