No talky! :nono:

Giz's reveal:

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

Synopsis
When Lena Fleet goes to college, she makes three promises to God: she will stop fornicating with every boy she meets; never tell another lie and never, ever go back to her hometown of Possett, Alabama. All she wants from God in return is that He makes sure the body is never found! But ten years later, it looks like God's going back on His deal. Lena's high school archenemy appears on her doorstep, looking for the golden haired football god who disappeared during their senior year. To make matters worse, her African American boyfriend has issued her with an ultimatum -- introduce him to her lily-white family or he's gone! While she would rather burn in a fire than let him meet her steel magnolia Aunt Florence, her half-mad Mama, her sweet-as-pecan-pie cousin Clarice and the rest of her eccentric and racist family, Lena realises it is time to go home to Alabama and confront the past once and for all!

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5052963

Cheesy's reveal:

Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean by Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2122455



A funny and moving story told through the letters of two women nurturing a friendship as they are separated by distance, experience, and time.

Close friends and former college roommates, Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery promised to write when Kate's Peace Corps assignment took her to Africa. Over the course of a single year, they exchanged an offbeat and moving series of letters from rural Kenya to New York City and back again.

Kate, an idealistic teacher, meets unexpected realities ranging from poisonous snakes and vengeful cows to more serious hazards: a lack of money for education; a student body in revolt. Hilary, braving the singles scene in Manhattan, confronts her own realities, from unworthy suitors to job anxiety and first apartment woes. Their correspondence tells--with humor, warmth, and vivid personal detail--the story of two young women navigating their twenties in very different ways, and of the very special friendships we are sometimes lucky enough to find.

Sunny's reveal:

The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh

http://www.bookcrossing.com/5960642



Crime Writers Association award winner Louise Welsh follows up her hit artworld noir The Cutting Room with a slick literary suspense thriller set among the decadent domains of contemporary Berlin, Glasgow, and London.
Meet William Wilson, a foundering so-called mentalist, conjurer, and above all — despite frequently being the opening act for strippers — a master performer. When his agent books him for a string of cabaret gigs in Berlin, he's hoping his luck's on the turn. Among the showgirls and grifters of Berlin's scandalous underground, Wilson can forget his lonely heart, his muddled head, and, more important, his past. But secrets have a habit of catching up with William and as he gets in over his head with a certain brand of lucrative after-hours work, the line between what's an act and what's real starts to blur.

Bringing the seedy glamour of the burlesque scene magnificently to life, Louise Welsh's deft contemporary tale is her richest and most macabre yet. A thundering thriller of Glasgow drinking dens, Soho clubs, and dark Berlin backstreets, The Bullet Trick is also an adults-only suspense, guaranteed to keep you guessing until its final explosive flourish.

This is TBR but I hope it counts on the discovering new places front!

Azuki's reveal:

Azuki's Reveal:

Almost French
by Sarah Turnbull

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2928164



Sarah Turnbull's TV stint in Paris was only supposed to last one week. Chance had brought Sarah and Federick together, and she moved to Paris to be with her new lover.

She found that the French weren't interested in making new friends; were unwilling to discuss their jobs, hobbies, or much of anything except the food they were eating, planning to eat, or had eaten; and they wished to socialize in mixed groups-no girls' night out for them. But Frederic, with patience and aplomb, helped her overcome these obstacles, depicted in a series of vignettes that sketch many of the fascinations and foibles of becoming "almost French." This clash of cultures is, ultimately, a love story.

My Book is “The Last Time I Saw Paris” by Elizabeth Adler



Back Cover:

Her life was missing that certain je ne sais quoi.....

Paris, the most romantic city on earth, is a place of second honeymoons and newly discovered passions. It lures us with a banquet of tastes, sound, sights, and smells. And for Lara Lewis, it is the place where she and her husband once experienced love at its best. Now it is a place where forty-something Lara believes she can rekindle her marriage. She plans the most romantic adventure: to retrace her first honeymoon with her husband, visit the same sights, eat in the same restaurants, explore the same villages. But when her surgeon-husband tells her at the last minutes that there's another woman, Lara's heart is broken...almost.

...and Paris was just the place to find it!

