From Avalon Publishing today I received Incognito Street: How Travel Made Me a Writer by Barbara Sjoholm. I would be all over this anyway without the review copy as I'm a big fan of travel writing and having an author who says she traveled to become a writer sounds quite intriguing. The author is also the co-founder of Seal Press, a small press that I think does a very good job. But wait - as I was reading the PR note I felt my head start to spin. Sjoholm has also written under the name Barbara Wilson and authored Gaudi Afternoon which was a fun little movie with Lily Taylor, Marsha Gay Harden, etc. It was an even better book though and she also wrote one of my more favorite little mysteries, The Case of the Orphaned Bassonist. I found this years ago in a used bookstore and bought it because it was about bassoonists in Venice - too potentially comic to ignore. It's very clever and I enjoyed it a lot - I still have it and I purge my shelves twice a year so that tells a lot. And now here is Barbara again, in my life. I'm quite excited about this book and will be reading it soon.

Also received the latest issue of Booklist with many different and interesting sounding reviews. (No surprise there, right?)

First up, Lizzie Siddal by Lucinda Hawksley. After reading Francine Prose's Lives of the Muses, I've been very curious about Siddal and what happened to her with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The review here makes the book sound fabulous - did you realize that Rossetti dug up poor Lizzie to retrieve a poetry manuscript he had buried with her? What a pig!

A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas. I've heard a bit about this title already - after her husband is involved in a hit and run he suffers memory loss, hallucinations and wild rages - Thomas has to commit him to an institution. Rather than leave him, she moves close by and with her three dogs crafts a life around their new situation. There are a lot of ways this book could be bad but the final line in the review sells it for me: "Thomas has elevated what could be, at best, an overemotional sermon or, at worst, a grim romp in self-pity to a high plain of true inspiration." It sounds beautiful and I certainly want to give it a read.

London Under Midnight by Simon Clark. Characterized as a "treat for horror fans" - mysterious graffiti starts showing up all over the city and magazine writer Ben is hired to write about it. Written about vampires, the graffit isn't pointless - it's a message. "This thrilling, terrifying, and deeply affecting story" is the novel that reviewer David Pitt thinks might be the breakout for Clark.

There's a large write-up for Aidan Chambers's 808 page This is All. Nineteen-year old Cordelia is crafting a pillow book for her unborn daughter as a way to share the story of her life. From the review: "Arguably, the book offers the most complete character study in all of young adult literature, showing readers the life, mind and soul of a teenage girl, while also giving readers, full-dress portraits of her baby's father, her friends, her famly and - most satisfyingly - her English teacher and mentor, Julie. Cordelia records not only her love for these people but also for Shakespeare, for poetry, for words. ..Cordelia records it all because she wants to know everything about herself and her way of understanding is writing...Ultimately, this novel is more than a mere piece de resistance; it is the masterpiece of one of young-adult literature's greatest living writers."

How in the heck do you resist that?!

Finally, after following up on my recommendation for the sweet YA book, Dairy Queen (loved it!), Jenny D gives us all a recommendation for Benighted, a wickedly cool sounding werewolf novel. This one is now on my list for sure!