As a blogger:

I want to start here because 2011 brought the opportunity to interview Simon Vance over the phone. It was quite a moment for me, although it didn’t fully hit me until I published the interview. 2011 will go down as the year I lived the dream.

Simon Van Booy gave me a peck on the cheek. Need I say more?

I also upgraded the look and feel of my blog. I haven’t been happier.  It made commenting so much easier, officially changed my blog’s title to what everyone called it in the first place and (my favorite change) added an audiobook reference to my brand. Change is a good thing.

As a reader:

I read 85 books in 2011. 33 in audio,  7 on my Kindle and 45 in print. Of the grand total, 45 were review copies or ARCs.

Top Ten Reads of 2011 (in order read):

These are the books that had me giggling with glee over being a reader in 2011:

Paul Is Undead by Alan Golsher

This audiobook nearly had me peeing my pants. It is sick, twisted and hilarious.   Simon Vance is a comic genius. Love. I am somewhat ashamed to say that on the anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination I kept thinking about the Howard Cosell portion of this audiobook. I am somewhat redeemed in that I did not give into the urge to replay that section. Somewhat.

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

This book was a delight to read from start to finish. It was the first book of the year that cost me sleep, but who needs sleep? I’ll sleep when I die.

The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni

Words cannot express how much I loved this novel. Although I finished this book in April, I still think about it all the time. I didn’t know it at the time, but it signaled the return of music to my life. Mr. Bognanni, I never have taken a road trip to find you and thank you in person, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t adore this book to my core.

Trespass by Rose Tremain

OMG! This story was a Gothic amazement and Juliet Stevenson is nothing short of spectacular. Overall my favorite audiobook of the year.

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

As a novel about the sexual abuse issues in the Catholic Church, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Still, I knew I needed to read this. It was so much more than I expected. I must read more Jennifer Haigh in 2012.

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

This was hands down the most romantic read of the year. Both the story and the language captured my heart. And did I mention that peck on the cheek?

An Accident in August by Laurence Cossé

I lost an aunt to leukemia this year. I brought this book with me. It was a slim volume, adding virtually nothing to the weight of my purse. It was the only thing that kept me from falling apart on the plane and allowed me to go to sleep after the prayer service the night before the funeral. It captured my attention and imagination from the very first page. It was a gift.

Townie by Andre Dubus III

This memoir was incredible. I can’t say that I knew much about Dubus before picking up this audio, but I never imagined his childhood would have been what it was. This memoir is riveting and full of hope. It finally convinced me to read The House of Sand and Fog, which is such an incredible novel.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

I haven’t reviewed this book yet, but I half-way hosted a read-a-long. I apologize to all who participated and enjoyed the conversations for not finishing it. It wasn’t because I didn’t love this novel. I did. In fact, this is my top read of the year. My personal and professional life was busy, messy and frustrating the last half of the year. Anyway, I am not sure how long my hand was covering my mouth at the end of this book, but that’s where it was when I finally came up for breath after reading the last page.

There but for the by Ali Smith

Can you love and adore a book you’re quite sure you didn’t understand? After reading There but for the, I’d say the answer is yes. I appreciated this novel as much for the wordplay and lyrical language as I did the story itself. Anne Flosnick was magnificent as narrator. I haven’t reviewed this yet. I’m not altogether sure how to approach it. Let’s just say it was amazing.

Honorable Mention Reads for 2011 (in order read):

The following books were also excellent. I couldn’t not include them even though they didn’t make it in to my top ten reads of 2011.

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer
The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
Skinny by Diana Spechler
Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb by George Rabasa
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody by Bob Mould
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
The Scrapbok of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston

New Series Started in 2011:

I started two great series in 2011 as well. I don’t want to leave them out from my recap. The Good Thief’s Guide books by Chris Ewan and the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. They are both a great deal of fun and I look forward to following more of Charlie and Maisie’s adventures in 2012.

