Fiction
Belong to Me
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. "Set in the northern lake district in Italy during the German occupation of WWII. Based on the true story of Pino Lella, and his remarkable journey as a member of an underground railroad helping Italian Jews escape the Nazi’s through the Swiss Alps. Later he served as a spy for the Allies while driving German General Hans Leyers. I realized how little I knew about this part of the war."
Beneath the Marble Sky by John Shors. "a love story of the building of the Taj Mahal.....most excellent read."
Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes “A total beach read, but it does have something to say and it's pretty darn funny.” From Amazon (on release of 10th anniversary edition): "For readers who adore Candace Bushnell, Tinsely Mortimer, and Lauren Weisberger comes New York Times bestselling author Plum Sykes’s sly and amusing satire—now back in print for its 10th anniversary in a gorgeous, eye-catching package, with a new foreword by the author."
The Best Day of Someone Else’s Life by Kerry Reichs. Looks like chick lit with an "always the bridesmaid…" theme, and, I gather, some deeper messages than the average product of the genre." Eleven weddings in eighteen months would send any sane woman either over the edge or scurrying for the altar. But as reality separates from illusion, Vi learns that letting go of someone else's story to write your own may be harder than buying the myth, but just might help her make the right choices for herself.
The Best of Us
Between Here and April
Big, Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. This was on the list last year, but so many of you told me you loved it, I'm promoting it to a top pick this year. VERY beachy. (NB: Moriarty has another book coming out in July called Truly Madly Guilty) “Another hilarious novel from Moriarty whose familiar female characters share all of the petty conceits the rest of us do – but articulate them far more humorously. Voted top comedy on Goodreads last year, this story involves a murder at an elementary school parents’ party, but neither the killer nor the victim are revealed until the end. Among the hysterically recognizable cast of characters: the members of a “support group for the parents of gifted children.” "Murder mystery among parents at a private school in Australia. Twists and turns. Characters you will love and hate and fight for." "I had an absolute blast reading this book about parents at a little school in Australia. It is clear from the start that someone was killed at a school fundraising event, though we don't know who or what the circumstances were. Moriarty takes us back through the months leading up to the event, tying the stories of various characters together in an artful fashion. She intersperses this with little snatches of dialogue that are evidently from police interviews with parents who attended the party. These are HYSTERICAL. So, yes, it's a satire. But it's not an over-the-top, cover-to-cover campy satire (those exhaust me). It's also a murder mystery, a romantic story, a friendship story. It's very clever but also very human with endearing characters and love-to-hate characters, and some in between. I just had the best time." "Why did I resist this book for so long? This book was a blast - - overall the story has a light tone and yet Morriarty covers some pretty heavy topics including spousal abuse and bullying. The characters were well drawn, sympathetic, the humor was actually quite funny and the observations about marriage, the parenting culture, and class differences among friends were all spot on. I originally dismissed this as chick lit and I guess it is but it makes me realize that not all chick lit is created equal."
Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. Gothic suspense. From Amazon: Plain scholarship student Mabel Dagmar is surprised when her glamorous blue-blooded roommate at their prestigious east coast university befriends her, even more when Genevra "Ev" Winslow invites her to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the sprawling Vermont estate owned for generations by her family. Mabel falls in love with the place, finds a love interest and begins to feel like one of the Winslows. But she soon discovers a dark side to this family - will she keep the secrets? Lots of twists will keep you turning the pages.
The Black Cat: A Richard Jury Mystery (Richard Jury Mysteries)
Black List: A Thriller
Blessings by Anna Quindlen. “…low-brow but is engaging and has big themes.” Amazon: This powerful new novel by the bestselling author of Black and Blue, One True Thing, Object Lessons, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life begins when a teenage couple drives up, late at night, headlights out, to Blessings, the estate owned by Lydia Blessing. They leave a box and drive away, and in this instant, the world of Blessings is changed forever. Richly written, deeply moving, beautifully crafted, Blessings tells the story of Skip Cuddy, caretaker of the estate, who finds a baby asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep her, and of matriarch Lydia Blessing, who, for her own reasons, decides to help him.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. A story within a story within a story of two privileged girls raised by a distant single father. The book opens as one of the girls commits suicide in 1945 but leaves behind a novel, which becomes famous, about lovers who write a story of a blind assassin on a distant planet. Her sister recounts their lives and explains the family history and tragedies since her sister’s death, her chapters intertwined with chapters from the novel. Reality and fiction come together in the end.
Blindness by Jose Saramago. A description from Amazon: "In an unnamed city in an unnamed country, a man sitting in his car waiting for a traffic light to change is suddenly struck blind….Within a day the man's wife, the taxi driver, the doctor and his patients, and the car thief have all succumbed to blindness…So begins Portuguese author José Saramago's gripping story of humanity under siege…"
Blood and Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant. “Despite the frothy title, this is actually a beautifully written and researched novel of the notorious Borgia family in 15th century Rome. The characters are so vividly sketched that it reminded me of of Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy ("Wolf Hall," etc.) Definitely superior to Dunant's earlier novels set in Florence. And the best news: Dunant says a sequel is coming soon.”
The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty - This is a historical fiction novel set in the 1600's in Austria that was inspired by a real-life murder that threatened to end the Hapsburg Dynasty. It follows King Rudolf's illegitimate son, Don Julius and his descent into madness and obsession with the daughter of the town barber/bloodletter. This book utterly fascinated me. It is dark, definitely depraved at times, but not without hope and redemption.
Body and Soul by Frank Conroy. "Unusual subject matter (story of a piano prodigy growing up poor in NYC and how his talent sets his life in various different directions) but very compelling -- a good read."
Body of Liesby David Ignatius. "No, not another book bashing the Bush Administration, but a post-9/11 spy thriller novel by the Washington Post columnist that many of us know and read." Roger Ferris is one of the CIA's soldiers in the war on terrorism. He has come out of Iraq with a shattered leg and an intense mission—to penetrate the network of a master terrorist known only as "Suleiman." Ferris's plan for getting inside Suleiman's tent is inspired by a masterpiece of British intelligence during World War II: He prepares a body of lies, literally the corpse of an imaginary CIA officer who appears to have accomplished the impossible by recruiting an agent within the enemy's ranks.
Bolero (A Nick Sayler Novel)
The Bolter