Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that asks bloggers to create Top Ten lists on a variety of bookish topics. During the spring, I mostly focus on reading lighter books that might make good selections for my annual Summer Reading List (click here for last year’s list). I’m hoping to get some more possibilities from everyone else’s Spring TBR lists!
Top Ten Books on My Spring TBR List
New Releases
Dear Carolina by Kristy Woodson Harvey (May 5, 2015)
A debut Southern chick lit novel about a baby girl, her adoptive mother, and her biological mother.
Girl in the Moonlight by Charles Dubow (May 12, 2015)
Dubow’s 2013 novel, Indiscretion, was strangely addictive (and a great summer read!), so I’m excited about his new novel about a man’s unhealthy obsession with his friend’s sister.
I Take You by Eliza Kennedy (May 5, 2015)
A debut about a bride who appears to have it all, but “has no business getting married”. (Amazon)
The Bone Tree by Greg Iles (April 21, 2015)
This sequel to last year’s Natchez Burning (which made my Best Books of 2014 List) continues the story of former Mississippi prosecutor Penn Cage, his father, and the KKK offshoot Double Eagles.
I loved Packer’s The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, so I’m excited about this saga type novel about a California family.
My favorite terrorism thriller writer known for pulling story ideas from the headlines strikes again…this time bringing ex Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey back to tackle the threat of a re-emerging Russia.
This debut novel set on “a group of small islands in the Chesapeake Bay, just off the coast of Virginia” grabbed my attention immediately because I got married in Cape Charles, Virginia (a tiny town on the Eastern Shore by the Chesapeake Bay…much like where this book is set)!
McCreight’s Reconstructing Amelia was a fun high school suspense story and she’s now kicking off her next novel with a baby abandoned in the woods near a prestigious New Jersey college.
Extras
According to Book Riot’s Rebecca Schinsky, Find Me is “the logical next book if you loved Station Eleven“, which I did!
Tuesday Intro
Every Tuesday, fellow blogger Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where bloggers share the first paragraph of the book they are currently reading or thinking about reading soon.
I just started this one, which has been getting a ton of buzz lately. I don’t really know what to make of it yet, but it hasn’t immediately grabbed me.
Plot Summary from Amazon
Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband, Bruno—a banker—and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters with an ease that surprises even her.
But Anna can’t easily extract herself from these affairs. When she wants to end them, she finds it’s difficult. Tensions escalate, and her lies start to spin out of control. Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there is no going back.
Here’s the first paragraph (this quote is from an uncorrected proof):
September
Anna was a good wife, mostly.
It was mid-afternoon, and the train she rode first wrenched then eased around a bend in the track before it pulled into Bahnhof Dietlikon at thirty-four past the hour, as ever. It’s not just a an adage, it’s an absolute fact: Swiss trains run on time. The S8 originated in Pfaffikon, a small town thirty kilometers away. From Pfaffikon, its route sliced upward along the shores of the Zurichsee, through Horgen on the lake’s west bank, through Thalwil, through Kilchberg. Tiny towns in which tiny lives were led. From Pfaffikon, the train made sixteen stops before it reached Dietlikon, the tiny town in which Anna’s own tiny life was led. Thus the ordinary fact of a train schedule modulated Anna’s daily plans. Dietlikon’s bus didn’t run into the city. Taxicabs were expensive and impractical. And while the Benz family owned a car, Anna didn’t drive. She did not have a license.
What do you think? Would you keep reading?
First I’ll just say – THE BONE TREE – yes!! And the Kimberly McCreight novel as well. I liked RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA last year and absolutely loved NATCHEZ BURNING. A good spring bunch!
The Shore is definitely on my list, too. I think it will end up being a library read, but I’m excited for it. I loved Hausfrau from the beginning, but it’s all the writing for me.
The writing has become more and more important to me lately and sometimes can fully carry a book for me, but it’s not completely there on this one. I’m going to finish it since everyone seems to love it, so maybe things will change 🙂 And – my husband’s father grew up in the town where we got married and we still go visit at least once per summer, so the setting of The Shore is SO enticing to me!
I hope you have fun with these light reads, Sarah. I’m only vaguely aware of The Bone Tree, but I’m looking forward to your reviews to see if I should add some of them to my book pile.
I didn’t like the start of Hausfrau and I don’t have much faith in the premise, but I hope you like it; I would certainly keep reading. I’ll make sure to check this review as well to hear what you think.
Most of the books on your TBR list are new to me. I’ll count on you to steer me in the right direction!