Looking Ahead

2012 promises to be an even better reading year. I can feel it in my bones. Well, that and also the fact that I’m going to BEA, Audies (fingers crossed) and the Book Blogger Convention this year! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! If I think on this too much, I might not be able to sleep until June. I simply can’t wait.

Happy New Year! Here’s to 2012. May it bring one and all blessings and darn good reading!

If you have finished The Marriage Plot, please be sure not to include any information in your answers that would spoil the remainder of the book for others. This moratorium isn’t forever. Next week Tuesday we can talk about it all.

I got overwhelmed with my own questions during Week 1, so I’m going to try to keep them short and sweet this time around. Once again, please feel to answer as few or as many as you’d like. If you have some of your own, let us know. I’m very interested in what you have to say about what took place.

Caution! If you have not yet reached the end of the section entitled Brilliant Move, which ends on page 293, the rest of this post and any comments will contain spoilers.

Pilgrims

I really enjoyed the title of this section. It very much captured the spirit of what was happening directly following graduation. Does the word “pilgrim” have the same meaning for Madeleine and Mitchell? How did Madeleine and Mitchell’s short meeting in New York City and the letter they exchanged impact their journey?

What are your thoughts on Larry and Claire’s relationship? How did they fit in the story? Would his experiences with Mother Theresa’s hospital have been the same had he not gone by himself?

Madeleine’s family again enters the picture. Were you surprised at the way in which Leonard’s condition was discovered? Would Alwyn and Phyllida have left Pilgrim Lake with the same impressions of Leonard had they been able to keep the trugth from them?

Brilliant Move

While there are many questions I could ask you about Leonard and his experiences with his mental illness, what I most want to know is how you reacted to the end of this section? (If you only answer one question, I want this question to be it!)

General Thoughts

At this point, we’re over half way through The Marriage Plot. What are you thoughts about what you’ve read? How does it live up to your expectations?

For those of you reading this book in audio, how has your experience been?

Have you finished it? If not, any thoughts on what the last sections of the book hold?

Thoughts:

House of Sand and Fog was incredible. It feels odd to say that because it was gut wrenching and dark. I will be thinking about this novel for a very long time to come. I’ll be posting a full review Friday, but I enjoyed the fact that this book was narrated by the author and his wife, Fontaine Dollas Dubus. While they are not the best narrators I’ve experienced, this story was ingrained inside them and I could sense that. Others could have better performed it, but I don’t think anyone else could have lived it they way that they did.

I am about a third of the way through The Violent Bear It Away. What stands out to me the most from this book is that I completely screwed up the title on Twitter not once, but twice. I started with The Violent Bare It All (porno version apparently) and then “corrected” it with The Violent Bear It All. I blame extreme exhaustion for the lapse, but it’s also true that I’m not very involved in the story. I last picked it up Friday night and haven’t had the desire to pick it up again. It isn’t that it’s bad, it’s not. I’m just not “there.” From what I’ve gathered from my tweeps, it’s best to start with O’Connor’s short stories. I have the audio version of Everything That Rises Must Converge. I’m contemplating reading A Good Man Is Hard To Find and going back to The Violent Bear It Away some other time.

Moving Forward:

I am chomping at the bit to get to some Stewart O’Nan. I got my eGalley copy of his latest novel, The Odds on my Kindle this very minute and it’s killing me to stay away from it. My original O’Nan plans were to read A Prayer for the Dying and Wish You Were Here, which leads up to Emily, Alone. With The Odds burning a hole in my Kindle, I think I’ll hold off on Wish You Were Here until next month, when my pre-oredered paperback copy of Emily, Alone is due to arrive. After the kids are in bed tonight, I’m going to be jumping into The Odds with both feet.

In audio, I’ve started Dr. No, the next James Bond book by Ian Fleming. It’s not part of 3, 2, 1, but it is part of my Shaken, Not Stirred Ian Fleming/Simon Vance challenge. Our November Twitter party is scheduled for 11/19, which will be here before we know it.

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching for us Americans, I’m curious to see how it will impact my reading. We’re planning a trip to Grand Rapids, so I may not get much read at all once we’re on the road to Michigan.

