Books You Need to Read ASAP: ‘Lying in Wait’ By Liz Nugent, ‘Defying Limits Lessons from the Edge of the Universe’ By Dave Williams and ‘Katerina’ By James Frey

‘Lying in Wait’ By Liz Nugent
The second heart stopping suspense novel by international bestselling author Liz Nugent—filled with dark secrets, twisted relationships, and unexpected surprises.
My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.
In 1980s Dublin, Lydia Fitzsimons seems to have the perfect life—wife of Andrew, a respected judge, and mistress of Avalon, the beautiful house where she grew up. Her pride and joy, however, is her only child, her son Laurence, to whom she is utterly, obsessively devoted.
But her husband’s murder of Annie Doyle, accidental or not, sets into motion a dark downward spiral. No one knows what Lydia and Andrew were doing with a drug-addled prostitute late at night on a deserted stretch of the strand near Dublin, but they stuffed her body into the trunk of their car and buried it in their tidy suburban garden, hoping that will put the matter to rest. Annie was a junkie from the wrong side of the tracks; surely no one will miss her or care to find out what happened to her.
Except that Annie has a sister. Her twin, Karen, who has fared much better in life, is desperate to find her. And when Karen crosses paths with Laurence, isolated and lonely, things begin to unravel. Laurence may be overweight and ungainly and bullied at school, but he’s more clever than he’s given credit for. He knows that something is very, very wrong in the Fitzsimons household—and he is determined to discover the truth…
http://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Lying-in-Wait/Liz-Nugent/9781501191299
Review:
Nugent’s ‘Lying in Wait’ is a perfect long weekend, you can read it quickly and it will give you all the joys of a book well read. Think intrigue, mystery and moments where you will hope the characters will not do what you know they are going to end up doing but you don’t want them to do. Nugent is a pro at building an exquisite arc and characters that are rich, troubled a little bit crazy at holding their own secrets that are slowly revealed on their terms. ‘Lying in Wait’ maybe a book you think you read in the past but will prove rather quickly in its dark murkiness and suspenseful pull that it is clearly a game changer on the scene!

‘Defying Limits Lessons from the Edge of the Universe’ By Dave Williams
An inspirational, uplifting, and life-affirming memoir about passion, resilience and living life to the fullest, from Dr. Dave Williams, one of Canada’s most accomplished astronauts.
I had dreamt about becoming an astronaut from the time I watched Alan Shepard launch on the first American sub-orbital flight on May 5, 1961. Eleven days before my seventh birthday, I committed to a new goal: one day, I would fly in outer space.
Dr. Dave has led the sort of life that most people only dream of. He has set records for spacewalking. He has lived undersea for weeks at a time. He has saved lives as an emergency doctor, launched into the stratosphere twice, and performed surgery in zero gravity.
But if you ask him how he became so accomplished, he’ll say: “I’m just a curious kid from Saskatchewan.” Curious indeed.
Dr. Dave never lost his desire to explore nor his fascination with the world. Whether he was exploring the woods behind his childhood home or floating in space at the end of the Canadarm, Dave tried to see every moment of his life as filled with beauty and meaning. He learned to scuba dive at only twelve years old, became a doctor despite academic struggles as an undergraduate, and overcame stiff odds and fierce competition to join the ranks of the astronauts he had idolized as a child.
There were setbacks and challenges along the way—the loss of friends in the Columbia disaster, a cancer diagnosis that nearly prevented him from returning to space—but through it all, Dave never lost sight of his goal. And when he finally had the chance to fly among the stars, he came to realize that although the destination can be spectacular, it’s the journey that truly matters.
In Defying Limits, Dave shares the events that have defined his life, showing us that whether we’re gravity-defying astronauts or earth-bound terrestrials, we can all live an infinite, fulfilled life by relishing the value and importance of each moment. The greatest fear that we all face is not the fear of dying, but the fear of never having lived. Each of us is greater than we believe. And, together, we can exceed our limits to soar farther and higher than we ever imagined.
http://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Defying-Limits/Dave-Williams/9781501160950
Review:
Move over Chris Hadfield, Dave Williams needs a minute of your reader time. If you want to change up your optimism lens this summer as we head into a new school year and work quarter, ‘Defying Limits’ is for you. It’s hard to find an autobiography that really walks the walk and shows you the behind the scenes of not only a demanding lifetime of a career but what we as humans can learn from our mistakes and others. ‘Defying Limits’ is indeed the story of a talented astronaut, doctor and scientist but also a story of a family man who speaks to us of what it means to let go of our own insecurities and perhaps create a space for change not only for ourselves but for the community around us – be it on earth or what lies beyond our earth. Aim high is truly given a new meaning through Williams’s words and story. A book that will leave you reflecting for a few days after you finish reading it.

‘Katerina’ By James Frey
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning comes Katerina, James Frey’s highly anticipated new novel set in 1992 Paris and contemporary Los Angeles.
A kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, the explosive new novel by America’s most controversial writer, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2018.
At its center are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, reckless, impulsive, addicted, and deeply in love. Twenty-five years later, the writer is rich, famous, and numb, and he wants to drive his car into a tree, when he receives an anonymous message that draws him back to the life, and possibly the love, he abandoned years prior. Written in the same percussive, propulsive, dazzling, breathtaking style as A Million Little Pieces, Katerina echoes and complements that most controversial of memoirs, and plays with the same issues of fiction and reality that created, nearly destroyed, and then recreated James Frey in the American imagination.
http://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Katerina/James-Frey/9781982109202
Review:
I had some reservations reading Frey’s latest ‘Katerina’. But man was I wrong! Talk about redemption and a book that is transformational not only as a Writer but through a truly fresh way of story telling. I was taken back to a time in my youth to relive not only the debauchery of what was but also meeting similar folks that I may have bumped into in 90’s Paris when I was in my 20’s. Indeed full of deep introspective moments and affairs that run far deeper than the heart and soul – ‘Katerina’ will leave you aghast with its nods to intimacy, social media lures and a sadness that runs the breath of the novel but you just can’t place it until the end. Frey is a storyteller without a traditional writer’s pen – but yet again, like his previous controversial work he will take you on a tour in time that will not only deeply resonate with you but will also remind you of what you may have lost and wonder what became of those losses?