"Waiting On" Wednesday: Family Album

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Family Album

By Penelope Lively

Publication Date: October 29

From Amazon:

"All Alison ever wanted was a blissful childhood for her six children, with summers at the beach and birthday parties on the lawn at their family home. Together with Ingrid, the family au pair, she has worked hard to create a real old-fashioned family life. But beneath its postcard sheen, the picture is clouded by a distant father, Alison's inexplicable emotional outbursts, and long-repressed secrets that no one dares mention. For years, Alison's adult children have protected her illusion of domestic perfection—but as each child confronts the effects of past choices on their current adult lives, it becomes evident that each must face the truth."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!

Summer Reading, Part I

I have had a crazy summer, with work and putting my house on the market...and while I have been steadily reading, I have NOT been steadily reviewing! That said, I didn't want to let more time go by without calling out six of my favorite summer reads so far:

So Happy Together by Maryann Mcfadden

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews

Dune Road by Jane Green

Summer House by Nancy Thayer

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton

On a disappointing note, I was really looking forward to Return to Sullivan's Island by Dorothea Benton Frank and Last Light Over Carolina by Mary Alice Monroe, but I just couldn't stick with either one of them enough to finish.

Booking Through Thursday: Recent Funny

The question of the week at Booking Through Thursday is:

What’s the funniest book you’ve read recently?

I primarily read women's fiction, which typically isn't "funny," but my answer to this question came to me immediately:

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

By Amy Sedaris

I checked this out from the library, but halfway through, I returned it and bought my own copy. I also bought one for my mom, who is one of the funniest people I know and holds people who can make her laugh in the highest esteem. My phone rang off the hook for three days as she made her way through it. Needless to say, it owned her.

It's hilarious, quirky, entertaining, visually appealing, outrageous, and yet surprisingly practical. The gal knows her way around a kitchen...the recipes alone make it worth owning. Her Southern background comes through in a big way, making those obscure references really hit home for me, heightening the appeal and comedy factor.

This...book...is...FUNNY.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Cleaving

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I think this is my first non-fiction WOW, but y'all know I'm a sucker for food memoirs. And, in light of the upcoming release of the movie version of Julie & Julia, it seemed appropriate.

Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession

By Julie Powell

Publication Date: December 1

From Amazon:

"Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING.

Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer's, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs--tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts.

The camaraderie at Fleischer's leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world--from South America to Europe to Africa. At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!

Booking Through Thursday: Preferences

It's been awhile since I participated...here's this week's Booking Through Thursday:

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

Reading something frivolous? Or something serious?
Serious

Paperbacks? Or hardcovers?
Hardcovers

Fiction? Or Nonfiction?
Fiction

Poetry? Or Prose?
Prose

Biographies? Or Autobiographies?
Autobiographies

History? Or Historical Fiction?
Historical fiction

Series? Or Stand-alones?
Stand-alones

Classics? Or best-sellers?
Best-sellers

Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose?
Straight-forward, basic prose

Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?
Plots

Long books? Or Short?
Long

Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated?
Non-illustrated

Borrowed? Or Owned?
Borrowed from library

New? Or Used?
New

"Waiting On" Wednesday: A Friend of the Family

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

A Friend of the Family

By Lauren Grodstein

Publication Date: November 10

From Amazon:

"Pete Dizinoff has spent years working toward a life that would be, by all measures, deemed successful. A skilled internist, he’s built a thriving practice in suburban New Jersey. He has a devoted wife, a network of close friends, and an impressive house, and most important, he has a son, Alec, on whom he’s pinned all his hopes. Pete has afforded Alec every opportunity, bailed him out of close calls with the law, and even ensured his acceptance into a good college.

But Pete never counted on the wild card: Laura, his best friend's daughter—ten years older than Alec, irresistibly beautiful, with a past so shocking that it’s never spoken of. When Laura sets her sights on Alec, Pete sees his plans for his son not just unraveling but being destroyed completely. Believing he has only the best of intentions, he sets out to derail this romance and rescue his son. He could never have foreseen how his whole world would shatter in the process.

