TUESDAY POTPOURRI: GATHERING TOGETHER BOOKS, FAMILY, & FRIENDS

Welcome to another Tuesday Release Day!  I do love perusing the list of releases, and sometimes I even download a new book…or two.  My photo, above, features my new mani…and my Kindle, Paige, ready to enjoy my treasures.

But today I picked up some older books that I have bookmarked on Amazon:

Emily, Alone, by Stewart O’Nan, came out a few years ago, but someone mentioned it on a blog…and it piqued my interest.  It is actually a sequel to another book, Wish You Were Here, and although I was tempted to add that one, too, I stopped myself. 

Synopsis:  A sequel to the bestselling, much-beloved Wish You Were Here, Stewart O’Nan’s intimate new novel follows Emily Maxwell, a widow whose grown children have long moved away. She dreams of visits by her grandchildren while mourning the turnover of her quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood, but when her sole companion and sister-in-law Arlene faints at their favorite breakfast buffet, Emily’s days change. As she grapples with her new independence, she discovers a hidden strength and realizes that life always offers new possibilities. Like most older women, Emily is a familiar yet invisible figure, one rarely portrayed so honestly. Her mingled feelings-of pride and regret, joy and sorrow- are gracefully rendered in wholly unexpected ways. Once again making the ordinary and overlooked not merely visible but vital to understanding our own lives, Emily, Alone confirms O’Nan as an American master.

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I do love older characters, probably because I am getting older, too, and can relate to some of the same experiences.

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I also enjoy A. J. Banner, so I downloaded After Nightfall, a book that has been out for a while:

 

 

Synopsis:  Imagine your closest friend utterly betraying you. Years later, when she seeks forgiveness, you invite her to your engagement party as a gesture of reconciliation. But seething hostilities rise to the surface, ruining everyone’s evening. After an awful night, your friend’s battered, lifeless body is found at the bottom of a rocky cliff.

Newly engaged Marissa Parlette is living this nightmare. She should be celebrating her upcoming wedding, but she can’t shake the image of her friend lying dead on the beach. Did she fall? Was she pushed? Or did she take a purposeful step into darkness? Desperate for answers, Marissa digs deep into the events of the party. But what she remembers happening after nightfall now carries sinister implications: the ugly sniping, the clandestine meetings, the drunken flirtations. The more she investigates, the more she questions everything she thought she knew about her friends, the man she once trusted, and even herself.

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I am currently reading The Three Beths, by Jeff Abbott, a compelling page turner.  I should be finished by day’s end.

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Tomorrow, some members of my family will meet at a neighborhood restaurant for a pre-Thanksgiving lunch…and to catch up.  Then I’ll be joining friends on Turkey Day.

How is your week unfolding so far?

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