The Sunday Salon... Books with Buzz from the 20 Under 40 list

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's a beautiful morning in Connecticut with temps in the high 40's and NO SNOW! The trees are whispering my name to come out and play, but I'm still wrapped up in a book, Song of the Silk Road by Mingmei Yip, which I hope to finish today, and we've got some great books to chat about! So, grab thatcup of joe and relax! Let's escape into some great reads!

One book that's gotten a lot of great buzz this week (it was released this past tuesday) is The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. It's March's Indie Next pick, it's highlighted in today's NY Times Sunday Book Review, and I'm sure the abstract of it that appeared in The New Yorker in June 2009 drove The New Yorker to choose Tea Obreht as one of its' 20 under 40 writers. Obreht was also chosen by The National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35. The Tiger's Wife weaves myth and legend from a Balkan country with the present. Here's the description of The Tiger's Wife from the authors website...

In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.

But Natalia is also confronting a private, hurtful mystery of her own: the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. After telling her grandmother that he was on his way to meet Na

talia, he instead set off for a ramshackle settlement none of their family had ever heard of and died there alone. A famed physician, her grandfather must have known that he was too ill to travel. Why he left home becomes a riddle Natalia is compelled to unravel.

Grief struck and searching

for clues to her grandfather’s final state of mind, she turns to the stories he told her when she was a child. On their weekly trips to the zoo he would read to her from a worn copy of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, which he carried with him everywhere; later, he told her stories of his own encounters over many years with “the deathless man,” a vagabond who claimed to be immortal and appeared never to age. But the most extraordinary story of

all is the one her grandfather never told her, the one Natalia must discover for herself. One winter during the Second World War, his childhood village was snowbound, cut off even from the encroaching German invaders but haunted by another,

fierce presence: a tiger who comes ever closer under cover of darkness. “These stories,” Natalia comes to understand, “run like secret rivers through all the other stories” of her grandfather’s life. And it is ultimately within these rich, luminous narratives that she will find the answer she is looking for.

This book seems so "Big" for a debut of such a young (she's only 24!) writer, but all the reviews I've read earn her high praise for not only her prose, but her the world she has created in The Tiger's Wife.

Reading all the buzz for The Tiger's Wife made me take another look at those 20 under 40 authors that The New Yorker urged us to keep an eye out for. You may wonder what all the hype is about the 20 under 40... well, basically the 20 under 40 are the next generation of fiction writers. The writers that we'll be reading for years to come; writers that will be shaping the direction of writing (That's essentially what the 5 under 35 list is too). There are 20 writers picked and they are all under the age of 40. It's a list that isn't refreshed every year either - the last "20 under 40" list, which was then called "The Future of American Fiction", and included young authors by the names of Jonathan Franzen, Michael Chabon, and Jhumpa Lahiri was back in 1999. Here's the list of The New Yorkers 2010 list of 20 Under 40 authors (and their ages):

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32

Chris Adrian, 39

Daniel Alarcón, 33

David Bezmozgis, 37

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38

Joshua Ferris, 35

Jonathan Safran Foer, 33

Nell Freudenberger, 35

Rivka Galchen, 34

Nicole Krauss, 35

Dinaw Mengestu, 31

Philipp Meyer, 36

C E Morgan, 33

Téa Obreht, 24

Yiyun Li, 37

ZZ Packer, 37

Karen Russell, 28

Salvatore Scibona, 35

Gary Shteyngart, 37

Wells Tower, 37

Let's take a look at a few of the books that have caught my eye from two authors on this list...

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu... Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution for a new start in the United States. Now he finds himself running a failing grocery store in a poor African-American section of Washington, D.C., his only companions two fellow African immigrants who share his bitter nostalgia and longing for his home continent. Years ago and worlds away Sepha could never have imagined a life of such isolation. As his environment begins to change, hope comes in the form of a friendship with new neighbors Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter. But when a series of racial incidents disturbs the community, Sepha may lose everything all over again.

Wonderful praise for this debut novel by Dinaw Mengestu. It's about immigration and the isolation felt by so many. The title is taken from a line in Dante's Inferno, and parallels Sepha's own hell in America.

