Welcome to this week’s edition of Mailbox Monday hosted this month by Metroreader.

Visit Metroreader today to get links to other readers’ mailboxes.

Go to the dedicated blog for the meme to see the complete tour schedule in the left hand sidebar.

A tantalizing array of books arrived at my house this week:

Jenny Lawson’s blog is on my daily must-read list. Better known as The Bloggess, she is painfully funny and outrageous. Her often inappropriate humor just makes me laugh. So when I saw she was publishing her first book, a memoir, I was eager to get my hands on it. I literally begged my contact at Penguin. I think I even offered to kill if it would help me get a copy of the book for review. So imagine my joy when Let’s Pretend This Never Happened arrived at my doorstep! Due for release in April 2012 through Amy Einhorn, the book is being described as “adorably offensive,” and “hilarious, snarky, witty, totally inappropriate.“  Lawson says out loud what most of us just think privately. I am going to try to wait until April to read Lawson’s memoir – but don’t be surprised if I break down and get to it sooner.

Jenny Lawson writes for Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle. She also writes a satirical sex column and  a parenting column.  Her blog is outrageously entertaining. Lawson lives with her long-suffering husband and daughter. She also has three cats: Posey, Rolly and Ferris Mewler.

Blue Monday by Nicci French arrived through Pamela Dorman Books (due for release in early March). This novel is the first in a new series of psychological thrillers and introduces Freida Klein, a solitary, incisive brilliant psychotherapist, who spends her sleepless nights walking the streets of London. When a five-year old boy is abducted, Frieda is left troubled: “one of her patients has been relating dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew.“  Before long, Frieda is at the centre of the race to track the kidnapper. “But her race isn’t physical. She must chase down the darkest paths of a psychopath’s mind to find the answers to Matthew Farraday’s whereabouts.” I’ll be offering a giveaway of this book toward the end of February…so keep an eye on my blog if you want a chance to win a copy!

Nicci French is the nom de plume of bestselling writing partners Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Nicci Gerrard graduated with a first class honours degree in English Literature from Oxford University and taught English Literature in Sheffield, London and Los Angeles in the early 80′s. She moved into publishing in 1985 with the launch of Women’s Review, a magazine for women on art, literature and female issues. She eventually became acting literary editor at the New Statesman, before moving to the Observer, where she was deputy literary editor for five years, and then a feature writer and executive editor.

Sean French also studied English Literature at Oxford University at the same time as Nicci, but their paths didn’t cross until 1990. In 1981 he won Vogue magazine’s Writing Talent Contest, and from 1981 to 1986 he was their theatre critic. During that time he also worked at the Sunday Times as deputy literary editor and television critic, and was the film critic for Marie Claire and deputy editor of New Society. Sean and Nicci were married in 1990 and began work on their first joint novel in 1995, adopting the pseudonym of Nicci French. Learn more about the couple and their work by visiting the Nicci French website.

How The Dog Became The Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends by Mark Derr arrived from The Overlook Press (published October 2011). I stumbled upon an article on Brain Pickings about The Silver Fox Experiment and this book. Embedded in the article is a wonderful video excerpt from BBC’s excellent The Secret Life of the Dog. After watching the entire footage, I knew I needed to read Derr’s book as well, which explores the science and history of dogs as well as the dog-human relationship and how it has shaped our development and history.  Check out this terrific piece on NPR about the book.

Mark Derr is the author of Dog’s Best Friend and A Dog’s History of America. He is an expert on the subject of dogs and writes for The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Natural History and Smithsonian. Learn more about Derr and his work by following the author’s blog.

Hyperion Voice sent me an Advance Readers Edition of The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan (due for publication April 2012). I read Copaken Kogan’s debut novel Between Here and April which I really enjoyed (read my review), and so I was happy to receive a copy of her most recent book. The Red Book is described as a cross between “The Big Chill” and Mary McCarthy’s “The Group.” It centers around a once-close circle of Harvard alumni who meet up at their 20 year class reunion.

Deborah Copaken Kogan is the author of Shutterbabe, her best selling memoir about her years as a war photographer. She has also published one previous novel. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Elle, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Slate. She lives in New York with her husband and three children. Learn more about Copaken Kogan by visiting the author’s website.

