For the first sixteen years of her life, Shannon never knew her parents. Left by her mother on the steps of a YMCA just hours after her birth, the young girl’s abandonment is witnessed by only one man. Her destiny remained bleak and uncertain as she was shuffled through foster homes, her name altered and her childhood a blur.

Y is the captivating story of Shannon’s plight to come to terms with the hand she’s been dealt. It’s a remarkable narrative on life and the perpetual question of "why", examining what drives us to make life-altering decisions. The novel follows Shannon as she finally finds a permanent home with a strong-willed single mother, struggles with the weight of her little life, and eventually commits to the decision to find her parents. The biggest danger becomes whether her search will uncover things best left alone. Alternating between Shannon’s young life and the story of her mother, Yula, the novel delves into the bond between mothers and daughters, and the unforeseeable connections they share.

Marjorie Celona’s debut is a stunning work, hauntingly paced and meticulously crafted. There’s a self-certainty to her prose that leaves a profound mark on the reader, and her wonderful, sad, enchanting young heroine only amplifies the significance of the story. Shannon is remarkable in every way, the sort of character that will leave a lasting impression on the reader. At times bitterly sad, other times charmingly witty, Shannon’s narrative holds the reader in an unflinching, riveted curiosity. With wisdom and sarcasm well beyond her age, she examines her life as well as her mother’s, the events that led to her birth and the many heart-rending fragments afterward, all dogged by the same daunting question: why? From her relationship with her adoptive sister to an ill-advised attempt to run away, Shannon dissects her life decisions with extraordinary insight and honesty. She becomes a friend to the reader, somewhat distant but all heart, as her story is explored, intertwined with the fateful plight of her pregnant eighteen year-old mother, sixteen years in the past.

I was moved, quieted, and deeply fascinated by Y and Celona’s beautiful writing; this is a writer whose career I look forward to following. The boldness with which she conceived her story is utterly admirable, as is the fearlessness with which she handled several unhappy topics. Everything about Y manages a chilling but brilliant picture in the reader’s mind, and Celona softens all of the book's supporting characters just enough for the astonishing mind of Shannon to come into its full glory at the novel’s center. The Canadian backdrop of both city and wilderness are depicted with both a subtle grace and impacting detail that illuminates every corner of the novel. Y is, as a result, an affecting story and a striking example of the art of literature at its finest.

Title:Y: A NovelAuthor: Marjorie Celona Genre: contemporary literature, drama Publisher: Free Press Release date: January 8, 2013 Source: Free Press (C/O) Buy the book:Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & NobleConnect with the author:Website | Facebook

Alessandro Stradella was a legend in his time, a celebrated composer who took Italy in the 17th century by storm; wrestled from fame to infamy, Stradella received accolades and evictions alike, finally coming to Genoa after being sent from Rome, Turin, and Venice. Despite his scandals, his seductive genius for Baroque music and his overwhelming charm reserved for him a place of esteem within the nobility of Genoa. In D.M. Denton’s languid new novel, A House Near Luccoli, the author examines the famed composer’s time in Genoa through the lens of fiction, centering her story on the house near Luccoli Street where Stradella rented an apartment and filling it with her own brand of characters. Among them is the novel’s protagonist, Donatella. Plain and a confirmed spinster, Donatella resides in and tends to the house near Luccoli along with her ailing grandmother and domineering aunt. When Stradella sweeps into the quiet house Donatella becomes enraptured with the world he offers, so much different than the life she planned to live with her bloom fading before even having the chance to fully blossom. After beginning work for Stradella as a copyist, his passionate realm of intrigue and music, artists and royalty, envelops Donatella’s curiosity just as she begins to lose herself to the beguiling and reckless composer. But as her longings war with her own simple reality, she must find strength within to keep from being trampled among Stradella’s many admirers and his own larger-than-life persona.

A House Near Luccoli is as charmingly crafted as Stradella’s compositions, often mirroring their power, beauty, and delicate intricacy. It’s a novel at once intimate and expansive, quickly ushering the reader into the vivid 17th century world of Stradella and exposing the history of a lesser-known genius while enfolding them in a fictitious story of romance, friendship, art, and intrigue. Denton’s narrative is complex and challenging, steeped in a richness that befits the grandeur of the time period. Her use of language and her inventive storytelling captured me from the first page; some passages of dialogue felt more abstractly constructed than others, lending me the enchanting image of an artist’s story being told through an equally artistic medium. I enjoyed the freedom she displayed in writing. Her depiction of Stradella presented an absorbing study of a truly fascinating man, and left my interest piqued to discover more about himself and his music. In Donatella I found a protagonist I was keenly drawn to. She is perhaps a daring choice for a heroine, at times appearing melancholy in her situation at the house in Genoa, but I felt an understanding with Donatella, a timid woman with an artist’s fiery spirit inside, who has somehow managed to lose her life to her own daydreams. Her interests have captivated her while her longings have been left dormant, only to be brought to surprising life by Stradella and all his colorful, vibrant artistry. The relationship forged between the duo, sometimes a friendship, sometimes a romance, sometimes a turbulent bundle of unknown feelings, is one I was loathe to let go of at the book’s final pages.

