Save Karyn

I have to grudgingly admire Karyn Bosnak. She's the one who ran up $20,000 in credit card debt (Starbucks lattes, designer clothes, Gucci purses, etc.) and then made a website asking people to send her money to pay the bill. And they did. Seriously. This week she makes her fiction debut with 20 Times a Lady. You can check out her website at:

http://www.savekaryn.com/index.html

The Orchid Shroud

Last year I enjoyed Michelle Wan's Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in the Dordogne about a woman's search to find her sister, who went missing in France while on the hunt for rare orchids. The sequel is out next month:

The Orchid Shroud: A Novel of Death in the Dordogne by Michelle Wan
Stumbling upon the body of a murdered infant, dead for more than a century, while restoring the home of wealthy Christophe de Bonnefon, designer Mara Dunn teams up once again with orchidologist Julian Wood to investigate the case, which may be linked to the modern-day killing of genealogist Jean-Paul Fournier, in the sequel to Deadly Slipper.

Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
I recently finished this one and highly recommend it! The story alternates between a cranky but witty 90 something year old man's days in a nursing home and his younger life spent as a vet in a traveling circus. It's a harrowing life made even more so when he falls in love with Marlena, the star of the show and wife of a violent schizophrenic. And yes there is an elephant involved. (Just to forewarn (or entice) there are a few sex scenes that some readers might not appreciate.)

The Ruins

Stephen King called this the book of the year in EW, and it's featured in the summer reading section of the July issue of O, Oprah's magazine. Both say it does for the jungle what Jaws did for the beach.

The Ruins by Scott Smith
In Cancun, Mexico, for a peaceful vacation, a group of tourists sets off in search of one of their group who disappeared during an excursion to some nearby Mayan ruins, only to come face to face with an insidious evil that threatens their very lives. By the author of A Simple Plan. 100,000 first printing.

More Da Vinci Code Readalikes

Brethren: An Epic Adventure of the Knights Templar by Robyn Young
After joining the Order of the Knights Templar, young Will Campbell is assigned to recover a heretical text stolen from the group's vaults, unaware that the book, a Grail romance, hides clues to a covert plot by the Anima Templi, the Soul of the Temple, a secret group within the order. A first novel. 100,000 first printing. Due out July 20.


The Expected One by Kathleen McGowen
When journalist Maureen Paschal begins to research her new book, she discovers that she is destined to play a key role in an epic international quest to gain control of a priceless series of scrolls, written in the first century by Mary Magdalene and hidden in the wilds of the French Pyrenees, that can only be uncovered by a special seeker known as the Expected One. A first novel. 350,000 first printing. Due out July 25.

The Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey
A tale inspired by the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels in 1940s Egypt finds Gemma Bastian, the daughter of a renowned late archaeologist, raising troubling questions about her father's death, which occurred during his attempt to recover and make public the lost Gnostic Gospels. 75,000 first printing. Due out August 3.

Eye Contact

Due out in a couple of weeks, this one's been optioned by Julia Roberts:

Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern
In the aftermath of a child's shocking murder, the mother of the only witness, an autistic boy, struggles to work through her son's trauma and his communication disabilities in order to help the police to solve the case.

Spoken Word

These two authors are going to be talking about their books on the radio program "Spoken Word" (http://www.spokenwordradio.org/upcoming_programs.shtml), and I am intrigued:

Once Upon a Day by Lisa Tucker
(Featured in the April BookPage and called "catnip for book clubs" by PW)
Having been raised in utopian isolation by her once-famous Hollywood father, twenty-three-year-old Dorothea leaves their New Mexico sanctuary in search of her missing brother, befriends a homeless jazz singer and a doctor-turned cabdriver, and discovers terrifying truths about her family's past.


Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel
Facing an early midlife crisis after being fired, twenty-eight-year-old Dwight B. Wilmerding is unable to decide on a new career or on a girlfriend, an indecisiveness that he attempts to alleviate with a trial pharmaceutical aimed at enhancing courage and self-confidence, and heads to Ecuador to search for Natasha, an exotic former classmate.