Books on my radar: Spring Edition

I’ve some great looking books on my schedule in the upcoming weeks. Blurbs are from the descriptions on NetGalley. What’s on your Spring reading list?

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas continues her charming and heartwarming series set in Honey Creek, Texas, a little town nestled in the rolling hills bordering the Brazos River, where friendship and love are always close at hand, ties run deep, and lives intersect in unexpected ways…Filled with Jodi’s characteristic warmth, endearing characters, and authentic Texan flair, this story about a quiet cowboy and the local outcast adds layers of complexity and pathos to the continuing saga of this little town.

Two childhood friends discover that love—and family—can be found in unconventional ways in this timely, moving novel from the USA TODAY bestselling author of the “beautifully Southern, evocative Peachtree Bluff series” (Kristin Harmel, internationally bestselling author of The Winemaker’s Wife). 

The author of Park Avenue Summer throws back the curtain on one of the most remarkable feuds in history: Alva Vanderbilt and the Mrs. Astor’s notorious battle for control of New York society during the Gilded Age. 

Mary Kay Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads delivers her next page-turner for the summer with The Newcomer.

“A beautiful story full of love, loss, and second chances.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

A touching novel of a friendship that crosses generations, and learning how even the smallest gifts can change a life for good, from USA Today bestselling author Nancy Naigle.

Breakups, like book clubs, come in many shapes and sizes and can take us on unexpected journeys as four women discover in this funny and heartwarming exploration of friendship from the USA Today bestselling author of Ten Beach Road and My Ex-Best Friend’s Wedding.

“This is the hopeful book we all need right now. I loved it!”—Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lies That Bind

Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents Legacy, a new novel of a mother and a daughter, of ambition and romance, and of a traumatic past reawakened by a terrifying threat…

In this heartwarming sequel to Promises of the Heart in the Savannah Skies series, USA Today bestselling author Nan Rossiter returns to Tybee Island off the Georgia coast to focus on beloved characters Maeve and Gage as their relationship is tested by secrets they are keeping from each other.

FBI agent Kate O’Hare and charming criminal Nick Fox race against time to uncover a buried train filled with Nazi gold in this thrilling adventure in the “romantic and gripping” (Good Housekeeping) Fox and O’Hare series from the #1 New York Timesbestselling author Janet Evanovich.

The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes’s fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

Sunday Post

Book arrivals:

The Lights of Sugarberry Cove (from Forge and NetGalley)

Last week on Bookfan:

Spotlight: The Bounty

Review: Her Dark Lies

Spotlight/US Giveaway: Been There, Married That

Reading plan for this week:

I’m still reading and loving it – just experiencing limited reading time!

A Wednesday Post

So, this hasn’t happened often over the almost ten years I’ve blogged about books. I don’t have a review to post this week! And here’s why. I’m celebrating with family this week. My nephew is getting married on Friday and family is starting to arrive. Some are staying at my house so I’ve been in prep mode. Not much reading going on. I’ll be back next week with a review (or two, we’ll see).

---

 

Blog Doppelganger?

Well, not exactly.  It has come to my attention (thank you, Staci) that someone has a blog called Bookfan Mary.  It’s hosted at Blogger (I moved to WordPress from Blogger eight months ago).  My blog’s name is Bookfan but my URL is similar to what it was at Blogger.

So, please do me a favor and check the URL in your reader to be sure you’re not leaving comments at the other blog thinking it’s mine.  I think this issue may effect people who use Blogger because the blog posts came through Staci’s Blogger dashboard.

My  URL is https://bookfanmary.wordpress.com

I realize that if you’re reading this it means you have my new URL but just in case you didn’t delete my old Blogspot URL when I moved, you may want to now.

Thank you so much.  I hope this clears up any confusion.

Friday, February 4th is a birthday of sorts – it marks three years since I started Bookfan.  Usually I just mention the date but this year I’d like to pass along a few of the books I’ve bought, read, or have been sent for review in the past year or so.  If you’re interested please click here (giveaway now closed)  for more information. No need to spread the word – I’d like to keep this as a way to thank my regular readers.