Additional characters are ever on hand through Denton’s story to create more intrigues and offer new dramatic surprises. It culminated into an ending that held me in rapt attention and made me want to immerse myself in the book all over again. Compelling, stimulating, and studiously researched, A House Near Luccoli is a beautiful representation of the boundlessness of historical fiction, and a story as sumptuous and engaging as the man at its center.

Title:A House Near LuccoliAuthor: D.M. Denton Genre: historical fiction, romance Publisher: All Things Matter Press Release date: August 26, 2012 Source: D.M. Denton (C/O) Buy the book:Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & NobleConnect with the author:Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

In the first decade of the 1900s Edith Wharton’s name begins to rise amid the literary world as her novel The House of Mirth sees great success, thanks in part to the aid of her devoted secretary, her former governess and greatest friend, Anna Bahlmann. Living with the Whartons as a servant and yet held in a companionable station to both Edith and her husband, Teddy, Anna lives at the brink of two very different worlds, viewing Edith’s high society success from a position affording her no rank or attribution. Anna, though, gives no thought to her own recognition; she is interested only in lifting up her closest friend to the best of her ability. When Edith, struggling in her midlife, famously embarks on a tumultuous affair with the young journalist Morton Fullerton, the two women find their friendship precariously threatened by Anna’s disapproval. Edith claims that she never loved her husband, and as Anna’s heart solicitously goes out to the kindly, simple Teddy Wharton a new chasm is marked in their friendship, illuminating the stark differences in their personalities. Unable to detach herself from Edith’s life, Anna must summon her strength to endeavor through this lonely new territory while Edith herself must face the consequences of her actions. Intertwining passages from Edith Wharton’s diaries and letters, The Age of Desire depicts an iconic time in history from the perspective of two resolute and very different women. From Paris to England, Germany to New England, Wharton’s world comes to dazzling life under the skill of author Jennie Fields. Legendary talents take the stage to become delightfully lucid characters in this novelization of Wharton’s midlife scandal, most notably her lover, Morton Fullerton, and their very great friend, the lively and compelling Henry James. The presence of such creative entities as Anna de Noailles and John Galsworthy give finite illumination to the author’s beautifully crafted recreation of Paris in the early twentieth century. But perhaps the most irrepressible presence in the novel comes from the two women at the helm of the story: Edith and Anna. To tell their story is a bold choice, as the likeness between them is nearly impossible to discern; Edith’s actions often exude extreme self-centeredness while Anna’s open and charitable nature rank her highly in the reader’s esteem. But at the core of each woman’s story there is found an extraordinary examination of female nature and the unpredictable, often indecipherable roots of friendship. There was something in each woman that particularly resonated with me – Edith’s desire for a liberation she doesn’t quite know the shape of, Anna’s journey through the labyrinth of her own life lessons against the boundary of her timidity – and I felt the joys and sorrows of them both. Anna’s inability to separate herself from Edith, even despite Wharton’s negligence and apparent disrespect, illustrated a concept of the two women being tied together invisibly, an unbreakable bond that even they themselves don’t fully understand. It presented a journey extensive in its emotions and astonishing in its depth. Through it all I was enchanted, enriched by the author’s prose, and sated in the way that only literature is capable of.

What Jennie Fields achieves with The Age of Desire is an ambitious, luxuriant novel that transports the reader into a bright, decadent world of art and literature, society and scandal, introducing us to two larger than life women and sweeping us on a journey through their heartbreaks and joys as we come to witness the extraordinary strength of a life-encompassing friendship.

