Books with Buzz...

The nice thing about my blog is that it gives me an opportunity to talk about what's happening in the book world in between my quarterly newsletter Chicks with Books. Here's some books I'm really looking forward to reading... First on my Books with Buzz list is Alan Brennert's Honolulu. Just published this month , Honolulu continues Brennert's historical fiction writing on Hawaii. Honolulu is the story of Regret, a mail order bride from 20th century Korea, who struggles with her new life in Hawaii to a man who isn't what she was lead to believe. But Regret (the name her parents gave her because she was born the 'wrong' gender) is a strong female character and she doesn't take her disappointments lying down. Brennert's previous historical fiction book Moloka'i is the tale of Rachel a 7 year old little girl living in Honolulu in the late 19th century who contracts leprosy and is taken away from her family and brought to live in the leper colony on Moloka'i. She then must grow up on Moloka'i and in doing so finds love, regret and finally redemption.Brennert is known for his excellent research and great writing. Next on my buzz list is The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obssession in the Amazon by David Grann. In 1925 legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett went into the Amazon in Brazil for the last time. His destination was the Lost City of El Dorado, the "City of Gold". The legend of El Dorado has captured the imaginations and minds of adventurers and scientists alike for 400 years (there's even an animated Disney film The Road to El Dorado). Fawcett nicknamed El Dorado The Lost City of Z and never returned from the expedition. Author David Grann became obsessed with the legend of Fawcett and decided to retrace the journey. The Lost City of Z is about Fawcett and Grann's journey. David Grann is a staff writer for the New Yorker and has written for a whole list of well know publications.This is his first book and already in the works is a movie adaptation.....Other books with buzz this week- The Shack by William P. Young, Life Sentences by Laura Lippman, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. I hope I've peaked your interest here with some interesting reading! When I finally do crack these open and read them I'll write and let you know what I think... And speaking of interesting things, there's a nice article about my reading group, Chicks with Books, and my blog in The Danbury NewsTimes today! Here's the link:

http://www.newstime.com/ci_12015712?source=email

Thanks to Carolyn Mueller, the writer at the NewsTimes, for her kind words! And you can find Carolyn every sunday writing her column Rabid Readers in The NewsTimes! Until next week...

happy reading! And remember- you can always leave me a comment by clicking on 'comment' under the blog post & I'd love to hear what you think!