MizB at Should Be Reading asks what books have come into our lives this week. Here’s my list:
The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt. I’ve already read this book (twice even!), obviously I really like it! My neighborhood book group chose it for our September selection, and I was shocked to realize that I don’t own it. I logged on to PaperBackSwap, made my selection, and the book arrived today.
The publisher’s synopsis: Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt’s final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers. Run-down yet romantic, the Big House stands not only as a cherished reminder of summer’s ephemeral pleasures but also as a powerful symbol of a vanishing way of life.
I received an signed ARC of First Daughterby Eric Van Lustbader. This looks like quite an engaging thriller! I’m especially interested in reading it because I just read/reviewed Stone Creek by his wife, Victoria Lustbader. Their writing styles and genres are very different; I wonder if I’ll see any stylistic links.
A blurb from the publisher: Sometimes the weakness we fear most can become our greatest strength . . . Jack McClure has had a troubled life. His dyslexia always made him feel like an outsider. He escaped from an abusive home as a teenager and lived by his wits on the streets of Washington D.C. It wasn’t until he realized that dyslexia gave him the ability to see the world in unique ways that he found success, using this new-found strength to become a top ATF agent. When a terrible accident takes the life of his only daughter, Emma, and his marriage falls apart, Jack blames himself, numbing the pain by submerging himself in work. Then he receives a call from his old friend Edward Carson. Carson is just weeks from taking the reins as President of the United States when his daughter, Alli, is kidnapped. Because Emma McClure was once Alli’s best friend, Carson turns to Jack, the one man he can trust to go to any lengths to find his daughter and bring her home safely. The search for Alli leads Jack on a road toward reconciliation . . . and into the path of a dangerous and calculating man. Someone whose actions are as cold as they are brilliant. Whose power and reach are seemingly infinite. Faith, redemption, and political intrigue play off one another as McClure uses his unique abilities to journey into the twisted mind of a stone cold genius who is constantly one step ahead of him. Jack will soon discover that this man has affected his life and his country in more ways than he could ever imagine.
Christopher Meeks and I connected via a blog post about Jhumpa Lahiri’s award-winning Unaccustomed Earth and the difficulties I’ve encountered discussing short stories in a group setting. Christopher wrote a thoughtful guest post on the subject, and offered me a review copy of his latest short story collection, Months and Seasons. I’m looking forward to reading it, being receptive to themes, as Christopher suggests.
A sneak peek at what I may find: “Months and Seasons”is the follow-up story collection to Christopher Meeks’s award-winning “The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea.” With a combination of main characters from young to old and with drama and humor, the tales pursue such people as a supermodel who awakens after open-heart surgery, a famous playwright who faces a firestorm consuming the landscape, a reluctant man who attends a Halloween party as Dracula, and a New Yorker who thinks she’s a chicken.
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