Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Harm Doneby Ruth Rendell
Hardcover - 346 pagesCrown Pub; ISBN: 060960547X Audio Cassette unabridged edition Books on Tape, Inc.; ISBN: 073664699X Paperback - 320 pages Vintage Books; ISBN: 0375724842 Reviews and Articles
Inspector Wexford confronts the terrifying world
of
domestic violence when a series of kidnappings
leads
back to his own daughter's volunteer work at a
shelter
for battered women
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Happenstanceby Carol Sheilds
Paperback - 197 pagesPenguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140179518 Reviews and Articles
Canadian Shields, whose The Stone Diaries (see
below),
is being released simultaneously with this short
pair
of midlife- crisis novels, has become prolific
and
good enough to earn comparison with Margaret
Atwood.
Here, the story of a marriage is told in two
back-to-back novels, one from the husband's view,
the
other from the wife's. Jack and Brenda Bowman,
40-somethings who live in the Chicago suburbs,
have
braided lives, but, in her narrative, Brenda
leaves
Jack and her two kids to attend a convention for
a
week with her handmade quilts. The Brenda of old
used
to be ``smiling and matter- of-fact,'' but now
she has
``a restless anger and a sense of undelivered
messages.'' Things go wrong fast--dizziness, for
starters--and after an affair with an engineer
and
some sitcom, she returns home and feels, for a
moment,
``the Brenda of old,'' ``a self that is
curiously,
childishly brave.'' Meanwhile, Jack, a historian
who
believes that ``men spend whole lifetimes
preparing
answers to certain questions that will never be
asked
of them,'' deals with the kids, helps old friend
Bernie (whose wife leaves him), visits a friend
who
attempted suicide, and finds that ``the void left
by
his shattered faith had inexplicably grown.''
Picking
up Brenda, he feels ``a sudden buckling of his
heart,
for already he was sealing this moment in the
clean
preserving gel of history.'' The idea is a bit
gimmicky, but the stories play out well. They're
not
the equal of The Stone Diaries; still, the
husband and
wife, baptized by brief separation, meet,
literally,
in the middle of the book, and that sensation--of
matching the physical object of the book to the
story--is worth the price of admission.
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated:
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| The Lighthouse Keeperby James Michael Pratt
Mass Market Paperback - 336 pagesSt Martins Mass Market Paper; ISBN: 0312974698 Hardcover - 257 pages St Martins Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0312241135 Reviews and Articles
In the twilight of his life, Peter O'Banyon looks out from the Massachusetts lighthouse that was his
home and remembers the past. Orphaned at age 10, he came to the Port Hope Lighthouse to live
with his uncle Billie. A solitary man, Billie had worked hard to amass a fortune and returned to
Ireland with his wife and son, only to lose them. His son died in the influenza epidemic, and his wife
drowned on the voyage back to the U.S. When Peter lost his family in a car accident, Uncle Billie
took him in and taught him what it meant to be a lightkeeper and how to handle himself throughout
life's crises. At 19, Peter married his childhood sweetheart before going off to fight in World War II.
He survived the tragedies of war, but, like Billie before him, lost his wife. In this worthy successor to
The Last Valentine (1998), Pratt once again presents a tale that goes straight to the heart and
brings tears to the eyes. | Subject: Contemporary
| Rated: 7Discussion
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Some Things That Stayby Sarah Willis
Paperback - 288 pagesBerkley Pub Group; ISBN: 0425179605 Hardcover - 272 pages Farrar Straus & Giroux; ISBN: 0374105804 Reviews and Articles
A stunning first novel about a young girl's coming-of-age in the 1950s. | Subject:
| Rated: 7Discussion
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Princessby Jean Sasson
Paperback - 304 pagesWindsor-Brooke Books; ISBN: 0967673747 Reviews and Articles
While living in Saudi Arabia, Jean Sasson befriends a woman named Sultana. Sultana wants her life to be known and she gives Jean her diaries and notes, entrusting her to write her life story. Jean does, changing names and places for Sultana's protection. The result is a vivid depiction of the restrictions of Saudi Arabian society and the raw, corrupt, and unquestionable power of the royal males and religious leaders. Born into the royal family in 1956, the independent Sultana is the tenth daughter and the youngest of her mother's living children. By age fifteen, Sultana has seen her brother participate in the rape of an eight-year-old, brought her seventeen-year-old sister home after an attempted suicide because of her forced marriage to a sadistic fifty-three-year-old man, and buried her mother. Sultana marries, and at home she dresses as she pleases and voices her opinions about the inequities she lives, though usually her views are ignored. Outside her home she must cover herself completely in black and is expected to be subservient in every way. Talks with Marci, her Filipino maid since birth, expose Sultana to the countless wrongs suffered by foreign workers in Saudi Arabia. Sultana's lifestyle - which includes four homes, shopping trips to Europe, and gardens in the desert - contrasts sharply with what she learns from Marci and causes her further anguish and anger. Princess is an intimate look at one woman's struggle against the injustices of an extremely repressive society.