Title:The Age of DesireAuthor: Jennie Fields Genre: historical fiction, romance Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books Release date: August 2, 2012 Source: personal collection Buy the book:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BetterWorldBooksConnect with the author:Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Throughout her career, Alison Pace's stories have been graced with the moniker of “dog lit”. But for Alison, many of the years spent writing novels about dogs, and essays about dogs, and book reviews about books about dogs were years spent without a dog of her own. Growing up in a house with no less than four dogs at a time, Alison is a lifelong lover of the animal with a wealth of memories for all the dogs she’s known. Living in New York City, though, has its dog-related difficulties, and pursuing the presence of dogs in her adult life found a way of becoming a lingering dream. In her new memoir, You Tell Your Dog First, Alison recounts, among other things, her decision to finally get a dog of her own: including the hunt for the perfect dog-friendly apartment, the extensive search for the appropriate breed, and the many adventures that come with dog-ownership. The dog at the center of the book, and at the center of Alison’s delight, is Carlie, a West Highland white terrier.

There are so many things to love about You Tell Your Dog First, most especially from the perspective of a dog person. Whether you own a dog or fawn over the ones your friends and family have, there comes a time when your love of the animal borders a bit on eccentricity (or so people tell you) and reading Alison’s essays evokes the feeling of camaraderie that alights between dog people: the sense that we understand each other, that we “get it”. In that way, You Tell Your Dog First is like sitting down with another ardent dog lover to talk about our shared passions; our dogs. Alison’s charming and witty narrative conjures a cozy environment that allows the reader to spend some time in a happy place, hearing her stories about Carlie and the adventures (or misadventures) they find together in the city and the country. As much as the stories in the book are about Carlie, or dogs in general, the stories are also about Alison. Her genuinely personal approach to writing about the special self-discovery that comes with dog ownership lends yet more warmth to the narrative. She examines Carlie’s ability to root out bad boyfriends, strike up friendships with like-minded people, and ultimately guide her smartly through life. You Tell Your Dog First feels very much like a tribute to the way dogs lead their owners.

I’ve been a fan of Alison’s books for years, and this might be my favorite of her works to date. While her writing has always been wonderful, the reader sees her prose blossom under the subject of Carlie, and the wit and wisdom the Westie has brought into her life. As a result, the book shows the opening up of a person’s heart in the way that only a dog can achieve. The solidarity I felt with Alison and the adoration I felt for Carlie made the experience of reading You Tell Your Dog First a wonderfully personal examination of the joys dogs bring into the lives of the people who love them. This is a book impossible to overlook for dog fanciers, and one readers will likely want to visit again and again for the beautiful way it captures the dog-and-person relationship.

Dusty approves. Happy reading!

Title:You Tell Your Dog FirstAuthor: Alison Pace Genre: memoir, pets Publisher: Berkley Trade Release date: November 6, 2012 Source: Penguin Group (C/O) Buy the book:Amazon | Barnes & NobleConnect with the author:Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter |

Thirty-four year-old psychologist Siri Bergman spends her days treating patients in her Stockholm practice, focusing her expertise on the troubles of others. At night she resides in a secluded seaside cottage where she struggles to accept the loss of her husband in a diving accident a year prior. Siri copes with her emotions by leaving every light in her small cottage lit, smothering her fear of the dark with copious amounts of cheap wine. She has managed to keep her roiling emotions at bay, but when the feeling of being watched in her home begins to prickle like a cold breeze on the back of her neck Siri finds that an unforeseen enemy may just succeed in tipping the scales and pouring the tumult from her past into the carefully maintained world of her professional life. When a body is found in the water near her cottage Siri understands the true gravity of the danger she’s in. Her enemy is close by, watching her, and the objective is another murder: hers. With the help of Aina, her best friend and colleague, and with the aid of people from her past and present Siri must work through the history she’s kept locked away and uncover the identity of the person who is willing to go to any lengths to scare her, torment her, and eventually see her dead. Some Kind of Peace is a finely-crafted, beautifully written suspense novel from sisters Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff. Together Grebe and Träff intertwine keen psychological observation, vivid imagery, and a strongly unpredictable storyline to create a novel that is simultaneously a taught thriller and an explorative character study. Stockholm’s melancholy weather lends a certain type of moodiness to the novel’s sharp-edged story, setting the scene for grandiose dramatics that reach through the book and grab the reader’s attention fully. I was instantly able to connect with Siri and I found her first-person, present-tense narrative to be full of wisdom and even a touch of wit, though she maintains an understandable moroseness that endears the reader to her in her struggles. The other characters in the story build up the novel’s color – Aina, the caring friend and confidante; Sven, the older, married colleague whose improper advances Siri can’t quite read; Markus, the young police officer whose kindness both attracts and confines her; and Vijay, the friend from Siri’s past whose professional help she calls on when her plight becomes too much. All of these characters and more – Marianne, the office receptionist, and all of Siri’s patients – are brought to life in careful detail. Grebe and Träff manage to evoke the question from the reader: is the murderer one of them? Each character is brought under suspicion, from Siri as well as the reader, while their friendliness is somehow still maintained, giving them an air of weightlessness on the scale of hero versus villain. It all culminates into a truly surprising finale that’s no less grim for all the what-ifs that spiral through the reader's mind through the novel.

