Sentenced to Be Read: January 2016

Do you play games with the titles of your books? Or is it just me? Check out these sentences made up of the titles of recommended books released this month:

• After the Crash: A plane carrying two babies crashes, and the sole survivor is one of those infants. Both families claim the girl, but who is she really? And what are the repercussions when she becomes a young adult? Psychological suspense. (Hachette)
• River Road: A college professor is accused of killing one of her students in a hit-and-run. Did she do it? A twisty psychological thriller. (Touchstone)
• Midnight in Broad Daylight: A fresh look at the long-ranging effects of World War II and Hiroshima on an Japanese-American family. Nonfiction / history. (Harper)
• Traveler: Second entry in a young adult fantasy series: expect good action, a quest, and coming-of-age elements. (Delacorte Press)
• The Road Back: A world-traveling journalist gives up his career to return to his Australian roots. Can he and his teenage daughter find a new future? General fiction. (St. Martin's Griffin)
• The Past: Four adult siblings and their children unite at their family's vacation house for one last time. Jealousies, secrets, and family history come to a head. General fiction. (Harper)
• Where My Heart Used to Beat: A British psychiatrist coping with the lingering effects of the great wars of the twentieth century opens up to a colleague. Working together will they find the key to peace and redemption? Literary fiction. (Henry Holt)

• Lay Down Your Weary Tune: A songwriter / music journalist has a chance to write the biography of one of his heroes. Perfect for the folk music crowd, this novel, set in a Vermont artist community, explores myth making and self-discovery. General fiction. (Other Press)
• The Blue Line: Founded on historical events, this is a story of a young woman who becomes entangled in Argentina's Dirty War. Elements of magical realism and themes of hope, freedom, and fate. (Penguin Press)
• The Narrow Door: In this memoir, Lisicky focuses on the two most important people in his adult life: one a friend and the other his ex-husband. He explores both the joys of building strong relationships and the heartbreak of losing the people we love. (Graywolf)
• The Things We Keep: An emotional novel about two thirty-somethings who are beginning to show symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer's. (St. Martin's Press)
• The Interstellar Age: The subtitle says it all: "The Story of the NASA Men and Women Who Flew the Forty-Year Voyager Mission." Nonfiction / history for space nerds (like me). (Dutton)
• Even Dogs in the Wild: Scottish detective John Rebus is not enjoying retirement, so when he's offered a chance to be a consultant on a murder investigation, he doesn't hesitate. Everything you've come to expect in this great mystery series. (Little, Brown)