Carl Merck is a detective in Copenhagen’s cold case division who re-opens the investigation into twenty year old murder of a wealthy brother and sister.  The case seems pretty cut and dried since there was a confession and conviction but Merck quickly realizes things aren’t as easy as that.  As he investigates, he discovers a […] [read more]

Darker Days  [read more]

"Wifey Redux" is the second story in Kevin Barry's collection of short stories, Dark Lies the Island.  It is a painfully realistic account of the twenty year course of a marriage as well as a very darkly funny account of life during the years of the Celtic Tiger.  We meet the husband and narrator of the story at age 17.   He and his wife seem the perfect couple in the ideal marriage.  They buy a townhouse and it goes up eight times in value as he rises in the Irish civil service.  Three year ... [read more]

Welcome to the Stardust Summer Virtual Book Tour. On my stop today we have a small taste of what this book has to offer, please enjoy chapter one and some info about Lauren Clark and the SS book tour. [read more]

Dream Cast is a new feature at Literarily Speaking! We ask authors to tells us a little bit about their characters and who they think would be perfect to play them if their book was turned into a movie. Today’s guest is Kraig Dafoe with his book, Search for the Lost Realm. [read more]

Big Sky Summer [read more]

Anonymous Donor Sends Special Gifts to Children Affected by Oklahoma Tornado CHANDLER, ARIZ. (May, 2013)— Because of the generosity of a “secret pal” in Sedona, Ariz., the children of Moore, Okla. will begin to rebuild their individual libraries with A Squirrel's Story—A True Tale by Jana Bommersbach, her first children's book. Bommersbach spoke about her new book on May 22 at the monthly luncheon of the Sedona Welcomers. This was the first group to hear the inside story of how she came to ... [read more]

A woman must leave her island home to search for her missing sister - and confront the haunted history of her family. [read more]

cover image via http://mayabanks.com/books/darkest/ What The Darkest Hour is about: It’s been one year since ex-Navy SEAL Ethan Kelly last saw his wife Rachel alive. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt over his failures as a husband, Ethan shuts himself off from everything and everyone. His brothers have tried to bring Ethan into the KGI fold, tried to break through the barriers he’s built around himself, but Ethan refuses to respond… until he receives anonymous information claiming Rachel is a ... [read more]

I've been one big ball of anxiety lately. It is/was my retainers. I got new ones made and got them the day after. So I had all of that crazy anxiety for nothing really. But then Tuesday I noticed I had black stuff in the creases of my teeth so that freaked me out. But I had poked in them and they aren't squishy. So I guess that means (according to my mom at least) that I don't have cavities. But I should get my teeth cleaned. Though I really don't want to. I hate the dentist. And I don't re ... [read more]

I was driving to work this morning, listening to The Thirteenth Tale, when I heard this marvelous quote about books. Luckily, I have a paper copy of the book and was able to find the quote! "All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes - characters eve ... [read more]

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Afternoon sugar cubes. OK you may have seen this around Bloglandia already but just in case you haven't, you must must must check out Sync's 2013 list of free audiobook downloads.  [read more]

Handsome Hubby and I just returned from one of the most exciting vacations we’ve ever had. No, it wasn’t Safariing through Africa in a Range Rover—which is pretty cool—but we did that last year. And it wasn’t strolling through the Forbidden City and climbing the Great Wall of China—although that is a surreal experience—but we […] [read more]

I’m 26-years-old, not even close to old enough to remember Richard Nixon’s presidency and the Watergate scandal. But ever since I knew I wanted to be a journalist, I’ve meant to read All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein: In the most devastating political detective story of the century, two Washington Post reporters, whose brilliant, [...] [read more]

Today, first thing in the morning, I will be taking my oath of citizenship – the final step in my journey to becoming a naturalized citizen of these United States. If you’ve read some of my other “about me” posts, you’ll already know that I’m a resident alien. Yes, I’ve had to go to the [...] [read more]

Orphan Train: A Novel (book trailer) [read more]

  Tour Schedule [read more]

Cat Patrick has some of the most inventive premises in YA, and I love her for that. FORGOTTEN (read my review) and REVIVED (read my review) were both solid reads. [read more]

Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info) Christine Amsden, author of Cassie Scot: Paranormal Detective, is stopping off today at  You Gotta Read, as part of her virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book where she is giving away a Kindle Fire HD! Cassie Scot is [...] [read more]

It's always exciting to discover a debut author who is quietly garnering high praise from print media and bloggers alike. A. X. Ahmad's The Caretaker is a literary thriller that doubles as a immigrant story. [read more]

Reviewed by Maria Ryan [read more]

When I first acquired my reef tank, I made jokes about keeping “a box of water with rocks.” For the first three weeks, that’s all it was. A box of water with rocks I balanced atop one another to  form a kind of “reef.” Not very interesting at that stage, though I watched it every [...] [read more]