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li... Set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. In this story, we follow a group of people in a small town during this dramatic and harrowing time, the era that was a forebear of the Tiananmen Square uprising. Morning dawns on the provincial city of Muddy River. A young woman, Gu Shan, a bold spirit and a follower of Chairman Mao, has renounced her faith in Communism. Now a political prisoner, she is to be executed for her dissent. Her distraught mother, determined to follow the custom of burning her only child's clothing to ease her journey into the next world, is about to make another bold decision. Shan's father, Teacher Gu, who has already, in his heart and mind, buried his rebellious daughter, begins to retreat into memories. Neither of them imagines that their daughter's death will have profound and far-reaching effects, in Muddy River and beyond. Yiyun Li weaves together the lives of these and other unforgettable characters, including a serious seven-year-old boy, Tong; a crippled girl named Nini; the sinister idler Bashi; and Kai, a beautiful radio news announcer who is married to a man from a powerful family. Life in a world of oppression and pain is portrayed through stories of resilience, sacrifice, perversion, courage, and belief. We read of delicate moments and acts of violence by mothers, sons, husbands, neighbors, wives, lovers, and more, as Gu Shan's execution spurs a brutal government reaction.

I opened the pages of this book and was immediately taken with the writing, which I found simple and yet beautiful. This is Yiyun Li's debut novel, but she has two collections of stories published as well - A Thousand Years of Good Prayers published in 2006, and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl published last fall.

And speaking of award winners... The National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan took the top prize for fiction, beating out Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. And The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson won for General Nonfiction. You can find all the winners at The National Book Critics Circle website: BookCritics.org PLUS, The finalists for The Audies was announced Feb. 24th. We'll talk more about the nominee's this coming week, but if you'd like to take a look at the nominees visit TheAudies.com. A highlight this year is a special judges award for Paranormal audiobooks. There were 1100 titles submitted, and the winners will be announced May 24th.

Weekly Recap... Thinking about how wonderful living in Tuscany would be? I reviewed The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran for Memoir Monday! It is a fun, lighthearted book about the rigors of adapting to living in a country not your own. It is funny with great characters and it's all TRUE! Then on tuesday I highlighted Read an eBook Week. Did you take advantage of some of the free and bargain ebooks offered by publishers and ebook retailers? Let me know what your favorite bargain ebooks were! And for First Lines this week, I highlighted Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon. I love Jennifer's writing! Of all the books I've read of hers, and I've read all but one, I have never been disappointed. She usually adds some intriguing mystery that really grabs your attention and makes you turn those pages. I'll be reviewing Don't Breathe a Word this month.

How was your week?! Do lists like the "20 Under 40" motivate you to check out the work of the authors included in the list? Or do you HATE lists? One thing I think makes the 20 Under 40 list less tedious is that it's not a yearly list, where lists must be updated "no matter what".

Well, I hope you found something interesting today! Let me know what great books you found this week! Share those titles right here!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... Challenges for the New Year and Some New Historical Fiction

Welcome to the first Sunday Salon of the new year! What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'llmill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake.... All virtually! There are over 500 bloggers who participate in The Sunday Salon, so if you enjoy reading, you're in good company!

The new year is also that time of year we look back on the year and make resolutions for the future. It's been a fun reading year. I estimate I read close to 100 books. I love reading blog posts that have the exact number of books and pages read. I think this year one of my resolutions is to keep a tally of pages read, just for the fun of it. Do you keep any reading lists during the year? I usually don't make a lot of resolutions, but I do enjoy participating in reading challenges that are kind of like making a resolution to read so many books or a particular type of book, but I think it's less stressful to challenge myself versus making a resolution. This year, what challenges are you going to participate in? This week I'll be posting the details of the challenges I'm going to join, but I can tell you what they are now!

First, since I love historical fiction, I'm going to join the 2011 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry, who are a group of readers who enjoy historical fiction. Anyone can join, you can read as few as 2 historical fiction books, or as many as 20. Right now there are 68 people signed up to participate. The next challenge I'm going to join in, is the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge 2011 hosted by Tanabata of In Spring it is the Dawn. Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer, and has a unique way of telling a story. He's wildy popular in Japan. I've been meaning to read Murakami for The Japanese Reading Challenge, but just never got around to cracking a spine, so this is my way of nudging myself to do so. Another challenge I'm joining is the 2011 Graphic Novels Challenge. I stepped out of the box last year and read a few really interesting graphic novels. I've discovered it's not just about comic books, and there really are some great stories and artwork in this genre, SO, I'm up for discovering some more great novels in this medium. This reading challenge is being hosted by Vasilly of Thoughts of an Eclectic Reader.

