What were people reading in Chicago last week?

Top-Selling Titles in Chicagoland and Milwaukee Last Week

Happy publication day to Meg Waite Clayton for the paperback release of The Language of Light

Happy publication day to Meg Waite Clayton! The Language of Light is released in paperback today from Ballantine Books. A finalist for the Bellwether Prize, The Language of Light was originally published in 2003 by St. Martin's Press, and with the success of the Wednesday Sisters and The Four Ms. Bradwells, it is getting released again for the first time in paperback.

About the book:

Nelly Grace is starting over. With her two young sons, Nelly has fled to the simple stone house built by her great-grandfather in the old-moneyed horse country of Maryland in order to escape the grief of her husband’s death—and perhaps find a way back to her first love: photography. Easing her transition into this strange, mannered world is Emma Crofton, the grand matriarch of the foxhunting community, and Emma’s son, Dac, a handsome yet distant horse trainer. As Nelly slowly makes her way back to the camera, she must come to terms with her troubled relationship with her father, a photojournalist who chose fame over family. But when she finally sees him again, Nelly’s fragile new beginning is threatened by revelations of a secret past, and the fears that kept it hidden.

For more information on Meg Waite Clayton and her other books, stop by and visit her website.
















Government regulations require that I disclose that I receive a small commission from any Amazon links that are used, which I use to purchase more books.

Enter Ticket to Anywhere's Blogoversary Contest of Pure AWESOME!

My friend Gail is celebrating her 4 year blogoversary and to celebrate, she's got prizes for us! And not just any prizes, but contests made of pure AWESOME!! Don't take my word for it, stop by Ticket to Anywhere, check out the contests, enter to win, congratulate Gail on four years of great book blogging and read her blog. It's fantastic.

Congrats, Gail, and here's to another 4 more years of blogging!!

Waiting on Wednesday - The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Ann Vandermeer and Jeff Vandermeer

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that are eagerly anticipated.

My "can't-wait-to-read" selection for this week is:


The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Ann Vandermeer and Jeff Vandermeer

Product Description:

All-new stories and art from the doctor's wondrous collection

After the death of Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead at his house in Wimpering-on-the-Brook, England, a remarkable discovery was unearthed: the remains of an astonishing cabinet of curiosities. Many of these artifacts, curios, and wonders related to anecdotes and stories in the doctor's personal journals. Others, when shown to the doctor's friends, elicited further tales from a life like no other.

Thus, in keeping with the bold spirit exemplified by Dr. Lambs­head and his exploits, we now proudly present highlights from the doctor's cabinet, reconstructed not only through visual representations but also through exciting stories of intrigue and adventure.

A carefully selected group of popular artists and acclaimed, bestselling authors has been assembled to bring this cabinet of curiosities to life.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities will be released on July 12, 2011 from Harper Voyager.


Federal regulations require that I disclose that I receive a small commission from any purchases made through the Amazon links on my website, which I use to purchase more books.

Sunday Salon 19 VI 11 - Another slow week, but this time I've got a giveaway!

Good morning, fellow Salon Members! Ah, another slow week at from my bookshelf. It seems to be par for course lately around here. But, this time I've got a giveaway for my faithful readers! This week, I read Penelope Przekop's Centerpieces. Please click on the link and read my review. I think Penelope is one of the most unique authors that I have read, and she has a way of telling a story about the human condition that not many authors can match. Her stories have been varied in their subjects, but one thing she has in common is her ability to capture her characters voices and the journeys they travel in her books. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading on of her books, have I got a treat for you!

Penelope has graciously supplied a copy of Centerpieces for me to give away on my blog, and as an extra added bonus, I have a used copy of her previous book, Aberrations, to include in the giveaway. All you need to do to enter is fill out THIS FORM. Sorry, this contest is only open to the US and will be kept open until Sunday, June 26, 2011.

It's a short entry this week, as I'm just finishing up Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and am anxious to get back to reading, so until next time, happy reading!

Centerpieces by Penelope Przekop

Title: Centerpieces
Author: Penelope Przekop
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 179
ISBN: 9780615464732
Publisher: Hallway Press
Author Website: www.penelopeprzekop.com
Twitter: @PenelopePrzekop
Format: Paperback
Rating: 4/5 stars

From Amazon:

Vincent van Gogh fakes his death, Ellis Spenser longs to paint. Holly Carter conceals a famous lineage. Theo van Gogh gains his health, but loses the woman he loves. Mimi Calais says she's a vampire. Tom Spencer hatches a plan.

Ellis and Tom Spencer oversee the drug safety organization in one of the world's largest and most respected companies, Pratt Pharmacueticals. Tom's deviant plan for their future begins to splinter when Ellis meets Holly Carter, a lonely Southern woman who has come to New York to pursue art while furthering her pharmaceutical career. Holly lives in a Greenwich Village apartment building owned by Mimi, a mysterious young woman whose claims of being a vampire remind Holly that life goes on. As Ellis pursues Holly, the past and present begin to overlap. Dark secrets emerge amidst Mimi's bizarre bookstore, strip clubs, galleries, brownstones, corporate culture, and Starbucks ad nauseam.

Two sets of extraordinary brothers, and two very different women, struggle to carve out unique identities in a world where middle age is the beginning of the end; corporate puppets and dreaming immigrants rub shoulders in the hallowed burning halls of Ellis Island; and forever takes on new meaning.

Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime. Based on extensive research, Centerpieces, explores the miraculous explosion of Van Gogh's work shortly after his suicide and the death of his brother, Theo, six months later.

Join Vincent in a journey of self-discovery, friendship, betrayal, fantasy, corporate intrigue, and love. Find out what he sacrificed for art.

