Imprint Friday: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Most of you already know how much I love Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters. As I said in my review, this debut novel is "about a loving family that sometimes struggles to find common ground and sisters who try to balance friendship with competition and jealousy."

Here is the publisher's summary:

"There is no problem that a library card can't solve. "

The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. "See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much." But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.

Normally at this point I tell you why I wanted to shine the spotlight on today's featured title. But for The Weird Sisters, let me say simply that I loved the characters and their family, I loved that Shakespeare has an answer to everything, and I loved how quickly and solidly I got lost in story. Even if you've never read the Bard, you'll be able to relate to the Andreas family. As I wrote in my review, Brown "has beautifully captured sibling relationships [and] has also created an authentic picture of the confusing, conflicting years of young adulthood."

Apparently I'm not the only one recommending The Weird Sisters because yesterday author Eleanor Brown announced some exciting statistics on Twitter, among them were

• #15 on the New York Times Best Sellers List
• #15 on on the IndieBound Indie Bestsellers List
• #9 on the New England Indie Bestseller List

And here are some thoughts from reviewers:

• The Miami Herald concludes: "That’s Brown’s great gift: She draws you in and makes you believe her weird sisters aren’t so weird after all."
• Norah Piehl, writing for the Bookreporter.com said: "The Weird Sisters is both a loving portrait of a family of inveterate readers and a complicated inquiry into the nature of fate and the bonds of family."
• Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves assures readers: "Even if you don’t have a sister, if you are a single child, I guarantee you will learn something from this stunning debut."

The Weird Sisters was an Indie Next pick for February 2011. To learn more about Eleanor Brown, visit her blog or website. She is also one of the 2011 featured authors on the Debutante Ball Blog, where she writes a weekly post.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

The Weird Sisters at an Indie

The Weird Sisters at Powell's

The Weird Sisters at Book Depository
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Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, January 2011
ISBN-13: 9780399157226