The good folks over at Tor Forge sent me a finished copy of Living Proof by Kira Peikoff (being released later this month). Set in the future in 2027, this debut novel explores a current and relevant topic and adds a futuristic twist. This imagined future proposes that destroying an embryo is considered first-degree murder. A brilliant young doctor by the name of Arianna Drake seems to be thriving in the spotlight until she comes under investigation for possible illegal activity. Described as “a celebration of love and life that cuts to the core of a major cultural debate of our time,” this promises to be a thrilling debut.

Kira Peikoff has written for  New York Daily News, The Orange County Register, Newsday, and New York magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from NYU. Living Proof is her first novel. Learn more about Piekoff and her work by visiting the author’s website.

Did any wonderful books arrive at YOUR home this week?

February 5, 2012

Good morning and welcome to another edition of Sunday Salon. Visit the dedicated Facebook page to get links to other readers’ posts.

My January reading was the slowest of any time over the last four years. I only finished five books – half of my goal to read ten books per month. Not a great way to start a new year. I am really hoping that I can turn things around in February!

My final book for January ended up being The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney (read my review) which I enjoyed for its twisty plot and quality of writing. The novel is set in England and centers around the mystery of a missing girl, a family of gypsies and a private investigator. Penney narrates the book from two points of view and dips back and forth in time. Readers who enjoyed The Tenderness of Wolves will most likely not be disappointed in this one – although I preferred Penney’s debut myself.

I started February with Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron (read my review). This is an amazing book, although a heartbreaking one. Benaron won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction in 2010 for this novel and I think it was well deserved. Set in Rwanda in the years leading up to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Running the Rift follows the life of a talented runner named Jean Patrick. Very few books actually make me cry, but this one did just that. Benaron knows how to develop characters and by the end of the book I really cared about Jean Patrick, his girlfriend Bea and their families. If you like world literature, historical fiction and literary fiction…this is the perfect book for you.

My current read is a classic. Lord of the Flies by Nobel-prize winning author William Golding was first published in 1954 and was Golding’s debut novel. The book is not without some controversy having been challenged frequently for its violent portrayals of young boys who sink into savagery after being stranded on an island together. Lord of the Flies has been adapted to film – first in 1963, then in 1990. Have any of you seen the movie? Here is a trailer from the 1990 version:

Lord of the Flies is a relatively short book (200 pages), so I hope to finish it up by tomorrow. I have no idea what I will read next. I have a huge stack of books for February, as well as several that I had hoped to read in January. I am going to let my mood guide me.

In other bookish news, the folks over at World Book Night have extended the deadline to enter to be a giver to February 6th…so you have one more day to enroll! I was really excited to get an email telling me my application was chosen. Apparently, nearly everyone who completes an application will be allowed to participate. So don’t wait!!! I think this is going to be a fabulous event to look forward to in April!

Today is a sparkling, blue-sky day in Northern California. It is nippy out there this morning, but temps are supposed to get into the 60s later today. It feels more like early spring here than the middle of winter! I’m anticipating a hike with Raven and my hubby later, some reading, and a little quilting. How about you? Whatever you are doing and wherever you are, I hope it involves a great book!

If you stretch a spring long enough, far enough, the metal will fail and the spring will snap. The same with a human body. The same with a human heart. The same, even, with a country. – from Running the Rift, page 231 -

There are many horrific events in the historical record. The Rwandan Genocide which occurred in 1994 and resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000 people (or close to 20% of the country’s population) is, perhaps, one of the most tragic. The violence took place over a 100 day period, although there were small outbreaks of violence in the years leading up to the tragedy – episodes which pointed to a build up of rage and misunderstanding between two ethnic groups: the Hutu and the Tutsi. The long-standing tension between these two groups escalated in part due to agitation by political and military leaders. The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians occurred while the rest of the world looked on and did nothing.

It is this heartbreaking episode of genocide which informs Naomi Benaron’s affecting novel Running the Rift. Benaron opens her story in 1984, ten years before the tragedy, with a young Tutsi boy named Jean Patrick and his family. Jean Patrick loves to run and he has dreams of going on to college despite the difficulty which the Tutsi people face in attending secondary schools. As the chapters unfurl, the years slip past and Jean Patrick comes of age. He is a dreamer, an extraordinary athlete, and a young man with a generous heart. He loves his tight-knit family and clings to the memory of his father. Eventually he finds himself training to become an Olympic runner. He falls in love with a beautiful Hutu woman named Bea who is smart, fiery, and on the path to becoming an activist on the heels of her journalist father. But behind the hope which Jean Patrick holds in his heart, is an uncertain future. There are ominous signs that all is not right in Rwanda. There is the rumble of civil war. There is the hatred toward the Tutsi people being fanned by an outspoken Hutu militaristic government. And, eventually, the day will come when everything Jean Patrick holds dear, including his life, will become threatened.