At a photography club meeting last Saturday, a friend showed a dark, unusual image at the end of a presentation. I squinted at the screen, wondering what he could possibly be showing us, as Jeff asked the group if we … Continue reading → [read more]

First Line: It is summer and luminous. [read more]

Before I begin my discussion, here were the Audie Award nominees for Literary Fiction for 2013: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel and narrated by Simon Vance The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and narrated by Colin Firth Heft by Liz Moore and narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Keith Szarabajka The Remains [...] [read more]

About Catch a Falling Star:  [read more]

This year, for the first time, the school district where I work included the winners of the Stonewall book award in its announcement of the American Library Association Awards, which includes the Caldecott and Newbery Awards for children's literature.  The Stonewall award is given to those high-quality books with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes that are aimed at younger readers.  This was a huge symbolic milestone for me.  I was, to my knowledge, the first openly gay teacher i ... [read more]

Have you seen the new trailer for the Lone Ranger yet? From Disney: [read more]

The answer to my odd question in my last post "when would something that is "Supreme" not be at the top of the pile?" The answer is contained in the piccie. Supreme is not at the top of the pile when it is a supreme court in Oz.   So how does it come to be in Oz that a "High Court" is above a "Supreme Court"? [read more]

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. [read more]

by Nicole Baart [read more]

I haven't been disappointed by a Tracy Chevalier book yet.  I enjoyed Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Lady and the Unicorn, and loved Remarkable Creatures, but I think her latest, The Last Runaway is my favorite. [read more]

Today I have the great pleasure of introducing to you a new to me author, Susan Shea. Readers, What Would You Do? Readers have asked me to tell them more about a specific portion of the backstory in my Dani … Continue reading → [read more]

Every Tuesday Diane @ Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph where we share the first paragraph or two of a book we are reading or thinking about reading soon.  Feel free to grab the image and participate. [read more]

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. [read more]

It was only last September when I read Alex Grecian's first novel of the Scotland Yard Murder Squad, The Yard. The inaugural tale of Inspector Walter Day and policeman Nevil Hammersmith, solving crime in the shadow of the Ripper killings, was incredibly dark and brutal but thoroughly compelling and I was looking forward to continuing with the fledgling series. And today The Black Country, second in the series, is out. I had a moment of cold feet before starting it, worried that the queasines ... [read more]

Title: The Jane Austen Book Club Author: Karen Joy Fowler Format: Paperback Pages: 304 Release Date: April 26, 2005 Publisher: Plume Source: personal copy (PaperbackSwap) Read the back of the book In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs [...] [read more]

From the time he was a young boy and saw his first baseball game, Kenochi "Zeni" Zenimura wanted to play baseball - he wanted that more than anything.  And he was well on his way towards living his dream when he was old enough, managing local teams and playing with the Fresno Nisei League and the Fresno Twilight League, going to exhibition games in Japan, even playing with star players of the New York Yankees.  It seemed Zeni was on top of the world, at least until December 7, 1941 when Japa ... [read more]

I know, I know.  [read more]

 Maya’s Notebook: A Novel by Isabel Allende Release date: 2013 / 400 pages Synopsis(from Amazon): This contemporary coming-of-age story centers upon Maya Vidal, a remarkable teenager abandoned by her parents. Maya grew up in a rambling old house in Berkeley with … Continue reading → [read more]

As the school year winds down I'm looking forward to the pleasures of reading. I'm getting a head start right now with The first book in George R.R. Martin's saga A Song of Fire and Ice...Game of Thrones. There's nothing like losing yourself in a good 800 page book. [read more]

Mrs. Jeffries Turns the Tide [read more]

Congratulations to the winners of the giveaway of Someday, Someday, Maybe: [read more]

The Princes of Ireland follows the story of several Irish families, from the year 430 to 1538. Their stories are set against the larger backdrop of important battles and events in the history of Ireland. [read more]

Letters from Skye, Jessica Brockmole 304 pages romance, historical fiction release date:  July 9, 2013 Summary:  A sweeping story told in letters, spanning two continents and two world wars, Jessica Brockmole’s atmospheric debut novel captures the indelible ways that people fall in love, and celebrates the power of the written word to stir the heart.   […] [read more]

A few weeks ago, I posted a Q&A with Jennifer Close about her new novel, The Smart One. Like her previous novel, Girls in White Dresses (reviewed here), Close’s latest work looks at the disorienting years that follow college. This time, she follows three siblings in their twenties/early thirties: Martha, Claire and Max. None of read more » [read more]

A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans (Thomas Nelson, October 2012), 352 pages My first inclination is to say I … Continue reading → [read more]

Cover Design by Regina Wamba maeidesign.com [read more]

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars This book had solid characters in a great setting, unfortunately the ending knocked down the rating for me. Summary via Goodreads: Married to the youngest attorney general in Massachusetts state history, Nora Cunningham is a picture-perfect political wife and a doting mother. But her carefully constructed life falls to […] [read more]