Hey friends, I just couldn’t resist sharing this with you, even though neither review is up yet (!) and one book isn’t even published yet (!!) – I have just finished reading two amazing books, one fiction, one nonfiction, and they’re definitely the best two of the year so far. You know how I know? When I can’t stop talking about them to anyone who will listen, even when they are suspected of being not interested. (Husband is so patient with me!) So what are they? …
Fiction choice of the first quarter of 2012:
Tana French’s The Likeness. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Heather O’Neill, and highly recommend it. My early review has actually posted already, here. The final review will come this week.
Nonfiction choice of the first quarter of 2012:
Alice Kessler-Harris’s A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman. I read an advanced review copy; the publication date is April 24, so get ready! My review will be published just about then, at Shelf Awareness, and of course I’ll share it here when it is. It was a really engrossing biography of a truly fascinating, contradictory woman, who inspired a full continuum of strong reactions amongst everyone who knew her, and Kessler-Harris presents her so thoroughly with such full context that she had me enthralled – and looking for further reading.
That’s it: my two big recommendations of the year to date.
What have you read this year that’s amazing?
pagesofjulia 
I’m excited to read your Hellman review!!!!!!
Ha, thanks TBM, I’m excited about it too! We’ll both have to wait a little while.
These both sounds like great books and I’ll be looking for your final reviews. Was wondering if you need to read In The Woods before The Likeness… think my comment may have gone to spam when I asked the question on your first thoughts post.
Oh heck, I don’t seem to have it here, no. Sorry about that! As far as reading In the Woods first: I would say no. Bear in mind, I’m a great fan of reading series out of order. 🙂 But I seem to have come away with little-to-no memory of In the Woods; I suspect it was just a less memorable read. And I still loved this one. I think it stands alone. And I think it’s her best.
[…] memory. That, too, reminds me of some recent reading: you may have noticed me raving lately about A Difficult Woman, the Lillian Hellman biography by Alice Kessler-Williams which – among many other things […]
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