ARCs I need to read

Since one of my bookish resolutions for 2018 was to cut down on ARCs, I’m trying very hard to get caught up – I only have 7 left!  So this post is partially for my own reference, so I can just have these all in one place to make sure I can get to them before their publication dates.  But if you’re curious about some of the books I’ll be reading and reviewing soon, check it out.

Also, I just noticed that all of these ARCs are by women, so that’s cool.

Currently reading:

Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon
Publisher: Scribner
Publication date: February 6, 2018
Received from: physical ARC from publisher
Goodreads summary: “A compulsively readable and electrifying debut about an ambitious young female artist who accidentally photographs a boy falling to his death—an image that could jumpstart her career, but would also devastate her most intimate friendship.

Lu Rile is a relentlessly focused young photographer struggling to make ends meet. Working three jobs, responsible for her aging father, and worrying that the crumbling warehouse she lives in is being sold to developers, she is at a point of desperation. One day, in the background of a self-portrait, Lu accidentally captures on film a boy falling past her window to his death. The photograph turns out to be startlingly gorgeous, the best work of art she’s ever made. It’s an image that could change her life…if she lets it.”
Current thoughts: I’m loving this.  It’s compelling and uncomfortable, and this anti-heroine is absolutely ruthless.

EDIT: ★★★★★ Review HERE.

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Publication date: February 6, 2018
Received from: e-ARC from Penguin First to Read
Goodreads summary: “A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie O’Farrell. It is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose?”
Current Thoughts: I’ve only read the first chapter, but I think I’m going to really like this.  I haven’t read anything else by O’Farrell, but I’m loving her writing style.  And being the morbid individual I am, I couldn’t pass up on a book with a premise like this.

EDIT: ★★★★☆ Review HERE.

To read:

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: February 13, 2018
Received from: e-ARC from Netgalley
Goodreads summary: “Zadie Anson and Emma Colley have been best friends since their early twenties, when they first began navigating serious romantic relationships amid the intensity of medical school. Now they’re happily married wives and mothers with successful careers–Zadie as a pediatric cardiologist and Emma as a trauma surgeon. Their lives in Charlotte, North Carolina are chaotic but fulfilling, until the return of a former colleague unearths a secret one of them has been harboring for years.

As chief resident, Nick Xenokostas was the center of Zadie’s life–both professionally and personally–throughout a tragic chain of events in her third year of medical school that she has long since put behind her. Nick’s unexpected reappearance during a time of new professional crisis shocks both women into a deeper look at the difficult choices they made at the beginning of their careers. As it becomes evident that Emma must have known more than she revealed about circumstances that nearly derailed both their lives, Zadie starts to question everything she thought she knew about her closest friend.”

EDIT: ★★★☆☆ Review HERE.

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Publisher: Grove Press
Publication date: February 13, 2018
Received from: e-ARC from Netgalley
Goodreads summary: “An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born “with one foot on the other side.” Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.

Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves–now protective, now hedonistic–move into control, Ada’s life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.

Narrated by the various selves within Ada and based in the author’s realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.”

EDIT: ★★★★★ Review HERE.

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication date: March 6, 2018
Received from: physical ARC from publisher
Goodreads summary: “A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship between two girls who are driven apart but never stop trying to find one another again.

When Poornima first meets Savitha, she feels something she thought she lost for good when her mother died: hope. Poornima’s father hires Savitha to work one of their sari looms, and the two girls are quickly drawn to one another. Savitha is even more impoverished than Poornima, but she is full of passion and energy. She shows Poornima how to find beauty in a bolt of indigo cloth, a bowl of yogurt rice and bananas, the warmth of friendship. Suddenly their Indian village doesn’t feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to lock down for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend again. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India’s underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face relentless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them.”

EDIT: ★★☆☆☆ Review HERE.

Happiness by Aminatta Forna
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date: March 6, 2018
Received from: e-ARC from Netgalley
Goodreads summary: “London. A fox makes its way across Waterloo Bridge. The distraction causes two pedestrians to collide–Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes, and Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist there to deliver a keynote speech. From this chance encounter, Aminatta Forna’s unerring powers of observation show how in the midst of the rush of a great city lie numerous moments of connection.

Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma, as he has done many times before; and to contact the daughter of friends, his “niece” who hasn’t called home in a while. Ama has been swept up in an immigration crackdown, and now her young son Tano is missing.

When, by chance, Attila runs into Jean again, she mobilizes the network of rubbish men she uses as volunteer fox spotters. Security guards, hotel doormen, traffic wardens–mainly West African immigrants who work the myriad streets of London–come together to help. As the search for Tano continues, a deepening friendship between Attila and Jean unfolds.”

EDIT: ★★★☆☆ Review HERE.

Circe by Madeline Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co
Publication date: April 10, 2018
Received from: physical ARC from publisher
Goodreads summary: “In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe has neither the look nor the voice of divinity, and is scorned and rejected by her kin. Increasingly isolated, she turns to mortals for companionship, leading her to discover a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft.

When love drives Circe to cast a dark spell, wrathful Zeus banishes her to the remote island of Aiaia. There she learns to harness her occult craft, drawing strength from nature. But she will not always be alone; many are destined to pass through Circe’s place of exile, entwining their fates with hers. The messenger god, Hermes. The craftsman, Daedalus. A ship bearing a golden fleece. And wily Odysseus, on his epic voyage home.

There is danger for a solitary woman in this world, and Circe’s independence draws the wrath of men and gods alike. To protect what she holds dear, Circe must decide whether she belongs with the deities she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.”

EDIT: ★★★☆☆ Review HERE.

---

 

Have you guys read any of these yet?  If so, let me know what you thought of them!