A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

In Bitter is the New Black , Jen Lancaster gave us the brief details of her bio before she was famously fired from her high-powered job. In Pretty in Plaid , Lancaster illustrates some of those moments, from growing up in Cow Town, Indiana, to her life as a sorority girl during her eleven years of college, to her first job post-college. Like her previous books, Pretty in Plaid is written as a series of essays, all of which are connected by the theme of clothing. From her Girl Scout uniform—covered in (il)legally earned patches—to her first job interview suit, Jen illustrates how clothes shaped the way she views the world. I was extremely entertained by this book. It’s a fast read—I read it in less than two days—and it’s just as funny, if not funnier, than some of her other books. Jen Lancaster definitely has a unique voice that’s very witty, and her thoughts, as usual, are uncensored—good for the reader, since it meant that I was belly laughing all the way through. In fact, in places, ...

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: --Grab your current read --Let the book open to a random page. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. --You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! “A shiver ran down his spine and he turned in terror to see a grey figure coming silently towards him out of the misty rain. All at once, the rational man in him fled, and he was as superstitious as any peasant.” --From The Long Shadow , by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

The weather here is absolutely beautiful; 80-ish and sunny. Whenever it gets to about this point in the year, I realize just how pale my skin is—I’m surprised it doesn’t glow in the dark! I sat outside today reading the bulk of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (for anyone else who has an ARC of this books: is it just me, or is the back flap of the book annoying? No place to put it while you're reading). I love it when it gets awarm enough out when you can go outside and do that. And today’s my dad’s birthday, so we’re going out to dinner later on. Other than that, not much is going on. I’m nearly finished with Deliverance Dane, so I’m trying to figure out what I’ll read next. How was your Sunday?

Dora Damage is the wife of a lesser-known bookbinder in Ivy-street in London. Her husband suffers from rheumatism, and her daughter has epilepsy, also known as the Falling Sickness. When Peter Damage becomes to sick to continue with his work, Dora finds herself taking over the business, and she takes on a client who wants her to bind copies of salacious literature. Dora becomes acquainted with the client’s wife, who enlists Dora’s help in finding a job at the bindery for an American slave named Din. I was on the fence about this book. On one hand, I love the atmospheric setting; London in the 1850s and ‘60s is a great place to escape to when reading historical fiction. And although the characters are well-defined, that’s not necessarily a good thing; some of the characters descend into being stereotypes (the silly, empty-headed noblewoman, the cardboard cutout villain, or the fallen woman-turned maid-of-all-work). The dialogue of the African-Americans didn’t ring true, either. The plot...

Friday Finds for this week include: -- Dust and Shadows , by Lyndsey Fay. An ARC; it’s a mystery featuring Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes, plus the Ripper Killings. Not the most inventive idea, but we’ll see. -- The Devlin Diary , by Christi Phillips. Another ARC, of a book that’s coming out in May. Set in Restoration London. -- The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane . This title has been floating around the internet recently, and I received an ARC today in the mail. History/ mystery featuring the Salem witch trials. --The novels of Barbara Michaels. It’s the pseudonym of Barbara Mertz, also known as Elizabeth Peters. These particular books are Gothic in tone, and since I seem to enjoy the genre, I think I might enjoy her Barbara Michaels books ( Wait For What Will Come was recommended to me by Amazon). Plus, anything set in Cornwall with a scary, old house in it is something that catches my attention.

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: --Grab your current read --Let the book open to a random page. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. --You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given! “Over the following weeks, we bound scores of books with the insignia of Les Sauvages Noble , plus one or other of the inscriptions. I started to notice a pattern emerging :twelve English names cropped up amongst the letters, the treatises and the accounts more often than others, and I could soon connect them to their particular Latinate expressions.” --From The Journal of Dora Damage , by Brenda Starling

Dan Brown's next book, The Lost Symbol , won't be out until September, but already its sale rank at Amazon.com is #1285. There's not even a product description up yet! Amazing.