January 2011 Releases That Caught My Fancy

I love discoveries and surprises and all these titles possess those elements.  


On January 4th American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt by Daniel Rasmussen was released bringing to our collective attention  "a stealthily organized uprising of 500 armed slaves dressed in military uniforms marching on and trying to conquer New Orleans" in January 1811. "Most were decapitated and their heads stuck on poles throughout the region as a gruesome warning against future resistance." The question, as always, is why we don't know about these events? After reading the extraordinary The Warmth of Other Suns (Isabel Wilkerson), I can't imagine not reading American Uprising. It is receiving extraordinary praise.

The next book that caught my attention was The Poison Tree, released on January 6th, and compared to both Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca and Donna Tartt's The Secret History, both of which fall into that Gothic category I seek out when the mood strikes."The surprises don't end until the last page of this twisted tale with its wonderfully evocative London atmosphere." The author is Erin Kelly.

Among Others was recommended by a Science Fiction, Fantasy lover, which I am not. However, his review described this books as magical, an interweaving of SF, Fantasy and a coming of age story like nothing he had read before. Written by Jo Walton this quote in another review caught my attention, "It doesn't matter, I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books." I know that feeling. This is a book approved for teens. The book was released yesterday, January 18th.

My last book on the list may be the most seductive. Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown was reviewed in the New York Times. The sentence that grabbed me was, "There is no problem a library card can't solve." Do I have to admit that I love this belief? And to top that off the sisters have a father who insists that everyone quote Shakespeare. What fun! Weird Sisters comes out tomorrow, January 20th.

The other thing all these titles have in common is that they are all written by first time published authors! What could be more exciting than to be there at the beginning?