Monthly Archives: August 2014

Introducing LibraryReads

Posted
Filed under Book News, Book Reviews

libraryreads logoLibraryReads  is a monthly list of the top ten new books nominated by librarians around the country. As a librarian I can request digital copies of  books before they are published, and I am one of the librarians who read and nominated Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

The September Library Reads booklist is here :

Here’s my review of Station Eleven:station eleven jacket

Finally, a hard to put down post-apocalyptic novel that isn’t bleak and violent. I don’t always enjoy books with multiple points of view that also move back and forward in time, but I loved this book. The main characters are all connected to Arthur Leander, who is performing as King Lear in Toronto as a flu epidemic is spreading around the globe. Later, we encounter the Symphony, a traveling orchestra and Shakespeare troupe traveling around western Michigan.

Lists from the last year are also available, making LibraryReads a great place to look for reading suggestions.

Brenda

 

Promise Me

Posted
Filed under Book Reviews

promise me jacketPromise Me by Harlan Coben

In this long-running mystery series, sports agent Myron Bolitar gets into some pretty dangerous situations, but his preppy friend Win, with his love of martial arts and technology, is usually there to back him up. This is the first book I’ve read by Harlan Coben, who took a six-year break from Myron to write thrillers before writing Promise Me. Overhearing his girlfriend’s daughter and another teen at a party talking about drunk drivers, he promises to give them a ride anytime, no questions asked. Aimee calls him from Manhattan at 2:30 one morning, and then disappears after he drops her off in suburban New Jersey. Myron looks for connections with Katie, another missing teen, as does Katie’s mob-connected father. And of course the police want to know how Myron’s involved. Myron has known Aimee and her family for years, and even wrote her a letter of recommendation to Duke University, where he was a basketball star. Plenty of action and violence, mixed with touching scenes with his widowed girlfriend Ali and his aging parents, make for a fast-paced read. I will probably go back to the beginning of the series and read Deal Breaker.

Brenda

The Book of Life

Posted
Filed under Book Reviews

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness  book of life jacket

This is the final book in a trilogy featuring time traveling witch and historian Diana Bishop and powerful vampire Matthew Clairmont, a scientist. The first book is Discovery of Witches. In this book, Diana and Matthew are living in the present, after living in the Elizabethan era for a while. Diana is seeking a lost manuscript with clues to the origins of witches, vampires, and demons, while Matthew is working with scientists and graduate students on DNA research. Vampire Benjamin, the main villain of the trilogy, along with witch Peter Knox, turns up again, and pregnant Diana can’t go anywhere without her personal bodyguard, who is hopelessly in love with her. Much family and organizational politics in this novel, but very well done. There is lots of action, but I think the author really excels in domestic scenes, describing the homes and mansions where the Bishop-Clairmonts live, and some memorable family dinners. Diana’s powers as a witch with unusual powers increase, even as she must become the family’s diplomat.

Brenda

Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Posted
Filed under Book Reviews

starry sky jacketUnder the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

Not just another historical novel featuring artists and authors in Europe, Horan’s second book after Loving Frank adds Samoa and the United States to the European settings, and plenty of drama to her novel about Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife. American Fanny Osbourne leaves her unfaithful husband and travels to Europe with her three children so that Fanny and her daughter Belle can study art. After a family tragedy, the Osbournes are staying at a rural inn when they meet Scottish “Louis” on a hiking vacation. He is much younger, and has just earned his law degree. He suffers from tuberculosis, and is rarely well, but dreams of writing full time and living with Fanny. Fanny reluctantly returns to California with her husband, pursued by Louis. After much struggle, Louis and Fanny marry, and begin a life of travel, seeking a healthy place where Louis can thrive and write, including a very colorful period in Samoa in the South Seas. Fanny sacrifices much for her husband’s art, which can make for difficult reading.  This novel paints a vivid portrait of  the Stevensons, if overly dramatic at times.

Brenda

September Book Discussions

Posted
Filed under Book Discussions

On September 16 at 10:00 a.m., the Tuesday Morning Book Group will be discussing The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood, a obituary writer jackethistorical novel set in two different time periods. Vivien lives in California in 1919, and survived the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. We learn about her life and her connection to Claire, living in Virginia in the early 1960s. Claire, a former flight attendant, is married with a toddler, and volunteers for JFK’s presidential campaign. Here is my review.

On September 28 at 7:00 p.m., the Tuesday Evening Book Group will be discussing The bartender's jacketBartender’s Tale by Ivan Doig, a coming of age novel set in Gros Ventre, Montana in 1960. Rusty is growing in the back room of his father Tom’s bar, the Medicine Lodge. Tom won’t talk about his past or Rusty’s mother, so Rusty and his friend Zoe sit in the bar’s back room listening to the customers and trying to make sense of what they hear. The past, including the construction of the Fort Peck dam, comes to life when oral historian Delano comes to town, along with Francine, who might be Tom’s daughter. Here’s my earlier review.

The Crime Readers are meeting at Home Run Inn Pizza on Thursday, September 18 to discuss Tug of War by Barbara Cleverly. A well-earned vacation takes a sharp detour when Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands is called to a chateau in Champagne, France, where a shell-shocked patient has amnesia. Trying to determine his identity proves a tug of war jacketdifficult, delicate task: several families are claiming the unknown soldier as their own. The discussion begins at 7:00 p.m., with optional dinner at 6:00 p.m. The Crime Readers are co-sponsored by the Indian Prairie Public Library.

 Brenda

Lisette’s List

Posted
Filed under Book Reviews

Lisette’s List by Susan Vreelandlisette's list jacket

This is another good choice for book discussion groups from Vreeland, author of Luncheon of the Boating Party and Clara and Mr. Tiffany. Set in Provence and Paris from the late 1930s to the late 1940s, Parisian Lisette has a rough transition to life in Provence with her husband Andre and his grandfather Pascal. Andre is a frame maker, and Lisette had hoped to work in an art gallery in Paris. Gradually, Lisette learns to appreciate the village of Roussillon and the beauty of the countryside. Elderly Pascal tells Lisette stories of the paintings he has collected and how he acquired them, and of meeting Camille Pissarro and Paul Cezanne. As a young man, Pascal had mined ochre used for pigments in the paintings. When the war begins, the paintings are hidden. Lisette learns to garden and milk a goat, and meets contemporary painter Marc Chagall. Visit the author’s website for gorgeous photos of Roussillon.

Brenda

Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

Posted
Filed under Book Reviews

Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon   heart's blood jacket

Book eight in the Outlander series is over 800 pages long. I didn’t really mind, because it’s been five years since the previous book, Echo in the Bone, was published, and I needed a while to catch up on the storylines and characters. Much of the book is set in and around Philadelphia in 1778. No one wants to be in the war, but Jamie Fraser is asked by George Washington to be a colonel. Lord John Grey might lose the sight in one eye after Jamie punches him, or he might be arrested as a spy. Jamie’s wife Claire, a time traveler from the mid 20th century, is practicing medicine with 18th century supplies. Jamie’s nephew Ian, part Scot and part Mohawk, is in love with Quaker Rachel, whose brother, a physician, loves John Grey’s niece. Jamie and Claire’s daughter Brianna is in Scotland with her family in 1980, until son Jem goes missing and her husband Roger MacKenzie travels back in time and meets Jamie’s father, and his own. Another family connection, William, rescues Jane and her little sister Fanny from a brothel. Most of the storylines end up with Jamie and family back in North Carolina, rebuilding their family home. At least one more book is planned. Adventure, romance, history, and time travel continue to enliven this series, which began with Outlander, soon to be a television series.

Brenda