Running the Rift is a heartbreaking, character-driven novel about the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable horror and loss. Benaron builds her story slowly, taking time to develop the characters and unveil their simple lives against the backdrop of the stunning Rwandan countryside. Jean Patrick lives and breathes on the page, as does his counterpart, Bea. The reader begins to care deeply about these characters and worry for them seeps in as the novel progresses.

I turned the final hundred pages of Running the Rift with my heart in my throat and tears in my eyes because at its heart, this book is about individuals. It is not about an historical event. It is about the people, the families, the individual lives which were destroyed or forever changed during those fateful days in 1994. It is unimaginable. It is horrifying.

I remember when the Rwandan Genocide happened. I was living in California and I remember the news footage of people laying slaughtered in the streets. I remember asking myself how this could happen and why no one stopped it. What Benaron’s novel does so exquisitely is to get beneath the headlines and examine the daily lives of the people living in Rwanda in the years leading up to the tragedy. She uncovers the tensions and the complexities of a country in flux and how misunderstandings between ethnic groups can grow into something so hate-filled that neighbors and friends can turn on each other.

Benaron explores themes of forgiveness and redemption in her novel which I found hopeful. The author has worked with Rwandan genocide survivors and visited Rwanda where she has an adopted son, so her insight into the aftermath of the genocide feels authentic.

Running the Rift won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction and it is well deserving of this literary award which recognizes “fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships.” This is a novel which is sublimely crafted and highly recommended.

• Quality of Writing:
• Characters:
• Plot:

Overall Rating:

FTC Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher as part of BOOK CLUB. Follow the discussion here.

Readers wishing to purchase this book from an Indie Bookstore may click on the book link below to find Indie sellers. As an Indiebound Associate, I receive a small commission if readers purchase a book through this link on my blog.

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I received an email today letting me know that my application to become a book giver for World Book Night on April 23, 2012 was accepted and I was one of those chosen to give books away!!!

Dear World Book Night book giver,

 Yes, you read that right: World Book Night book giver! Has a nice ring to it, yes? And you’re one of them, or will be on April 23! Thank you!!!!!!!

It is not too late for YOU to also apply…the deadline has been extended to Monday, Feb. 6 at midnight and all you need to do is go here to send in your application.

Have you applied but didn’t get an email like I got? Check your spam folder…because it looks like no book lovers will be denied:

…everyone who applied with any care or thoughtfulness will get their box of books come April 23. Everyone take a deep breath. We’ll find a way, and we plan to have extra boxes stationed all over America. No book lover will be denied.

So, I hope you’ll join me this April in giving out free books to people and celebrating this wonderful thing called reading!!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Mailbox Monday.

This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Check out Alyce’s blog on Monday to get links to other readers’ mailboxes.

Go to the dedicated blog for the meme to see the complete tour schedule in the left hand sidebar.

I found some good books in my mailbox this week:

In the last couple of years I have discovered some amazing collections of short stories. So when Langan contacted me from Viking/Penguin, I could not resist accepting Drifting House by Krys Lee (release date February 2012). Lee’s writing is described as being in the tradition of Chang-rae and Jhumpa Lahiri. Her debut collection, which includes stories set in both Korea and the US, “explores love, identity, war, and the homes we make for ourselves.” The stories set in Korea examine characters whose lives are “threatened by civil war, military dictatorships, and the psychological fallout that tore Korea apart for decades.” Lee’s American characters find themselves in “cramped shared apartments and vacant strip malls of Koreatowns.” Reviewers are calling this a “sublime debut collection” whose stories are “breathtaking,” “haunting,” and “affecting.”

Read an interview with the author.

Krys Lee was born n Seoul, South Korea, and raised in California and Washington. She has studied in both the United States and England. A finalist for Best New American Voices in 2006, Lee received a special mention in the 2012 Pushcart Prize XXXVI, and her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Narrative, California Quarterly, Asia Weekly, and the Guardian. She lives in Seoul with intervals in San Francisco. Learn more about Lee and her work by visiting the author’s website.