Now that you know what I’ve been up to on the bookish front so far this month, how has your month been? Have you read anything outstanding?

When setting up this readalong, I had every intention of reading just ahead of the group so that I would be able to come up with questions to start our discussion. The truth is that once I got started, I couldn’t stop reading. I wasn’t even sure why. By the time I figured it out, I had finished it. If you had the same or similar experience, no problem. I’m finding that reviewing the book brings the experience back. For those of you strong willed enough to follow the schedule, I hope you enjoyed A Madman in Love.

Note: The questions in this post assume that you’ve finished reading A Madman in Love. If you haven’t read the first section of this book, do not read any further if you want to avoid spoilers.

Answer as many or as few of the questions below as you’d like. If you have questions of your own, please ask them in the comments. My answers will appear in the comments as well.

Getting Acquainted

Since this is the first week, tell us a little about yourself. What made you decide to join the readalong? Is it your first Eugenides read or have you read some or all of his other work? What were your expectations when you started reading? In what format are you reading the book (print, eBook, audiobook)?

A Madman In Love

During the opening scenes of The Marriage Plot, the content of Madeleine’s bookshelves serve to describe her evolution as a person, a reader and an acedemic. Did that introduction work well for you? How telling do you feel a person’s bookshelf is? What would yours say about you?

This section of the book is set on the campus of Brown University during the early 1980s. How did this setting impact Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell? Why do you think they chose to attend that particular school? What did they hope to gain from the experience?

What is it about Mitchell that didn’t appeal to Madeleine? What is it about Madeleine that appealed to Mitchell? What was it about Leonard that captured Madeleine’s heart.

How does family impact Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell? How does each set of parents view college life? What are their expectations for and after graduation?

Madeleine’s education was pretty standard until she enrolled in Dr. Zipperstein’s Semiotics 211 class. What was it about that class that appealed to her? Does it help prepare her for what lies ahead after graduation?

While Madeleine and Leonard are taking Semiotics 211, Mitchell’s education has become focused on religion. Why does this course of study appeal to Mitchell? What did you think of Professor Richter’s opinion of Mitchell and his future?

If you knew of Leonard’s hospitalization before Madeleine, would you have kept the truth from her like her roommates did or, like Leonard’s friend, would you have called her? Who do you think had Madeleine’s best interests at heart?

Overall, what are your opinions about The Marriage Plot after reading this first section? What do you think about the characters? The novel’s structure? The author’s writing style? The overall tone?

Description from the Publisher

It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels.

As Madeleine tries to understand why “it became laughable to read writers like Cheever and Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about deflowering virgins in eighteenth-century France,” real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead—charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy—suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old “friend” Mitchell Grammaticus—who’s been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange—resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.

Over the next year, as the members of the triangle in) this amazing, spellbinding novel graduate from college and enter the real world, events force them to reevaluate everything they learned in school. Leonard and Madeleine move to a biology Laboratory on Cape Cod, but can’t escape the secret responsible for Leonard’s seemingly inexhaustible energy and plunging moods. And Mitchell, traveling around the world to get Madeleine out of his mind, finds himself face-to-face with ultimate questions about the meaning of life, the existence of God, and the true nature of love.

Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce? With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides revives the motivating energies of the Novel, while creating a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.

We’ll be reading the novel over three weeks. We would love for you to join us! Here is the schedule. I’ll post discussion questions here on each of the dates listed below.

Week 1 (November 1 – 7, discussion questions posted November 8 )

A Madman in Love 3-127

Week 2 (November 9 – 14, discussion questions posted November 15)

Pilgrims 131 – 227
Brilliant Move 231 – 293

Week 3 (November 16 – 21, discussion questions posted November 22)

Asleep in the Lord 297 – 328
And Sometimes They Were Very Sad 331 – 383
The Bachelorette’s Survival Kit 387 – 406

The  Marriage Plot is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. For those who feel they might be too busy to read the book in print, selecting the audiobook is an excellent choice. The Marriage Plot is narrated by David Pittu is the narrator. Macmillan Audio has graciously sent me this audioclip as a sample:

MarriagePlot_webclip

No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong! I hope you can join us!

