I’m a big book nerd! I love books! I love opening a book and smelling the pages. Nowadays, I’m listening to more books that I’m actually reading, but that’s okay. Also, I love discovering new authors, and when I do, I have to read or listen to everything I can get my hands on.
I visit my local library every couple of weeks and check out a new audiobook. Lately, I’ve been listening to Jo Nesbo’s books, The Snowman and The Leopard, both of which are a part of “The Harry Hole Series.” My local library doesn’t have the whole series, but I’m hooked.
In the meantime, I’ve been checking out other people’s “fall 2016 reading lists” and came up with my own. One of the books is a couple of years old, and is being made into a movie. Today’s list also includes a couple of authors I’m familiar with and was excited to find out that they have new books coming out.
So, what do you say we get started!
The Trespasser – Tana French
Earlier this year, I listened to Tana French’s The Secret Place and was mesmerized by how good it was.
In The Trespasser, Detectives Steven Moran and Antoinette Conway are back. “Being on the Murder squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed it would be. Her partner, Stephen Moran, is the only person who seems glad she’s there. The rest of her working life is a stream of thankless cases, vicious pranks, and harassment. Antoinette is savagely tough, but she’s getting close to the breaking point. Their new case looks like yet another by-the-numbers lovers’ quarrel gone bad. Aislinn Murray is blond, pretty, groomed to a shine, and dead in her catalogue-perfect living room, next to a table set for a romantic dinner. There’s nothing unusual about her—except that Antoinette’s seen her somewhere before.” (Source: Amazon)
Midair – Kodi Scheer
My thoughts when reading the description of this novel on Amazon were: (1) Wow, her name is Nessa (short for Vanessa, which is my name, and because all my friends call me Nessa); and (2) it’s set in the City of Lights — Paris, France.
“It’s the summer of 1999, the end of a millennium. In the mind of Nessa Baxter, a girl from rural Illinois, Paris is the remedy for all of her woes. The death of her beloved brother and the betrayal by her classmate Kat has left Nessa bereft and doubtful about her future. She plans to exact revenge on Kat during their renegade French Club trip. Along with classmates Whitney and Kiran, the four girls embark on a series of misadventures in Paris. As part of her plan, Nessa starts a game of Truth or Dare that spirals out of control. A suspenseful psychological drama, Midair is the story of a young girl’s descent into darkness and the secrets we keep, even from ourselves.” (Source: Amazon)
Don’t I Know You? – Marni Jackson
“With wit and insight, Marni Jackson takes a world obsessed with celebrity and turns it on its head. In Don’t I Know You?, she shows us how fame is just another form of fiction, and how, in the end, the daily dramas of an ordinary woman’s life can be as captivating and poignant as any luminary tell-all.” (Source: Amazon)
Inferno – Dan Brown
I actually listened to this book, and I’m excited to see how Inferno plays out on the big screen.
“Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno.” (Source: Amazon)
The Son – Jo Nesbo
I discovered “The Harry Hole Series” by Jo Nesbo in the audiobook section at my local library. I listened first to The Snowman and then The Leopard. I’m excited to read this latest offering from Nesbo.
“Sonny Lofthus has been in prison for almost half his life: serving time for crimes he didn’t commit. In exchange, he gets an uninterrupted supply of heroin—and a stream of fellow prisoners seeking out his Buddha-like absolution. Years earlier Sonny’s father, a corrupt cop, took his own life rather than face exposure. Now Sonny is the center of a vortex of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him stoned and jailed. When Sonny discovers a shocking truth about his father’s suicide, he makes a brilliant escape and begins hunting down the people responsible for his and his father’s demise. But he’s also being hunted, and by enemies too many to count. Two questions remain: who will get to him first, and what will he do when he’s cornered?” (Source: Amazon)
Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing – Jennifer Weiner
I enjoy Jennifer Weiner’s books (In Her Shoes) and look forward to reading her collection of essays.
In her first essay collection, she takes the raw stuff of her life and spins it into a collection of tales of modern-day womanhood as uproariously funny and moving as the best of Nora Ephron and Tina Fey. No subject is off-limits in these intimate and honest stories: sex, weight, envy, money, her mother’s coming out of the closet, her estranged father’s death. From lonely adolescence to modern childbirth to hearing her six-year-old daughter say the f-word—fat—for the first time, Jen dives deep into the heart of female experience, with the wit and candor that have endeared her to readers all over the world. Hilarious and moving, Hungry Heart is about yearning and fulfillment, loss and love, and a woman who searched for her place in the world, and found it as a storyteller.” (Source: Amazon)
Today Will Be Different – Maria Semple
A few months ago, I put Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette on my summer reading list, which I actually listened to the audiobook. So I’m really excited about Semple’s latest book, Today Will Be Different, “a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.”
“Eleanor knows she’s a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won’t swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother’s company. It’s also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he’s on vacation. Just when it seems like things can’t go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret.” (Source: Amazon)
The Couple Next Door – Shari Lapena
I like books that keep me guessing as to what is going to happen, and I think this book will do it for me.
“Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.” (Source: Amazon)
You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain – Phoebe Robinson
I just really love the title of this book!
“A hilarious and timely essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from upcoming comedy superstar and 2 Dope Queens podcaster Phoebe Robinson. Being a black woman in America means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities every day. Comedian Phoebe Robinson has experienced her fair share over the years: she’s been unceremoniously relegated to the role of “the black friend,” as if she is somehow the authority on all things racial; she’s been followed around stores by security guards; and yes, people do ask her whether they can touch her hair all. the. time. Now, she’s ready to take these topics to the page—and she’s going to make you laugh as she’s doing it. As personal as it is political, You Can’t Touch My Hair examines our cultural climate and skewers our biases with humor and heart, announcing Robinson as a writer on the rise.” (Source: Amazon)
Scrappy Little Nobody – Anna Kendrick
Although she stands at 5’2″, actress Anna Kendrick is a comedic force to be reckoned with and according to BuzzFeed and her mother, she is “very funny on Twitter.” Kendrick’s “autobiographical collection of essays amusingly recounts memorable moments throughout her life, from her middle class upbringing in New England to the blockbuster movies that have made her one of Hollywood’s most popular actresses today. Expanding upon the witty and ironic dispatches for which she is known, Anna Kendrick’s essays offer her one-of-a-kind commentary on the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture.” (Source: Amazon)
So what’s on your reading list this fall?
Yours Truly,
Vanessa