For My List

Sometimes I wish there was a temporary hold on new books coming out. I want to catch up! Of course I realize I will never catch up (sad thought) and who am I kidding anyway, I love seeing the new books. I enjoy adding them to my list, even if I don’t get to it in a long while.

Here’s what made it to my list after a recent outing to Barnes & Noble:

• Pilgrims Upon the Earth by Brad Land. From the publisher: At fifteen, Terry Webber hovers uneasily between child and man. His father, the second-shift foreman at the textile plant in their South Carolina town, is too tired to pay Terry much mind. Their relationship lies stagnant and silent; neither is willing to acknowledge the hole Terry’s mother left in their lives when she killed herself only months after Terry’s birth.
• A Peculiar Grace by Jeffrey Lent. From Publisher’s Weekly: Family-fracturing secrets are at the heart of Lent’s luminous third novel, a transcendent story about the healing power of love and art. Two decades after an intense romance curdles, hermetic Hewitt Pearce is living in his family’s rural Vermont home, firing up his tractor for the occasional two-mile trip to the village, sometimes hiding in his hay barn, and producing prized custom ironwork when the spirit moves him. Upheaval arrives in the form of Jessica, a psychologically troubled waif with mysterious connections to Hewitt’s late artist father.
• Open Me by Sunshine O’Donnell. From the publisher: A debut novel about a young girl at the center of the secret world of professional mourners, where women are trained extensively and paid handsomely to attend the funerals of strangers. I actually heard about this one on NPR recently and am glad I saw it on the bookshelf at B&N because I’d forgotten about it.

Speaking of NPR, I caught the first part of Crime in the City this morning, where they discussed the mysteries by Donna Leon. I hope I can catch the other features. Should be good.

Also this time I did walk out of B&N with a book. I bought Murphy’s Law by Rhys Bowen which is one of the books my Murder on Mondays mystery group is reading later this year.

And, finally in other Monday news, I think everyone has seen Carl’s notice on the R.I.P. Challenge right? I’m so excited about this one. Yes, another challenge I’ll be attempting. I need to decide which challenges I’m joining and what books to read. I hope to have all of that posted by the end of the week.