Around the same time, I’d been tweeting about my love of Stewart O’Nan with @mattviews and @lakesidemusing. It’s been ages since I’ve read O’Nan and I started jonesing for a read pretty badly. He has plenty of work I haven’t read yet, so I could easily come up with enough books from his list to complete the month of November. From past experience though, I know that four books from the same author in a month’s time isn’t a good idea for me. Since I was reading two Dubus novels, I decided to read two O’Nan novels in November.

Still, four books does not make a month, though it’s getting close. I can easily read six books in a month, especially if there is a mixture of audiobook and print. So, who else should I select? O’Nan is an existing favorite. Dubus is an author for whom I’ve only just scratched the surface. For a third author, I decided to pick someone I’ve never read before. But who? As I purused my library looking for a previously unread author, I remembered another author sitting on my shelves that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time – Flannery O’Connor. Not only do I have an audiobook copy of Everything that Rises Must Converge, I also have a very nice collection of her body of work.

I’ve mentioned each of the three authors I’ll be reading. Here are the actual selections I made:

House of Sand and Fog ~ Andre Dubus III’s first novel. I have a copy of the audiobook, which was narrated by the author and his wife.

The Garden of Last Days ~ Dubus’ second novel. I picked this up after Stephen King wrote about it in Entertainment Weekly. It’s been sitting on my shelf ever since.

A Prayer for the Dying ~ I’ve requested this title from my local library. It’s O’Nan’s fifth novel about an undertaker forced to choose between his duties to a plague-stricken town and his family.

Wish You Were Here ~ This novel leads up to Emily Alone, which I’ve preordered in paperback. I’ve got a copy of this novel on my Kindle.

Everything That Rises Must Converge ~ I won the audiobook from Karen White during Audiobook month. It’s a collection of short stories, which will set it apart from the rest of my reading.

The Violent Bear It Away ~ This is O’Connor’s second and last novel. It is about a 14 year old boy wanting to escape his destiny to be a prophet.

Sometime within the last year, it seemed that everyone began talking about Maisie Dobbs, a private investigator created by Jacqueline Winspear. There are many books and series that have a great deal of hype swirling around, but when some of my favorite book bloggers and publicists joined the fray, I couldn’t stay away, especially when I found out about the audiobooks.

There is an issue with books in a series that is peculiar to audiobooks: changing narrators. There is no guarantee that the narrator you begin a series with will continue on throughout. Although I knew that the series had several narrators going in, this was something I didn’t think would have much of an impact on my reading. I’ve discovered that I should never underestimate the power of change.

The first in the series, Maisie Dobbs, was narrated by Rita Barrington. I fell in love with her work immediately. In addition to the time and place, both Maisie and Billie Beal came to life through her skilled performance. I immediately downloaded the second novel in the series, Birds of a Feather. It is narrated by Kim Hicks. I started the book within a short period of time after Maisie Dobbs and I found that Kim Hicks just wasn’t Rita Barrington. Ms. Hicks’ Maisie and Billie felt off kilter to me and I sadly set it aside.

Months later, after finding myself in between audiobooks with my next listen at home, I picked it back up. I wasn’t expecting much, but I didn’t like the idea of losing all of that reading time. Much to my joy, my Maisie Dobbs ear memory had faded. Kim Hicks was no longer “not Rita Barrington.” I was able to enjoy the listen on its own merits. True, the story picked up shortly after I started listening again, but I was no longer focused on what had changed. I couldn’t recall what that was any longer, so I was free to focus on the story. Don’t you love that feeling?

As with the first novel, I ended Birds of a Feather enchanted by Maisie Dobbs and her world. Kim Hicks is an excellent narrator. My experiences with her and Rita Barrington have taught me a valuable audiobook geek lesson. This time, no matter how curious I am to see what happens next for Maisie, I’m going to give it some time before I pick up Pardonable Lies. I want to fully enjoy Maisie and the latest narrator, Orlagh Cassidy. Patience is a virtue, after all.

