Wishlist Wednesday

My weekly wrap-up to highlight great books I've heard about on other blogs, or newsletters, or from my fellow librarians or readers on LT. This will help me keep track of books I see that I want to read, and give me some clue in the future about why I said I wanted to read them!

Stiltsville 

by Susanna Daniel

I saw this one on Shelf Awareness last week, and read an excerpt at the Harper Collins site.  I'm absolutely hooked, and I'm going to have to get my hands on this one by the end of the year.
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America's Women

400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines

by

Gail Collins

 This has gotten some buzz among my LibraryThing friends, and I've put in on the list.  I love just about anything Gail Collins writes.

Well researched and well written, America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines is a powerful and important book. Starting with Pocahontas and Eleanor Dare (the first female colonist), this lively and fascinating history records the changes in American women's lives and the transformations in American society from the 1580s through the 2000s.

A history of the oft-marginalized sex must often draw from diaries and journals, which were disproportionally written by whites; as a result, African-American and Native American women are not as well represented as white in the earlier chapters of America's Women. However, Gail Collins writes about women of many races and ethnicities, and in fact provides more information about Native Americans, African-Americans, and Chinese, Jewish, and Italian immigrants than some general U.S. history books. She writes about rich and poor, young and old, urban and rural, slave and slave-owner, athlete and aviatrix, president's wife and presidential candidate--and, of course, men and women. And some of these women--from the justly famous, like Clara Barton and Harriet Tubman, to the undeservedly obscure, like Elizabeth Eckford and Senator Margaret Chase Smith--will not only make any woman proud to be a woman, they will make any American proud to be American.

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Second Time Around

by Beth Kendrick

I saw this one on Lesa's Book Critiques this past Sunday.  Her review about four college graduates who are given a 2nd chance to do their lives over made this one a definite 'go find it and read it.'

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Service Included

Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter

by 

Phoebe Damrosch

Peter of Kyusi Reader reviewed this one on his blog this week.  It looks like something right up my alley.  Who wouldn't want a good memoir sprinkled liberally with food?  Peter suggests this one.
Read this book if:

1. You've been a waiter at one point in your life.
2. You like eating out.
3. You're unfazed when you read a menu in a foreign language.

That's why it ended up on my list.

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Let's take the Long Way Home

by 

Gail Caldwell

Another one from Shelf Awareness, I was so bowled over by the excerpt on the Random House page that I ordered it---it should arrive today or tomorrow, and I can't wait.  It's a memoir, a tribute to a best friend.  The first chapter pulled me in, made me smile, cry, laugh, and want more.  Do check it out.  I think it's going to be a biggie.

Wishlist Wednesday - July 28th

My weekly wrap-around to help me highlight great books I've heard about on other blogs, or newsletters, or from my fellow librarians or readers on LT. This will help me keep track of books I see that I want to read, and give me some clue in the future about why I said I wanted to read them!  This week I'm drooling over:

 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell


Gwen at Literary License gives a great review of this one. Set in Japan, the blurbs I've been reading have it sounding similar to SHOGUN, a book I loved. I'm always interested in learning about the beautiful country where we lived for almost 5 years.




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How to Be an American Housewife

by Margaret Dilloway

Another book focusing on Japanese traditions, this one was highlighted by, among others,  Alyce of At Home with Books.

The addition of a story about relationships gives this one an added reason to hunt it down for future reading.

Besides....................the cover is gorgeous!

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The Good Pyschologist

by Noam Shpancer

I saw this one on Shelf Awareness earlier this week, and it looks like a stunner.

From the sale page: "Noam Shpancer portrays the oft-hidden world of psychotherapy with unparalleled authenticity, compassion, and wit.  More important, his literary gifts are profound.  Beautiful language, an evocative sense of place, and an acute understanding of the human condition have combined to produce a deeply moving, compelling novel.  The Good Psychologist is an astonishing debut."--Jonathan Kellerman

I always enjoy novels which feature good strong characters.
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Disappearing Spoon
by Sam Kean

And Other True Tales of Madness, Love,
and the History of the World from
the Periodic Table of the Elements

I first saw this on Shelf Awareness, and then noticed there's a giveaway on Bingo's site going right now. I'm entering, because the math major in me, and the frustrated chem major in my husband both want to read this one.   The publisher says:

The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.

 This would also help me in my lifetime Dewey Decimal Challenge, i.e., to read one book in each Dewey Decimal category - that's 1000 books and I'm nowhere near!

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 So what are you wishing would fall into your lap, or hop on your shelves, this week?