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September reading group choices are up! Pick your next book for your group. 

Teaser Tuesday and Man Booker Prize Longlist, Part Four

Today's selection

Betrayal by Helen Dunmore

Leningrad in 1952, a city recovering from war. Andrei, a hospital doctor, and Anna, a nursery teacher, are forging a life together. They try to avoid coming to the attention of the authorities, but their private happiness is precarious. Stalin is still in power, and when Andrei has to treat the seriously-ill child of a senior secret police officer, he and Anna are caught  in a web of betrayal.

A gripping and deeply moving portrait of life in post-war Soviet Russia, The Betrayal brilliantly shows the epic struggle of ordinary people to survive in a time of violence and terror.

Praise

"Historians have written capably about the horror of Stalin's 1952 "Doctors' Plot", as they have written about the Siege of Leningrad which preceded it.

Author On the Bookcase
Tanya Egan Gibson

I met a great writer at the Virginia Festival of the Book last March-- Tanya Egan Gibson, author of How To Buy a Love of Reading. We stay up all night, with Kim Addonizio (awesome poet) solving the world's problems. What happens in Charlottesville stays in Charlottesville!

So, I'm so thrilled to welcome Tanya to On the Bookcase.

Love this video about Books and Books Clubs.

Thanks for the interesting comments on The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas! It was the third in the Man Booker Prize Longlist series.

I bought a book for my grandkids last week. Having read it at ALA 2010 in June, I knew it was a lovely and funny book starring a mouse, a jackass, and a monkey. Everyone who is a booklover will enjoy it. Here are beginning lines I with use for my TT. 

"What do you have there?

It's a book.

How do you scroll down?

I don't. I turn the page. It's a book.

Do you blog with it?

No, it's a book." 
-- It's a Book by Lane Smith

The discussion goes on from there. And, the illustrations are so cute.

Here is the great trailer for It's a Book. Love it!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B from Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences.

Author On the Bookcase
Julia Stuart

Both my parents are from England, all my relatives live there, and I visited the Tower twice. So, I really enjoyed The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise and am so excited to welcome Julia Stuart, author of The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise! Julia's novel is about the Tower of London and its inhabitants --human and animal. All the Beefeaters actually live in the Tower and this story is about one Beefeater named Balthazar Jones, his wife, Hebe, and their the 180-year old tortoise.

Author On the Bookcase
Kate Ledger

I'm thrilled to have Kate Ledger, author of Remedies, writing for On the Bookcase. In Remedies, Simon and Emily seem to have it all -- good jobs, nice house, a healthy thirteen year old daughter. But things are not always as they seem. There are some old scars and wounds that haven't been treated and addressed. Will the "elephant in the room" been the end of this seemingly perfect family. Kate's debut novel reveals marriage, parenthood, loss, grief, and hope.

Book club tips, recipes, and picks! I was interviewed two months ago by Katie Alberts of Woman's World magazine about all things book club!

Woman's World put together a nice feature on starting a book club, selecting books, reading group icebreakers, recipes, and more. 

The issue is out. Look at see!

Teaser Tuesday and Man Booker Longlist, Part Three

Today's selection:
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas plus giveaway of The Slap for review. Just comment and I'll let you know if you won.

First selection was Room by Emma Donoghue and second selection was Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

First lines of The Slap

HECTOR

"His eyes still shut, a dream dissolving and already impossible to recall, Hector's hand sluggishly reached across the bed. Good. Aish was up. He let out a victorious fart, burying his face deep into the pillow the escape the clammy methane stink.