October 2009
3 posts
The Golden Compass: Movie Storybook by Ms. Kay...
When Lyra sets out to rescue her friend Roger, she has no idea her adventure will lead all the way to the frozen North, where an epic struggle between good and evil will determine the fate of the world—and perhaps other worlds as well. The Golden Compass: Movie Storybook is a full-color, easy-to-read adaptation of key scenes from the movie.
Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
Convinced that urban biking opens one’s eyes to the inner workings and rhythms of a city’s geography and population, Byrne began keeping a journal of his observations and insights. Candid and self-deprecating, Byrne offers a work that is as engaging as it is cerebral and informative. (Sept.) All rights reserved.</br>A renowned musician and visual artist presents an idiosyncratic...
One Second After by William R. Forstchen Review
History professor John Matherson, who lives with his two daughters in a small North Carolina town, soon figures out what has happened. Airplanes, most cars, cellphones, refrigeratorsall are fried as the country plunges into literal and metaphoric darkness. When phones die and cars inexplicably stall, Grandmas pre-computerized Edsel takes readers to a stunning scene on the car-littered interstate,...
September 2009
4 posts
The Leap by Rick Smith
Have you ever asked yourself, “Is this all there is?” Maybe you’re trapped in a dead-end job that you’re afraid to leave. Or maybe you already have a good job-one that gives you room to grow and exercise your talents-but you don’t really feel like you’re doing your best work. Your life is plain vanilla, yet you know in your heart that you can be a triple scoop...
Book Review: Hiding in the Spotlight by Greg...
In this remarkable recreation of the WWII years, Greg Dawson writes about his mother, pianist Zhanna Arkashyna in an account reminiscent of Wladyslaw Szpilman’s The Pianist. As a child in the Ukraine, Zhanna was offered a scholarship to the Moscow State Conservatory. Her life changed in 1941 when Nazis grouped her Jewish family with thousands to be executed; Zhanna and her sister, Frina,...
PROSPECT PARK WEST by Amy Sohn
Former New York magazine Mating columnist Amy Sohn zeroes in on the more-fertile-than-thou crowd in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood in her vinegary latest (after My Old Man). Like a Grand Hotel for the yuppie set, the lives of moody, angry, dissatisfied moms intersect on the playgrounds and co-ops of their overpriced hood. Among them, Lizzie, whose lesbian proclivities mask her...
THE VISION OF THE ANIOTED by Thomas Sowell Review
In this broadside against the received wisdom of America’s elite liberal intelligentsia, noted conservative Thomas Sowell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, offers some strenuous arguments as well as fuzzy generalizations. Thus, his attacks on the war on poverty, sex education and criminal justice policies forged in the 1960s counter some slippery rhetoric by their defenders, yet...
August 2009
7 posts
PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION by Karen Huffman Review
Covering all the major concepts and theories while still presenting the exciting and practical applications of psychology is a challenge. In order to meet this challenge, Huffman presents a fully integrated package that sets the stage for a perfectly choreographed learning experience. It includes a pedagogical system that makes psychology easier to learn. Readers will also find a robust suite of...
ARIEL by Steven R. Boyett Review
I Just re-read this after 15 years and it’s still one of the best urban fantasy novels out there. Steven R. Boyett’s Ariel is a magical yet down-to-earth fantasy with human and non-human characters you can believe in, even love. It’s written with an intelligence and maturity that set it apart from your average book with a unicorn on the cover. The e-book version contains at least...
OUT OF CAPTIVITY by Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes,...
On February 13, 2003, a plane carrying three American civilian contractors—Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes—crash-landed in the mountainous jungle of Colombia. Dazed and shaken, they emerged from the plane bloodied and injured as gunfire rained down around them. As of that moment they were prisoners of the FARC, a Colombian terrorist and Marxist rebel organization. In an instant they...
THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS by Robert D. Novak Review
Novak cuts to the chase, beginning this memoir with his first in-person encounter with Joseph Wilson, in the green room of NBC’s Meet the Press in 2003. Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, would eventually form the center of a major career-jeopardizing controversy for Novak, who is blunt in his immediate low opinion of the man. And that characteristic bluntness reigns throughout as he...
I DRINK FOR A REASON by David Cross Review
After a decade spent in isolation in the Ugandan jungles thinking about stuff, David Cross has written his first book. Known for roles on the small screen such as “never-nude” Tobias Funke on Arrested Development and the role of “David” in Mr. Show With Bob And David, as well as a hugely successful stand-up routine full of sharp-tongued rants and rages, Cross has carved out...
THE THIRD CHAPTER by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot...
New opportunities for creativity and self-fulfillment await men and women between the ages of 50 and 75. Sociologist Lawrence-Lightfoot (Balm in Gilead) coins the term Third Chapter to describe the rich possibilities as illustrated in her extended interviews with 40 well-educated, affluent Americans. Founding her thesis on classic formulations of life-stage development, particularly that of Erik...
