Last week, the gals at She Reads announced the four ‘Books of Fall’
selections. I’ll be reading/listening to some of these, so be sure to keep an eye out here for my reviews.
So without further ado…here are the Books of Fall:
Title: The Admissions
Author: Meg Mitchell Moore
Published: August 2015, Doubleday
The Admissions brilliantly
captures the frazzled pressure cooker of modern life as a seemingly
perfect family comes undone by a few desperate measures, long-buried
secrets—and college applications!The Hawthorne family
has it all. Great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent
areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly
straight teeth. And then comes their eldest daughter’s senior year of
high school . . .
Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A
student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of
her ears and a college application that’s not going to write itself.
She’s set her sights on Harvard, her father’s alma mater, and like a dog
with a chew toy, Angela won’t let up until she’s basking in
crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under
attack, she’s suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can’t
help but daydream about the cute baseball player in English class. Of
course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be
better spent coming up with a subject for her term paper—which, along
with her college essay and community service hours has a rapidly
approaching deadline.
Angela’s mother, Nora, is similarly
stretched to the limit, juggling parent-teacher meetings, carpool, and a
real-estate career where she caters to the mega rich and super-picky
buyers and sellers of the Bay Area. The youngest daughter, Maya, still
can’t read at the age of eight; the middle-child, Cecily, is no longer
the happy-go-lucky kid she once was; and the dad, Gabe, seems oblivious
to the mounting pressures at home because a devastating secret of his
own might be exposed. A few ill-advised moves put the Hawthorne family
on a heedless collision course that’s equal parts achingly real and
delightfully screwball.
Sharp and topical, The Admissions shows that if you pull at a loose thread, even the sturdiest of lives start to unravel at the seams of high achievement.
Title: A Curious Beginning
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Veronica Speedwell Mystery, #1
Published: September 2015, NAL/Penguin
In her
thrilling new series, the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady
Julia Grey mysteries, returns once more to Victorian England…and
introduces intrepid adventuress Veronica Speedwell.London, 1887.
As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee,
Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her
spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels
in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance.
As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers,
Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal
aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to
embark upon the journey of a lifetime.But fate has other plans,
as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help
of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising
to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron
offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker—a
reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But
before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the
secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly
Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive
assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth.
Title: The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs
Author: Matthew Dicks
Published: September 2015, St. Martin’s Press
Caroline Jacobs is a
wimp, someone who specializes in the suffering of tiny indignities in
silence. And the big ones, too. But when the twinset wearing president
of the local Parent Teacher Organization steps out of line one too many
times, Caroline musters the courage to assert herself. With a
four-letter word, no less.Caroline’s outburst has awakened
something in her. Not just gumption, but a realization that the roots of
her tirade can be traced back to something that happened to her as a
teenager, when her best friend very publicly betrayed her. So, with a
little bit of bravery, Caroline decides to go back to her home town and
tell off her childhood friend. She busts her daughter out of school, and
the two set off to deliver the perfect comeback . . . some twenty-five
years later. But nothing goes as planned. Long buried secrets rise to
the surface, and Caroline finds she has to face much more than one old,
bad best friend.The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs
is an enchanting novel about the ways in which our childhood
experiences reverberate through our lives. It’s the story of a woman
looking to fix her life through an act of bravery, and of a mother and
daughter learning to understand one another. Deceptively simple and
highly engaging, this latest novel by Matthew Dicks is perfect for those
of us who were last to be picked at sports, and for everyone who is
thrilled not to be in high school any more.
Title: The Last September
Author: Nina de Gramont
Published: September 2015, Algonquin Books
“When I look back now, it hurtles toward us like a meteor. But
at the time we were too wrapped up in our day-to-day life to see it.
Charlie and I lived in a borrowed house by the ocean. Our daughter,
Sarah, was fifteen months old. September had just arrived, emptying the
beaches at the very moment they became most spectacular.”
Brett has been in love with Charlie ever since he took her
skiing on a lovely Colorado night fourteen years ago. And now, living
in a seaside cottage on Cape Cod with their young daughter, it looks as
if they have settled into the life they desired. However, Brett and
Charlie’s marriage has been tenuous for quite some time. When Charlie’s
unstable younger brother plans to move in with them, the tension
simmering under the surface of their marriage boils over.But
what happened to Charlie next was unfathomable. Charlie was the golden
boy so charismatic that he charmed everyone who crossed his path; who
never shied away from a challenge; who saw life as one big adventure;
who could always rescue his troubled brother, no matter how
unpredictable the situation.So who is to blame for the tragic turn of events? And why does Brett feel responsible?
Set against the desolate autumn beauty of Cape Cod, The Last September is a riveting emotional puzzle that takes readers inside the psyche of a woman facing the meaning of love and loyalty.
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