Before I Go to Sleep
Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle Edition
By S.J. Watson
Harper Collins
Release date: June 14, 2011

Before I Go to Sleep is the thrilling debut novel by S.J. Watson (watch the book trailer below). Here’s a little back-story on how I found this gem in that vast pile of rubble known as the internet. A couple of months ago while perusing one of the countless advice-for-writers websites I’ve been known to haunt, I stumbled upon an ad in the sidebar for a book. Like most people who spend too much idle time online, I’ve trained myself to ignore most ad content that isn’t flashing, twirling, or talking at me on autoplay. But this was a simple book ad with a picture of a book cover, a title, and an unfamiliar author’s name. I’ve probably seen thousands of them. But something made me click on S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep. An hour later, I’d read the synopsis and then a very generous excerpt of the book and had totally forgotten the website that linked me to this treasure or whatever writing advice I’d hoped to glean from it. I knew I had to buy this book and immediately added it to my ever-growing list of “must-reads.”

Practical Jean
By Trevor Cole
Paperback | Kindle
Harper Perennial
Release Date: October 11, 2011

In Practical Jean, Jean Vale Horemarsh lives a nice small town life with her not so wonderful husband and her small town friends. After taking care of her dying mother, Jean has a change of heart on how to live life. She thinks that people should die at the happiest moments of life rather than growing old and dying of an illness. Jean decides to give this gift of dying at your happiest moment to her best friends. She decides that she has to kill her friends.

When I first read the description for this book, it sounded like something very new and creative to read. I started to read the book and it took me a few chapters to really dig into the story. After reading for some time, I found myself enjoying where the story was going.

Aloha From Hell
Hardcover | Kindle
A Sandman Slim Novel
Written by Richard Kadrey
HarperCollins Voyager
Release date October 18, 2011

Aloha from Hell is the third book in the Sandman Slim series from Richard Kadrey and it is one hell of a ride. Wise cracking antihero and nephilim (that’s half human, half angel to you) Jim Stark, A.K.A. Sandman Slim, has been to Hell before. In fact, he spent eleven years down there as a killing machine. He hasn’t been back in Los Angeles for very long before he’s called upon to help find a missing boy who’s possessed by an unknown demon, which is odd because Stark and his friends thought they knew all the demons already. He really doesn’t want the job, but when all signs in the case start pointing toward a personal vendetta against Stark, he knows who’s behind it and fully intends to put that guy out of business permanently with the help of the Kissi, another particularly fierce species which doesn’t quite belong anywhere and stink like vinegar.

William Peter Blatty recently brought a revised and expanded version of his blockbuster horror novel The Exorcist back to stores in celebration of the 40th anniversary since his spectacularly chilling story took the world by storm and became the basis of a classic film that to this day remains one of the scariest movies ever made. HarperCollins released The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition in hardcover and eBook on October 4, 2011.

Continue reading for information on the updates in this new edition, as well as a lengthy note released by author.

Domestic Violets
By Matthew Norman
Paperback | Kindle
Harper Perennial
Release Date: August 9, 2011

Have you wished that you’d have everything you ever wanted by the time you reached a certain age? Meet Tom Violet, he’s just like you. He wants to be rich and famous with a gorgeous wife and a career as a novelist by the age of 35. Well, Tom is 35 now and has a beautiful wife, but hasn’t become a successful novelist like his Pulitzer Prize-winning father. He’s written a novel which sits in a desk and Tom works a soul crushing job that he doesn’t love. Did I also mention he has a crush on his young female co-worker? Tom Violet’s life is not the one he wanted but he’s going to try to change it.