Maybe I should pick up an audiobook about developing patience while I wait…

Erin has broken down the book into parts. Part 1, which covers chapters 1 through 7, has been discussed on her blog since August 1st. I finished up chapter 7 that day and have really enjoyed the comments others have left. There is a great variety of readers involved. We range from first timers to n timers.  Here are my thoughts after reading those first 7 chapters:

• While I remember very well how much Scarlett was infatuated with Ashley, I don’t remember her daydreaming about eloping with him after the barbecue. When her imagination and determination come together, there is nothing Scarlett can’t believe possible.
• As I am an older reader, I see very clearly for myself that Ashley is not the man for Scarlett. Her mother and father may be different people, but Scarlett doesn’t have the knack for self-sacrifice that her mother has. She clearly would have to sacrifice her very being were she to marry Ashley. His charm is in his mystique. It’s one thing from a distance and quite another day to day. Maybe I’m more cynical now about the power of love, but marriage really has nothing to do with catching beaus and flirtation.
• As a younger reader, I agreed with Scarlett’s decision to open up to her father instead of her mother. They were so much alike and I felt he understood her better than anyone else. This time around, I really felt that she needed to discover that she had more in common with her mother than she thought. Had she opened up to Ellen and listened to her advice, she might have been saved from much heartache. Ellen knew her better than she thought.
• I love the Tarleton twins and Rhett Butler just as much today as I always have. The opening chapter with the twins and the scene with Rhett in the library are just as lively and fun as they ever were. It’s true that the twins represent the folly of the South, but I can’t help but love them. They are headstrong, confident and full of life. Rhett is the ultimate bad boy. His basic instinct is for self-survival. He might try to show others the error of their ways, but he always has a backup plan. I really look forward to Rhett coming more and more into the picture.

I usually write about books I have read, so I thought it would be nice to highlight three books I’m looking forward to reading in the early fall.

Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

Date of Publication:  August 9, 2011 (less than a week!)

If you’re an avid reader, chances are you have at least a couple “go to” publishers or imprints for excellent and engaging reads. Harper Perennial is just such an imprint for me. Most novels they publish appeal to me on some level. Some appeal to me on all levels (Hello, Simon Van Booy!).

A while back I received an email informing me about author would be making an appearance at One More Page Books and More in Arlington, VA. As much as I wanted to attend the event, DC is too far to travel round trip in one day. I was very disappointed. Not only Domestic Violets published by Harper Perennial, it sounds fantastic. Here’s an overview from the publisher:

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.

The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.

Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.) Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.

Speaking of Harper Perennial, in August they have 20 of their backlist eBooks on sale for 99 cents! I already have Bad Marie, which is a steal at 99 cents. So far I’ve picked up Who By Fire by Diana Spechler (loved Skinny!),  The Gospel of Anarchy by Justin Taylor, Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber and Town House by Tish Cohen. Check out Harper Perennial’s Facebook page for the full list!

If Jack’s In Love by Stephen Wetta

Date of Publication:

For those of you who missed my wild adoration for Peter Bagnanni and The House of Tomorrow on Twitter or in my review, I absolutely adored this story about a teenager coming of age despite his rather odd and cloistered upbringing. After reading Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb soon afterwards, I have come to realize that there is something about a coming of age novel that works well for me, especially if the young man is quirky.

After mentioning my love for The House of Tomorrow on Twitter last month, my friends at Putnam turned me on to a fall book coming out from the same imprint as the House of Tomorrow, Amy Einhorn Books. I checked out the summary and I was sold. I have my ARC sitting right next to me on my nightstand and I can’t wait to dive in. Here’s an overview from the publisher:

It’s 1967. Jack Witcher is a twelve-year-old boy genius living in a Virginia suburb at an address the entire neighborhood avoids. Jack’s father has lost his job-again-and he’s starting fights with other fathers. Jack’s mother, sweet but painfully ugly, works as a cashier at a local market. Jack’s older brother is a long-haired, pot-smoking hippie.

