Book Spotlights: She Reads ‘Books of Summer’ Selections

A few weeks ago, the gals at She Reads announced the three ‘Books of Summer’
selections. I’m sorry for my delay in posting this, once again life has just gotten in the way, but better late than never, right?

So without further ado…here are the Books of Summer:

Title: Before the Fall

Author:Noah Hawley

Published:May 2016, Grand Central Publishing

From the Emmy, PEN, Peabody, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe Award-winning creator of the TV show Fargo comes the thriller of the year.

On
a foggy summer night, eleven people—ten privileged, one
down-on-his-luck painter—depart Martha’s Vineyard on a private jet
headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the
plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott
Burroughs—the painter—and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last
remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul’s
family.

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash
and the backstories of the passengers and crew members—including a Wall
Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a
young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot—the
mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers’ intrigues
unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb
chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far
more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in
an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott
struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities
scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage.

Amid
pulse-quickening suspense, the fragile relationship between Scott and
the young boy glows at the heart of this stunning novel, raising
questions of fate, human nature, and the inextricable ties that bind us
together.

Title: Last Ride to Graceland

Author:Kim Wright

Published:May 2016, Gallery Books

One woman sets out for Graceland hoping to answer the question: Is Elvis Presley her father?

Blues
musician Cory Ainsworth is barely scraping by after her mother’s death
when she discovers a priceless piece of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia hidden
away in a shed out back of the family’s coastal South Carolina home:
Elvis Presley’s Stutz Blackhawk, its interior a time capsule of the
singer’s last day on earth.

A backup singer for the King, Cory’s
mother Honey was at Graceland the day Elvis died. She quickly returned
home to Beaufort and married her high school sweetheart. Yearning to
uncover the secrets of her mother’s past—and possibly her own
identity—Cory decides to drive the car back to Memphis and turn it over
to Elvis’s estate, retracing the exact route her mother took
thirty-seven years earlier. As she winds her way through the sprawling
deep south with its quaint towns and long stretches of open road, the
burning question in Cory’s mind—who is my father?—takes a backseat to
the truth she learns about her complicated mother, the minister’s
daughter who spent a lifetime struggling to conceal the consequences of a
single year of rebellion.

Title:The Fifth Avenue Artists Society

Author:Joy Callaway

Published:May 2016, Harper Paperbacks

An enthralling Edith Wharton-meets-Little Women
debut about a family of four artistic sisters on the outskirts of
Gilded Age New York high society that centers on the boldest—an aspiring
writer caught between the boy next door and a mysterious novelist who
inducts her into Manhattan’s most elite artistic salon.

The
Bronx, 1891. Virginia Loftin knows what she wants most: to become a
celebrated novelist despite her gender, and to marry Charlie, her best
friend, neighbor and first love. Yet when Charlie proposes to another
woman, Ginny is devastated; shutting out her family, she holes up and
obsessively rewrites how their story should have gone.

Though
Ginny works with newfound intensity, success eludes her—until she
attends a salon hosted in her brother’s handsome author friend John’s
Fifth Avenue mansion. Amongst painters, musicians, actors, and writers,
Ginny returns to herself, even blooming under John’s increasingly
romantic attentions. Just as she has begun to forget Charlie, however,
he throws himself back into her path, and Ginny finds herself torn
between a lifetime’s worth of complicated feelings and a budding
relationship with a man who seems almost too good to be true.

The
brightest lights cast the darkest shadows, and as Ginny tentatively
navigates the Society’s world, she begins to suspect all is not as it
seems in New York’s dazzling “Gay Nineties” scene. When a close friend
is found dead in John’s mansion, Ginny must delve into her beloved
salon’s secrets to discover her true feelings about art, family, and
love.

Be sure to check out the She Reads website
for reviews, guest posts, author interviews and more. And if
you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow @SheReadsBookCLB  and the hashtag
#srblog for author twitter chats.  

*** All reviews for these books can be found at the link-up here or by clicking on the She Reads button on the side bar.