What Should I Read Next? February 2012 Edition

Good day readers! I have a massively huge TBR - so many books to read and review - it's hard to decide what to read next. I need your help!

I've selected five books from the pile that I'm looking forward to reading. Now you get to pick which one I'll read next!


In Search of the Fuller Brush Man

Sean Marcum is driven to find the meaning of his mother's swan song. The last words she wrote in her journal were, "Fuller Brush Man". She always communicated life's most important lessons via riddles, and he is convinced this is her finale. Sadly, Sean was never good at solving riddles, and his quest turns into an obsession, nearly costing him his marriage, and his life.

Sean's high school sweetheart, Kim, had a special bond with his mother. She was also a master at riddles. The one-time lovers have been married to others for more than 30 years. Kim's marriage has been picture perfect, Sean's not so much. Upon Kim's death from breast cancer, Sean receives a memoir she penned celebrating their failed relationship. Her book, The Road to Monticello, contains the secret to a long, happy relationship for which Sean so desperately searches. It is a lesson all of us should take to heart.


Sheet Music

Rocky Eden is a concert pianist who's too depressed to perform, and for good reason. His young daughter lies in a coma, on life support -- while his seemingly-aloof wife withholds a secret that affects her ability to express her love. That's when a sexy young woman named Destiny Muse enters Rocky's life, determined to cure his depression and get him back on the stage. But Rocky wants more from Destiny than that. He wants her to show him how to save his marriage. Is this a recipe for love or a recipe for disaster?

Due to some mature content, this nearly 44,000-word novella is for adult readers only.


The List

THE LIST is a bit of a departure for Konrath. It's a technothriller about a group of ten people who each have tattoos of numbers on the bottoms their feet, and don't know why.

One of them, a Chicago Homicide cop named Tom Mankowski, has had one of these strange tattoos since birth. When he investigates a violent murder and discovers the victim also has a tattooed number, it sets the ball rolling for an adventure of historic proportions.

To say more would give away too much.


Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

There are many words to describe Michael J. Fox: Actor. Husband. Father. Activist. But readers of Always Looking Up will soon add another to the list: Optimist. Michael writes about the hard-won perspective that helped him see challenges as opportunities. Instead of building walls around himself, he developed a personal policy of engagement and discovery: an emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual outlook that has served him throughout his struggle with Parkinson's disease. Michael's exit from a very demanding, very public arena offered him the time-and the inspiration-to open up new doors leading to unexpected places. One door even led him to the center of his own family, the greatest destination of all.


The Righteous

When a brutal murder shocks the polygamist enclave of Blister Creek, Utah, church elders call in Jacob Christianson, a medical student and the favored son of a church elder. Jacob must solve the murder while protecting his young sister Eliza from marriage to one of three old men jostling for power within the church hierarchy.

Jacob discovers that the murdered woman has been killed in accordance with secret blood oaths taken within the polygamist temple. Together with his sister, he uncovers a plot to overthrow the church leadership, with murders that reach beyond the community and into the "gentile" world. The Righteous is a heart-pounding suspense-thriller with a depth that will haunt the reader long after the last page is turned.

Vote below to tell me which book to read next, and stay tuned for my review at the end of the month!



UPDATE: The votes are in. An overwhelming majority has selected In Search of the Fuller Brush Man by Douglas Carlyle. Stay tuned for my review in March!

And don't forget to tell me what you're reading this month. I'm always looking for new reads. Bloggers, feel free to link up a post about what you're reading in February!