So, now that I'm thinking of historical fiction, I did happen to discover a few books this weekend that might just work in that category! Here they are...

The Metropolis Case by Mattew Gallaway... From the smoky music halls of 1860s Paris to the tumbling skyscrapers of twenty-first-century New York, a sweeping tale of passion, music, and the human heart’s yearning for connection. Martin is a lawyer from post-9/11 Manhattan, In 1960 Anna is destined to be a grande dame of the international stage, Maria is a teenager in the 1970's with a voice that takes her from the doldrums of Pittsburgh to Julliard, and Lucein a young Parisian at the birth of the modern ear, the early 1860's in a bid to become a singer for the ages. This unlikely quartet is bound together across centuries and continents by the strange and spectacular history of Richard Wagner’s masterpiece opera Tristan and Isolde. Grandly operatic in scale, their story is one of music and magic, love and death, betrayal and fate. Matthew Gallaway’s riveting debut will have readers spellbound from the opening page to its breathtaking conclusion.

I love stories that sweep back and forth in time, and weave the stories of the characters from different eras together. Not all authors are able to make it work, but this novel has already gotten quite a bit of buzz about Michael's "lyrical prose", and "engaging story". So this is my first hopeful pick of 2011.

Corrag by Susan Fletcher... The Massacre of Glencoe happened at 5am on 13th February 1692 when thirty-eight members of the Macdonald clan were killed by soldiers who had enjoyed the clan's hospitality for the previous ten days. Many more died from exposure in the mountains. Fifty miles to the south Corrag is condemned for her involvement in the Massacre. She is imprisoned, accused of witchcraft and murder, and awaits her death. The era of witch-hunts is coming to an end - but Charles Leslie, an Irish propagandist and Jacobite, hears of the Massacre and, keen to publicise it, comes to the tollbooth to question her on the events of that night, and the weeks preceding it. Leslie seeks any information that will condemn the Protestant King William, rumoured to be involved in the massacre, and reinstate the Catholic James. Corrag agrees to talk to him so that the truth may be known about her involvement, and so that she may be less alone, in her final days. As she tells her story, Leslie questions his own beliefs and purpose - and a friendship develops between them that alters both their lives. In Corrag, Susan Fletcher tells us the story of an epic historic event, of the difference a single heart can make - and how deep and lasting relationships that can come from the most unlikely places.

I love the heart of this book- the clans , the politics of the day, the witchcraft "trial", and I've heard mixed reviews of this book. People who've read it say that the prose, the beautiful lyrical writing is what to love about this book, and that there isn't a lot of plot. But I'm still game to read this and make my own mind up.

Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones... From Publishers Weekly: Medieval Spain's caste system can't keep a good man down in this absorbing epic, a Spanish-language bestseller. Arnau Estanyol, son of a fugitive peasant, starts out in 14th-century Barcelona as a lowly porter who carries stone blocks to a cathedral construction site and ends up a rich moneylender who saves the city from pillaging and frees the serfs of a barony he acquires by marriage. Alas, his dizzying social assent and defiance of the feudal order provoke enraged aristocrats—his status-obsessed wife included—into siccing the Inquisition on him. Arnau is a kindhearted, somewhat passive figure who combines piety, industry and cosmopolitanism to challenge a corrupt, dogmatic church and a parasitic nobility. The plot features thwarted romance, war, plague, immolations and self-immolations, set in a Machiavellian world ruled by privilege, cronyism and brute force. The melodrama is sometimes laid on thick, but Falcones's rich portrait of medieval society is fascinating.

Although people were quick to compare this to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, the cathedral is not central to this story. The buzz is that this novel really captures the history of Spain in this era, so people unfamiliar with (or think they already "know" the history) will read about Spain from a unique perspective.

What books are you excited about for 2011?! How about ebooks? Did any of you receive a new eReader during the Holidays?! As much as I love my "dead tree books", I do enjoy my eReader too! I think publishers are going to really embrace the ebook this year. Let's just hope prices remain around the $9.99 price point. I just hate seeing the ebook costing more than the hardcover or paperback!

Check back this week for the dedicated posts about the challenges- I'll include all the particulars so you can see if you may want to join in. And if you're hosting any challenges, please share! Even though I may not have time to join in, I'd love to hear about them!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... The Day after Christmas, What goodies were under your tree?

