Reviewing the Mail: Week of 5/28

For those of us in 'murrica, today is a holiday -- and I bet the bulk of my readership (such as it is in these lesser days) is 'murrican. But "Reviewing the Mail" goes on every Monday, like some pointless Energizer Bunny of the Internet, and so I have a book to tell you about today.

(To remind you all: this weekly post lists the books that arrived the week before, to help you find things to buy and love and clutch to your bosom forever. I very rarely have read any of those books or know anything particularly deep about them.)

The one book that arrived last week is The Mermaid's Secret by Katie Schickel, a contemporary fantasy with possible chick-lit roots. ("Chick-lit" is so dismissive, but I don't know a better term for stories about young women trying to find their way in the world. Bildungsroman doesn't quite fit for people already grown-up. But, to be honest, we don't give similar books about young men a specific name -- they're just considered "literature," most of the time -- so maybe women should get the same pass.) Anyway, Jess Creary is a twentysomething stuck in life -- her sister died two years ago, her mother has disappeared, she's flipping burgers on a fishing boat to pay the bills, and the only thing she really wants to do is surf. But then one night the perfect wave transforms her into a mermaid -- as it does, you know -- and she first glories in a new exciting life and then, inevitably, has to choose between the briny blue and humanity. Mermaid's Secret will be available June 14th in most of your modern book formats: hardcovers, softer covers, and several flavors of free-flowing electrons.