Sharing my birthday with some new books

Tomorrow happens to be my birthday and this year, it happens to fall on a Tuesday, that one day of the week reserved for new books to be released.

 As a lifelong reader, I find that connection to be the luscious literary icing on my celebration cake, so I thought it would be fitting to highlight a few of the new titles set to arrive on shelves in time for my special day.

First up is Bear Town by Fredrik Backman, set in a small Swedish town where high school hockey is the major sport that rallies the residents. When one of the star players on the team is charged with a serious crime, the town becomes strongly divided and more than one future is on the line.

I recently finished Backman's best seller,which was also adapted into an Oscar nominated film, A Man Called Ove, and it's the intricate development of his characters that makes his writing shine. No doubt that Bear Town will be a winner along the same lines, doing for hockey what Friday Night Lights has done for football:

Next, we have Jamie Brenner's The Forever Summer, where Marin Bishop decides to get over the break-up with her fiance,followed by the loss of her job, at her grandmother's B&B in Cape Cod.

Turns out, Marin isn't the only member of the family who packed trouble in her suitcase as her parents announce that they're getting a divorce while a young woman named Rachel contacts her and claims to be her half-sister.

As she tries to figure things out, Marin takes a chance and bonds with Rachel as they,along with Marin's mother Blythe, shares this summer opportunity to figure out the next stage in their lives. Sounds like a good beach book to take along with you as the warm weather days fast approach us.

Another big author with a new novel out is Elizabeth Strout,whose latest work is written in the interconnected story style of her award winning book Olive Kitteridge.

Anything is Possible also has ties to Strout's prior novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, as several of the characters are from the same small town that her leading lady came from. The scope ranges from Lucy's embittered siblings to an adult daughter finding her estranged mother to be happy in another country and a school janitor finding an unexpected consequence to a new friendship.

Elizabeth Strout has a lovely knack for taking a poetic approach to her prose, making her books practically sing out their humble yet heartfelt stories. It's too soon to tell if this latest one will be an award winner but I'm sure many of her readers will consider it a true prize all the same:

To wrap things up, Wendy Wax gives us a new entry in her Ten Beach Road series with One Good Thing. As the four feisty friends who created the reality house flipping show Do Over fight to regain control of their program, other personal problems threaten to distract them from their main goal.

Maddie is torn between her rock star boyfriend,whose career is on the fast track to revival, and her troublesome ex-husband while Avery has issues on her home front and workplace, due to a renovation of a cottage owned by the woman who helped them out with their last project.

On top of that, Nikki is put on bed rest for the latter half of her pregnancy while Kyra is seeking redemption for the risk she took on their dream by considering a bail out from her son's father that comes with a very personal price to pay. Definitely some prime real estate for your leisure time reading fun.

 There will be plenty of other great books to look forward to tomorrow(and I'll be getting a few as presents, that's for sure) but I'm glad to share my birthday with these wonderful new releases.

So, I'll be checking in later this week and hope that anyone else having another year of living to celebrate with me gets the perfect gift, particularly if it's chosen by a good friend or two who always remember that it's the thought that counts: