Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn Book Recommendation

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn is a dark young adult paranormal thriller (available June 11, 2013).

A girl stumbles out of the night wearing a garbage bag as a poncho. She has no idea where she is or how she got there. When the Oklahoma family who finds her call the authorities, a missing person report pings and her identity is revealed. The girl is Annaliese Rose Gordon, a teenager who disappeared one year ago from Buffalo, New York. On the night she vanished, she appeared at a party, covered in blood and screaming. No one had seen her since.

But the girl remembers none of this. She can’t explain where she’s been for the past year. She can’t explain the scar on her head or her short hair. Her mother and father pick her up, take her home, and try to reintroduce Annaliese to her love of chocolate, her best friend Gwen, and her love of family road trips.

The only problem is that the girl they’ve brought home isn’t Annaliese.

Another Little Piece is Kate Karyus Quinn’s debut novel, and her exploration of Annaliese is a fascinating ride. Annaliese may not remember her first sexual experience, but she knows enough about herself to realize that the puzzle pieces aren’t fitting.

Her mother – who Annaliese refers to as “the mom” – brings her a chocolate bar, thinking that Annaliese will love it, but the taste of chocolate makes her vomit and only exposes the distance between herself and the mom.

The dad had pulled onto the side of the road by then, and they’d both gotten out of the car, throwing all the doors open. Together they stared at me like I was some kind of wild animal that had wandered into their car, and they were waiting for me to realize I didn’t belong here and go back to wherever I had come from. I simply sat there, staring at my puke-spattered sneakers.Finally the mom handed me a tissue. Only then did I notice the runny nose and tears leaking down the side of my face.

“I think I must have gotten carsick,” I said feebly.

“Annaliese was never carsick.”

The mom didn’t seem to notice that she had referred to Annaliese as if she was a different person from me, a person who now existed only in the past tense.

Piece by broken piece, Annaliese’s past is revealed as memories begin to return, but not in a pleasant way. As she watches the runningback on her high school team return a ball, she feels a surging hunger, something dangerous and threateningly bloody. It frightens her.

Quinn’s revelations are calculated beautifully. The reader discovers what needs to be discovered at the exact right moments…and the revelations just keep getting worse. Right when you think you have it figured out, additional forces come into play.

A lot of the time those forces are other characters with their own agendas. Like Dex, the very special boy next door. Logan the football star. Gwen, the best friend. The weird red-headed freshman. The mom. The dad. And Annaliese herself – the old Annaliese, who spitballed her poetry so she could hide it better.

I practice the words
and wonder
where people find
the courage
to ever say them
aloud.—ARG

The poetry is a strangely touching way to reveal Annaliese’s thoughts and feelings. Quinn intersperses the poetry throughout, which helps to break up some of the bleak and truly horrific moments – one of which will have Stephen King fans nodding and saying “Ah, yes, Carrie.”

And as she came closer, the blood became clearer. It was everywhere. Streaming from her forehead, it obliterated half of Annaliese’s face. Her mouth, open wide in an O, was nothing but a red, moving wound. The blood dripped from her hands too, even as she held them out in an obvious plea for help. 

Another Little Piece is a solid debut, and perfect for both teens and adults alike. Quinn doesn’t talk down to the reader at all – revealing what needs to revealed in the perfect places and with perfect pitch. The quiet moments are touching. The loud moments are screaming. And every moment in between holds its own. It’ll leave you wondering what strange things are out there, lurking in the dark.
See more coverage of new releases in our Fresh Meat series.

Jenny Maloney is a reader and writer in Colorado. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in 42 Magazine, Shimmer, Skive, and others. She blogs about writing at Notes from Under Ground. If you like to talk books, reading, publishing, movies, or writing feel free to follow her on Twitter: @JennyEMaloney.

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ISBN: 9780062135957. For more information, or to buy a copy, visit:

     

 

   

 

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This is a book recommendation only and not a review by me…

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman, Paul Clark Newell Jr.

Book Details Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 10, 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 0345534522 ISBN-13: 978-0345534521

When Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Bill Dedman noticed a real estate listing for a grand estate in Connecticut that had sat empty for nearly sixty years, he had no idea that he was stumbling onto one of the most surprising American stories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—complete with copper barons, Gilded Age opulence, backdoor politics, and a reclusive 104-year-old heiress.
 
Empty Mansions explores the fascinating life of Huguette Clark, an enigmatic figure who had not been photographed in public since the 1920s. Though she owned three palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, they sat vacant while she lived out her final two decades in a New York City hospital, despite being in excellent health.
 
Dedman and Huguette’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have had frequent conversations with Huguette, present a fairy tale told in reverse: a daughter born into privilege who in time locks herself away from the outside world. By age twenty, Huguette had inherited her fortune from her father, copper industrialist W. A. Clark, who at the dawn of the twentieth century was one of the richest men in America, possibly even as rich as John D. Rockefeller. The money afforded Huguette gorgeous paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renown Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique  dolls, lavish gifts for friends (and even strangers), the freedom to pursue her own work as an artist, and the privacy she valued above all else.
 
The Clark family story encompasses the entire span of American history in just three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from cross-country travel in private railroad cars of the nineteenth-century to a police investigation in one of the largest apartments on Fifth Avenue in the twenty-first-century. The same Huguette who held a ticket for the return trip of the Titanic was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11.
 
Making use of twenty thousand pages of personal and financial correspondence, Dedman and Newell transport us into Huguette’s private world, where we meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her noble French boyfriend, the nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives seeking to inherit Huguette’s $300 million fortune. Including previously unseen photographs of Huguette and her homes, Empty Mansions is a rich and touching story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.

Book Recommendation only and not a review by me.

Anne Boleyn by Norah Lofts Book Recommendation

 

Book Details Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Amberley (December 2012) Language: English ISBN-10: 1445606194 ISBN-13: 978-1445606194 Ever since she first appeared in the Tudor court, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second queen, has been a mystery and a source of controversy. Even her birth is shrouded in obscurity; both year and place are the subject of debate. Was she beautiful, as those who fell under her spell believed, or was she a rather plain girl blessed with striking eyes and a wealth of black hair? More mysterious still is the nature of her role in one of the most turbulent times in British history. Henry, who wrote her impassioned love letters and composed songs in her praise, honoured her as no woman was ever honoured before, and finally defied the Pope in order to marry her. Her enemies at the time believed she owed her success to witchcraft, and indeed she bore two ‘devil’s marks’. But was she, in fact, only a hapless pawn, subject to the passions of a notoriously mercurial autocrat? Why was her fall from favour so sudden and complete? Henry’s love changed to a hatred so vicious that he conspired with his chief minister to have her accused of adultery with five men – one her own brother. Four of them went to the block protesting her innocence – and their own. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Norah Lofts was one of the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists and many of her books remain in print today. Anne Boleyn is one of her rare – yet highly successful – forays into non-fiction and displays her trademark application of authentic period detail to a gripping narrative. Her fictionalised account of Anne Boleyn’s life, The Concubine, was a huge bestseller in the UK and US. Lofts wrote more than fifty books. This is a book recommendation only and not a review by me…

As She Left It by Catriona McPherson Book Recommendation

When she was twelve years old, Opal Jones escaped her mother’s endless drinking. Now, returning to their small Leeds cottage after her mum’s death, Opal feels like she’s gone back in time. Nosey Mrs. Pickess is still polishing her windows to a sparkle. Fishbo, Opal’s ancient music teacher, still plays trumpet with his band. And much to Opal’s delight, her favorite neighbor, Margaret Reid, still keeps an eye on things from the walk in front of her house.

But a tragedy has struck Mote Street. Margaret’s grandson, Craig, disappeared some ten years ago, and every day he’s not found, shame and sorrow settle deeper into the neighborhood’s forgotten corners. As the door she closed on her own dark past begins to open, Opal uncovers more secrets than she can bear about the people who were once her friends.

About the Author

Catriona McPherson (California) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the author of the Dandy Gilver historical mystery series (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books), which was nominated for a Macavity Award in 2012. As She Left It is her Midnight Ink debut.

Book Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: MIDNIGHT INK; First Edition edition (June 8, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738736775
• ISBN-13: 978-0738736778

Book recommendation only and not a review by me.

 

Eye of the Law by Cora Harrison Book Recommendation

 

A Mystery of Medieval Ireland - 1510. A great feast is being held. Into a crowd listening to the story of Balor, the one-eyed god, come two strangers. The younger of the two, Iarla, bears a letter that claims that the wealthy Ardal O’Lochlainn is his true father – which Ardal vociferously denies. So when Iarla is found dead, with one eye missing, some think he was killed by the god – but most suspect Ardal. Mara, the Brehon – or lawgiver – of the Burren, is called to investigate.

Book Details Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Severn House Publishers; Large type / large print edition (July 26, 2012) Language: English ISBN-10: 0727898418 ISBN-13: 978-0727898418

The Life of Objects By Susanna Moore Book Recommendation

Publisher	Vintage (June 4, 2013)
Language	English
ISBN-10	0307388824
ISBN-13	978-0307388827

About the Book:

Berlin, 1938. When Beatrice, a young Irish Protestant lace maker, is whisked away from her dreary life to join the household of Felix and Dorthea Metzenburg, she feels like she’s landed in the middle of a fairy tale. Art collectors, and friends to the most fascinating men and women of Europe, the Metzenburgs are part of a world where there is more to desire than she ever imagined. 
 
However Germany has launched its campaign of aggression across Europe, and, before long, the conflict reaches the family’s threshold. Retreating to their country estate, the Metzenburgs do their best to ignore the encroaching war until the realities of hunger, illness, and Nazi terror begin to threaten their very existence. In searing and emotional detail, The Life of Objects illuminates Beatrice’s journey from childhood to womanhood, from naïveté to wisdom, as a continent collapses into darkness around her.
Beatrice Palmer, the only child of shopkeepers in a small Irish village, escapes the dreariness of everyday life by reading about the pleasures and misfortunes of great literary heroines and whiles away time in her parents’ shop perfecting her skill as a lace maker. The appearance of a beautiful countess presents Beatrice with an opportunity greater than anything she could have imagined: impressed with Beatrice’s elegant handiwork, the countess invites Beatrice to accompany her to Berlin to stay with Felix and Dorothea Metzenburg, an aristocratic couple known for their extraordinary collections of rare lace and other precious treasures. When they reach Berlin, however, they find a nation preparing for war. The Nazi government has requisitioned the Metzenburgs’ home, forcing the family to flee to their country estate south of the city. Within months of their arrival, the threat of war has become grim reality, with waves of refugees seeking food and shelter and bearing horrific tales about the murders of Jews. As Allied bombing raids escalate and the brutal Red Army advances into Germany, Beatrice finds herself ineradicably bound to the Metzenburgs and a patchwork, polyglot community struggling to survive forces far beyond their control. 

Book Recommendation only and not a review by me.

The Life of Objects is the story of a young woman’s journey through the nightmare of war. It is a haunting portrait of sacrifice and suffering, and of the courage, love, and loyalty the most dire of circumstances can sometimes inspire.

 

About Susanna Moore:

Susanna Moore is the author of the novels The Big Girls, One Last Look, In the Cut, Sleeping Beauties, The Whiteness of Bones, and My Old Sweetheart, and two books of nonfiction, Light Years: A Girlhood in Hawai’i and I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai’i. She lives in New York City.

 

A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershow Book Recommendation

 

 

Book Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (May 7, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345468473
• ISBN-13: 978-0345468475

For readers of Rules of Civility and The Marriage Plot, this engrossing, very smart novel about passion, betrayal, class and friendship delves deeply into the lives of two generations, against backgrounds as diverse as Dar es Salaam, Boston, Shenzhen and Fisher’s Island. It is the most accomplished book-by far-of this prominent young author’s career.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963: two students meet one autumn evening during their senior year at Harvard-Ed, a Jewish kid on scholarship, and Hugh, a Boston Brahmin with the world at his feet. Ed is unapologetically ambitious and girl-crazy, while Hugh is ambivalent about everything aside from his dedicated pining for the one girl he’s ever loved. An immediate, intense friendship is sparked that night between these two opposites, which ends just as abruptly, several years later, although only one of them understands why. A Dual Inheritance follows the lives of Ed and Hugh for next several decades, as their paths-in spite of their rift, in spite of their wildly different social classes, personalities and choices-remain strangely and compellingly connected.

