Bookreporter.com Bets On...

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

October 2013

I had heard a lot about Graeme Simsion’s THE ROSIE PROJECT, and reading it I see why. It’s the kind of book that makes you smile --- and laugh --- as you read it, and it’s also wickedly clever.

In it, Don Tillman is a socially awkward professor of genetics who sees all of life through a scientific lens. He has not had success in dating, so he decides to attack this the way he does everything else in life: with a plan. He crafts a 16-page questionnaire in a quest to find the perfect mate. While I know this is ill-conceived, somehow the fact that Don is approaching the issue this way is both charming and humorous. The first women to answer it fail, but Don plunges on. And then he meets Rosie, who does not pass the questionnaire, but instead brings Don a project he can help her with. She wants to find her biological father, and who but a geneticist can help with that? So the "Wife Project" that Don calls his questionnaire becomes the "Father Project" to help Rosie. And well, you can figure out where things go from there. Complete comedy!

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Longbourn by Jo Baker

October 2013

Back in May at BookExpo America, I heard Jo Baker present LONGBOURN at a breakfast. She captivated me as she talked about the staff who worked at Longbourn, the house made famous in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Her characters are not the people who wore the elegant clothes and enjoyed the fabulous meals, but rather the ones who spent their days making the soap to use to clean the clothes and then wash them by hand.

As the cover line says, this is an “irresistibly imagined downstairs answer to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.” The protagonist, Sarah, is an orphan who slaves away for the family, but dreams of being somewhere else. She falls for a footman who begins work at the house, a man who clearly has a troubled past. And her story weaves into that of the Bennet household, making the novel irresistible.

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Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson

October 2013

Elliot Rosenzweig is a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist in Chicago. One evening at the opera, he is accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser, Ben Solomon, stands behind them. Solomon recognizes Rosenzweig as the child who was abandoned by his family and raised by Solomon's own family, only to betray them during the Nazi occupation. But has Solomon accused the right man? He finds an eager young attorney, Catherine Lockhart, and encourages her to help him bring Rosenzweig to justice.

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The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

September 2013

We reviewed THE HUSBAND’S SECRET by Liane Moriarty in August, which prompted me to want to read it. Yes, even I am influenced by our reviews! The story was not the one I guessed from the title, and it had one surprise after the other, right through to the epilogue, which is soooo deliciously satisfying. It’s set in Australia, which somehow contributes to make it even more delightful as the dialogue has a great pitch.

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Moonrise by Cassandra King Conroy

September 2013

I have been a fan of Cassandra King’s for a while now, so seeing she had a new book made me smile. MOONRISE is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where my sister has a vacation home, so I know the area well. The title of the book is drawn from the name of the house that was originally occupied by Emmet and his first wife, Rosalyn. I love big old houses like this that in themselves are stories. Rosalyn cultivated a beautiful moon garden, created of flowers that bloom in the evenings and look wonderful in moonlight, like moonflowers, night jasmine and white butterfly bushes. The garden has gone to ruin after she died under mysterious circumstances the prior fall. Emmet hastily re-wed a younger woman named Helen, and this will be their first summer up at Moonrise. Old friends are not welcoming to Helen, and the mystery surrounding Rosalyn’s death swirls around them.

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My Mother's Secret: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story by J.L. Witterick

September 2013

When I finished reading MY MOTHER’S SECRET by J.L. Witterick, I was totally in awe of it. It’s based on the true story of a woman and her daughter who hid two Jewish families and a German soldier on their farm during World War II. Told from four different perspectives, it’s so tightly and succinctly written that I found myself reading every word. It had been tightened down so much that it seemed that every word mattered. I can see this book being read by teens, as well as adults. It’s a story of courage, as well as the depths of ingenuity that one woman mastered to save those around her. It’s a story of heroism, bravery, and the kind of inner core that we all hope we would have in a time of crisis. You’ll read it fast, but I dare say the story will stay with you for a long time.

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The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon

September 2013

In THE BOOK OF SOMEDAY, Livvi Gray has been haunted by a nightmare of an eerily beautiful stranger in a shimmering silver dress that she remembers from her childhood in California. Her story and that of two other women, AnnaLee and Micah, are told in revolving strands starting slowly, but each was intriguing enough to keep me reading. You know they will come together, but you’re not sure how. Dianne Dixon keeps the tension going and keeps readers questioning. And when it all comes together, there is a lot of satisfaction in a story well told. I did NOT guess the ending, but even our readers who did thought it was well done. A friend also read an advance copy, and we had a lot of conversation about the ending. Read it and you will see why. And the idea of keeping a book of “somedays” is an interesting one. This is a terrific book club title.

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After Her by Joyce Maynard

August 2013

I have been a fan of Joyce Maynard’s for years. While she is a household name --- and I try to reserve Bets On selections for less-known writers --- I am selecting AFTER HER as a Bets On selection as my homage to Maynard. This novel is loosely inspired by the Trailside Killer case that terrorized the people of Marin County, California, in the late 1970s. In the summer of 1979, Rachel and her younger sister, Patty, are having an idyllic summer as they play on the mountains behind their home --- the same mountains where their detective father is hunting for a killer. What begins as one act of violence quickly escalates to the markings of a serial killer. Pressure escalates on their dad as no one can get any solid leads on the culprit.

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The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

August 2013

Determined not to be “behind” this time, I read THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND by Jojo Moyes last weekend; it just came out this week. And yes, this is the first time I have selected two Bets On titles by the same author in the same month (the other was ME BEFORE YOU, which is now available in paperback). The title references a painting done by an artist named Edouard Lefevre of his wife, Sophie, in France in 1916. He is off to the front in World War I, and shortly afterwards their town is captured by the Germans. Sophie and her sister are forced to prepare meals for German soldiers each evening at their inn, while during the day the townspeople frequent the place. Sophie takes a huge risk to see her husband again --- one that will endanger her life and put her at odds with the entire town.

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The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

August 2013

I attend a lot of previews where publishers present their upcoming titles. Typically, one will catch my eye, and I will paw through my advance reading copies to find it later. This happened with THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX by Leon Leyson. A few weeks ago, I heard on the news that a copy of Schindler’s List was being auctioned on eBay with an opening bid of $3 million. It made me think about the people whose names were on that list. THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX is a memoir by one of the youngest people to be saved by Schindler. I literally sat and read it in one sitting. It’s being published for children, but it’s the kind of book that can be read at any age.

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