Two new books this week to talk about. First is one I am very excited about – the next Christopher Meeks novel, Blood Drama, coming out in June. I have reviewed a couple of Meeks’ novels before – months and seasons and Love at Absolute Zero – so I am looking forward to reading this one:

Everyone has a bad day. Graduate student Ian Nash has lost his girlfriend in addition to being dropped from a Ph.D. program in theatre at a Southern California university. When he stops at a local coffee shop in the lobby of a bank to apply for a job, the proverbial organic matter hits the fan. A gang of four robs the bank, and things get bloody. Ian is taken hostage by the robbers when the police show up. Now he has to save his life.

FBI Special Agent Aleece Medina’s analysis of the bloody bank heist drives her into the pursuit of a robbery gang headed by two women. She doesn’t anticipate how this robbery will pit her against both the bandits and the male higher-ups in the FBI while the media heats up during a giant manhunt.

The robbers are about to kill Ian, and all he has at hand is his knowledge of the stage.

My second new book is from the folks at Tor/Forge. It’s another novel from the husband and wife team, Aimee and David Thurlo, called a Time of Change. It’s part of their Ellie Clah crime series – not one that I’ve read, but I do love a good crime story:

A Time of Change introduces readers to Josephine Buck and other employees at a New Mexico trading post. When The Outpost’s owner dies, Josephine, a young Navajo woman, is shocked to discover that Tom Stuart, whom she thought of as a surrogate father, has left her the business.

Ben Stuart and his dad had had problems, but military service changed Ben for the better and put the two men back in each other’s lives. His father’s sudden death ends any possibility of a true reconciliation and leaves Ben fuming at being disinherited.

Suspecting that Jo had an affair with his father, Ben is determined to get control of the trading post. Jo’s hataalii training shows her that Ben is wounded in both body and soul, and she becomes determined to help him.

As Jo and Ben move toward a deeper understanding of each other, they learn that Tom Stuart was murdered and that the trading post at the center of their lives holds many secrets.

I haven’t been very good about keeping up with my library lately. Books keep pouring in – I am the luckiest girl on the planet – and I hardly have time to add them to LibraryThing, let alone tell you about them. But today, I’ve got a few great titles from the last few weeks.

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli

“Have you ever: continued to do something you knew was bad for you? Paid too much in an eBay auction? Taken credit for success, but blamed failure on external circumstances?”

Boy, have I – and I bet you have, too. Dobelli’s book is about cognitive biases – what they are and how to spot them. It’s about making better choices. I’m not a huge reader of self-help books, but this sounds like something that has some principles I can use day to day.

Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French

The clever, touching, and compelling story of one mysterious woman trapped in a coma after a fall from a balcony.

Now, lying unconscious in a hospital bed, Silvia is plagued by a stream of often funny and sometimes poignant visits from friends and family, each of whom knows a different piece of the puzzle that is Silvia Shute.

And, as she lies there listening to all of her visitors, the dark and terrible secret she’s been hiding for years emerges.

The Water Witch by Juliet Dark

The enchanted town of Fairwick’s dazzling mix of mythical creatures has come under siege from the Grove: a sinister group of witches determined to banish the fey back to their ancestral land. With factions turning on one another, all are cruelly forced to take sides. Callie’s grandmother, a prominent Grove member, demands her granddaughter’s compliance, but half-witch/half-fey Callie can hardly betray her friends and colleagues at the college. To stave off disaster, Callie enlists Duncan Laird, an alluring seductive academic who cultivates her vast magical potential, but to what end? Deeply conflicted, Callie struggles to save her beloved Fairwick, dangerously pushing her extraordinary powers to the limit—risking all, even the needs of her own passionate heart.

The Secret of the Nightingale Palace by Dana Sachs

The poignant story of an estranged grandmother and granddaughter and a secret that ties them together.

After her husband dies from leukemia, Anna agrees to help hard-to-please Goldie to bring a collection of valuable Japanese art from New York to California. Harboring a decades-old secret that could change Anna’s life forever, Goldie must learn to let go of her past so her granddaughter can move on and discover happiness and love.