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated:
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Captain Correlli's Mandolinby Louis De Bernieres
Paperback - 437 pagesVintage Books; ISBN: 067976397X Reviews and Articles
Extravagant, inventive, emotionally sweeping, this rich and lyrical, heartbreaking and hilarious novel has been widely hailed as a classic. Set on the peaceful island of Cephallonia, just as the horrors of World World II reach its remote shores, Corelli's Mandolin is "an exuberant mixture of history and romance, written with a wit that is incandescent"
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 6.5
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Chocolatby Joanne Harris
Paperback - 306 pagesPenguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 014100018X Reviews and Articles
Greeted as "an amazement of riches ... few readers will be able to resist" by The New York Times,
Chocolat is an enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the arrival of a
bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her spirited young daughter.
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 8
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Midwivesby Chris Bohjalian
Paperback - 372 pagesVintage Books; ISBN: 0375706771 Reviews and Articles
A talented midwife is arrested for murder when she saves a baby by performing a Caesarean
section once she believes the mother has died--only to have her assistant insist later that the woman
was still very much alive. Told in the mesmerizing voice of the midwife's daughter, Midwives depicts
the aftermath of the tragedy.
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 7.5
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Tuesdays with Morrieby Mitch Albom
Hardcover - 192 pages Doubleday; ISBN: 0385484518 Reviews and Articles
A Detroit sportswriter conveys the wisdom and life lessons of his late mentor, professor Morrie
Schwartz--whose appearances on ABC-TV's Nightline drew a flood of response--recounting their
weekly conversations as Schwartz lay dying."
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 9
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Bridget Jones's Diary : A Novelby Helen Fielding
Paperback - 267 pagesPenguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 014028009X Reviews and Articles
"130 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds overnight? Could flesh
have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier (repulsive,
horrifying notion)); alcohol units 2 (excellent) cigarettes 21 (poor but
will give up totally tomorrow); number of correct lottery numbers 2
(better, but nevertheless useless)" This laugh-out-loud chronicle charts
a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a single girl on a permanent,
doomed quest for self-improvement--in which she resolves to: visit the
gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich, form a functional
relationship with a responsible adult, and not fall for any of the
following: misogynists, megalomaniacs, adulterers, workaholics,
chauvinists or perverts. And learn to program the VCR. Caught between
her Singleton friends, who are all convinced they will end up dying
alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian, and the
Smug Marrieds, whose dinner parties offer ever-new opportunities for
humiliation, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel (or at
least afloat). Through it all, she will have her readers helpless with
laughter and shouting, "BRIDGET JONES IS ME!" | Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 7
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| The Handmaid's Taleby Margaret Eleanor Atwood
Paperback - 325 pagesAnchor Books; ISBN: 038549081X Reviews and Articles
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States
of America. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a
day to walk to food markets, where pictures have replaced words because
women are forbidden to read. She must lie on her back once a month and
pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for Offred and the other
Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries a viable. Offred can remember
a time before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when
she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money
of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now... | Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 7
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Summer of the Dragonby Elizabeth Peters
Mass Market Paperback - 336 pagesAvon; ISBN: 0380731223 Reviews and Articles
A good salary and an all-expenses-paid summer spent a sprawling Arizona
ranch is too good a deal for fledgling anthropologist D.J. Abbott to
turn down. What does it matter that her rich new employer/benefactor,
Hank Hunnicutt, is a certified oddball who is presently funding all
manner of off-beat projects, from alien conspiracy studies to a hunt for
dragon bones? There's even talk of treasure buried in the nearby
mountains, but D.J. isn't going to allow loose speculation -- or the
considerable charms of handsome professional treasure hunter Jesse
Franklin -- to sidetrack her. Until Hunnicutt suffers a mysterious
accident and then vanishes, leaving the weirdos gathered at his spread
to eye each other with frightened suspicion. But on a high desert search
for the missing millionaire, D.J. is learning things that may not be
healthy for her to know. For the game someone is playing here goes far
beyond the rational universe -- and it could leave D.J. legitimately
dead. | Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated:
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| English Passengersby Matthew Kneale
Hardcover - 448 pagesReviews and Articles
Full of dangerous humor, English Passengers combines wit, adventure,
and harrowing historical detail in a mesmerizing display of
storytelling. Narrated by over twenty different characters, each one
so distinct that the reader has the sense of a story not so much told
as dazzlingly peopled, Matthew Kneale has created a buoyant tale,
beautifully presented in a storm of voices that brings a past age to
vivid and memorable life.
| Subject: Fiction-Historical
| Rated:
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Sullivans Islandby Dorothea Benton Frank
Mass Market Paperback - 383 pagesReviews and Articles
Set in the steamy, stormy landscape of South Carolina, Sullivan's Island
marks the debut of an exquisitely talented writer--and tells the
unforgettable story of one woman's courageous journey toward truth.
| Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated: 6.5Discussion
| |
Rating Scale Used10 = One of the best books I have ever read; 9 = Terrific; couldn't put it down; 8 = Very good; 7 = Good; 6 = Enjoyed parts of it; 5 = I didn't particularly like it or dislike it; mixed review; 4 = An "okay" book, but I don't recommend it; 3 = Poor, lost interest; 2 = Awful; didn't finish it; 1= Don't waste your time; 0 = One of the worst books I have ever read |