Lauren Grodstein delivers a riveting story in the tradition of The Ice Storm, American Beauty, and Little Children, charting a father's fall from grace as he struggles to save his family, his reputation, and himself."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!

"Waiting On" Wednesday: No Time to Wave Goodbye

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

No Time to Wave Goodbye

By Jacquelyn Mitchard

Publication Date: September 15

From Amazon:

"It has been twenty-two years since Beth Cappadora’s three-year-old son Ben was abducted. By some miracle, he returned nine years later, and the family began to pick up the pieces of their lives. But their peace has always been fragile: Ben returned from the deep end as another child and has never felt entirely at ease with the family he was born into. Now the Cappadora children are grown: Ben is married with a baby girl, Kerry is studying to be an opera singer, and Vincent has emerged from his troubled adolescence as a fledgling filmmaker.

The subject of Vincent’s new documentary, “No Time to Wave Goodbye,” shakes Vincent’s unsuspecting family to the core; it focuses on five families caught in the tortuous web of never knowing the fate of their abducted children. Though Beth tries to stave off the torrent of buried emotions, she is left wondering if she and her family are fated to relive the past forever.

The film earns tremendous acclaim, but just as the Cappadoras are about to celebrate the culmination of Vincent’s artistic success, what Beth fears the most occurs, and the Cappadoras are cast back into the past, revisiting the worst moment of their lives—with only hours to find the truth that can save a life. High in a rugged California mountain range, their rescue becomes a desperate struggle for survival."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!

"Waiting On" Wednesday: But Not for Long

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

But Not for Long

By Michelle Wildgen

Publication Date: October 13

From Amazon:

"Hard-shelled, career-minded Greta is the newest and least likely member of a sustainable foods cooperative house in Madison, Wisconsin. Shortly after she joins Karin and Hal in their stately residence near campus, the husband Greta left appears on their porch, drunk, and the reason for her sudden appearance becomes clear. Yet the house members already have plenty to occupy them: a series of summer blackouts has unearthed a disquietude lurking just under the surface for each of the three residents. Gas is dwindling, electricity is unreliable, and the natural world around them is in upheaval. The uneasiness of the environment mirrors that of Greta, Hal, and Karin as they each make efforts to resolve their own personal crises. With subtle attunement to the hovering uncertainty affecting each of her characters, Wildgen crafts a story both terrifying and beautiful."

I really enjoyed Wildgen's first novel, You're Not You, so I'm really looking forward to her latest.

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!

USA Today's 10 Great Beach Reads

"Driftwood, dune, swimming. If the words in a novel's title evoke the season, it's sure to grab our attention while the weather's hot. USA Today checks out 10 new books that say summer."

Check out the list here.

I have several of these on my TBR list. Also, I just finished Dune Road and Beach Trip (both great; reviews forthcoming), and I started Summer House today.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Recipe Club

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Recipe Club

By Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel

Publication Date: October 1

From Amazon:

"Lilly and Val are lifelong friends, united as much by their differences as by their similarities. Lilly, dramatic and confident, lives in the shadow of her beautiful, wayward mother and craves the attention of her distant, disapproving father. Val, shy and idealistic—and surprisingly ambitious—struggles with her desire to break free from her demanding housebound mother and a father whose dreams never seem to come true.

In childhood, “LillyPad” and “Valpal” vow to form an exclusive two-person club. Throughout the decades they write intimate letters in which they share hopes, fears, deepest secrets—and recipes. Readers can cook along as the girls travel through time, facing the challenges of independence; the joys and heartbreaks of first love; and the emotional complexities of family relationships, identity, mortality, and goals deferred.

But no matter what different paths they take or what misunderstandings threaten to break them apart, Lilly and Val always find their way back together through their Recipe Club . . . until the fateful day when an act of kindness becomes an unforgivable betrayal.

Now, decades later, while trying to recapture the trust they’ve lost, Lilly and Val reunite once more—only to uncover a shocking secret. Will it destroy their friendship, or bring them ever closer?"

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!