As you know, I bring a ton of advance reader copies to Slog Happy so that commenters can take them home, read them, and review them for all of us. Almost all of the stack of books that I brought this time were taken, except for two sad books. These are those books:

The first is Greasy Rider, by Greg Melville, a book that I have now received five times in the mail, begging for review. I just can't bring myself to read any book with the subtitle "Two Dudes, One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future." Here is what Newsweek had to say about Greasy Rider:

"Melville's tale of a cross-country drive in a decades-old Mercedes converted to run on used cooking oil is... a hopeful, goodhearted portrait of those he meets—be they Minnesota wind farmers or hippie diesel mechanics — who are getting a head start on building the post-carbon future, a tomorrow fueled by a refreshing optimism, as well as by grease."

The second book is The Richest Season, by Maryann McFadden.

Here is what the publisher has to say about this book:

Sometimes you have to leave your life to find yourself again . . .

After more than a dozen moves in twenty-five years of marriage, Joanna Harrison is lonely and tired of being a corporate wife. Her children are grown and gone, her husband is more married to his job than to her, and now they're about to pack up once more. Panicked at the thought of having to start all over again, Joanna commits the first irresponsible act of her life. She runs away to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a place she's been to just once.

She finds a job as a live-in companion to Grace Finelli, a widow who has come to the island to fulfill a girlhood dream. Together the two women embark on the most difficult journey of their lives: Joanna struggling for independence, roots, and a future of her own, as her family tugs at her from afar; and Grace, choosing to live the remainder of her life for herself alone, knowing she may never see her children again...Joanna, however, is moving farther away from her old life as she joins a group dedicated to rescuing endangered loggerhead turtles, led by a charismatic fisherman unlike anyone she's ever met...(I)t will resonate with any woman who's ever fantasized about leaving home to find herself.

Ordinarily, I'm pretty happy with the books I bring to Slog Happy, but these ones completely deserved to be skipped over. Good job, Slog Happy people! If anyone actually does want to read these books, they'll be next door, at Value Village, forever.