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! It's the day after Christmas, and we are bracing ourselves in Connecticut for the first big blizzard of the year. I've got my Hoodie-Footie on, the woodstove going and a cup of java by my side. How are you doing the day after Christmas? I hope everyone had a wonderful day with their families and friends! And what bookish things did you find under the tree this year? My bookish gifts were in the form of gift cards this year, which are perfect for letting me wander the bookstore and pick out something I've had my eye on for a while, or something I know will be coming soon!

One book I decided I would like to read before seeing the movie is True Grit by Charles Portis. First published in 1968, and brought to the big screen in 1969 starring John Wayne, True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, a young girl who at 14-years-old is full of spunk, and is set to avenge the senseless murder of her father, by a man who worked for him. All I had really known of the story was the bits and pieces I had seen of the John Wayne movie, but the previews of the new movie sparked my interest. The time and place of the story is the american frontier. Mattie hires the meanest available U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, to pursue her father's killer in the Indian Territory. Talk about spunk- she intends to ride with him to see the job finished! The book is told in her voice, which is direct and matter of fact. I picked up a copy this morning and have been keeping Mattie company most of the afternoon. The book itself is in a new printing, as a movie tie-in, and a bit hard to find. I was lucky to get the ONE copy the big Barnes & Noble near my house had on the shelves. So far, I'm enjoying the ride, and I'll give you a full review once I'm done. I usually like to read the book before the movie if possible. I find it hard to do the reverse, because I don't enjoy the surprises of the book. How about you? And if you like to read the book first, now's the time to read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen! I saw the previews of this movie and it looks fabulous! Starring Reese Witherspoon and that guy from Twilight, Robert Pattinson, this movie is scheduled to be released in April of 2011.

The next book I'm going to treat myself to thanks to my gift cards is Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. There is so much wonderful buzz about this book! Stacy Schiff is suppose to bring us a dazzling new updated picture of the famous queen, sorting out fact from fiction. She is a noted author already, also winning the coveted Pulitzer Prize for her book Vera. And speaking of strong women (and it seems a common theme for me today), I got an email a few weeks ago from author Michelle Moran about her newest novel... it's about Madame Tussaud!

What most of us probably know about Madame Tussaud is her wax figures, and her famous waxworks museums. But there is so much more to learn about this strong woman. And Michelle Moran will be releasing Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, mid February.

"The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire…but who was this woman and how did she become one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous story comes to life as only Michelle Moran could tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin…" from Michelle Moran's website

What books are you excited about this week? Maybe you're excited about ebooks instead because Santa brought you an eReader? I had the opportunity to play with a NookColor and boy was I impressed. If you had your eye on a tablet, but didn't want to dish out the $499 for an iPad, or even more for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, this may be the answer. The screen is absolutely gorgeous, and seems even sharper than the iPad. More on that at a later date...

Time to put another log on the fire, and get back to Mattie. Share what goodies you received here! I'd love to hear about all your bookish gifts!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... Books with Buzz that Travel Through Europe during Times of War

Hey, it's Sunday! Welcome to The Sunday Salon! Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of Joe and settle in for a bit of book talk! Fall seemed to settle in, in Connecticut. We threw a few logs in the wood stove at night, and put a jacket on as we stepped out the front door in the morning. Fall also seems to be the time of year for some great reading! Today we'll be traveling through Europe with the books that caught my eye this week, as well as seeing a bit of war - first we take a trip to northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War, then we'll head to England during WWII, and finally a stop in the French Pyranees after The Great War, or WWI...

The Wrong Blood by Manuel De Lope... In the Basque Country in northern Spain, just before the Civil War, three men in dinner suits stop for a drink at a bar before continuing on their way to a wedding. Their trip is interrupted when their leader, the wealthy Don Leopoldo, has a stroke in the restroom.This event, bizarre and undignified though it is, begins to weave together the lives of two remarkable women: the bride, the beautiful and distinguished Isabel Cruces, and María Antonia Etxarri, the bar owner’s adolescent daughter. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, María Antonia is raped and Isabel’s newlywed husband, Captain Julen Herraiz, is shot. Both women find themselves violently altered, alone, and pregnant. A crippled but wise local doctor is the only witness to the mysterious, silent agreement these women conclude in the loneliness and desperation of their mutual suffering. Many years later, a young student, grandson to Isabel, returns to the scene of the events to spend an innocent summer studying for law exams. As he goes about his work, he unwittingly awakens the ghosts haunting both María Antonia and the doctor, and through their memories the passionate stories of the past unfurl before the reader.