No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie arrived from William Morrow (due for release in February). his suspense-thriller looks tailor-made for me. When a K-9 search and rescue team discovers a woman’s body, Scotland yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an investigation filled with complications. When someone tries to kill the search and rescue team members who found the victim’s body, the case becomes even more dangerous.

Deborah Crombie is a native Texan who has lived in both England and Scotland. She is a three-time Macavity Award winner, an Edgar Award nominee, and a New York Times Notable author. She has authored more than a dozen novels. Crombie lives in Texas with her husband, three cats and two German Shepherds. Read more about Crombie and her work by visiting the author’s website.

The good folks from Ballantine Books sent me an unsolicited copy of Four of a Kind by Valerie Frankel (due for release February 2012). This novel is described as “a hilarious and thoughtful story about four very different New York City moms who surprise themselves by becoming the very closest of friends over a weekly game of poker.” Instead of betting with chips or money, the four women play for intimate secrets about their lives.

Valerie Frankel received critical acclaim for her bestselling memoirs: Thin is the New Happy and It’s Hard Not to Hate You. She is the author of fifteen novels. Her writing has appeared in O: The Oprah Magazine, Allure, Self, Good Housekeeping, and The New York Times. She lives in Brooklyn Heights with her two daughters, four cats, and husband. Learn more about Frankel and her work by visiting the author’s website.

I also purchased a book which I have been dying to read (and the cover is gorgeous, too!):

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Hachette Book Group)

Did any wonderful books arrive at YOUR house this week?

January 29, 2012

Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of The Sunday Salon – check out links to other readers’ posts by visiting the Facebook Page.

Last week I lamented being in a reading slump – and although I am reading, it has continued to be slow for me. I have pretty much given up on my goal to read 10 books this month. Oh well.

At any rate, I did finally finish Swamplandia! by Karen Russell – a book in which the characters were terrific, but the plot was just so-so (read my review). I had really wanted to love this novel, so I turned the final page with a little bit of disappointment in it.

My current read is The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney. I was first introduced to Penney’s writing in The Tenderness of Wolves – a debut which I loved (read my review). In her latest novel, Penney takes the reader to England where a family of gypsies have some family secrets. A private investigator is hired to locate a missing woman – and his investigation takes him into the heart of the Janko family where a mysterious family illness seems the least of their secrets. I am actually really enjoying this one although it has taken me days to read it. I should finish it this afternoon.

The next book on my stacks is Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron which I got for Jen and Nicole’s BOOK CLUB (discussion of this book will take place on Jen’s blog on Tuesday this week). I am really going to try to finish this one in the next two days so I can fully engage in the discussion. It looks like a great book which is set in Rwanda and won the Bellweather Prize for Fiction.

In other bookish news, Mandy of The Literary Life of a Well-Read Wife has posted a terrific reference for book bloggers – a directory of book bloggers on Pinterest! If you are like me and spend far too much time on Pinterest, you’ll appreciate this quick way to find other book bloggers. Mandy is asking people to drop her an email if they want to be added to the directory. Looks like I will be spending at least part of my day today browsing over at Pinterest!

Since my reading has been flagging these days, I have turned my attention to other things. My husband and I went to see the movie The Grey on Friday – this is a pretty intense movie starring Liam Neeson. Although on the surface it looks like a graphic movie about survival, I think it is actually more about faith (or the lack of it). Even the title, which clearly alludes to the grey wolf (a big part of the movie) could be interpreted as something deeper – faith is not always black and white, but grey. The movie was inspired by the short story “Ghost Walker” by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers which I would love to read but cannot seem to locate anywhere. Animal activists have been protesting The Grey for its poor portrayal of the wolf (in fact, a couple with their wolf-hybrid were outside the theater where we saw the movie). I would agree that the wolf is shown to be far more vicious and more of a myth than fact in the movie – but I think the animal is largely symbolic of death and the fight for survival. Either way, The Grey kept me on the edge of my seat and gripping Kip’s arm through 90% of the film. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

I’ve also been focused on quilting and finishing some of my projects. This week I finally got my Sister’s Collaborative Quilt completed – and I am loving it!

What are you up to today? Whatever it is, I hope it involves at least one great book!

