Waiting on Wednesday: October 24, 2012

Jill at Breaking the Spine hosts Waiting on Wednesday where participants spotlight a pre-pub book they are waiting on. My pick this week is Everything Was Goodbye by Gurjinder Basran . The author has been billed as "for fans of Jhumpa Lahiri and Amy Tan" - sold!  It publishes 12/31/2012.

Publisher Blurb: THE YOUNGEST OF SIX daughters raised by a widowed mother, Meena is a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. Originally from India, her family still holds on to many old-world customs and traditions that seem stifling to a young North American woman. She knows that the freedom experienced by others is beyond her reach. But unlike her older sisters, Meena refuses to accept a life dictated by tradition. Against her mother's wishes, she falls for a young man named Liam who asks her to run away with him. Meena must then make a painful choice—one that will lead to stunning and irrevocable consequences. Heartbreaking and beautiful, Everything Was Good-bye is an unforgettable story about family, love, and loss, and the struggle to live in two different cultural worlds.

Waiting on Wednesday: June 1, 2011

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on:

The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider (publishes June 7, 2011)
From Goodreads.com:

Lucky Quinn writes up weddings for one of the hottest bridal magazines. And it wasn’t easy to get there. From humble beginnings, she outsmarted her way into the center of New York’s glamorous magazine industry – making up for her background with a sharp mind, whip-thin physique, and ceaseless ambition.

Then, in one day, her life is utterly transformed; two of the magazine’s major competitors fold, and Lucky is named Editor-in-Chief, replacing the formidable, but aging Grace Ralston, who had been at the magazine’s helm from day one. Grace taught Lucky everything she knows, but now it seems that she taught her too well…

As the ripples of Lucky’s promotion spread, the intricate lives of four women begin to unfold. Felice, Your Wedding’s elegant and unshakeable Art Director is now being shaken for the first time by troubles at home. Sara, the Fashion Director, is famed for her eagle eye for fashion trends and exquisite hair. But, for all her know-how, “the Angel of Bridal” has never come close to starring in a wedding herself – she’s picked the dress, but where’s the groom? Grace, recovering in the wake of her sudden, humiliating fall from power, must learn to accept herself – and love – after a life dedicated to fulfilling other women’s dreams. And, through it all, Lucky begins to discover just how lonely the top really is.


Seems like Devil Wears Prada meets The Wedding Planner - perfect beach read!

What are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday: March 30th

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick this week actually released yesterday but I am very excited that it is out:

The Free World: A Novel by David Bezmozgis

 From Goodreads:
Summer, 1978. Brezhnev sits like a stone in the Kremlin, Israel and Egypt are inching towards peace, and in the bustling, polyglot streets of Rome, strange new creatures have appeared: Soviet Jews who have escaped to freedom through a crack in the Iron Curtain. Among the thousands who have landed in Italy to secure visas for new lives in the West are the members of the Krasnansky family — three generations of Russian Jews.

There is Samuil, an old Communist and Red Army veteran, who reluctantly leaves the country to which he has dedicated himself body and soul; Karl, his elder son, a man eager to embrace the opportunities emigration affords; Alec, his younger son, a carefree playboy for whom life has always been a game; and Polina, Alec's new wife, who has risked the most by breaking with her old family to join this new one. Together, they will spend six months in Rome — their way station and purgatory. They will immerse themselves in the carnival of emigration, in an Italy rife with love affairs and ruthless hustles, with dislocation and nostalgia, with the promise and peril of a better life. Through the unforgettable Krasnansky family, David Bezmozgis has created an intimate portrait of a tumultuous era.

Written in precise, musical prose, The Free World is a stunning debut novel, a heartfelt multigenerational saga of great historical scope and even greater human debth. Enlarging on the themes of aspiration and exile that infused his critically acclaimed first collection, Natasha and Other Stories, The Free World establishes Bezmozgis as one of our most mature and accomplished storytellers.

This book is a perfect selection for the Immigrant Stories Challenge.

What are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday: August 25, 2010

The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid

 

From Amazon.com: 

Washington Post correspondent Reid (The United States of Europe) explores health-care systems around the world in an effort to understand why the U.S. remains the only first world nation to refuse its citizens universal health care. Neither financial prudence nor concern for the commonweal explains the American position, according to Reid, whose findings divulge that the U.S. not only spends more money on health care than any other nation but also leaves 45 million residents uninsured, allowing about 22,000 to die from easily treatable diseases. Seeking treatment for the flareup of an old shoulder injury, he visits doctors in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan and England—with a stint in an Ayurvedic clinic in India—in a quest for treatment that dovetails with his search for a cure for America's health-care crisis, a narrative device that sometimes feels contrived, but allows him valuable firsthand experience. For all the scope of his research and his ability to mint neat rebuttals to the common American misconception that universal health care is socialized medicine, Reid neglects to address the elephant in the room: just how are we to sell these changes to the mighty providers and insurers?

