Book recommendations

So I've made a list of possible blog posts for the near future, and if I can only give myself a kick up the arse (without dislocating my hips in the process) I'll write and schedule some posts for the next few weeks. It'd be better if I stockpiled posts instead of leaving things to the last minute and thinking, "Erp! I haven't blogged in weeks!"

Meantime, I thought I'd do a simple book recommendation blog post. See? I'm not all about the whinging and swearing.

###

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING, Julian Barnes
Winner of the Man Booker Prize, 2011.

I've read this twice since it was published; once in Kindle format then again after I bought the hardback version. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to own it twice over.

This is the book that made me an official Julian Barnes fangirl. It's written so simply but with lyrical prose, its brevity making it a teeny-weeny treasure.

Blurb from the novel's Amazon page:

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.

Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove.

The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, it is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers.

Amazon UK purchase link.
Amazon US purchase link.

###

THE CEMENT GARDEN, Ian McEwan

Another short book, by another one of my favourite, "I'm-totes-a-fangurl" authors.

Amazon blurb (again, short):

In the relentless summer heat, four abruptly orphaned children retreat into a shadowy, isolated world, and find their own strange and unsettling ways of fending for themselves...

Amazon UK purchase link.
Amazon US purchase link.

###

Onto ebooks now, and a couple I recently read that stood out from the usual, predictable, stodgy, laden-with-cardboard-characters fare.

A MODEL BOYFRIEND, Clancy Nacht

Andrea "Andy" Gibbons and her boyfriend Mike have grown apart. Mike doesn't understand why Andy won't grow up and give up art. Andy doesn't understand what happened to the math geek she fell in love with. Neither is willing to flinch, leaving them locked in a stand-off where neither is satisfied and Andy overlooks Mike's indiscretions.

It isn't until Andy meets male model Brandon that she questions whether her relationship with Mike is going to ever work again. Brandon is not only beautiful, but he is also studying to be a filmmaker and seems to really get Andy. Even better, he doesn't want to change her. Will she find a way to let go of Mike and embrace the future with a model boyfriend?

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content and graphic language.

Loose Id, LLC purchase link.

###

ONCE A MARINE, Cat Grant

In the interests of full disclosure, the author is a friend of mine. Also in the interests of full disclosure, I'm not a believer in sucking up to fellow writers and telling them their work is wonderful if I don't think it is. I believe that praising the work of someone simply because they work in the same industry and "writers should support each other" is a load of shite. Such a philosophy dilutes the integrity of one's genuine reviews. If I praise every book I read, how do you know which ones I sincerely do like?

With that in mine, here's the blurb for a book I read soon after getting my Kindle, and loved. In fact, when I read books by friends, I get scared. I wonder, "What will I do if I don't like her book?" Luckily, in this case, it wasn't something I had to worry about.

Blurbage:

Love is a battlefield.

Discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, former Marine major Cole Hammond is struggling to find a new identity. But PTSD casts a pall on everything, and his hard-nosed, homophobic father can’t even bear to look him in the eye. To top it all off, he’s pretty sure he’s flunking out of law school.

Marc Sullivan is a kind, sensitive romance author-slash-waiter with a thing for men in uniform. Cole’s not wearing his anymore, but there’s no mistaking the warrior Marc meets in the diner one rainy afternoon. Cole’s sexy smile and Carolina drawl prove irresistible, but Marc’s played this game before, and he always loses. Once a Marine, always a Marine, and if there’s one thing Marc knows about such men, it’s that they all leave him in the end. It doesn’t help that Cole’s practically closeted in public, or that he refuses to seek treatment for his PTSD.

But like any good Marine, Cole’s willing to fight for what matters. And like the characters in Marc’s stories, he’s certain that if they try just hard enough, together they can find their own happily ever after.

Riptide Publishing purchase link.

###

Go buy the above books. All of them. NAO!