The Beginning of the End can feel a lot like the middle when you are living in it. When I was a kid I couldn’t see any of these ridges. It was only after Swamplandia!’s fall that time folded into a story with a beginning, a middle, and an ending. If you’re short on time, that would be the two-word version of our story: we fell. – from Swamplandia!, page 7 -

It has been a year since Hilola Bigtree died from ovarian cancer leaving behind her three children – Ava, Osceola (“Ossie”), and Kiwi – and “The Chief,” her husband. Swamplandia!, with their mother at its center, is the family business and the only life the Bigtree children have ever known. Wrestling alligators, selling “museum” trinkets, and entertaining the tourists who arrive on the ferry is what they have always done. But, now things have changed. Their mother’s loss has not only left them achingly alone, but has also left Swamplandia! without a star act. And there is a new game in town by the name of World of Darkness, a garish theme park of twisted rides inside a whale’s digestive tract and pools filled with ruby colored water. Kiwi, nearly seventeen and longing for a college education, runs away from Swamplandia! to become an employee at World of Darkness. Chief Bigtree mysteriously disappears on one of his vague “business trips,” and Ossie, just turned sixteen, seems lost in a world of ghosts and an old dredge boat. Ava, age thirteen, is left to her own devices and resolves to save Swamplandia! and her family before time runs out.

Karen Russell’s Orange Prize nominated debut novel is filled with quirky characters, rambling plot lines, and gorgeous descriptions of the Florida swamps. It is also a darkly constructed story about the individual nature of grief and loss. Each character in Swamplandia! is devastated by the loss of Hilola – a woman whose death-defying act of swimming with the alligators (called “Seths”) opens the novel. It seems that death is all around this family – from the monstrous Seths, to the World of Darkness where tourists are called “Lost Souls,” to Ossie’s flirtation with a dead teenage dredgeman, to Ava’s fantasy of visiting the Underworld and finding her mother. Each character is traveling their own path through grief.

Chief Bigtree, the dad, is oddly disconnected from the reality of his failing business. He seems unaware that his children are falling apart. His reaction to the loss of his wife can only be called denial. Perhaps Ava understands this best of all when she observes:

You could become a fossil in your lifetime, I’d discovered. I’d seen the eerie correspondence between the living Seths in our Pit and their taxidermied brothers in our museum. The Chief could achieve an ossified quality, too, with his headdress skeletally flattened against the sofa back, drunk and asleep. – from Swamplandia!, page 238 -

Kiwi flees the family, and runs from the memory of his mother whose image he keeps taped to the inside of his closet door. He leaves behind the safety of Swamplandia! and enters society where his differences stand out and he struggles to fit in with his peers. Now seventeen years old, he is no longer a child whose eyes are closed to the stark reality of his parents’ world and as he navigates through his grief, he uncovers family secrets and a rage he hardly knew existed.

Ossie escapes reality by slipping into a world of ghosts and fantasy. On the cusp of womanhood, she begins a relationship with the ghost of a dredge boat, slipping out of the house at all hours and spending her time calling up spirits with the help of a mysterious book.

She set off across the muck as briskly as a mainland woman who is late for her ferry. Her footprints filled with groundwater and as I watched a dozen tiny lakes opened between us. Rain blew in from the east while out west the sun burned through a V in the trees, bright and gluey-gold as marmalade. – from Swamplandia!, page 127 -

But is is Ava, narrator of much of the novel, who is the saddest in her grief. She believes her mother has trained her to become the next amazing alligator wrestler. Ava tries to hold her family together, and when that fails, she dreams up a way to save Swamplandia! which includes applying to compete in an alligator wrestling competition, and hand raising a rare red alligator. Ava’s memories of her mother are clear and poignant, and cloaked in a child’s reflections.

Our mother, in several beautiful ways, may have been a little crazy. For example: who dries their clothing with a hurricane coming? Like Ossie, Mom got distracted easily. It was seventy-thirty odds whether she would remember a conversation with you. Her moods could do sudden plummets, and she’d have to “take a rest” in the house, but she’d always emerge from these spells with a smile for us. Until she got sick, I can’t remember our mother ever missing a show. – from Swamplandia!, page 43 -

Swamplandia! is, at its heart, about the love that binds a family together in the face of devastating loss. The strength of the novel is in its characters who are memorable and feel very real. Russell also excels at description of the flora and fauna of the Florida swamps. Where the novel struggles is in the plot which tends to drag until the latter third of book. Russell alternates between Ava’s first person narration and Kiwi’s third person point of view – a technique which tended to break up momentum in the plot. It felt, at times, like Russell could not decide whose story she really wanted to tell. Ava’s voice is, overwhelmingly, the strongest and could have carried the novel alone.

