Please post your nominees for August 2009 Books of the Month on this thread. Please limit your nominations to two books per member.

Got me some research to do. Want to find authors I haven't read before...

I would like to nominate 2 books this month. Both suggestions came from a friend of mine. He highly recommands both.

Life of Pi

and

Snow Falling on Cedars

My mother and sister both read Life of Pi and loved it.

My nominees for August 2009 Books of the Month are the following:

Angel with Attitude by Michelle Rowen*

Quote from front cover: "A charming hilarious book! I'm insanely jealous I didn't write it." MaryJanice Davidson on Bitten & Smitten.

Canadian author Rowen is well known to romance fans with her Immortality Bites (IB) series, but with five books in that series, and knowing many people have already read her, book 1 of IB didn’t seem like a good selection as a book of month. Angel with Attitude on the other hand is a stand-alone novel about an angel kicked out of heaven and into the killer whale tank at MarineLand in Niagara Falls, Canada. She gets a job as a maid at the Paradise Inn and begins a quest to get back into heaven. She has to deal with an assortment of colorful supporting characters (a Rowen trademark) as well as sexy Temptor Demon Nathaniel, whose mission is to tempt her into service for the other team. I haven’t read this one, but it is on my TBR list no matter whether it is selected or not. So, I figured why not nominate this book, and give others the chance to discover the creative talent of Michelle Rowen.

*Rowen is winner of the 2007 Holt Medallion for Best First Book (Bitten & Smitten, IB, Book 1) and 2009 Vice President of the Toronto Romance Writers.

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh*

Quote from back cover: “Nalini Singh is a major new talent.” Christine Feehan

New Zealand author Nalini Singh is also well known to romance fans for her Psy-Changeling Series, but with five books already in that series and a sixth Psy-Changeling book due out July 7, 2009, I didn’t think that was a place to explore this author’s craft. Angels’ Blood (AB) is the first book in her new Guild Hunter series. This series has been described as “more urban fantasy suspense than romance.” The universe of AB was described on the author’s web site as “a dark new world where lethal, beautiful archangels hold sway over immortals and mortals both, with the Guild Hunters caught in between, tasked with retrieving those vampires who break contracts with their angelic masters.” Elena Deveraux is the best hunter in the guild and has come to the attention of the archangel Raphael. This time, however, Elena has been tasked with tracking an archangel “gone bad.” To again quote the back cover, “the job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other . . .”

*Singh is nominated for a 2009 RITA for Paranormal Romance for Mine to Possess (Psy-Changeling series, Book 4) and is to be speaker at the Annual Conference of the Romance Writers of New Zealand, August 21-23, 2009, Auckland, New Zealand.

Wow, great suggestions, Ladies! The four of them look awesome!

Here's what I came up with:

Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

John Taylor is not a private detective per se, but he has a knack for finding lost things. That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.

For John Taylor, there's no place like home...

---------------------------------------------------------------

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out....

Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

A fun, fast, funny, and wonderfully intriguing blend of vampire and mystery that's hard to put down, and should not be missed. (Susan Sizemore)

Praise for Charlaine Harris:

Harris writes neatly and with assurance. (New York Times Book Review)

An author of rare talents. (Publishers Weekly)

Here are suggestions:

- Everything Must go by Elizabeth Flock

and

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

I second Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh.

I would like to nominate -
Burning Alive

Marnie, thank you for posting Burning Alive! Goes to show how little attention I was paying. Ha! I'd read her Delta Force trilogy (very good!) and hadn't realized Burning Alive was even out! Thanks again!

August Suggestions

Freudian Slip by Erica Orloff
How To Knit a Wild Bikini by Christie Ridgway