There's plenty to talk about in the world of books and I don't mean the latest DVC lawsuit;am I the only one who's sick of hearing about someone taking Dan Brown to court yet again? It's starting to become a cliche-"Hey,this guy says Dan Brown copied his footnotes from his Secret Stuff About God book! Guess this must be a day that ends in Y." I know that plagarism's a very bad thing but it's getting to be The Boy Who Cried Cheating at this point. Let's move on and see what else is hitting the shelves.
Zadie Smith's book,On Beauty,has won the Orange Prize For Fiction,beating out the likes of Sarah Waters(Night Watch),Ali Smith(The Accidental)and Nicole Strauss(The History of Love). Congrats to Zadie-On Beauty's been getting alot of praise and while I didn't even finish White Teeth,she is a good writer. Maybe I'll give OB a shot when it's in paperback.
Reviews for Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants are starting to pop up and so far,it's been well recieved. The NYT Sunday Book Review did a nice write-up(I do disagree with the reviewer calling Sara's prose"servicable"but it was a positive piece,regardless). Entertainment Weekly gave WFE a grade of B and said it has"a ringmaster's crowd pleasing pace"(now,that's more like it!). If you haven't added Water For Elephants to your summer reading list yet,what are you waiting for?
Speaking of summer reading,I'm truly enjoying the new Tilly Bagshawe book,Showdown. This time,Tilly covers the horse racing scene with a tale about an American cowboy and an English heiress who share a deep passion for horses and decide to team up to make both their dreams come true. Looks like Tilly has another winner here-her first novel,Adored,is now available in paperback which makes it easier to put the both of them in your beach bag and still have room for your suntan lotion.
Also on my pile of summer books is Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst. Her new novel follows the contestants of a Amazing Race like reality show and how it changes their lives. Since I love AR and have been curious about Parkhurst after hearing so much good feedback about Dogs of Babel,this works out perfectly. I plan to have full reviews of both Showdown and L&F,so watch this space!
I have a couple of other books for my summer reading for the fall,Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund and Mary by Janis Cooke Newman. Abundance is a novel about Marie Antoinette,which should tie in nicely with the new Sophia Coppola biopic coming around that time(never mind the boos from the Cannes crowd,it didn't hurt the DVC movie's box office take one bit). PW's already given it a starred review,which is a good sign of things to come.
Mary is also a novel-this one is about Mary Todd Lincoln who's writing her life story while living in an insane asylum where her son has placed her. Mary recounts her life before and after Lincoln along with details about conditions in the asylum. This book got some buzz at BEA and it sounds rather intriguing-I didn't know that Mrs. Lincoln had been institutionalized,for one thing. That's what I love about reading historical novels,you learn something while being entertained.
Enough of this blogging,time to hit the books! See you at the bookstore real soon,ya hear?
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