Somewhere along the road of life, Lara has lost herself. but she makes a bold move. She decides to invite a man she hardly know to take the trip with her, a much younger man. What follows is the story of two innocent Americans stumbling through France in a madcap romantic adventure that begins with missed connections, lost luggage, and language barriers, and ends up being one woman's journey to find herself and the love that has eluded her all her life...

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/4044118

EllyMae58's reveal:

Connections by Sheila O'Flanagan




In this wonderful collection of interlinked short stories, Sheila O'Flanagan transports her readers to the Caribbean island resort of White Sands, where visitors arrive hoping their dreams will come true - which they sometimes do. In touching, poignant and delicious tales of life by the ocean Sheila introduces some of the most likeable and interesting characters she's created. There Tara, who's arrived with the man she wants to marry, only to find that an old rejected lover is planning to get in the way; Grainne, who's been sent with her husband by their children to celebrate the anniversary of a shotgun wedding twenty-five years earlier, and who thinks the time has come to move on - or has it? Rudy's on an idyllic break with his young son, which is set for an unexpected ending; and Isobel - of "Isobel's Wedding" - has arrived with no idea that her old lover Nico might be staying just next door. Romance is very much alive in the hot Caribbean nights...

GateGypsy's reveal:
Round Ireland with a Fridge



"I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of One Hundred Pounds that he cannot hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month."

ROUND IRELAND WITH A FRIDGE begins with this foolish (read: drunken) bet that Tony Hawks, a comedian from Britain, cannot hitch around Ireland while lugging a refrigerator in thirty days. Tony admits that this bet is as asinine as you can get, and accepts it for the spirit only, never wanting to say "if only" --- the refrigerator ends up costing him more than he actually stands to win.

Blessed by good weather and a spot on national radio, Tony sets off with fridge in tow, charms the people of Ireland, and gets charmed (and changed) by Ireland in return. Instead of becoming a hindrance, the fridge unexpectedly becomes a conversational and often embarrassing focal point for Tony and the people he meets along the way. During his month of hitching, Tony and the fridge meet a king, go surfing, enter a bachelor festival, and become intimate with the inside of more than a few pubs. The fridge, which usually receives more attention than Tony himself, is even blessed by a nun and christened by a bar staff.

ROUND IRELAND WITH A FRIDGE is not a travel book --- it does not describe the sights and sounds of Ireland, unless you consider the inside of a pub and scenes from the roadside "sights" (in which case, you will LOVE this book). Rather, it is a heartwarming testament to the generous people of Ireland, and an ode to how one pint-sized refrigerator can bring people together and show them a good time. Tony admits that his trip changed him, made him a better person, and his story is sure to change you, if only by adding a few more laugh lines to your face.

Tony and his "philosophy of the fridge" are charming and often laugh-out-loud-funny. His observations on Ireland, the people he meets, and life in general will make you feel as if you have found a new friend in spirit, a new country to love, and a desire to trek out into the horizon with a kitchen appliance (and a Guinness) of your own. The closing pages of this book brought a feeling that truly surprised me --- I was just as sad as Tony to see the thirty days go by.

This is a witty, well-written book, with photos!, perfect for a casual read, and sure to bring a smile or two to your face.


--- Reviewed by Joan Suszko bookreporter.com

Rootmartin's reveal is:


Yoga School Dropout by Lucy Edge




The Plan: find a guru and return a yoga goddess - a magnetic babe attracting strong and sweaty yet emotionally vulnerable men with my pretzel like body and compassionate grace.

Needless to say things didn't work out quite as planned. Yoga School Dropout describes my journey from the ad agencies of London into the arms of the Hugging Mothers and Swoony Swamis of Kerala. I encountered the Gucci'd Guru of Pune, an enlightened waiter from Rishikesh and faked an orgasm for a Tantric washing machine repairman from Byron Bay.

NMZ's reveal:




Notes from a Small Island
by Bill Bryson

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/5951425


After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such best-sellers as The Mother Tongue and Made in America, decided it was time to move back to the United States for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson's homeland - and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of modern-day Britain, and to analyze what he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, zebra crossings, and place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, and Shellow Bowells. With characteristic wit and irreverence, Bill Bryson presents the ludicrous and the endearing in equal measure. The result is a hilarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain.

camis' reveal:

A Little Twist Of Texas by Linda Raven Moore



Journal Entry

The story of BookCrosser Whiteraven13 and her solo motorcycle trip across country for the Texas Convention.