Despite its occasional humor, Swamplandia! is a dark novel which resonates with danger. Reality is often fragile and just out of reach. Not everything is as it seems. It is this haunting quality which carries the reader through the final pages of the book to an ending that stretches believability. In fact, the end of the novel did not endear me to it. Russell quickly wraps up the book and pins a little bow on it, something I found frustrating after some plot twists which took my breath away.

I did not love this book, but I found it interesting. Russell is a talented author whose child characters pulled on my heartstrings, but whose meandering plot kept me from fulling engaging in their story.

• Quality of Writing:
• Characters:
• Plot:

Overall Rating:

FTC Disclosure: I bought this book.

Readers wishing to purchase this book from an Indie Bookstore may click on the book link below to find Indie sellers. As an Indiebound Associate, I receive a small commission if readers purchase a book through this link on my blog.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Mailbox Monday.

This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Check out Alyce’s blog today to get links to other readers’ mailboxes.

Go to the dedicated blog for the meme to see the complete tour schedule in the left hand sidebar.

Two fantastic books arrived at my house this week:

Algonquin Books sent me a copy of Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron (January 2012) as part of BOOK CLUB. We’ll be discussing this book over on Jen’s blog on January 31st. This debut novel won the 2011 Bellweather Prize for Fiction for its treatment of compelling social issues. Set in Rwanda, Running the Rift centers around Jean Patrick Nkuba who dreams of an Olympic medal in track. But as a Tutsi, he is caught up in the tensions between the Hutu and his people and as his world becomes more unsettled and brutal, Jean Patrick must make some difficult decisions. Benaron’s novel is told from the point of view of an unforgettable boy as he comes of age during Rwanda’s tragic history. Described as “unflinching,” “finely crafted,” and “an auspicious debut,” this is a novel I am eager to read.

Naomi Benaron holds a master of fine arts degree from Antioch University and a master of science degree in earth sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She is an Ironman triathlete. She teaches at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and mentors for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. Benaron works as an advocate for African refugees in the community and has worked extensively with genocide survivor groups in Rwanda. She is the winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, and the 2005 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. Learn more about Benaron and her work by visiting the author’s website.

Unbridled Books sent me an Advance Readers Edition of Hollywood Boulevard by Janyce Stefan-Cole (April 2012). The novel is a noir psychological thriller centered around Ardennes Thrush, an award winning movie star who finds herself at the Hotel Muse with her husband Andre. When a box of dead roses is delivered to her suite, Ardennes suspects she is being stalked. Enter a Beverly Hills detective who comes to investigate, and “a powerful attraction becomes unexpectedly unprofessional and quickly carnal.”

Janyce Stefan-Cole writes fiction, essay and freelance journalism. A finalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, she is included in the Boston Globe bestselling anthology, Dick for a Day (Villard Books), The Healing Muse and Knock Literary Arts Magazine; a story will be published, January 2012, in the Editions Bibliotekos anthology, Being Human: The Call of the Wild. A fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, she attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and resides with her husband in Brooklyn, NY, and Freedom, NH.

Did any amazing books arrive at YOUR house this week?

January 22, 2012

Good morning – and welcome to The Sunday Salon where bloggers talk about books all day long. Check out other blogger posts by visiting the Facebook Page.

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. I have been blogging books since 2006 (although my blog started in February of 2005, I didn’t discover the book blogging community for another year after that), and I have never, ever, ever had a reading slump. I have read about other people’s slumps, but never experienced my own. Now, I think it is time to admit that my reading has slumped. I find myself reading for ten minutes and my mind begins to wander, I put the book down, and go do something else. This has been going on for DAYS now. I just can’t seem to get motivated to read – and this is a very foreign feeling for me. What’s up? I have no idea.

My current read is Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and I love her characters although the plot is a little wonky and out there. Russell writes well. But I am only 167 pages into this 300 page book and I have been reading it since last Sunday – seven days and 167 pages??!?!? Ridiculous. I don’t want to stop reading this book, but I wonder if I will ever finish it. And there are a lot of other great books staring at me from the shelves. What would YOU do?

