Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Waiting to Read Wednesday: Island Queen / Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead / Dying Is My Business


The New
Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by the marvelous Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss upcoming release we are excited about that we have yet to read.


Island Queen
by Vanessa Riley
Release Date: July 6, 2021 by William Morrow
A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.

Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.

From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite,
Island Queen is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid eighteenth-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history. [Goodreads Summary]
Why I want to read this: How can I not want to read Island Queen after reading that synopsis? Dorothy Kirwan Thomas sounds like an amazing person. 


Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
by Emily R. Austin

Release Date: July 6, 2021 by Atria Books
This hilarious and profound debut for fans of Mostly Dead Things and Goodbye, Vitamin follows a morbidly anxious young woman who stumbles into a job as a receptionist at a Catholic church and becomes obsessed with her predecessor’s mysterious death.

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.

In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.

A delightful blend of warmth, deadpan humor, and pitch-perfect observations about the human condition,
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling exploration of what it takes to stay afloat in a world where your expiration—and the expiration of those you love—is the only certainty.  [Goodreads Summary]
Why I want to read this: The title of this one first caught my attention and after reading the synopsis, well, I really want to read it!


Does either of these books interest you? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to reading?

★                          ★                          ★

The Old(er) 
I have an embarrassing number of unread books sitting on the shelves in my personal library. Carole of Carole's Random Life in Books has given me the perfect excuse to spotlight and discuss those neglected books in her Books from the Backlog feature. After all, even those older books need a bit of love! Not to mention it is reminding me what great books I have waiting for me under my own roof still to read!


Dying Is My Business
(#1) Nicholas Kaufmann
(St. Martin's Griffin, 2013)
Given his line of work in the employ of a psychotic Brooklyn crime boss, Trent finds himself on the wrong end of too many bullets. Yet each time he’s killed, he wakes a few minutes later completely healed of his wounds but with no memory of his past identity. What’s worse, each time he cheats death someone else dies in his place.

Sent to steal an antique box from some squatters in an abandoned warehouse near the West Side Highway, Trent soon finds himself stumbling into an age-old struggle between the forces of good and evil, revealing a secret world where dangerous magic turns people into inhuman monstrosities, where impossible creatures hide in plain sight, and where the line between the living and the dead is never quite clear. And when the mysterious box is opened, he discovers he has only twenty-four hours to save New York City from certain destruction. [Goodreads Summary]

Why I want to read this: I seem to have a lot of books on my Kindle that have been hiding there since 2013. This is one of them. It sounds like it will be a good one.  


Have you read Dying Is My Business?  Does this book sound like something you would like to read? 

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30 comments:

  1. Oh hello, Dying is my Business sound like the sort of adventure I could get lost in!

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    1. Verushka - It does sound good, doesn't it? I can't believe I forgot I had that one! Thank you for visiting.

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  2. I read Dying is My Business when it came out, and I really enjoyed it! These all sound really good:-)

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    1. Tammy - I am glad to hear you enjoyed Dying Is My Business. It does sound fun. Thank you for stopping by!

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  3. I love the sound of Dying is My Business! I'd read that one. :D

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    1. Lark - Hopefully it will be a good one! Thank you for visiting. :-)

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  4. Love the cover on the first one, and it sounds good. Hope you get a hold of these books soon!
    Lisa Loves Literature

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    1. Lisa - I hope so too! Thank you for stopping by. :-)

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  5. These all sound so good, but I'm especially drawn to Island Queen. I'm not familiar with Dorothy Kirwan Thomas but I already want to know more about her just from reading that synopsis.

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    1. Suzanne - I wasn't either until hearing about The Island Queen. I cannot wait to read it. Thank you for visiting!

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  6. Island Queen looks amazing and I definitely want to learn more about Dorothy Kirwan Thomas. She sounds like an interesting woman.

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  7. Great list. Island Queen by Vanessa Riley sure looks good!

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  8. These all look good. The Island Queen has a great cover.

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  9. Dying Is My Business sounds the best to me.

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    1. Mary - Hopefully it will be good. :-) Thank you for visiting!

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  10. Island Queen sounds fantastic! I don't remember seeing Dying Is My Business before but it sounds like something that I would read.

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    1. Carole - I am really looking forward to The Island Queen. Thank you for stopping by!

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  11. They all sound interesting, but Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead sounds very intriguing. I hope you enjoy them all Wendy.

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  12. Dying Is My Business sounds so good! I want to read it now. Thanks for sharing! :)

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    1. Ashley - I hope you like it if you do decide to read it! Thank you for stopping by. :-)

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  13. I'm interested in "Dying Is My Business" as the premise sounds so intriguing!

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  14. All three books appeal to me. Thanks for sharing them. Hope you enjoy them when you get to them!

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  15. With over 4,000 books on my Kindle, I'll be sifting through my backlog for quite awhile :) I hope you enjoy these books!

    -Megan | Bookstacks & Golden Moms

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    1. Megan - I know what you mean. I'm in a similar position. But what a great problem to have, right? Thank you for stopping by!

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