With a narrative that alternates between early 1940s San Francisco and the present day, The Secret of the Nightingale Palace is a beautiful story about the enduring power of love and family.

This week, I’m going to talk about some books I bought for myself. I don’t do that very often, because the authors and publishers I deal with are so generous that what I really need to buy are bigger bookshelves. Still, now and then I come across a book that I really, really want. And it joins the Permanent Collection.

First, a book I have had on my Wish List for a while. I love to knit, but I never really worked with anyone to finish a project. I’ve got a lot of half-finished sweaters and other projects that never really came together. I picked up Finishing School: A Master Class for Knitters because it promises to go over gauge and blocking, how to sew the seams of a sweater and all the best methods for increasing and decreasing and binding off. This looks like it will be just what I need!

Second on the list was a cookbook from Top Chef Fan Favorite, Carla Hall. Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You promises to be a terrific cookbook. Just browsing through it when I got it home, I’ve got 3 or 4 recipes I want to try right away — or, as soon as my sinuses are back to normal.  The Silky Carrot Soup sounds divine and it would be perfect for a cold and dreary weekend. I always loved Carla on the show and thought I would very much like to hang out in her kitchen.

Last on the list is a book I bought to go along with a book I’ll be reviewing. Mitchell Zuckoff writes terrific real-life adventures and I picked up one from the catalog, Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II. It’s the true story of a plane crash in the New Guinea valley of Shangri-La and the harrowing journey the survivors had to face. I don’t know when I’ll have time to put it on the calendar, but someday — someday! — I’ll get the chance to read it. And now that I broke down and bought it, it will be on the shelf when I’m ready. In the meantime, I expect to review his latest, Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II, next month.

Finally, I got a belated Christmas present last week from my cousin, Ann. The Very Hungry Zombiewas great fun to read aloud over a glass of wine. Short and sweet and just a bit grisly, it’s perfect for me.

Monday always seems like a good day to talk about the new books that have made their way onto my shelves. It’s the start of a new week and I can just dig in with a new book.

First, a week or so ago, I emailed the good folks at Putnam when I saw that Owen Laukkanen has a new book coming out. I loved The Professionals (still think it would make a great movie), so I am really looking forward to Criminal Enterprise:

From the outside, Carter Tomlin’s life looked perfect: a big house, pretty wife, two kids—a St. Paul success story. But Tomlin has a secret. He’s lost his job, the bills are mounting, and that perfect life is hanging by a thread. Desperate, he robs a bank. Then he robs another.

As the red flags start to go up, FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere homes in on Tomlin from one direction, while Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens picks up the trail from another. The two cops haven’t talked since their first case together, but that’s all going to change very quickly.

Because Carter Tomlin’s decided he likes robbing banks. And it’s not because of the money, not anymore. Tomlin has guns and a new taste for violence. And he’s not quitting anytime soon

That sounds like another winner. I liked his detective team and I can’t wait to dig into this one.

In the package with Criminal Enterprise was a new one I had never heard of, Loyalty by Ingrid Thoft:

 The Ludlows are a hard-charging family, and patriarch Carl Ludlow treats his offspring like employees—which they are. But his daughter, Fina, is a bit of a black sheep. A law school dropout, her father keeps her in the fold as the firm’s private investigator, working alongside her brothers.

Juggling her family of high-powered (and highly dysfunctional) attorneys, the cops and Boston’s criminal element is usually something Fina does without breaking a sweat. But when her sister-in-law disappears, she’s caught up in a case unlike any she’s encountered before.

Carl wants things resolved without police interference, but the deeper Fina digs, the more impossible that seems. The Ludlows close ranks, and her brother Rand and his unruly teenage daughter Haley grow mysteriously distant from the family. As Fina unearths more dirt, the demands of family loyalty intensify. But Fina is after the truth—no matter the cost.

That certainly has potential. I’m not familiar with Thoft and I am always on the lookout for a new mystery.

Last for this week is one that came to me through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program. It’s The Water Witch by Juliet Dark. I have gotten some terrific books from them, and this one will be a nice break from the detective stories above:

After casting out a dark spirit, Callie McFay, a professor of gothic literature, has at last restored a semblance of calm to her rambling Victorian house. But in the nearby thicket of the honeysuckle forest, and in the currents of the rushing Undine stream, more trouble is stirring. . . .

