What People Magazine is Reading This Week (June 27th Issue)

For those Kindle readers who, like me, read for entertainment, scanning the book reviews in People magazine is good way to check out new people-related books - celebrity bios, popular novels, absorbing nonfiction - just hitting bookstore shelves. Featured in the June 27th issue of People:

Silver Girl, by Elin Hilderbrand. Reagan Arthur Books, 2011. Print Length: 416 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (9 reviews). People's slant: "What if Ruth Madoff headed for Nantucket and got a second chance at love? Silver Girl is great fun." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.59. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Meredith Martin Delinn just lost everything: her friends, her homes, her social standing - because her husband Freddy cheated rich investors out of billions of dollars. Desperate and facing homelessness, Meredith receives a call from her old best friend, Constance Flute. Connie's had recent worries of her own, and the two depart for a summer on Nantucket in an attempt to heal. But the island can't offer complete escape, and they're plagued by new and old troubles alike. When Connie's brother Toby - Meredith's high school boyfriend - arrives, Meredith must reconcile the differences between the life she is leading and the life she could have had." - Amazon.

White Shotgun: An FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Novel, by April Smith. Random House, 2011. Print Length: 320 p. THRILLER. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). People's slant: "Her FBI training defines a disaster as 'anything that overwhelms you,' and Special Agent Ana Grey gets plenty of that in this thriller." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $17.13. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
This is book four of Smith's Ana Grey thriller series, following North of Montana, Good Morning, Killer, and Judas Horse.
"Even on leave from the FBI, Ana can’t kick old habits: when she witnesses a drive-by shooting at an Italian restaurant in London, she helps the injured and gives testimony to the police. Still, it comes as a shock when, soon after, the Bureau contacts her - not because they want her to investigate the shooting, but because they want her to investigate the half sister she never knew she had, Cecilia, who lives in Siena and is married to Nicosa, a coffee mogul with some suspicious connections..." - from the hardcover edition.

Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet, by John Bradshaw. Basic Books, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (13 reviews). People's slant: "...urges understanding, not dominance, as the key to human-canine relations." Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $15.59. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Renowned anthrozoologist Dr. John Bradshaw has made a career of studying human-animal interactions, and in Dog Sense he uses the latest scientific research to show how humans can live in harmony with - not just dominion over - their four-legged friends. From explaining why positive reinforcement is a more effective (and less damaging) way to control dogs' behavior than punishment to demonstrating the importance of weighing a dog's unique personality against stereotypes about its breed, Bradshaw offers extraordinary insight into the question of how we really ought to treat our dogs." - Amazon.

Thank You Notes, by Jimmy Fallon, with The Writers of Late Night. Grand Central Publishing, 2011. Print Length: 176 p. HUMOR. Optimized for reading on devices with larger screens such as Kindle DX, Kindle for PC/Mac, and Kindle for iPad. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (46 reviews). People's slant: "...a very small, very successful book." Kindle edition $8.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Jimmy Fallon is very thankful. And in this first book to come from his TV show, he expresses his gratitude for everything from the light bulb he's too lazy to replace to the F12 button on his computer's keyboard. He thanks microbreweries for making his alcoholism seem like a neat hobby. He thanks the name 'Lloyd' for having two L's. Otherwise it would just sound like 'Loyd.' He's thankful to you, the person reading this right now. It means you're considering buying this book. You should do it. You will be thankful that you did." - Amazon.

The Storm at the Door, by Stefan Merrill Block. Random House, 2011. Print Length: 368 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (7 reviews). People's slant: "...a richly imagined, haunting account of how the mind can betray the heart, and vice-versa." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.88. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"The past is not past for Katharine Merrill. Even after two decades of volatile marriage, Katharine still believes she can have the life that she felt promised to her by those first exhilarating days with her husband, Frederick. Increasingly, Frederick’s erratic behavior, amplified by alcohol, distresses Katharine and their four daughters and gives his friends and family cause to worry for his sanity. When, in the summer of 1962, a cocktail party ends with her husband in handcuffs, Katharine makes a fateful decision: She commits Frederick to Mayflower Home, America’s most revered mental asylum. There, on the grounds of the opulent hospital populated by great poets, intellectuals, and madmen, Frederick tries to transform his incarceration into a creative exercise, to take each meaningless passing moment and find the art within it. Meanwhile, as she struggles to raise four young daughters, Katharine tries to find her way back to Frederick through her own ambiguities, delusions, and the damages done by her rose-colored belief in a life she no longer lives. Inspired by elements of the lives of the author’s grandparents, this haunting love story shifts through time and reaches across generations." - from the hardcover edition.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.