Fiction
The Quick by Lauren Owen. “Vampires, Gothic, London and such so for a particular taste.”
Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg. "If you haven’t read any Elizabeth Berg, I’d suggest checking one of her books out of the library to see what you think. This is one of my favorites, about a woman, Laieny, whose husband is in a coma after he was hit on the head by ice falling from a building. Lainey has great faith that he will recover, and tries everything to coax him back to consciousness. It could be treacly, but somehow it's not. Very beach booky, I think, though her writing has a certain elegance."
The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. From Amazon: “Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of his spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters - his fiancée Isabel whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliott Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. Maugham himself wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.”
Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing: Stories by Lydia Peelle. From Amazon: “With this first book of fiction, a gifted young writer brings together eight superbly crafted stories that peer deeply into the human heart, exploring lives derailed by the loss of a vital connection to the land and to the natural world of which they are a part.”
The Rebellion of Jane Clarke by Sally Gunning. “An historical fiction based on Jane Clark who is an independent young women living during the Revolutionary War in Cape Cod. After refusing to marry a man selected by her father, she is sent to live in Boston and take care of an elderly aunt. During her stay, she meets Henry Knox, John Adams and a host of other Revolutionary characters who all play a role in Boston’s history as well as help Jane make important decisions which show her courage, wisdom and independence. I personally loved the conflict between Jane and what she felt was right verses what was expected of her and the customs of the time. I also loved the emphasis placed on the important role letter writing had during this time frame. And what a ‘hell hole’ Boston was during this very tumultuous time. I read this is two nights … I could not put it down!”
Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew. "A very light murder mystery solved by a sweet South African woman who cooks to help herself think through problems. Tannie Maria is a food columnist who takes on an advice column for the local paper - solving people's problems through recipes. She gets wrapped up in a murder along the way and tries to solve that as well. Recipes are included throughout, and I found myself very hungry while reading. I ended up making some of her recipes, which were delicious! Don't read if you're trying to get into/stay in bikini shape, though the author does make a point of distinguishing being thin from being happy. Which made me even more tempted to eat!"
Reconstructing Amelia
The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan. From Amazon: “Four college roommates from Harvard’s class of 1989 head to their 20-year reunion with partners, spouses, children, and plenty of emotional baggage in tow. Coming from wildly diverse backgrounds, Clover, Addison, Jane, and Mia have continued on divergent postgraduate tracks. From one woman’s dreams of an independent art career stifled by her husband’s writing job to another’s acting ambitions overshadowed by the demands of motherhood, the women take this opportunity to realize how their college dreams have slowed, shifted, or disappeared entirely while new opportunities have opened up.”
Red Hook Road
The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)
Redemption RoadRedemption Road by John Hart. "Several friends have mentioned this as the best thriller they've read recently, though I haven't read it yet. John Hart is a southern writer sometimes compared to Pat Conroy. From Amazon: 'A boy with a gun waits for the man who killed his mother. A troubled detective confronts her past in the aftermath of a brutal shooting. After thirteen years in prison, a good cop walks free as deep in the forest, on the altar of an abandoned church, a body cools in pale linen… This is a town on the brink. This is Redemption Road.Brimming with tension, secrets, and betrayal, Redemption Road proves again that John Hart is a master of the literary thriller.'"
A Reliable Wife
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. "Tracy is a local author who grew up in Bethesda and went to BCC. She became famous for Girl with A Pearl Earring. I enjoyed her latest historic novel based on a female paleontologist and a female fossil collector in 18th century England- a time when women weren’t even allowed to study science at college. It takes place in Lyme Regis on the coast and is based on the true story of a working class girl who makes some of the most important discoveries of dinosaurs ever but is used and dismissed by the male scientists. The fossil collector explores the tension of science versus religion – how can dinosaurs exist if they pre-date the creation of the world as described in the bible."
Reunion by Beth Brophy. "My friend and neighbor has just published this wonderful book about three friends who get together for a reunion to catch up and bond for a few days in a beautiful mansion in the resort town of East Hampton, New York. What could go wrong? A lot, as Faith, Holly, and Charlotte discover. Each of them is struggling with a major crisis, and past decisions that have led to their current predicaments. How will their futures be impacted, and will their friendship survive? Great story, and beach book defined - set at the beach to read on the beach!" "Absorbing and insightful."
The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway. From Amazon: “’You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.’” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life's advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman. In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: ‘Pretend!’ Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.”
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean, 1976. Amazon Reader Review: The book is actually three short stories but the focus is clearly on the novella "A River Runs Through It". On the surface, the title story is his recollections of his father, a Presbyterian minister, and his troubled but talented brother, with whom he fished. Set in the Montana of Maclean's youth, he paints exquisitely vivid and beautiful word pictures of a land and water and family now gone. At the core is the frustration of the often-futile attempt of trying to help another or trying to save a loved one from their self-destruction."
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion. “A follow-up to the Rosie Project. In this one, brilliant but borderline-autistic Donald and Rosie are living in New York while he teaches and she finishes up her degrees. When Donald finds out that Rosie is pregnant, he takes it upon himself to learn about pregnancy and infants in his own regimented and hilarious way. His inability to empathize and explain his process cause no end of trouble for the couple.”
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. “It would be too easy to say this is Wills/Kate/Harry fanfiction. It’s certainly inspired by that, but it’s actually really smart, funny, delightful, and juicy. Perfect summer read, so says USA Today and The New York Times. I loved it.” “This book is absolutely ridiculous. Absurd and flawed, and I absolutely adored it and only wish I’d saved it for the beach, because it really is a dictionary definition ‘beach read.’” About the novel: “American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it's Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain's future king. And when Bex can't resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.”
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (another from my "inside publishing" pal – release date 7/26/2011) “About the Book: A sophisticated and entertaining debut novel about an irresistible young woman with an uncommon sense of purpose. Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year- old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.”