The enchanted town of Fairwick’s dazzling mix of mythical creatures has come under siege from the Grove: a sinister group of witches determined to banish the fey back to their ancestral land. With factions turning on one another, all are cruelly forced to take sides. Callie’s grandmother, a prominent Grove member, demands her granddaughter’s compliance, but half-witch/half-fey Callie can hardly betray her friends and colleagues at the college. To stave off disaster, Callie enlists Duncan Laird, an alluring seductive academic who cultivates her vast magical potential, but to what end? Deeply conflicted, Callie struggles to save her beloved Fairwick, dangerously pushing her extraordinary powers to the limit—risking all, even the needs of her own passionate heart.

To be honest, I’m a little surprised to receive this (and I don’t recall requesting it). It’s not my usual thing, to be sure, but everyone needs a break from their usual thing now and then.

As promised, I have some new books that I want to share with you this week. I’ve got 2 titles that I requested, one that came unsolicited, but they all look pretty good.

First, the wild card, The Sound of One Hand Killing by Teresa Solana:

Two detectives, brothers Borja and Eduard, are contracted by best-selling author Teresa Solana to research the world of so-called alternative therapies. They enroll for a course at Zen Moments, an exclusive meditation center in the ritziest part of Barcelona, only to discover the director murdered, whacked in the head with a statuette of the Buddha. The violent death of a neighbor—who happens to be a CIA agent—simultaneously drags them into an international conspiracy complicated by Borja’s attempt to smuggle a priceless Assyrian figurine, the Lioness of Baghdad.

In this, the third in her satirical series, Catalan “noir” novelist Teresa Solana mercilessly punctures the pretensions of New Age quacks who promote pseudo-science and pseudo-spirituality. At the same time, Solana draws compassionate portraits of characters trying to live “ordinary” lives in circumstances that have ceased to be normal, yet still cope with such everyday issues as adultery, menopause, and simply surviving to the end of the month.

Sometimes, a book shows up unexpectedly and turns out to be a gem. I can’t wait to read this one.

Next, one that I requested from Camilla Lackberg, The Stonecutter:

[The Stonecutter] continues the story of local detective Patrik Hedström and his girlfriend, Erica Falck, the beloved crime-solving duo whose first child has just been born. But while they celebrate this new life, a suspicious drowning claims a little girl they knew well. As the murder’s implications widen, Patrik’s investigation threatens to tear apart the rural fishing village of Fjällbacka, where a secret lurks that spans generations.

That’s not much of a summary, but most of the book blurb is devoted to how much praise Lackberg has received for her other books. I hate it when they do that – huge turn-off for me as a reader. However, I really enjoyed The Ice Princess, so I am looking forward to this one.

Finally, one I will be reviewing a little down the road, closer to its release date, but that I am definitely looking forward to reading. Virus Thirteen by Joshua Alan Parry:

Scientists James Logan and his wife, Linda, have their dream careers at the world’s leading biotech company, GeneFirm, Inc. But their happiness is interrupted by a devastating bioterrorist attack: a deadly superflu that quickly becomes a global pandemic. The GeneFirm complex goes into lockdown and Linda’s research team is sent to high-security underground labs to develop a vaccine.

Above ground, James learns that GeneFirm security has been breached and Linda is in danger. To save her he must confront a desperate terrorist, armed government agents, and an invisible killer: Virus Thirteen.

Good books! Can’t wait to get a chance to do some reading!

I’ve got 2 terrific new books to tell you about this week. The first book started quite a debate on my online forum, and the second is a new perspective on an interesting bit of history.

First, the scandalous title: Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell. After reading the synopsis, there was no way I was passing this one up:

Say you’re a time traveler and you’ve already toured the entirety of human history. After a while, the outside world might lose a little of its luster. That’s why this time traveler celebrates his birthday partying with himself. Every year, he travels to an abandoned hotel in New York City in 2071, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and drinks twelve-year-old Scotch (lots of it) with all the other versions of who he has been and who he will be. Sure, the party is the same year after year, but at least it’s one party where he can really, well, be himself.