Book recommendation only and not a review by me.

Sing Me An Old Song by Morgan James Book Recommendation

 

 

Publisher	The Malabar Front (March 6, 2013)
Language	English
ISBN-10	0615782930
ISBN-13	978-0615782935

This is the tale of a Southern ghost, Mavis Banks Book, who returns to her beloved Atlanta home on a fine spring day in 1996, ten years after her funeral. It is also the story of Niki Banks and Jack Rainwater, unlikely and unwilling roommates in Mavis’ house. And finally, it is the story of a city-sized stray dog of unrecognizable heritage that appears in a terrifying thunderstorm. All four are offered a chance, a last chance, and it will take a friend with a fondness for Vodka martinis, the ability to see the past through new eyes, and the courage to take a risk for each to accept that chance, and to hold on to it.

About the Author

Morgan James is also the author of the Promise McNeal mystery series. A resident of Atlanta, Georgia, for many years, Ms. James now makes her home in Western North Carolina.

Book Recommendation Only, not a review

Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell Book Recommendation

Synopsis

Having grown up on the quiet island of Guernsey, Betty Dean can’t wait to start her new life in London. On a mission to find Clara Pickle – the mysterious beneficiary in her grandmother’s will – she arrives in grungy, 1990s Soho, ready for whatever life has to throw at her. Or so she thinks…

In 1920s bohemian London, Arlette – Betty’s grandmother – is starting her new life in a time of post-war change. Beautiful and charismatic, Arlette is soon drawn into the hedonistic world of the Bright Young People. But less than two years later, tragedy strikes and she flees back to Guernsey for the rest of her life.

As Betty searches for Clara, she is taken on a journey through Arlette’s extraordinary time in London, uncovering a tale of love, loss and heartbreak. Will the secrets of Arlette’s past help Betty on her path to happiness?

About the Author

Lisa Jewell had always planned to write her first book when she was fifty. In fact, she wrote it when she was twenty-seven and had just been made redundant from her job as a secretary. Inspired by Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, a book about young people just like her who lived in London, she wrote the first three chapters of what was to become her first novel, Ralph’s Party. It went on to become the bestselling debut novel of 1998. 

Ten bestselling novels later, she lives in London with her husband and their two daughters. Lisa writes every day in a local cafe where she can drink coffee, people-watch, and, without access to the internet, actually get some work done.

Get to know Lisa by joining the official facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LisaJewellOfficial or by following her on Twitter @lisajewelluk. And visit her website at http://www.lisa-jewell.co.uk

After Flodden by Rosemary Goring Book Recommendation

 

Patrick Paniter was James IV’s right-hand man, a diplomatic genius who was in charge of the guns at the disastrous battle of Flodden in September 1513 in which the English annihilated the Scots. After the death of his king he is tormented by guilt as he relives the events that led to war. When Louise Brenier, daughter of a rogue sea trader, asks his help in finding out if her brother Benoit was killed in action, it is the least he can do to salve his conscience. Not satisfied with the news he brings, Louise sets off to find out the truth herself, and swiftly falls foul of one of the lawless clans that rule the ungovernable borderlands. After Flodden is a novel about the consequences of the battle of Flodden, as seen through the eyes of several characters who either had a hand in bringing the country to war, or were profoundly affected by the outcome. There have been very few novels about Flodden, despite its significance,and none from this perspective. It’s a racy adventure, combining political intrigue and romance, and its readership will be anyone who loves historical fiction, or is interested in the history of Scotland and the turbulent, ungovernable borderlands between Scotland and England.

Product Details Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (May 2, 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 1846972728 ISBN-13: 978-1846972720