The Wrong Blood has gotten great reviews, particularly for its beautiful writing and imagery. The novel starts out sixty years after the war, and moves back and forth to the time of the war. I love novels that transport me back in time and I'm looking forward to that in this novel, which is on my TBR list! This is also the first novel translated into to English by the Spanish author, Manuel De Lope. This book has been recommended for people who enjoyed Shadow in the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, not so much for the story, but the similar writing style. The Wrong Blood is available now from your local bookstore! *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton... A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WW II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941. Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.

This sounds wonderful! Secrets revealed, a crumbling castle, exploring the past! Fans of The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton will be happy to find another book to devour by the author- this time a romantic thriller. Pre-release reviews have given The Distant Hours great reviews, although some thought that it was a little long. I'm still excited about this book, whose release date is officially November 9th! *P.S. This Book will be Kindle Ready!

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse... A compelling story of ghosts and remembrance. The Great War took much more than lives. It robbed a generation of friends, lovers and futures. In Freddie Watson's case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. In the winter of 1928, still seeking resolution, Freddie is travelling through the French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. He stumbles through woods, emerging in a tiny village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful woman also mourning a lost generation. Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, he will have stumbled across a tragic mystery that goes back through the centuries. By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, this is a story of two lives touched by war and transformed by courage.

Another great story that moves between the past and the present, The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse has been referred to as an "old school" ghost story. This story started out as a novella called The Cave and was written for the Quick Reads campaign to encourage adult literacy. The writing is not as "complex" as other books written by Kate Mosse, or as long (only 272 pages), but The Winter Ghosts has gotten thumbs up reviews, and should be an enjoyable quick read. The Winter Ghosts is currently available (although on back order) at UK bookstores such as The Book Depository, and will be released here in The States Feb. 11th, 2011. (I guess that would make this a UK Fall read and a US Winter read...)

There are plenty of biographies and memoirs coming out too! But we'll chat about that tomorrow for Memoir Monday. In the meantime, I'll be picking winners for the giveaways for Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicky Myron, Dewey the Small-Town Library Cat by Vicky Myron, and The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris. If you missed entering the giveaways you can still read my reviews by following the links. AND there's still time to enter the giveaways for Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye (a great father & son book), and The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett.

Have a great rest of the weekend! And don't forget to share what you've been reading too! I'd love to hear what books YOU spotted this week on your reading adventures!

The Sunday Salon... Books with Buzz, and a Bit of eReader Talk!

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! I can't believe it's Sunday already! It seems as though the week went by in a flash. As always, I had my head in some great books, such as Ashes and Water by Irene Ziegler! Irene's Virtual Book Tour will be making a stop here at Chick with Books on Monday, and I'll be sharing my review then. (Memoir Mondays back to normal starting August 30th!) BTW, Her book, Ashes to Water is a literary thriller, but more about that tomorrow! I also hosted a Book Tour stop for Daniel Silva's The Rembrandt Affair, and was able to reconnect with my old friend Gabriel Allon! He's a retired special agent (OK assassin) for the Israeli government and an art restorer, not to mention a great character! Here's my Review of The Rembrandt Affair... Also from last week, in case you missed it, courtesy of Doubleday I am giving away a copy of Dracula in Love by Karen Essex! I LOVED this book! If you missed it, here's my Review of Dracula in Love. And here's the LINK to the Giveaway! There are plenty of great books to take a peek at today too! So without further ado, here are this weeks Books with Buzz...

First, have you read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett yet?! It's one of my MUST reads, and fans of Ken Follett have something to look forward to this coming Sept! It's a new epic novel! Fall of Giants, the first novel in the 'Century' trilogy, will be published in 14 countries simultaneously on September 28, 2010. From Ken Follett's website...

"In Fall of Giants, I follow the destinies of five interrelated families – one American, one Russian, one German, one English and one Welsh – through the earth-shaking events of the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man’s world in the Welsh mining pits…Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House…two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription and revolution…Billy’s sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at theGerman Embassy in London…. These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.

I was glued to the pages of Pillars of the Earth, not just because I love the time period in which the story took place, which was the Middle Ages, but because Ken Follett brought the families involved alive on the page! I cared about what happened to them, hated them (yes, this is referring to William in particular) and watched as a magnificent church was built. Fall of the Giants is not the Middle Ages, but in the hands of Ken Follett, I am so looking forward to getting to know these families and the world that is theirs.