The year he turns 39, though, the party takes a stressful turn for the worse. Before he even makes it into the grand ballroom for a drink he encounters the body of his forty-year-old self, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. As the older versions of himself at the party point out, the onus is on him to figure out what went wrong–he has one year to stop himself from being murdered, or they’re all goners. As he follows clues that he may or may not have willingly left for himself, he discovers rampant paranoia and suspicion among his younger selves, and a frightening conspiracy among the Elders. Most complicated of all is a haunting woman possibly named Lily who turns up at the party this year, the first person besides himself he’s ever seen at the party. For the first time, he has something to lose. Here’s hoping he can save some version of his own life.

Now, at least one person on my favorite forum said, basically, “they are doing time travel all wrong!” but I disagree. And even if they were, I would still want to read this. It’s one of those books that makes you want to move it directly to the top of the pile…and I just might do that.

Next, is Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp and I can’t wait to read this one! Wyatt Earp is an iconic Wild West figure and I love books with an interesting perspective on history.

How did this aspiring actress and dancer—a flamboyant, curvaceous Jewish girl with a persistent New York accent—land in Tombstone, Arizona, and steal the heart of Wyatt Earp? What inspired five decades of adventure-seeking that led from the Arizona Territory to Alaska to Hollywood? And what sustained her lifelong partnership with a man of uncommon charisma and complex heroism?

How can you not want to read about her!

Be sure to keep checking back for reviews, new words, new books, guest posts and other commentary. There is always something new and book-related for you here!

I’ve got a few new books to tell you about. I don’t think I requested any of these (I’ve been requesting fewer these days, as I’m trying to get caught up), and if I didn’t request it, a book has to be really good to make the review list. Let’s see if any of these make the cut:

First, The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon sounds really, really good:

The summer of 1985 changes Reggie’s life. An awkward thirteen-year-old, she finds herself mixed up with the school outcasts. That same summer, a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother, Vera, the most, Vera’s hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there’s no body and Neptune disappears.

Now, twenty-five years later, Reggie is a successful architect who has left her hometown and the horrific memories of that summer behind. But when she gets a call revealing that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

This one just might make the review list.

Next, another one that I don’t recall requesting, but might just read anyway – The Bughouse Affair by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini:

In The Bughouse Affair, this first of a new series of lighthearted historical mysteries set in 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John
Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations.

Sabina’s case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady “dip” who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places.  Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate’s lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee.

The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes.

That sounds good! That might very well make the review list.

Now this last one, I know I didn’t request. Not sure if I’ll get to it, but it might be worth a look, Baksheesh by Esmahan Aykol:

Kati Hirschel, the owner of Istanbul’s only mystery bookstore, is fed up. It all started when her lover Selim insisted that she behave like the Turkish wife of a respectable lawyer. Looking demure and making witty small talk were the only requirements. Then her landlord announced an outrageous rent increase on her Istanbul apartment.

She has no desire to move in with Selim. She’d rather learn the art of bribing government officials in order to find a new place. Kati is offered a large apartment with a view over the Bosphorus at a bargain price. Too good to be true until a man is found murdered there and she becomes the police’s prime suspect. In her second novel Esmahan Aykol takes us to the alleys and boulevards of cosmopolitan Istanbul, to posh villas and seedy basement flats, to the property agents and lawyers, to Islamist leaders and city officials—in fact everywhere that baksheesh helps move things along.

Well, it was a quiet week for new books. That’s actually a good thing. I have been really busy with work and with the holidays coming up, so I haven’t been requesting a lot of books. I’m trying to get caught up on the ones I’ve got, because I’ve got some great stuff to share with you. All I need is a little time to read them all!

First on this list is Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure. This was one I couldn’t resist, it sounded so good:

Deep inside the little Amazon, the jungles of Honduras’ “Mosquito Coast” – one of the largest, wildest, and most impenetrable stretches of tropical land in the world-lies the fabled city of Ciudad Blanca: the White City. For centuries, it has lured explorers, including Spanish conquistador Herman Cortes. Some intrepid souls got lost within its dense canopy; some disappeared. Others never made it out alive. Then, in 1939, an American explorer and spy named Theodore Morde claimed that he had located this El Dorado-like city. Yet before he revealed its location, Morde died under strange circumstances, giving credence to those who believe that the spirits of the Ciudad Blanca killed him. Is this lost city real or only a tantalyzing myth? What secrets does the jungle hold? What continues to draw explorers into the unknown jungleland at such terrific risk?