LORDS OF THE SEA by John R. Hale Review
Historian and archeologist Hale brings both skill sets to bear in this account of an Athens whose golden age and democratic institutions depended on its navy. Between 489 and 322 B.C., Athens built, ruled and lost an empire extending from the Aegean to the Black Sea. The sea permeated every sphere of Athenian life, and most well-known Athenians were identified with sea power: Thucydides and...
July 2009
2 posts
WIFE OF THE GODS by Kwei Quartey
Quartey’s approach to detective work is less charming and more sociological than McCall Smith’s, his setting more rural and susceptible to the ways of magicians. There’s plenty of room for them both, and the newcomer is most welcome.
- Kirkus Reviews
THE ANGEL'S GAME by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Just as he did in The Shadow of the Wind, Zafón leads the reader, in this hybrid of romance and tragedy, to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, through a labyrinth of love and passion, of deception and intrigue. And once more the language, as grandiloquent as it is beautiful, creates a magic spell that’s almost impossible to break.
-Literarische Welt
June 2009
1 post
THE WALKING PEOPLE by Mary Beth Keane
Mary Beth Keane has produced a compelling drama of transatlantic Irish life, told with a truthfulness that is felt not only in the sweep and charm of the story but in its very sentences. The Walking People is an irresistible blend of narrative and syntactic authenticity.
-Billy Collins, U.S. poet laureate
May 2009
3 posts
CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY by Shahriar...
With the many books about Iran flooding the shelves, it is a joy to come across Censoring an Iranian Love Story, which offers a perspective that is neither sentimental nor nostalgic, romanticized nor demonized. Looking at his country and its inhabitants through a fiction writer’s authentic spectacles, Shahriar Mandanipour has written a novel that is witty, smart, funny, and honest. It is an...
THE LASSA WARD by Dr. Ross Donaldson
Required reading for all medical students and anyone looking for a little armchair medical adventure.
-Library Journal
HELLO GOODBYE by Emily Chenoweth
First novelist Chenoweth … writes gracefully and eloquently of loss and love, portraying both generations at their most self-absorbed and most vulnerable.
-Library Journal
April 2009
6 posts
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES by Cecelia Ahern
“Cecilia Ahern is queen of the modern faily tale. In Thanks for the Memories, Ahern has given her reader exactly what they want: love, magic, happy endings. And most of all, hope,” -Irish Times
THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN by Thrity Umrigar
“A beautifully written and incisive novel about an American couple’s experience in India … Umrigar establishes herself as a singulary gifter storyteller.”
-Publishers Weekly
THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE by Salman Rushdie
“A romance of beauty and power from Italy to India … so delightful an homage to Renaissance magic and wonder.” -Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
THE WINNER STANDS ALONE: A NOVEL by Paulo Coelho
“It’s time for American readers to set out on a journey of discovery that will lead them to the workds of this exceptional writer.” -USA Today
LONG LOST by Harlan Coben
“The writing is taut and slick. The intricate plot, told from the vantage points of a half-dozen characters, is a page-turner. Don’t start reading if you’ve got importaint business the next morning because Hold Tight will keep you up all night.” -San Francisco Chronicle
THE FOREIGNER: A NOVEL by Francie Lin
“The Foreigner announces the arrival of the very talented Francie Lin. Brilliantly observed and written with a scalpel, this violent plunge into the abyss of indentity runs on the hot rails of the ambitious thriller. A flat-out page-turner.” -Colin Harrison, author of The Havana Room and The Finder
March 2009
5 posts
THE TOURIST by Olen Steinhauer
The Tourist is an absolutely superb contemporary espionage novel in the great tradition of the old masters of the genre. Olen Steinheuer is a wonderful storyteller who is smart, observant, and witty. The Tourist has what it takes to become a classic. -Nelson DeMille
OLD CITY HALL: A NOVEL by Robert Rotenberg
“Breathtaking…A tightly woven spiderweb of plot and a rich cast of charcaters make this a truly gripping read.”
-Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bodies Left Behind
BLUE HEAVEN by C.J. Box
This break-out novel from the author of the New York Times bestselling Joe Pickett novels is “a non stop thrill ride….A provocative suspense novel that has you rooting for the characters every step of the way.
-Harlan Coben
THE WHITE TIGER: A NOVEL by Aravind Adiga
“One of the most powerful books I’ve read in decades. No hyperbole. This debut novel hit me like a kick to the head - the same effect Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man had.”
- USA Today
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman, Dave Mckean
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is endlessly inventive, masterfully told, and, like Bod himself, too clever to fit into only one place. This is a book for everyone. You will love it to death.
- Holly Black, co-creator of the Spiderwick Chronicles