Penelope Przekop's latest book, Centerpieces, is first and foremost a study about art, and the importance that art can have in a person's life. History tells us that Vincent van Gogh shot himself in 1890, but what if he faked his death? What if he was still alive today? What if his brother, Theo, was still alive, too? What has been keeping them alive and what has been their driving force all these years?

I'm not going to lie, I found Centerpieces completely intriguing and compelling, but I don't even know how to describe it. I'm not really sure I've ever read anything like it before. I felt there were just as many questions at the end of the book as there were at the beginning (what exactly are Theo and Vincent, what has kept them alive for so long, what part does the drug taperaquin play in their extended lives), but somehow these questions didn't really need answering at the end. If you just accept the fact that van Gogh is alive 100+ years after his death, that there may be more to his existence and what he has become that what is said, then you will have no problem making your way through this story.

Przekop has said that she wrote this book as an answer to questions she had raised in her own life while working for a pharmaceutical company and wanting to lead a more artistic life. I can see a lot of this conundrum in both Ellis and Holly, as they try to find their way in the regimented world of pharmaceuticals while their actual calling in life is art. Przekop masterfully weaves their lives together, with elements from both the past and present, to help them reach their ultimate potential, as both people and as artists.

Like her book, Aberrations, Przekop takes people with everyday problems and makes their story into something that needs to be told. With Aberrations, it was accepting yourself for who you are regardless of what others think about you. With Centerpieces, it's about finally accepting the parts of your life that may not fit in with the path that you thought you planned for yourself, and deciding that sometimes you need to strike out on that unfamiliar path, even if it means walking away from what you think your life is all about.

Obviously extensively researched, Przekop weaves van Gogh's art, his life, his family and actual historic events together to create a story that is both about humanity and art. What exactly are Vincent and Theo in this modern world? We may never know for sure, but their story is one of brotherly love and of art, and one that I enjoyed reading. I hope to see more of Przekop's stories published in the future. Hers is a unique voice in the literary world that needs to be heard.


Federal regulations require that I disclose that I receive a small commission from any purchases made through the Amazon links on my website, which I use to purchase more books.

Sunday Salon 12 VI 11 - Meeting authors and what happened to May?!

Good morning, fellow Salon Members! What a whirlwind my last couple of weeks have been! I've been far too busy buying books and meeting authors to find time to actually read any of the books that I've been buying, let alone the continually expanding TBR pile already on my shelves!

I have had the extraordinary luck of meeting a wide range of authors over the last couple of weeks, however. Who I've met in the last 10 days:

Courtney Allison Moulton - Author of Angelfire, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal trilogy.

Leah Clifford - Author of A Touch Mortal, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal trilogy.

Aimée Carter - Author of The Goddess Test, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal/mythology trilogy.

Lisa Desrochers - Author of Personal Demons, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal trilogy. (Seeing a running theme yet? These four authors were all part of a single YA tour.)

Colm Tóibín - Author of Brooklyn, amongst many others.

Meg Waite Clayton - Author of The Language of Light, The Wednesday Sisters and The Four Ms. Bradwells, which are all favorites of mine.

Kelly O'Connor McNees - Author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, her debut book, which just came out in paperback. (I attended the Printer's Row Lit Fest in Chicago last weekend, where I sat in on a discussion with Colm Toibin and ran into Meg and Kelly, who were also attending the discussion.)

Mary Doria Russell - Discussing her new book, Doc, at one of my local indie bookstores. I actually didn't pick Doc up, but got a copy of The Sparrow and Dreamers of the Day instead.

Veronica Roth - Author of Divergent, her debut book and part of a new YA dystopian trilogy.

Josephine Angelini - Author of Starcrossed, her debut book and part of a new YA paranormal trilogy.

Aprilynne Pike - Author of the Wings series.

Ellen Schreiber - Author of the Vampire Kisses series. (Again, these last four were all part of another YA tour.

Needless to say, my bookshelves are beginning to groan under all the new acquisitions. This also leaves me hard pressed to decide on what to read next, as I've picked up so many good books over the last couple of weeks. However, there is one that really stood out, and I've set everything aside to read it: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I'd heard about this book quite some time ago and it really caught my eye, but then the book trailer was released for it, and I knew that this was a book that I was going the need to own.



Well, I found it at the bookstore yesterday and started to read it last night, and within two chapters, I was hard-pressed to want to put it down to go to sleep last night. As soon as I finish up this post, I'm picking it up and I know I won't be putting it down until I finish it, so come back tomorrow for my review!



And what happened to May?! I read only one book the entire month. I'm not quite sure what happened there, but at least my one book was quite a treat. My cousin has written a novel! Per her request, I'm not going to mention names or book titles, but she did ask me to read it for her, and I loved it. And it isn't just because she's my cousin. She has written a truly engaging book, and I can't wait until she's published and I can actually gush about it more here. Congrats, cuz! I expect great literary things from you. =)

So, not much else to report. I'm going to finish Miss Peregrine today, and then I'm going to have to decide on what to read next, what with all the great books that I've picked up in the last 10 days!

Until next time, happy reading!

Book trailer - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

OMG! I practically need to own this book, just based on this amazing book trailer alone!





Federal regulations require that I disclose that I receive a small commission from any purchases made through the Amazon links on my website, which I use to purchase more books.

Julie Kagawa's The Iron Knight Cover Reveal

Make sure to zip on over to Julie Kagawa's blog to check out the cover for the fourth book in her Iron Fey series, The Iron Knight. I love the continuity in these covers. Nothing bugs me more than when a publisher changes cover styles midway through a series, but the Iron Fey covers are so darned pretty that I think HarlequinTEEN would be hard-pressed to want to change these.


Federal regulations require that I disclose that I receive a small commission on any purchases made through Amazon links on my blog, which I use to purchase more books.