| 50 Book Pledge | Book #32: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry |
On Monday, June 11, 2012, @HarperCollinsCa launched a new campaign aimed at the reading public called Summer Passport. It’s being described as ”your destination for the greatest globe-trotting book vacation.” Each week all summer long, HarperCollins Canada will “visit a different part of the world through summer reads, delicious recipes, fun contests and book giveaways [and] exclusive content from authors.”
The first stop on this reading adventure is a country I’ve always wanted visit: Italy. HarperCollins has concocted the following trio of books for your reading pleasure:
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.
When Julie Jacobs inherits a key to a safety deposit box in Siena, Italy, she is told it will lead her to an old family treasure. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in Shakespeare’s unforgettable blood feud, she begins to realize that the notorious curse — “A plague on both your houses!” — is still at work, and that she is the next target.
Lush, gorgeous and completely engaging, Made in Italy takes up where Dolce Vitaleft off, giving us a full-on appreciation of all things Italian. Food and style go hand in hand in David Rocco’s world, be it in his television series or his cookbooks, andMade in Italy is no exception. Gorgeous location photography puts the reader right into the scene, offering atmosphere to die for.
| 50 Book Pledge | Book #27: A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash |
On Friday, May 4, 2012, @HarperCollinsCa posted this tweet to its followers: “We’re heading into a planning meeting. Help us out, what makes you take a chance on a new author/book?” Obviously, the first things that come to mind are the cover and the title; however, neither one factors heavily for me. Instead, I rely on the tag line, synopsis and buzz in my decision-making process.
The tag line is an art form that’s incredibly difficult to master. Why? Because you have to sum up an entire novel in a phrase of no more then ten words. A single line that must illustrate the mood and tone flawlessly. A line that has to make you want to read. One of the best tag lines I’ve come across this year comes from This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel: The purest intentions can stir up the darkest obsessions. Dark and intense, just like the story of Victor Frankenstein and his Monster. Now that is a home run.
My next book is A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. I chose this book because of the following line that appears as part of the book’s synopsis: “A Land More Kind Than Home is a modern masterwork of Southern fiction—one that is likely to be held in the same enduring esteem as such American classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and A Separate Peace.” To say that I adore Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is an understatement. In fact, Atticus Finch is the best literary character ever written. I’m inclined to read A Land More Kind Than Home just to see if it’s worthy of such a generous accolade.
Any author and publisher will tell you that reader buzz is invaluable when it comes to selling a book. Nothing trumps word-of-mouth. Earlier this year, readers were talking about The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll. For weeks I heard praise after praise for this book that I knew nothing about. I finally decided to see what all the hype was about. I’m glad I did. Like I sa