Next, up, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 2. I was thrilled to get the email about this one! I loved the first one and I’m looking forward to settling in with some tiny little stories, tiny little pictures and a whole lot of fun.

Well, If you’ve scrolled down the sidebars here lately, you may have already figured out what my new November project is: I’m participating in this year’s National Novel Writer’s Month! I don’t think you’ll be ordering any of my work from Amazon any time soon, but I have been writing for years and this year, I am making it official.

I write the way I sing — because I love doing it, not necessarily because anyone wants to listen. But I simply feel better when I write. So I’ll give this a whirl — you can watch my progress in the widget on my right hand sidebar.

In New Book news, I just got one book last week, but it was a hot one! Hot Ticket: Sinners on Tour by Olivia Cunning is almost certain to end up as one of my upcoming Hot Reads:

Fourth in Olivia Cunning’s hard-rockin’ erotic romance series, Hot Ticket delves into the oh-so-skilled sensuality of Sinners’ enigmatic bass guitarist, Jace Seymour.

When Jace walked through the doors of Aggie’s dungeon, the last thing he expected was to find self-forgiveness and the love of a remarkable woman. But when a terrible accident sidelines Jace during the band’s tour, the burdensome chains of his past wrap ferociously around his heart. Determined to crack through Jace’s armored shell, Aggie must go beyond her usual methods to mend his heart to love again.

The cover is hot and the rest of the series sounds very readable. Can’t wait to get this one started!

I’ve got some new books to share with you this week and I am really excited about these titles!

The first, I received as a birthday gift. I don’t often get books as gifts; most of my family figures that if they think I might like it, I probably already have it (and they’re usually right). This is a little different – my cousin is acquainted with the author and she thought I would enjoy it. It’s called The Punch Bowl: 75 Recipes Spanning Four Centuries of Wanton Revelry by Dan Searing and it’s a book of punch recipes. I am planning on picking one for our family Thanksgiving dinner or for the next party I throw. (You know it’s going to be a good party when they’re serving Spread Eagle Punch, page 70.)

Next, a book that sounds vaguely familiar. I don’t know if I requested this or not, but it certainly sounds interesting:

Wright for America by Robin Lamont: Pryor Wright’s ultra-conservative radio show has millions of devout fans who are sure that the slurs and wild accusations fired at the liberal left prove him a true patriot. But when his venomous rantings catch Maren Garrity’s twin brother in the crossfire, the struggling actress pursues her own style of justice and enlists a troupe of fellow unemployed actors to teach Wright just how powerful words can be.

And finally, two ebooks that I requested. I am hoping to get to these quickly, but with the teetering piles of books in my living room, they might be in for a bit of a wait:

The Color of Greed by Jack Thompson: When the young husband of a wealthy heiress is found dead on his yacht floating off the California coastline, his death is ruled an accident and the case is closed. The grieving widow, certain her husband was murdered but getting no help from the police, turns to Raja Williams, a wealthy Oxford-educated private investigator, who has dedicated his resources to help those in need of justice. When Raja arrives in Los Angeles and more bodies begin to pile up, he suspects a coverup that may go as high up as the governor. With the help of his partner Vinny, a highly skilled hacker, Raja must unravel the case before everyone involved, including the two of them, winds up dead.

TOO LATE TO CALL TEXAS by Trent Zelazny: If only he hadn’t found the hat. Or the dead guy. Or the steamer trunk. Or the rag doll. If only he hadn’t found any of these things, everything might have been okay. But he had found them. All of them. Now Carson Halliday is on the run, trying his damnedest to keep one step ahead of a dangerous gang of outlaws and mad men. A run leading him from town to town in the dry wasteland of the southern New Mexico desert, over dark hills and dangerous plains, through shantytowns and city streets, and, most frightening of all, into the mysterious depths of the human heart.