Also from Ken's website... The second book in the 'Century' series, due to be published in 2012, will feature the children of the characters in Fall of Giants as they live through the Depression and the Second World War. The third book, due out in 2014, will be about the next generation during the Cold War.

The Tower, The Zoo, And The Tortoise by Julia Stuart... There has been a lot of great buzz about this book prior to it's publication date, which was this past week. They say, don't judge a book by its cover, but adorning this cover are the whimsical characters that we will get to know as we turn the pages, and I just love it! On the back cover are Tower of London Facts, such as "Employees of the Tower Mint were said to be rocognizable by their missing fingertips." So, what's it about? From the Publisher...

"Balthazar Jones has lived in the Tower of London with his loving wife, Hebe, and his 120-year-old pet tortoise for the past eight years. That’s right, he is a Beefeater (they really do live there). It’s no easy job living and working in the tourist attraction in present-day London. Among the eccentric characters who call the Tower’s maze of ancient buildings and spiral staircases home are the Tower’s Rack & Ruin barmaid, Ruby Dore, who just found out she’s pregnant; portly Valerie Jennings, who is falling for ticket inspector Arthur Catnip; the lifelong bachelor Reverend Septimus Drew, who secretly pens a series of principled erot ica; and the philandering Ravenmaster, aiming to avenge the death of one of his insufferable ravens. When Balthazar is tasked with setting up an elaborate menagerie within the Tower walls to house the many exotic animals gifted to the Queen, life at the Tower gets all the more interest ing. Penguins escape, giraffes are stolen, and the Komodo dragon sends innocent people running for their lives. Balthazar is in charge and things are not exactly running smoothly. Then Hebe decides to leave him and his beloved tortoise “runs” away." Some of the buzz words heard are, "charming", "whimsical", and "adorable". And I have this in my TBR pile now! *This Book is Kindle Ready!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen... Fans of Jonathan Franzen have waited nine years since he wrote The Corrections, which won The National Book Award, for something new. That wait is finally over. In fact, Jonathan Franzen made the cover of Time magazine this week! An honor never bestowed upon a living author. Here's what the Publisher tells us about Freedom...

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world. But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter’s college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes? In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

I love complex family stories. I've heard that Franzen doesn't necessarily give the reader likable characters, but breathes life into his characters to make real people, with real fears and feelings. I'm putting this one on my TBR list.

Kindle? Nook? Are you enjoying your eReader?! I love my Kindle, can't wait to see the newest member of the Kindle family (a little less than 2 weeks away!) and I am really enjoying my Nook! Yes, I bought a Nook for reading ePub books from the library! It's a joy to download ebooks from the library onto the Nook. And the Philadelphia Library makes it easy to borrow ebooks and reserve them too! I mentioned in an earlier post that the Philadelphia Library uses one of my favorite ebook libraries hosted by Overdrive. (My home library doesn't), and for a fee of $15 per year, you can get a Philadelphia Library card and enjoy accessing their eBook library via the internet! These eBooks are in the ePub format, so you need a eReader that is compatible. Sorry Kindle owners, you CAN NOT download ebooks from the library! Kindle's do not accept ePub books! If you're interested, here's the LINK to apply for a card. * Check the Philadelphia Library website to see if you have a compatible device. As of this posting, Nooks and Sony eReaders are compatible! Here is the LINK to the quick overview of what you need to get started, including a link to get Adobe Digital Editions for free, which is how you manage & transfer the ebooks you check out.

A Little Nook News... Barnes & Noble has a eBook & Nook Blog. You can access it on your Nook, but going into "The Daily", which you'll find on the bottom screen. Or you can access it on The Barnes & Noble website. Paul Hochman writes the blog, and features new ebooks, interesting ebooks, and FREE eBooks! On fridays, B & N has "Free eBook Fridays"! Check out The Daily on your Nook on Fridays to see what's available! * Julie commented about today's post and wanted to share that B & N is also offering FREE B&N CLASSIC eBooks for the Nook every Friday too! The program started July 16th and will run until Sept. 14th! Here is the link to download your free Nook Classics. There are 12 classics per week, and the selection changes every week. Thanks Julie for letting us know!

A Little Kindle News too... I see that Amazon has a new feature on their site called Debut Discount, and for a "limited time", and if you've ever watched the Kindle book bargains you know how fleeting some of these bargain prices are, you try some new authors at a discounted price. Right now there are 6 ebooks highlighted and priced at $3.99.