This trouble with reading falls, ironically, on the heels of a post I published earlier this week called Blogger Impact where I talk about how much I love reading!!! How weird is that?

I hope by next week, I will be out of this slump and will be able to talk more about the books I am reading.

In the meantime, check out my post about books I recommended in celebration of Martin Luther King Day. And if your curiosity  was aroused by my review of The Street Sweeper, why not jump on board the Chunkster Challenge train and earn a chance to win a copy of the book (contest ends January 29th).

Raven is recovering from her birthday yesterday (she played hard and had steak for dinner), and I plan on sewing a little today and trying, once again, to tackle Swamplandia! Wish me luck!!!

Have a wonderful week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Mailbox Monday.

This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Check out Alyce’s blog today to get links to other readers’ mailboxes.

Go to the dedicated blog for the meme to see the complete tour schedule in the left hand sidebar.

I had not expected any books this week, but I was thrilled beyond belief to find an Advance Readers Edition of Beth Kephart’s newest book, Small Damages (Philomel, July 2012),  in my mailbox. Not only was I very excited to get my hands on this novel, but I was even more excited to see that Beth had autographed it for me as well. Beth Kephart was first a favorite author and has now become a dear friend and I cannot wait to read Small Damages which is set in Spain. Kenzie, a bright and ambitious young woman in her senior year of high school, has just discovered she is pregnant. Sent to live in an old corijo in Spain, she must “find a way to endure until her baby is safe in an adoptive couple’s hands.” Small Damages is a tribute to a country that Beth loves and is a story “steeped in both the real and the imagined.“ Check out the opening lines on Beth Kephart’s blog. Go ahead, I’ll wait. *taps foot* Beautiful, right?

Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for both adults and young readers. She was named the National Book Award finalist for her book A Slant of Sun: One Child’s Courage. Small Damages is her first book through Philomel – but it won’t be her last, which makes me very happy indeed knowing that we can look forward to more wonderful books by this exceptionally talented author! Learn more about Beth and her work by visiting, the author’s blog.

Three unsolicited books arrived through William Morrow – two of which I hope to read at some point, and one for which I will most likely find a new home because it does not look like my cup of tea, although I think it may appeal to others:

The Face Thief by Eli Gottlieb (January 2012) centers around the charismatic character, Margot, a promising journalist who “morphs from a high-achieving affluent twentysomething into a grifter making her living preying on the weaknesses of men.” The novel moves back and forth in time to gradually reveal Margot as a child as well as a conniving adult. Described as “a hypnotic dance of predator and prey, creating a contemporary landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well-intentioned hapless,” this novel is lauded as a book rich in suspense and psychological depth.

Eli Gottlieb’s New York Times Notable Book, The Boy Who Went Away, won the Rome Prize and the 1998 McKitterick Prize from the British Society of Authors. His second novel, Now You See Him, has been translated into eleven languages. He lives in New York City. Learn more about Gottlieb and his work by visiting the author’s website.

Raylan by Elmore Leonard (January 2012) brings back U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the hero of Pronto, Riding the Rap, and the FX series Justified. When Dickie and Coover Crowe, dope-dealing brothers known for sampling their own supply, decide to branch out into the body business, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to stop them. The publisher describes Raylan as “dark and droll, a page-turner filled with the sparkling dialogue and sly suspense that are the hallmarks of this modern master.”

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty books during his highly successful writing career, including the bestsellers Road Dogs, Up in Honey’s Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories When the Women Come Out to Dance. Many of his books have been made into movies. Justified, the hit series from FX, is based on Leonard’s character Raylan Givens. Leonard is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Bloomfield Village, Michigan. Read more about Leonard and his work by visiting the author’s website.

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Navy Seal Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice (January 2012) is a first-person account of the life of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who has recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan(“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle is a native Texan who was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror following 9/11.

SEAL Team 3 Chief Chris Kyle served four combat tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom and elsewhere. For his bravery in battle, he was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation. Additionally, he received the Grateful Nation Award, given by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Following his combat deployments, he became chief instructor for training Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper teams, and he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual. Today, he is president of Craft International, a world-class leader in training and security. He lives with his family in Texas, where he devotes much of his spare time to helping disabled veterans.

Did any amazing books arrive at YOUR house this week?