This is a group preview for a number of pre-published ARCs which contain publisher blurbs, author info, and purchasing links. Reviews with personal opinions coming soon!
Books included in this preview:
- Red Hook Road ~ by Ayelet Waldman
- Love and Other Impossible Pursuits ~ by Ayelet Waldman (not an ARC)
- Adam & Eve ~ by Sena Jeter Naslund
- I’d Know You Anywhere ~ by Laura Lippman
- Dracula in Love ~ by Karen Essex
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Red Hook Road ~ by Ayelet Waldman
Book Info: As lyrical as a sonata, Ayelet Waldman’s follow-up novel to Love and Other Impossible Pursuits explores the aftermath of a family tragedy. Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.
A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious.
In this moving, wry, and candid novel, widely acclaimed novelist Ayelet Waldman takes us through one woman’s passage through love, loss, and the strange absurdities of modern life.
Amazon purchasing links for Red Hook Road - US/UK/Canada.
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits ~ by Ayelet Waldman
(This is the first book in this series.)
Book Info: Emilia Greenleaf believed that she had found her soulmate, the man she was meant to spend her life with. But life seems a lot less rosy when Emilia has to deal with the most neurotic and sheltered five-year-old in New York City: her new stepson William. Now Emilia finds herself trying to flag down taxis with a giant, industrial-strength car seat, looking for perfect, strawberry-flavored, lactose-free cupcakes, receiving corrections on her French pronunciation from her supercilious stepson – and attempting to find balance in a new family that’s both larger, and smaller, than she bargained for. In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits Ayelet Waldman has created a novel rich with humor and truth, perfectly characterizing one woman’s search for answers in a crazily uncertain world.
Amazon purchasing link for Love and Other Impossible Pursuits - US/UK/Canada.
For more info on Ayelet Waldman go to her website, twitter, facebook.
Apparently this one has a movie in the works.
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Adam & Eve ~ by Sena Jeter Naslund
Book Info: Hours before his untimely—and highly suspicious—death, world-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann shares his discovery of extraterrestrial life with his wife, Lucy. Feeling that the warring world is not ready to learn of—or accept—proof of life elsewhere in the universe, Thom entrusts Lucy with his computer flash drive, which holds the keys to his secret work.
Devastated by Thom's death, Lucy keeps the secret, but Thom's friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, contacts Lucy with an unusual and dangerous request about another sensitive matter. Pierre needs Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt: an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis. Offering a reinterpretation of the creation story, the document is sure to threaten the foundation of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions . . . and there are those who will stop at nothing to suppress it.
Midway through the daring journey, Lucy's small plane goes down on a slip of verdant land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Burned in the crash landing, she is rescued by Adam, a delusional American soldier whose search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. Blessed with youth, beauty, and an unsettling innocence, Adam gently tends to Lucy's wounds, and in this quiet, solitary paradise, a bond between the unlikely pair grows. Ultimately, Lucy and Adam forsake their half-mythical Eden and make their way back toward civilization, where members of an ultraconservative religious cult are determined to deprive the world of the knowledge Lucy carries.
Set in 2020 it asks the question - What Happened To Eden? The New York Times bestselling author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance returns with a daring and provocative novel that envisions a world where science and faith contend for the allegiance of a new Adam & Eve.
- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow (September 28, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0061579270
- ISBN-13: 978-0061579271
Author Bio: New York Times bestselling author Sena Jeter Naslund's most recent novel is Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette; she has published six previous books of fiction. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and has a daughter, Flora Naslund, who is a student in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at the University of Louisville. For more information link to the publisher’s website.
Amazon pre-purchasing link for Adam & Eve - US/UK/Canada.
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I’d Know You Anywhere ~ by Laura Lippman
Book Info: Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen-year-old Iso and eight-year-old Albie. But her tranquility is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects - or wants - to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere.
In the summer of 1985 when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter Bowman and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she's never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She's always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he'll tell her - and share the truth about his other victims.
Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long-ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it - even if it means facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.
- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow (August 17, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0061706558
- ISBN-13: 978-0061706554
Mini Bio: Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years and has been nominated and won a variety of awards. She currently lives in Baltimore. For more information on the author link to her website.
Amazon pre-purchasing link for I’d Know You Anywhere - US/UK/Canada.
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Dracula in Love ~ by Karen Essex
Book Info: From the shadowy banks of the River Thames to the wild and windswept coast of Yorkshire, the quintessential Victorian virgin Mina Murray vividly recounts in the pages of her private diary the intimate details of what transpired between her and Count Dracula—the joys and terrors of a passionate affair and her rebellion against a force of evil that has pursued her through time.
Mina’s version of this timeless gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into the dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and locked asylum chambers where she led a secret life, far from the chaste and polite lifestyle the defenders of her purity, and even her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, expected of her.
Bram Stoker’s classic novel was only one side of the story. Now, for the first time, Dracula’s eternal muse reveals all. What she has to say is more sensual, more devious, and more enthralling than ever imagined. The result is a scintillating gothic novel that reinvents the tragic heroine Mina as a modern woman tortured by desire.
Mini Bio: Karen Essex is an award-winning novelist, as well as a journalist and a screenwriter. She is the author of Stealing Athena, Leonardo's Swans, Kleopatra, Pharaoh, and Bettie Page: Life of a Pin Up Legend. Her books are used in many college courses ranging from creative writing, history, and women’s studies. She was born in New Orleans and currently lives in Los Angeles.
Connect with the author on Goodreads, the book’s website, blog, Twitter, and a link for the prologue to get a taste of Dracula in Love.
Amazon pre-purchasing link for Dracula in Love - US/UK/Canada.
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A big thank you to the publishers and Shelf Awareness for these copies for review.
Until the next set of previews for you to peruse - thanks for reading Layers of Thought!
5 comments:
All of these have some appeal to me. It is so hard to narrow down what to read next lately!! LOL (You don't help either)
Diane -
I used this line last week - Excellent my evil plan is working! lol...
My first choice will be Adam & Eve. :)
These all look good! Looking forward to reading your reviews!
I see we have several books in common (Red Hook Road, Dracula in Love & Adam & Eve). Hope we both enjoy them!
Alexia -
Yes I thought so too :)
Kim -
So my question would be how come you didn't request - I'd Know You Anywhere, too?
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