Well, I'm off again to take in some nature before the sun beats down too much. What have you been reading this week?! Share you're great reads right here with everyone! And are you using a eReader? Which ones are you enjoying?!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... Week in review, Looking ahead and a Couple of Books with Buzz

There's something special about Sunday mornings... maybe it's the sweet music of a songbird singing to its mate. Or maybe it's just the fact I can sleep in a little longer Sunday morning... this morning I spent at the local nursery buying some perennials to fill parts of the butterfly & bird garden that need a bit of attention, and then I headed off to my local wild bird store to buy some food for those same visitors... whatever your reason for enjoying Sunday, pour yourself a cup and relax... let's look at what bookish things went on this week...

I was traveling back and forth in time, with some of that time spent in France with the Impressionists, swept up in a long ago romance that involved forbidden love, romantic letters, a mysterious painting and blackmail. I listened to the audiobook of that sweeping romance, The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostava, and was totally enamored by the story and the reading of the story.This week I'll be reviewing the audiobook of The Swan Thieves, which I enjoyed so much... Then I took a trip to Russia, during the brutal Soviet rule, where the KGB judged every word and action you made. I followed "former" Secret Police Officer Leo Demidov in The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith and into a war within himself and the injustices surrounding him. What an amazing novel filled with Gulags, betrayals, and the unconditional love of a mother. It was gripping and thought-provoking. Can a soul be redeemed after the horrors of war? I'll be reviewing The Secret Speech this week, plus posting a reading guide for it (it would make a great book for discussion), and there will be a GIVEAWAY too! Again, all that traveling between France and Russia can makes a girl hungry, so I was lucky that I received a copy of 101 Things I Learned in Culinary School by Louis Eguaras with Matthew Frederick from Hachette Book Group! Louis Eguaras has more than 20 years experience teaching and working in the culinary arts, and this cute little book provides little snippets of culinary lessons. You can turn to any page in this 101 page book and gain a bit of enlightenment, from what Amuse-bouche is to what cookware material is best for what dishes. Not a recipe book, but a book that can satisfy your hunger for a bit of culinary knowledge! Look for my review this week of Louis Equaras book too!

Also this past week, I had a fantastic guest post by Historical Romance writer Paula Quinn, so if you missed it, check out the Tuesday May 11th post and read what Paula had to say about writing her wonderful Historical Scottish Romances for a 21st century audience. This week I'll be sharing my full review of her latest novel, Ravished by a Highlander, and there will be a GIVEAWAY too!

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While there are lots of great book reviews coming this week, there are also a couple of books that have gotten a lot of chatter this week... Here are two Books with Buzz...

The much anticipated 3rd book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, will be released May 25th in the US! From Stieg Larsson's website, here is the plot summary... Two seriously injured people arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is Alexander Zalachenko, an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe. In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head. I loved The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and have The Girl Who Played With Fire on my nightstand ( I didn't want to torture myself like I did after reading the first book, waiting for the next book!), So now I can get down to reading book 2 in the series knowing book 3 is right around the corner. The first 2 books in the series are now available in paperback. If you haven't ventured to read Steig Larsson yet, and you enjoy a good mystery, I encourage you to open up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and start reading! His writing style is a bit different from his American counterparts- more of a slow build up until you can't stop reading- but very satisfying. The movie that just came out is based on book one, with a tad of book 2 in it, but it was perfect. Very true to the book and Lisbeth Salander, definitely my favorite character in the book, was great! I reviewed the movie in April.

Women Food And God by Geneen Roth... This book is all over the blogosphere. In our weight conscious society, Geneen Roth, who also wrote When Food is Love, tries to help us get to the core of our eating habits. The Inside Jacket introduction says... "Now, after more than three decades of studying, teaching and writing about what drives our compulsions with food, Geneen adds a profound new dimension to her work in Women Food and God. She begins with her most basic concept: The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. Your relationship with food is an exact mirror of your feelings about love, fear, anger, meaning, transformation and, yes, even God." I have a love hate relationship with food, and picked this book up to see what all the chatter was about. Sometimes you just have to put down the diet book, take a deep breathe and relax a bit. Geneen Roth has workshops, retreats and has published numerous articles talking about our relationship with food. Maybe this book will strike a chord, I'll let you know what I think...

What are you reading this week?! Share what's on your nightstand... And in the meantime, have a wonderful Sunday and week ahead!

Happy reading... Suzanne