I’m someone who hasn’t read a lot of thrillers and suspense novels, though I love a good mystery. I like that edge-of-your-seat feeling in a book, and Some Kind of Peace offers plenty of it. It’s a novel that’s impossible to put down. Siri’s world becomes ingrained into your own and you find yourself mesmerized by the mystery of it. Siri, too, becomes a quick friend in your literary life; I’m excited to follow her story as the series continues (to be published in English by Free Press next May). My final thoughts are that Some Kind of Peace is intensely atmospheric, highly engaging and wonderfully written with a story of genuine substance that will capture your imagination and keep you guessing until the end.

Title: Some Kind of Peace Authors: Camilla Grebe and Genre: Suspense Publisher: Free Press Format: Hardcover, paperback Release date: July 10, 2012 Source: Free Press (C/O) Buy the book:Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Better World BooksConnect with the authors:Publisher Page

Nestled in the foothills of the Himalaya, the small village of Ranikhet exists within itself. Its inhabitants live simple, hard-working lives without a hint of anonymity; some are poor, illiterate “hill people” while others are respected, titled men of a bygone India. The village is so self-contained and its visitors so few that there's rarely a stranger among them. Their strongest connection lies in the natural world around them; the wildness of nature and of life reflected in it. This is where Maya, a young woman disowned by her parents and widowed far too soon, seeks refuge from her troubled past. Whether she is running towards or away from her insatiable demons is unforeseeable. As she hides herself within the simplicity of village life Maya forges relationships with those around her, primarily her landlord, an ex-diwan, and the neighboring family who are also tenants on the estate. Yet, as Maya begins to feel she is finally becoming rooted in the familiarity of her situation changes uproot the village in the form of political disquiet, not to mention an elusive new relative who has suddenly returned to her elderly landlord’s life.

This is the foundation for The Folded Earth, Anuradha Roy’s second novel which was long-listed for the 2011 Man Asian Prize. It’s the foundation, but as the story progresses so much more reveals itself in the complexities and heartwarming nuances of the village and its full cast of characters. This is an ideal read for a book club, as it has me aching to divulge all the little details of the characters that stayed with me and to discuss the meaning behind some twists and turns of the novel. I’d love to immerse myself in all the lessons I learned from the characters and the elements of their personality that resounded most deeply within me – young Charu, who educated herself and left the only world she ever knew behind in pursuit of her love; Mr. Chauhan’s witty street signs and his animosity toward poor Puran; the shameless gossip and unflappable matriarch Ama; and Maya's late husband Michael, who is at once missing and ethereally present throughout the story. It would be easy, though, to divulge too much in a simple review. It would take some of the joy out of discovering, when you first read The Folded Earth, the characters, the Himalaya, the story, and Roy’s considerable writing talent. And it is a joy – all of it.

What it came down to, for me, was the invaluable opportunity to step into a world vastly different from my own, to try on the shoes of not one unique character, but an entire village full. Roy took subjects that every reader will be at home with – loss, love, loneliness, and the feeling of being misunderstood in the world, among other things – and she folded them into a place that readers might find to be, culturally, a bit new. While she lives in the real Ranikhet (located within Almora in Uttarakhand, India) Roy experimented with the boundlessness of fiction in order to present a slightly altered version of the village in the novel, a change which allowed her the opportunity to approach additional topics relevant to India that may not have been as prominent in the Ranikhet of the real world. In this way Roy presents not only a look into a uniquely different India, but she educates the reader on both conflicts and harmonies within the country. The result is a book that enchants its reader and continues to enlighten them long after the final page.

Roy's writing is lyrical as she glides effortlessly through comedy and tragedy alike. The amount of focus she gives to the personalities of the book's characters seems, at times, to allow the novel's plot to become secondary. In that way The Folded Earth becomes a book of the world, a book about human nature and the journey of self-discovery, while providing a heartfelt tribute to a treasured place rarely noticed amid the hills, the folds, of the earth.

Title: The Folded Earth Author: Anuradha Roy Genre: Literary fiction Publisher: Free Press (USA) Format: Paperback Release date: April 24, 2012 Source: Free Press (C/O) Buy the book:Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Better World BooksConnect with the author:Website/Blog | Facebook