Spiderchic's reveal:



The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez

'Using rules and axioms, there will always be some propositions that can't be proved either true or false. But can this apply to murder?
Godel's Theorem of Incompleteness is familiar territory to the young South American mathematician who arrives in Oxford. Murder, however, is not. Yet barely has he greeted his elderly landlady - and her rather luscious granddaughter - when he is bidding her a posthumous farewell. Mrs Eagleton is murdered in her wheelchair. The only clue to the crime is a cryptic symbol and the words the first of the series.
It's not much to go on, but it's enough to appeal to Arthur Seldom, one of the leading minds in logic. His most famous work of philosophy contains a chapter on serial killers. This killer, clearly, has read it. And the second murder, of an elderly hospital patient, confirms that his methods of killing are deliberately designed to appeal to mathematicians. And that he's an intellectual megalomaniac...'


TBR next

AM's reveal is:

Backpack
by Emily Barr




From Publishers Weekly
Giving the tired single-girl school of fiction a much-needed shot in the arm, Barr concocts a stylish, astringent antidote to the usual sugary fare. Liberated by her alcoholic mother's death, Tansy Harris plans a yearlong tour of Asia with her off-again-on-again boyfriend, Tom. When he backs out, Tansy decides that traveling solo will be fabulous: she will meditate, she will do yoga, she will develop a new cosmopolitan persona. Of course, her journey does not go as planned. The Asia that Tansy finds is impoverished, malodorous and unfashionable not at all like the Asia she has seen in travel magazines. Disappointed and lonely, she befriends a group of backpackers, a species of traveler she disdains for their lack of style (as the title suggests, this attitude will be dramatically revised). These nomads help Tansy to understand and enjoy her surroundings; they also lead her to a delightful new man named Max, although Tansy regards her tryst with him as a holiday fling. Tom is her true love never mind that Max is generous and loving while Tom is nasty and self-absorbed. This tangle gives the novel a romantic spin, but it also prods Tansy into some much-needed introspection. There is a murder mystery thrown in, which could be intrusive but is intriguing and deftly woven into the plot. While tragedy never overburdens the story, Tansy's reliance on alcohol and drugs is candidly depicted, as is her unhappy relationship with her mother. Caustically hilarious and very entertaining, the novel carries emotional impact without schmaltz and rises above the usual Britpop fluff. Barr's is a welcome new voice. (Jan.)Forecast: This debut was a bestseller in Britain, and word of its charms should spread quickly.

Redhot-Brat's reveal

BackPack by Emily Barr



From Publishers Weekly
Giving the tired single-girl school of fiction a much-needed shot in the arm, Barr concocts a stylish, astringent antidote to the usual sugary fare. Liberated by her alcoholic mother's death, Tansy Harris plans a yearlong tour of Asia with her off-again-on-again boyfriend, Tom. When he backs out, Tansy decides that traveling solo will be fabulous: she will meditate, she will do yoga, she will develop a new cosmopolitan persona. Of course, her journey does not go as planned. The Asia that Tansy finds is impoverished, malodorous and unfashionable not at all like the Asia she has seen in travel magazines. Disappointed and lonely, she befriends a group of backpackers, a species of traveler she disdains for their lack of style (as the title suggests, this attitude will be dramatically revised). These nomads help Tansy to understand and enjoy her surroundings; they also lead her to a delightful new man named Max, although Tansy regards her tryst with him as a holiday fling. Tom is her true love never mind that Max is generous and loving while Tom is nasty and self-absorbed. This tangle gives the novel a romantic spin, but it also prods Tansy into some much-needed introspection. There is a murder mystery thrown in, which could be intrusive but is intriguing and deftly woven into the plot. While tragedy never overburdens the story, Tansy's reliance on alcohol and drugs is candidly depicted, as is her unhappy relationship with her mother. Caustically hilarious and very entertaining, the novel carries emotional impact without schmaltz and rises above the usual Britpop fluff. Barr's is a welcome new voice. (Jan.)Forecast: This debut was a bestseller in Britain, and word of its charms should spread quickly.

:wink: It only seemed proper to use a book by a Brit in "Cheerio London" Swap! Hope it's a good one , as it's a TBR. I've heard lots of good things about it though. :D