This week, I actually did a little happy dance when I opened the mail. I know that my fellow reviewers know that special moment of glee when you get a terrific new book that you were really hoping for but didn’t think you’d get. The object of my affections is first on my list this week.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel is Neil Gaiman’s first new novels for adults since Anansi Boys and I am thrilled to have a chance to review it!

“Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie – magical, comforting, wise beyond her years – promised to protect him, no matter what.”

I am taking this one with me on my business trip this week, in the hopes of getting to it right away!

I don’t recall requesting Point Doom by Dan Fante, but it certainly sounds like my kind of book:

“Failed private investigator JD Fiorella was a pro at finding trouble. Mixing it up with the wrong people in New York, he escaped to L.A.—only to hit rock-bottom after too many nightmares and too much booze.

Now forty-six and sober, JD is working hard to get it together. Living in Malibu at his mother’s house in Point Dume, he’s got a new job selling used cars with his friend Woody and a new girlfriend. But just as things are looking up, JD discovers a gruesome murder. Now the ex-private detective has to make a choice.

Determined to exact vengeance, he follows a twisting trail of clues that leads him to unexpected truths about himself and his new life—and to a psychopathic killer with an eerie connection to his past. And, as JD soon learns, this time there’s no easy way out.”

 

And I am pretty sure I didn’t request The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau, but it still sounds like a pretty good read. The Universe clearly knows my taste.

In The Wonder Bread Summer, loosely based on Alice in Wonderland, 20-year-old Allie Dodgson has adventures that rival those Alice had down the rabbit hole. Or those of Weeds’ Nancy Botwin.

Allison is working at a dress shop to help pay for college. The dress shop turns out to be a front for drug dealers. And Allison ends up on the run—with a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine. With a hit man after her, Allison wants the help of her parents. But there’s a problem: Her mom took off when Allison was eight; her dad moves so often Allison that doesn’t even have his phone number….

Set in 1980s California, The Wonder Bread Summer is a wickedly funny and fresh caper that’s sure to please fans of Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, and Marcy Dermansky.