Sunday Summary – May 23

Foggy morning along the river near my house

Books read/reviewed:

Roses by Leila Meacham

Waiting on Wednesday pick:

Captive Queen by Alison Weir

Friday Find:

Open Country by Kaki Warner

  

This week, while many book bloggers are in NYC attending BEA and BBC, I’m participating in Armchair BEA.  Click the link to find out all the great activities planned for people who couldn’t make it to New York.

Sunday Summary – May 16

Jean Kwok, author of Girl In Translation

Is it really Sunday already? I read a couple of good books last week (see below). I also found Secret Keepers for my WoW pick – it’s being released in paperback. I think it looks terrific! It is set to go on sale May 25.

One highlight of my week was seeing Jean Kwok read from her wonderful debut novel Girl in Translation. I won a giveaway of an arc and am so happy to recommend this book. Ms. Kwok spoke for an hour – she read 3 sections from the book and then talked about her background. She shared that the main character in her novel, Kimberly, is based on a combination of Ms. Kwok and her brother. She ended with a Q&A and then signed copies of her book.

If Ms. Kwok visits a bookstore near you I encourage you to go meet her and listen to her story. I was happy to learn that she is working on her next novel. It is very different from Girl in Translation but it sounds good. I’d like to offer my ARC of Girl in Translation to one of my readers who lives in the US. I’m not publicizing this giveaway. Just let me know in a comment if you’d like to be entered. It ends at 10pm eastern on Monday, May 17 (that’s tomorrow). I’ll announce the winner on Tuesday so check back!

This week’s Waiting on Wednesday pick:

Secret Keepers by Mindy Friddle

Books read/reviewed:

Knit in Comfort by Isabel Sharpe

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Waiting On Wednesday – May 5

at Breaking The Spine

The House On Oyster Creek

A Novel
Heidi Jon Schmidt

Pub. date: June 1, 2010

Sensitive but practical, Charlotte Tradescome has come to accept the reticence of her older, work-obsessed husband Henry. Still, she hopes to create a life for their three-year-old daughter. So when Henry inherits a home on Cape Cod, she, Henry, and little Fiona move from their Manhattan apartment to this seaside community. Charlotte sells off part of Tradescome Point, inadvertently fueling the conflict between newcomers and locals. Many townspeople easily dismiss Charlotte as a “washashore.” A rare exception is Darryl Stead, an oyster farmer with modest dreams and an open heart, with whom Charlotte feels the connection she’s been missing. Ultimately he transforms the way she sees herself, the town, and the people she loves…

Giveaway winner

Congratulations!

Cheryl C.

winner of

Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake

by Sarah MacLean

A Quick Giveaway – Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake

I received this advance uncorrected proof from another blogger

and now I’d like to pass it on!

* Open to US residents only

* must include your email in the comment box for your entry to count

* Giveaway ends Friday April 16 7pm eastern

Giveaway Closed

A Quick Giveaway – The Season of Second Chances

I’m giving away my Advance Reader’s Edition of

The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier

* Open to US residents

* Leave a comment and an email address (no address = no entry)

* Giveaway ends: 7pm (EDT) Friday, April 2

Good luck!

Giveaway Closed

Waiting On Wednesday – March 24

at Breaking The Spine

Publish date: May 5, 2010 by Harper

In this new novel by the celebrated author of The Myth of You and Me, a young mother discovers that her husband’s novel about infidelity might be drawn from real life.

Sarah Price is thirty-five years old. She doesn’t feel as though she’s getting older, but there are some noticeable changes: a hangover after two beers, the stray gray hair, and, most of all, she’s called “Mom” by two small children. Always responsible, Sarah traded her MFA for a steady job, which allows her husband, Nathan, to write fiction. But Sarah is happy and she believes Nathan is too, until a truth is revealed: Nathan’s upcoming novel, Infidelity, is based in fact.