As for Hausfrau, it didn’t grab me right away either. I put it aside and plan to come back to it later this spring.
I’ve been seeing this book all over the blogosphere and it has me curious.
Hausfrau sounds interesting, but I think I would need to read more before deciding for sure if it is for me.
I enjoyed reading your top ten list. I’ve enjoyed Greg Iles writing before and have always been curious about Nelson DeMille.
I loved Where They Found Her and I’m eager to get my hands on The Children’s Crusade.
Hausfrau is another on my list, and while I can’t decide much from the opening lines, I suspect this one will reel me in. Thanks for sharing.
Here’s mine: “GOLDBERG VARIATIONS”
So many good titles to choose from! Thanks for sharing these ideas. I want to read more about several of these and see if I will read them– Find Me, The Shore, The Bone Tree, Girl in the Moonlight, and Where They Found Her.
By the way, forgot to mention awhile back that I love the new look of your blog, it’s really attractive and streamlined.
I haven’t quite caught on to how folks find out about books coming out. I mean, I review for tours and such, so I know about some of them, but rarely so many at one time!
I’d probably go for Hausfrau, just because it’s set in Switzerland, where my mother was born. I can’t imagine being bored there, but then, I’m not walking in Anna’s shoes. And not that this has anything to do with anything, but Anna is my middle name. :O)
These look like great picks! I had never thought of choosing Spring titles that are lighter, as the weather gets gorgeous again, to lead into summer – like seasonal reading. I will definitely have to check out Natchez Burning.
It’s SO good – and don’t be scared of the length…it flies by.
Sarah, it looks like you’ve got some great reading ahead; there are some really interesting ones in this bunch and I can’t wait to hear all about them! You know I can’t say anything about Hausfrau; I hope you’re enjoying it because you know I loved it! Hope you have a great day!
I might have to disappoint you on Hausfrau 🙁
Where They Found Her is on my radar. I’m not a huge mystery buff but that cover and the premise have me intrigued. Lost & Found is a gem, I hope you love it 😀
I’ve been steering clear of mysteries this year (after a bit of an overload last year), but am hopeful about this one because I did love McCreight’s last book!
I’m not entirely convinced by Hausfrau but I do hope you enjoy it. I need to read Where They Found Her so roll on April. Here is my Tuesday post https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/tuesday-first-chapter-first-paragraph-march-17/
The Children’s Crusade, The Shore, and Find Me sound fantastic!
You have a fun list! I have several on my spring list too — I’m especially excited about The Children’s Crusade. I just finished Where They Found Her — solid page-turner. I’m very intrigued by Hausfrau. I have to tell you I gave an ARC of I Take You to my 26-year-old (recently married) daughter — I thought it would be right up her alley, but she was not impressed. I’ll be interested to hear what others think.
Glad to hear Where They Found Her was a solid page turner – just what I was hoping for out of that one! Oh well on I Take You – I’ll give it a shot, but with low expectations.
Also – I tried to comment on your post today, but for some reason the comments section wasn’t showing up for me? I tried through Bloglovin and from the Broke and Bookish page…
The blurb makes this book sound interesting, but the intro doesn’t grab me. I’d probably keep reading a bit more out of curiosity.
Here’s mine
http://monicasbookishlife.blogspot.com/2015/03/first-chapter-first-paragraph-tuesday_17.html
Well, my TBR list just grew. Dear Caroline and The Bone Tree look really good and have duly noted. That’s a great top ten. 🙂
I’m looking forward to Where they Found Her!
The introductory paragraph doesn’t grab me, nor does the book description. I think I’ll pass in spite of the buzz. I am excited about one of your Top Ten: Greg Iles sequel. I really enjoyed Natchez Burning and would like to keep the story going.
The Shore sounds SO GOOD. And I have Find Me on my list, too!
I’m super excited to start Hausfrau (one day, probably 3 weeks from now, who knows), and I’m even more excited after reading that!
thst intro does not geab me, but still want to try the book.
I read WHERE THEY FOUND HER not long ago and it was a good, suspenseful novel that kept me guessing. I haven’t heard of most of the other ones on your list, but now I want to read them ALL. *Sigh* So many books, so little time.
Happy TTT (and St. Paddy’s Day)!
I hadn’t heard of a lot of these before seeing your list, but so many sound fantastic, I feel my own list expanding!
I LOVE John Corey! No other spy thriller protagonist holds my interest as much as he does- DeMille writes him so well. I’ve got this book on hold at the library and hoping it comes in soon because I need a break from heavy fiction!