Hey there peeps. So it’s that time again, time for you to pick what you want me to read and review in November. Book descriptions are from Goodreads.com, and the poll will end Halloween night (Oct. 31)! Here’s your options…
The romance pick.
Splendid by Julia Quinn:
American heiress Emma Dunster has always been fun–loving and independent with no wish to settle into marriage. She plans to enjoy her Season in London in more unconventional ways than husband–hunting. But this time Emma’s high–jinks lead her into dangerous temptation…
Alexander Ridgely, the Duke of Ashbourne, is a notorious rake who carefully avoids the risk of love…until he plants one reckless kiss on the sensuous lips of this high–spirited innocent…and condemns himself to delicious torment. Little does he know that his passion has touched the very soul of the lovely enchantress…and committed them both to a lifetime of splendid ecstasy.
The popular fiction pick.
A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan:
Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.
The YA pick.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys:
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin’s orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously – and at great risk – documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father’s prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
The foodie pick.
My Life in France by Julia Child:
When she arrived in France, she was a gawky, six-foot-two, wide-eyed girl from Pasadena, unable to cook; or, for that matter, speak French. Despite this inauspicious beginning, 32-year-old Julia Child was to transform herself into a Gallic cooking genius. In this memoir, completed after her 2004 death by her grandnephew, Child reminisces about her culinary training, her life in France, and her beloved husband, Paul.
The other popular fiction pick.
Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman:
Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.
The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.
Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.) Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.
Soooo there we have it! Can’t wait to see what you guys pick! Ready….. Set….. VOTE!!!
~Sarah
But you can use ANY OBJECTS around your house.
