You know you get too many books, when you look at the titles and can't remember requesting them. Due to a little confusion on my part, I received multiple copies of 2 books I'm looking at for Elle magazine. Since I feel like such an idiot, I decided the best thing for me to do was offer the extras up to you.

Now, I have to admit that I didn't love either of these books; in fact, one of them disturbed me so much I didn't even review it here. I admit I can sometimes be prudish and judgmental, so maybe the titles are classics-in-the making. You be the judge:

I have 1 ARC of Lima Nights by Marie Arana. My review of the book is in the post before this one. I also have 2 ARCs of The Sky Below by Stacey D'Erasmo. One is the copy I read, so it is "gently used;" the other is brand, spankin' new. The new one will go to the name I draw first. Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

From a rising literary star, "in the tradition of Carol Shields and A.S. Byatt," comes this luminous story of a contemporary man's metamorphosis.

Andrea Barrett and Michael Cunningham have lauded Stacey D'Erasmo for the beauty of her language and her ability to create worlds that leave a lasting impression. In her new novel, D'Erasmo reaches back to Ovid for inspiration in a tale of how the mythic animates our everyday lives.

At thirty-seven, Gabriel Callahan works as a halfhearted obituary writer at a fading newspaper in lower Manhattan, which, since 9/11, feels like a city of the dead. This once dreamy and appealing boy has turned from a rebellious adolescent to an adult who trades in petty crime. His wealthy, older boyfriend is indulgent of him - to a point. But after a brush with his own mortality, Gabriel must flee to Mexico in order to put himself back together. By the novel's end we know all of Gabriel's rattly little secrets; but by dint of D'Erasmos' spectacular writing, we exult in the story of an imperfect man who - tested by a world that is often too much for him - rises to meet the challenge.

Both books have graphic sex scenes and language, although Arana's is less gritty. They are both well-written - I just had trouble seeing past all the doomy, gloomy, depressing elements. I know I'm not making them sound very appealing, but they probably deserve a look-see from someone who can be more objective. If that person is you, please leave a comment and I'll enter you in the drawing. Specify which book you're interested in, or indicate you'd like to be entered for both. Because this month is getting very busy on me, I'm going to make this giveaway a litte quicker than usual. I'll draw the names of 3 winners on Wednesday, the 22nd. Good luck!

Lima Nights by Marie Arana is like the tango - exotic, passionate and dramatic. It's about two partners who, from the audience's view, move together with precision, polish and passion. Seen a little closer, through opera glasses perhaps, things are not quite as smooth. Suddenly, the dancers become people - flawed, angry and irreparably out of synch. The book ends with a disappointing finale - as a performance never should - yet it leaves an imprint, if only because of its warning.

The book begins in a Peruvian tango bar, where "gringo" Carlos Bluhm spots the lovely Maria. One of the club's dancers, she is outgoing and flirtatious, seemingly as interested in Carlos as he is in her. When she slips her number into his back pocket, she offers him an escape he can't refuse. Before he's really paused to consider the possible consequences of his action, Bluhm dials her number. He's so infatuated that he hardly cares about the differences between them - Maria is 15, a dark-skinned native, who is working two jobs to keep rice on her family's table, whereas Bluhm is a husband, father and member of Lima's high-class Germanic society. Despite warnings from his friends, he continues the affair, falling deeply and passionately for Maria. The relationship makes him feel young, needed and happy.

In a society where cheating husbands are par for the course, it's no surprise that his wife, Sophie, soon becomes suspicious. When her fears are confirmed, she leaves Bluhm to deal with the consequences of the mess into which he's gotten himself. Twenty years later, he's contemplating just how messy things between himself and Maria have become. Can he save his marriage? Does he even want to? It will take a little black magic, a little modern-day psychiatry, and a brush with death to decide the fate of the mismatched lovers. It's a sizzling, obsessive tango between two flawed dancers, that comes to a shocking conclusion on the grimy streets of Lima.

Although Lima Nights is essentially about a lecherous middle-aged man, his teenage lover, the sex they have in stolen moments, and the people they destroy in the process, I somehow managed not to hate the book. It's graphic in both sex and language, neither of which tend to endear me to a book. Still, Arana's writing becomes the deciding factor - her themes are lurid, but she writes in a way that is both sensitive and unsentimental. Her characters get what they deserve, but she is able to make us feel sorry for them. Although I disliked Bluhm almost immediately, I found both he and Maria to be sympathetic and real. In spite of myself, I wanted the lovers to get a happy ending. Unfortunately, this book offers another example of how a disappointing ending can really mar a story. After I scowled at the novel's "resolution," I set the depressing story aside, and very happily moved on. I never liked the tango that much anyway.

Grade: C

(Book Image from Barnes & Noble)