Tuesday Tomorrow
Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross
Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When Maude Pichon runs away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive.
Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect adornment of plainness.
But Isabelle has no idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to lose.
Inspired by a short story written by Emile Zola, Belle Epoque is set at the height of bohemian Paris, when the city was at the peak of decadence, men and women were at their most beautiful, and morality was at its most depraved."
Sounds interesting, in particular because it's based on an Emile Zola short story.
Born of Illusion by Teri Brown
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Anna Van Housen has a secret.
A gifted illusionist, Anna assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians and mentalists in 1920s New York. For Anna, the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini—or so Marguerite claims—handcuffs and sleight-of-hand illusions have never been much of a challenge. The real trick is keeping her own gifts secret from her mother: because while Marguerite's powers may be a sham, Anna possesses a true ability to sense people's feelings and foretell the future.
But as Anna's powers intensify, she experiences frightening visions of her mother in peril, which lead her to explore the abilities she's tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man named Cole moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a society that studies people with gifts like hers, she begins to wonder if there's more to life than keeping secrets.
As her visions become darker and her powers spin out of her control, Anna is forced to rethink all she's ever known. Is her mother truly in danger, or are Anna's visions merely illusions? And could the great Houdini really be her father, or is it just another of Marguerite's tricks?
From Teri Brown comes a world bursting with magic, with romance, with the temptations of Jazz Age New York—and the story of a girl about to become the mistress of her own destiny."
Interested, because there's only so many times I can read The Night Circus... but it freaks me out that the cover model looks like a cross between Nicole Kidman and Emily Deschanel...
Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by: Pantheon
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A wonderful new stand-alone novel from the internationally beloved and best-selling Alexander McCall Smith: a story that explores the nature of love—and trains—through a series of intertwined romantic tales.
The rocking of the train car, the sound of its wheels on the rails . . . there's something special about this form of travel that makes for easy conversation. Which is just what happens to the four strangers who meet in Trains and Lovers. As they travel by rail from Edinburgh to London, they entertain one another with tales of how trains have changed their lives. A young, keen-eyed Scotsman recounts how he turned a friendship with a young female coworker into a romance by spotting an anachronistic train in an eighteenth century painting. An Australian woman shares how her parents fell in love and spent their life together running a railroad siding in the remote Australian Outback. A middle-aged American arts patron sees two young men saying good-bye in the station and recalls his youthful crush on another man. And a young Englishman describes how exiting his train at the wrong station allowed him to meet an intriguing woman whom he impulsively invited to dinner—and into his life. Here is Alexander McCall Smith at his most enchanting."
I don't just marvel at Alexander McCall Smith's prodigious output, but his quality control as well. Not only does he write like a bazillion books a year, but they are all so well written and awesome. How does he do it?
Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban
Published by: NYRB Classics
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Life in a city can be atomizing, isolating. And it certainly is for William G. and Neaera H., the strangers at the center of Russell Hoban’s surprisingly heartwarming novel Turtle Diary. William, a clerk at a used-book store, lives in a rooming house after a divorce that has left him without home or family. Neaera is a successful writer of children’s books, who, in her own estimation, “looks like the sort of spinster who doesn’t keep cats and is not a vegetarian. Looks…like a man’s woman who hasn’t got a man.” Entirely unknown to each other, they are both drawn to the turtle tank at the London zoo with “minds full of turtle thoughts,” wondering how the turtles might be freed. And then comes the day when Neaera walks into William’s bookstore, and together they form an unlikely partnership to make what seemed a crazy dream become a reality."
Russell Hoban! If you don't know who he is, you lead a sad life because it doesn't have Frances in it or Emmet Otter!
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