You know, I bring books to every Slog Happy. And it seems like every time, I bring the books that people request from the time before. Last time, people requested young adult books. This time, people did not seem to like like the young adult books. I will try harder next time. And here, free of charge, is a Slog Happy tip: The really awesome books disappear within two minutes of my putting them on the table, so you should show up early.

There are two books that none of you wanted. One does not surprise me, and one does. Come Sunday, by Isla Morley, is the one that doesn't surprise me. Here is what MacMillan says about the book:

A wonderful new storyteller unleashes a soaring debut that sweeps from the hills of Hawaii to the veldt of South Africa.

Come Sunday is that joyous, special thing: a saga that captivates from the very first page, breaking our hearts while making our spirits soar.

Abbe Deighton is a woman who has lost her bearings. Once a child of the African plains, she is now settled in Hawaii, married to a minister, and waging her battles in a hallway of monotony. There is the leaky roof, the chafing expectations of her husband’s congregation, and the constant demands of motherhood. But in an instant, beginning with the skid of tires, Abbe’s battlefield is transformed when her three-year-old daughter is killed, triggering in Abbe a seismic grief that will cut a swath through the landscape of her life and her identity.

What an enthralling debut this is! What a storyteller we have here!

Talk about laying it on thick. The second book, the one that looks like it could be good, is Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn, by Alice Mattison.

One quiet spring day in 1989, Constance Tepper arrives from Philadelphia to watch over her mother's Brooklyn apartment and her orange cat. Con's mother, Gert, has left town to visit her old friend Marlene Silverman in Rochester. Marlene has always seemed alluring and powerful to Con, and ever since Con was a little girl, the long-standing bond between Gert and Marlene has piqued her curiosity. Now she finds herself wondering again what keeps them together.

Con's week in Brooklyn will take a surprising turn when she wakes to find that someone has entered her mother's apartment and her own purse is missing. Stranded, with no money, she begins to phone family and friends. By the end of that week, she will experience a series of troubling discoveries about her marriage, her job, and her family's history, and much of her life will be changed forever.

These two books will be going away to Value Village next door, where maybe someone will decide to take them home and love them. I hope everyone enjoys the books they got.