Occasionally, I post a review of a novel or book of short stories I think
visitors to my site might enjoy reading. The reviews are also posted on
amazon.com. To see a particular book on amazon, click on the picture of
the book.
The Historian takes the reader around the world and
through history in a thoroughly engaging read. Elizabeth Kostova
immerses the reader in a quest to uncover the legend of Dracula in order
to keep him from being unleashed on the world. The Historian provides
glimpses into political situations through history and around the world
without being overtly political though occasionally it did feel a bit
like a history lesson. The relationships of the main characters as well
as their relationship to the Dracula legend keep the reader entranced as
secrets are uncovered and love blooms. Kostova shows the pitfalls a
drive to find answers brings when the quest and discovery force
realities and dangers into the lives of the characters populating the
book. Kostova manages to make the reader believe, even if for just the
time it takes to read The Historian, Dracula could really exist in this
exploration of the bloodline and legend of Dracula.
David L. Hoof weaves a tale of revenge, greed, and
image control that manages to garner laughs and create suspense at the
same time in Triple Jeopardy. Filled with
none-too-innocent characters possessing their own agendas for the roles
they play in the Speckts’ absurd lengths to annihilate one another
instead of divorcing in order to protect their excessive wealth and
their status. Centered around the excess and arrogance of the rich in
America, Triple Jeopardy exposes the tricks the wealthy
use to create the appearance of wealth and power to gain more.
Kidnapping, murder, rape, and greed all play roles in Triple
Jeopardy. Hoof’s use of language, vivid imagination, and study
of human nature in Triple Jeopardy will entertain,
intrigue, and provide the reader a guilty sense of delight at watching
the rich fight to maintain their self-created, self-inflated images
equated with money and power.
Release Date: July 1, 2010
The Bastard of Istanbul is well worth reading. Elif
Shafak created an atmosphere that engulfs the reader. The characters
thoughts and actions had me squirming in my seat at times and admiring
their bravery at others. A full realm of emotion was unleashed in The
Bastard of Istanbul. Shafak's words pull the reader into a history with
two sides that reminds us there are always two sides to every story. The
interwoven family dynamics and secrets are beautifully addressed in a
way that makes the reader ache for the characters at times and celebrate
at others. Shafak also manages to connect American culture, Armenian
culture, and Turkish culture by creating characters with distinct
backgrounds and strongly held beliefs that interact in a believable
manner with very little sterotyping. A heart touching story that feels
real and reminds us that all cultures have much more in common than they
realize or wish to admit.
Girls of Riyadh is filled with characters readers
will love, hate, celebrate, and condemn – sometimes at the same time.
In this delightful story about the adventures four Saudi Arabian girls
searching for their places in society, Alsanea proves that despite
perceived differences, people around the world have more in common that
often acknowledged. It’s easy to identify with the Girls of Riyadh and
their struggles to find love and create their own lives in this engaging
story manages to be serious and fun at the same time.
Questionable Ethics introduces Mel Addison, who, in
spite of a rebellious streak, has ethics that are anything but
questionable. The same can’t be said for the people she socialized with
as a teenager. Now, an adult, she wants to believe people have
changed. As Mel struggles to come to terms with the deaths of her son
and her husband, she’s sure she can take care of herself even though she
has a hard time convincing her family and friends. As Mel pursues a
case everyone else, including her law enforcement family, thinks is
solved, she comes head to head with her old friends leaving her
questioning who she can trust. Abderhalden’s exploration of grief, the
struggle of recovery, and the inner strength need to survive tragedy
immerses the reader without becoming maudlin. Questionable Ethics
leaves the reader wanting more of Mel Addison.
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The ups and downs of the stock market are nothing
compared to the downs of stock broker, Austin Carr in Jack Getze’s
Big Numbers. Austin’s life is ready for a takeover and his biggest
client’s wife is prepared to use all her assets to get her to invest
everything, including his life, in her future. Getze invested
just the right words to keep the reader entertained in this fun, action
filled read.