If all of that isn’t bad enough, Jack’s brother suddenly becomes the main suspect in the disappearance of the town’s golden boy. And to make matters even worse, Jack is in love with the missing boy’s sister, Myra. Mr. Gladstein, the town jeweler and solitary Jew, is Jack’s only friend; together, they scheme to win Jack Myra’s love. But to do that, Jack must overcome the prejudices, both the town’s and his own, about himself and his family.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Date of Publication: October 4, 2011

Hillary Jordan’s novel Mudbound was one of the first audiobooks I read after becoming a more serious listener. It was an engaging story. So much so that I wanted to shoot one of the characters dead. He made me that mad. When I finished the book, I wanted to read more from her. Since it was her first novel, I had to wait. I’ve been on the lookout for another book ever since.

When the fall catalog from Algonquin Books arrived in the mail, my prayers were answered. Not only has Jordan published her second novel, but the premise of the book gave me the shivers. I knew that every second I waited for another novel was well worth it. I stopped looking through the catalog and requested a copy of the book immediately. It is also sitting on my nightstand waiting to be devoured. Her is an overview from the publisher:

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family, but after her arrest, she awakens to a nightmare: she is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a new and sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder. The victim, according to the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she’s shared a fierce and forbidden love.

When She Woke is a fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future—where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith.

Those are three books I’m salivating over between now and early October. I hope your TBR pile has grown by three if those books weren’t already there. And, since turnabout is fair play, what’s on your list? I’d love for my pile of must reads get bigger. What do I care if there is an avalanche? My husband is a good man. He’ll dig me out.

Here’s a sampling of what I’m dying to read against the backdrop of the afghan I’m hoping to finish this week so I can snuggle up in it while enjoying them:

The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni / published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Penguin (in paperback 3/1; currently available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook): This book sounds seriously incredible. It’s about Sebastian Prendergast, a teenager living in a geodesic dome in Iowa with his grandmother. His grandmother’s faith in a futuristic philosopher is what keeps him there until she suffers a stroke.  Sebastian then must confront a word unknown to him. A world of other teenagers and punk rock. I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to this.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones / published by Algonquin Books (available 5/31): Of all the delightful books I saw in Algonquin Books’ latest catalog, this is the book that really stood out for me. It tells the story of Dana Yarboro and Bunny Witherspoon, two girls in Atlanta four months apart. They are connected by the same father, James Witherspoon, a bigamist. Only one of the girls is aware of James’ double life. His attempts to keep the girls apart can only lead to fireworks.

When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt / published by Harper (available in paperback and eBook): This is a book I snagged through LibraryThings’ Early Reviewer program. I requested it because this immigrant coming of age novel includes the Great Chicago Fire. I’ve never read about the Great Chicago Fire, but since I was born on the 100th anniversary of the day it started, I’m very interested. I’m looking forward to reading Irma Vitale’s story, which takes her from Italy, to Cleveland, to Chicago and to San Francisco.

West of Here by Jonathan Evison / published by Algonquin Books (available in hardcover, eBook  and audiobook): This book came to me as a surprise from Algonquin Books (Lord, how I love surprises from Algonquin Books!). From the moment I first opened the box, I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about this story about life in the fictional coastal Pacific town of Port Bonita, Washington. I loved the picture of Evison signing books in an edition of Shelf Awareness last week and Rebecca opens her review thusly: “Ambitious. Sprawling. Expansive. Remarkable. Inspired.” Yeah, reading this one is a no-brainer.

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier / published by Pantheon Books, an imprint of Random House (available in hardcover and eBook): This novel is loaded on my Kindle (which is why it’s not pictured), just waiting for me to read it. The February edition of BookPage has a wonderful interview with Brockmeier which, in addition to gushing on Twitter from @bookladysblog and @jennIRL sold me on this novel. I’m not sure how to paraphrase it other than to say the illumination happens to six people. Read the interview and you’ll understand why I’m chomping at the bit to read this one.

Have you made any plans for reading in March? What are you excited to read?