I’m so excited! I just snagged an ARC (advance reader’s copy) courtesy of LibraryThing and Random House. This was the first time I tried getting an early review book, and though I didn’t get any from the initial batch of choices for November, I did receive my choice from the ‘bonus batch’ of books by Random House.
I’m so happy with the book I received. It is Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. Last year I read two of Ms. Russell’s books, The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God. These were the most thought-provoking books I read in 2006, and if you’ve ever looked at my ’2006 Books’ tab, you’ll see I had made a note of that. Although this book will be very different from those two (which were science fiction), I already know I like Ms. Russell’s writing style; and, the setting is in Cairo, Egypt – - a place I have actually been and loved. I’m really looking forward to reading and reviewing this book.
I started off this morning just wanting to read 1-2 stories from this book by Maeve Binchy, and I ended up reading 8!! I really like all the stories in This Year It Will Be Different so far. They’re not warm and fuzzy, but yet they’re not horribly depressing either. They are about people with flawed characters and lives just trying to make the best of things.