Although much of the furor that surrounded the health care debate earlier this year has settled down, we have yet to address many of the tough choices and decisions about health care in this country.  I think the author's approach of trying to access treatment for a shoulder injury in 6 countries is an interesting approach to this dialogue.  I had put this book onto my TBR when it first released in HB and am excited to see that is now out in paperback (Paperback releases on Aug 31, 2010)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Waiting on Wednesday: Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson

 From Amazon.com: At thirty-three, talented chef Georgia Gray has everything a woman could want—the top job at one of Manhattan’s best restaurants; a posse of smart and savvy gal pals who never let her down; and a platinum-set, cushion-cut diamond engagement ring courtesy of Glenn, the handsome entertainment lawyer who Georgia’s overbearing mother can’t wait for her to marry. The table is set for the ambitious bride-to-be until a scathing restaurant review destroys her reputation. To add salt to her wounds, Glenn suddenly calls off the wedding.
Brokenhearted, Georgia escapes to the Italian countryside, where she sharpens her skills at a trattoria run by a world-class chef who seems to have it all—a devoted lover, a magnificent villa, and most important, a kitchen of her own. Georgia quells her longings with Italy’s delectable offerings: fine wine, luscious cheeses, cerulean blue skies, and irresistible Gianni—an expert in the vineyard and the bedroom. So when Gianni tempts Georgia to stay in Italy with an offer no sane top chef could refuse, why can’t she say yes?
An appetite for something more looms large in Georgia’s heart – the desire to run her own restaurant in the city she loves. But having left New York with her career in flames, she’ll need to stir up more than just courage if she’s to realize her dreams and find her way home. 

 


Italy, food and dreams for bigger things - how can the book go wrong?  This one releases on August 3, 2010.

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine 

Waiting on Wednesday - March 3, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted each week by Jill at Breaking the Spine , in which a book blogger spotlights an upcoming release that he/she is "waiting" on.


This week I am waiting on The Opposite of Me: A Novel by Sarah Pekkanen. I heard about this author over at She Is Too Fond of Books ; the blog has a feature entitled Spotlight on Bookstores where a guest post highlights a local bookstore. Sarah Pekkanen wrote a post about the Book Barn in Niantic, CT. This place looks to be a haven for used books and it is very close to an office I travel to about once per week for work - I will be heading to the Book Barn soon on an upcoming trip! Anyhow, I loved the tone of Sarah Pekkanen's post and then saw that she has a book releasing in March. I am looking forward to reading this one! Synopsis from author's website

Reminiscent of Jennifer Weiner’s In Her Shoes and Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed, this funny, poignant debut novel explores the desire to have it all, the relationships that define us, and the complicated, irreplaceable bonds of sisterhood. Redbook magazine calls it "smart" and "soulful" and chose it as a March book pick.

Twenty-nine year old Lindsey Rose has, for as long as she can remember, lived in the shadow of her devastatingly beautiful fraternal twin sister, Alex. Determined to get noticed, Lindsey is finally on the cusp of being named Creative Vice President of an elite New York advertising agency, after years of 80 plus-hour weeks, migraines, and profound loneliness. But during the course of one devastating night, Lindsey’s carefully-constructed life implodes.

Humiliated and desperate, she flees the glitter of Manhattan and retreats to the time warp of her parents’ Maryland home. As her sister plans her lavish wedding to her prince charming, Lindsey struggles to maintain her identity as the smart, responsible twin, while she furtively tries to put her career back together. But things get more complicated when a long-held family secret is unleashed that forces both sisters to reconsider who they are and who they are meant to be.

This releases Mar 9, 2010.

What are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday - February 23, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted each week by Jill at Breaking the Spine , in which a book blogger spotlights an upcoming release that he/she is "waiting" on.


This week I am waiting on So Much for That: A Novel by Lionel Shriver. Despite all the acclaim this author has garnered for her previous books I haven't read any of them yet. But this one grabs my interest - the healthcare debate runs through this novel. That is an area in which I have a special interest so I look forward to seeing how the book deals with it. Synopsis from Barnes & Noble


Shep Knacker has long saved for “The Afterlife”: an idyllic retirement on a tropical island in the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be replaced with “talking, thinking, seeing, and being”—and enough sleep. When he sold his home repair business for a cool $1 million, his dream finally seemed within reach. Yet Glynis, his wife of twenty-six years, has concocted endless excuses why it’s never the right time to go. Sick of working as a peon for the company he founded, Shep announces that he’s leaving for what they’ve always tagged “The Afterlife,” with or without her. Just returned from a doctor’s appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep can’t go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. It rapidly becomes clear that this “health insurance company from hell” only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Shep’s nest egg for The Afterlife soon cracks under the strain. So Much for That follows the profound transformation of a marriage, for which grave illness proves an unexpected opportunity for tenderness, renewed intimacy, and dry humor, while also pressing the question: How much is one life worth?

This releases Mar 9, 2010.

What are you waiting on?