Little
Gods
opens as a group of boys at a prestigious private school are deeply
affected by the mysterious – at least to the outside world -
disappearance of a favored classmate, Cody Boyle. Twenty-three years
later, Cody’s disappearance still shapes the lives of some of his
classmates including Travis Mathers, Cody’s best friend. As Travis
struggles to accept the secrets he’s uncovered about the school, he must
also decide if exposing them is worth the pain the exposure will cause
the people for which he cares deeply. Hoof takes the reader on a
journey through human reactions and sincere emotions without
over-sentimentality as he reveals the secret underpinnings that reach
beyond the school’s reality – the kind of secrets that stay hidden
because most people don’t want to face their existence. Little
Gods is at once engaging, intriguing, and entertaining while
feeling all too plausible in the world in which we live
Water Street, Wilkinson’s follow-up to
Blackberries, Blackberries, once again sets the reader right in the
middle of Kentucky culture. Focusing her short stories on fictional
inhabitants of Water Street creates a novel-like feel in the character
studies exploring the interconnectedness of the characters of Water
Street. Wilkinson’s stories examine human experience without being
preachy. Wilkinson again demonstrates the challenges and joys of the
human experience through her exquisite use of vernacular, description,
setting and character.
This House, My Enemy weaves a
beautiful Southern story of the love, longing, duty, sacrifice, and a
mix of denial and acceptance that has long held together the fabric of
Southern pride and mystic. Lea’s journey of self-discovery and
survival leads her from a path of undeniable, undying, perfect, lost
love with Ryan to the arms of a violent, self-loathing man, Walt, who is
incapable of seeing beyond his own needs and pain. As Lea and her
children with Walt, bear the brunt of his violent outbursts, they find
support and friends to lean on in unexpected places giving them a sense
that life can be different and hope that beyond their struggle to
survive, they can create lives to challenge the cruelty Walt brings to
their lives form his never-ending well of pain and rage. Meadows
interweaves the issue of racism into the storyline in an undercurrent
that forces re-examination of long held stereotypes. The
juxtaposition of the house’s beauty and reason for existing against the
harsh realities taking place inside its walls speaks not only to the
epidemic of abuse and resentments in society today but to the underlying
need for support, understanding and tolerance in the world as a whole.
This House, My Enemy is not
presently available at amazon, barnes and noble, or tattered cover.
A beautifully written exploration of racial
divisions that transports the reader into 1946 South Africa through
Paton’s vivid descriptions of place and people. Originally written
around 1948, it’s themes of race, family, injustice, and political
division ring as true today throughout our world as they did then.
Though this story is set in South Africa, there are people in every
country who can find relevance in the issues raised in Cry, The
Beloved Country because bigotry continues to find a home in the
hearts of many. There are still many in our world who are being treated
unjustly due to their skin color, their political beliefs, their
religion or lack thereof, or nationality. Reading this books touches
the heart and makes one long for a world where our differences no longer
divide us but become a way for us to enrich one another’s lives.
1937. Mississippi. Two teenage girls. Two young
boys, ages ten and twelve. A fight ensues and one of the girls ends up
dead. The community is outraged and more interested in revenge than
justice. Why? The girls are white and the boys are black. Should that
matter? Regardless, it does. French unapologetically drops the reader
right into the times with all its prejudices glaring. It’s impossible
to avoid an emotional reaction to Billy. The grief of the
families’ losses, Billy’s confusion about what’s happening to him as
well as what happened during the fight, and the blatant racism all serve
to make the reader question whether things have really changed since
1937 or whether all that racism really just boiling under the surface
searching for any excuse to break free.
Once you get past Gabriel Garcia Marquez's use of the
same two names for the male descendants of the family who make up the
main characters, you're drawn into the family's dramas and peculiarities
even when you don't want to be. When you realize the meaning of the use
of the two names in the latter part of the book, it helps with your
understanding of the characters and their actions. As you're drawn into
the story of this family, you'll begin to care, almost against your
will, about what happens to them and want to tell them the secrets you
know and they don't so they won't make the mistake you see them clearly
making. Marquez's writing in One Hundred Years of Solitude will
have you shaking your head in disbelief, laughing aloud, and smacking
the pages in frustration at the actions of his characters. Still, you'll
want to know more about them all the way to the last page!