Suddenly Sarah’s world is turned upside down. Adding to her confusion, Nathan abdicates responsibility for the fate of their relationship and of his novel’s publication—a financial lifesaver they have been depending upon—leaving both in Sarah’s hands. Reeling from his betrayal, she is plagued by dark questions. How well does she really know Nathan? And, more important, how well does she know herself?

For answers, Sarah looks back to her artistic twenty-something self to try to understand what happened to her dreams. When did it all seem to change? Pushed from her complacent plateau, Sarah begins to act—for the first time not so responsibly—on all the things she has let go of for so long: her blank computer screen; her best friend, Helen; the volumes of Proust on her bookshelf. And then there is that e-mail in her inbox: a note from Rajiv, a beautiful man from her past who once tempted her to stray. The struggle to find which version of herself is the essential one—artist, wife, or mother—takes Sarah hundreds of miles away from her marriage on a surprising journey.

Wise, funny, and sharply drawn, Leah Stewart’s Husband and Wife probes our deepest relationships, the promises we make and break, and the consequences they hold for our lives, revealing that it’s never too late to step back and start over.

Waiting on Wednesday – Feb. 10

at Breaking The Spine

Mrs. Somebody Somebody

by Tracy Winn

Goodreads synopsis:

On the banks of the Merrimack River at the close of World War II, a young mill worker dreams of marrying rich and finally becoming Mrs. Somebody Somebody. But that dream is complicated–not only for her but for all of Lowell, which is changing rapidly as the

twentieth century progresses, and which Winn chronicles perfectly in a series of lives brushing up against one another. She writes from the perspective of mill owners and union organizers, hard-working immigrants and overindulged children, and weaves them together to create a brilliant portrait of a place.

In the tradition of Richard Russo and Elizabeth Strout, Winn captures the heart of industrial America, making it come alive with her absolutely stunning prose.

Pub. date: June 8th 2010 by Random House Trade Paperbacks

Favorite Books of June ’09

Love in Bloom (Roberts)

The Fixer Upper (Andrews)

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict (Rigler)

Love Walked In (de los Santos)

May books

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Shelter Me by Juliette Fay

Mating Rituals of the North American WASP by Lauren Lipton

April & Oliver by Tess Callahan

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

Irresistible by Susan Mallery

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Favorites of the month in red

April Books

Too Good To Be True by Kristan Higgins

Espresso Shot by Cleo Coyle

Feels Like Family by Sherryl Woods

The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’Neal

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

The Inn at Eagle Point by Sherryl Woods

Thanks For the Memories by Cecelia Ahern

The Long Walk Home by Will North

Eating Heaven by Jennie Shortridge

Montana Creeds: Dylan by Linda Lael Miller

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center

Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer

Favorites of the month in red.  

March Books

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Temptation Ridge by Robyn Carr

Montana Creeds: Logan by Linda Lael Miller

Rubies in the Orchard by Lynda Resnick with Francis Wilkinson

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

Hot by Julia Harper

Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames

A Slice of Heaven by Sherryl Woods

The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom

Catholics by Brian Moore

Paradise Valley by Robyn Carr

* Favorite of the month

February 2009 Books

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Second Chance Pass by Robyn Carr

Philosophy Made Simple by Robert Hellenga

Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich

Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson

The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano

Adriana Trigiani

I read and reviewed Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani here. I loved the book which is in bookstores today. Here’s the author on the Today Show this morning:

Sorry, the video expired. You can do a Very Valentine search on YouTube and see a few different videos.

January Books

Books read in January 2009:

Shelter Mountain – Robyn Carr

The Piano Teacher – Janice Y.K. Lee

Whispering Rock – Robyn Carr

The Shell Seekers – Rosamunde Pilcher

A Virgin River Christmas – Robyn Carr

Last Days of Summer – Steve Kluger

Houston, We Have a Problema – Gwendolyn Zepeda

The Invisible Wall – Harry Bernstein

Stealing Home – Sherryl Woods

Foreign Affairs – Alison Lurie

The Rock Orchard – Paula Wall

Fireside – Susan Wiggs

Favorites:

The Shell Seekers

Last Days of Summer

The Rock Orchard