Set in India, A Fine Balance brings together four people
from varying backgrounds to create a story that transcends time and
culture leaving the reader a bit more appreciative of the little things
so often taken for granted.As
the four main characters grow and change, lose and win, fight each other
and bring joy to one another, mourn life changing losses and celebrate
fleeting happiness, the reader can’t help but feel a connection that
makes one wonder how human beings can allow such suffering to exist in
the world anywhere.Mistry’s
words accomplish what fiction does at it’s best reaching beyond the
heart and mind to transform the soul.
Reaching
Back reaches into your heart and mind as it leaves you wondering about
the lives of your own ancestors.As
you’re transported into the world of the descendents of slavery
through the lives of four generations of women, you’ll feel their pain
as they handle rapes, incest, racism, difficult relationships, money
problems, and disappointments with their children all the while
struggling to provide their children with better lives.The strength of Megan, Carrie, Ana, and Mignon will inspire you
to strive to be a better person.Simone
puts a face to a history too often dismissed and ignored
Blackberries,
Blackberries is a beautifully written collection of short stories that
manage to bring both laughter and tears to the reader as awareness of
the realness of the stories captures the heart and mind.The stories explore mother-daughter relationships, love, soul
searching, desire, loss, servitude, adultery, violence, and always the
struggle to know one’s self through characters that leap off the page
immersing the reader in their daily lives.Wilkinson’s use of vernacular and descriptions provide a taste
of Kentucky that is all at once welcoming, unique, refreshing, familiar,
provocative, comforting and honest.
While Sushi for Beginners often addresses serious issues
such as depression, anorexia, and betrayal, Keyes manages to keep the
reader laughing.Lisa
Edwards is obsessed with control, ambitious, perfectionist, disappointed
with her assignment as editor of a starting magazine.Colleen struggles with what she thinks she should be as opposed
to how she feels when she’s alone. Ashling Kennedy, Assistant Editor
of Colleen, is organized, responsible, prepared to take care of everyone
earning her the nickname “Miss Fix It” must learn how to take care
of herself as well as let others take care of her.Clodagh Kelly is Ashling’s best friend as well as unhappy
mother and wife who looks for fulfillment by redecorating her home
constantly, must come to terms with her unhappiness as well as the
unhappiness she inflicts on others as she searches for new ways to find
fulfillment.Keyes keeps
the reader amused as she leads you through each character’s romances,
friendships, internal struggles, disappointments, successes, and life
changes.
Opening with Mary’s funeral, And Those Left
Behind delves into the depths of Steven’s grief as he
dedicates his life to honoring his wife’s memory and the life they’d
began together.As Steven
dedicates his life to making the list of dreams they made together come
true and raising their three daughters, he struggles with his emotions
as he gets to know Ellen, a woman who works at the bed and breakfast he
buys.And Those Left Behindis a wonderful story to curl up in your favorite chair with a
glass of your favorite wine and spend an evening transported to the
Tennessee mountains while losing yourself in the romance of the enduring
commitment and love Sean Ramage brings so to life in Steven and
Steven’s memories of Mary.It’s
a story that will touch the romantic in you even if you think you
don’t have a romantic bone in your body and possibly even make you
appreciate your time with those you love just a little more than when
you picked it up.
Katherine
Myers quickly pulls you into the life of Meg Parris, a brilliant
cryptographer but emotionally stunted woman.Suddenly, you find yourself wanting to know all about Meg and
what will happen to her.Meg
finds herself on the run with a private investigator, Ross, after she
takes a series of codes during her undercover work as a CSS agent.Meg grapples with her fears and the possibilities of life she’s
long ignored due to those fears.Meg
and Ross discover not only a common connection with a group of
youngsters with strange abilities who could be the answers to Meg’s
mental demons but each other.Myers
deftly takes you on an exciting journey across three states and through
Meg’s internal struggles.It’s
a trip well worth taking - one that once you’ve started will keep you
hooked until the end.
Cane
River paints a family portrait with strokes of the strength of
women, the power of family, and the determination of the human spirit to
be free in the lives of four unforgettable women.As these four women struggle through slavery as well as freedom,
they are faced with the sexual advances of white men, loneliness,
societal restrictions, prejudice, and a desire to provide their children
more opportunity than they had.As
Tademy envelops you in their lives, she brings humanity to history.