You Suck: A Love Story Christopher Moore (Twitter) (Facebook) (blog) Read by Susan Bennett William Morrow (2007), Edition: 1, Hardcover (ISBN 0060590297 / 9780060590291) (Audio ASIN B000MTEC80) Fiction, 336 pages Source: Purchased audiobook Reason for reading: Personal, a favorite author Opening Lines: “‘You bitch, you killed me! You suck!’ “Tommy had just awakened for the first time as a vampire. He was nineteen, thin, and had spent his entire life between states of amazement and […]
By Nightfall: A Novel Michael Cunningham (Facebook) Picador, 2011; Trade Paperback (ISBN 0312610432 / 9780312610432) Fiction, 256 pages Source: Hardcover, provided by publisher Reason for Reading: Review and BOOK CLUB discussion hosted at Linus’s Blanket today Opening Lines: “The Mistake is coming to stay for a while. “‘Are you mad about Mizzy?’ Rebecca says. “‘Of course not,’ Peter answers.” Book description, via the publisher’s website:Peter and Rebecca Harris, midforties, are prosperous denizens of Manhattan. He’s […]
This Beautiful Life: A NovelHelen SchulmanHarper (2011), Hardcover (ISBN 0062024388 / 9780062024381)Contemporary fiction, 240 pagesSource: ARC from publisher (pub date 8/2/2011)Reason for reading: personal, review copy Opening lines: “Her mouth filled the screen. Purple lip gloss, clear braces. “‘Still think I’m too young?’ “She leaned over, the fixed lens of the camera catching a tiny spray of blemishes on her cheek, like a comet’s spray. Her hair had been bleached white, with long, blond roots, […]
Small Town Sinners Melissa Walker (Twitter) (Facebook) Bloomsbury USA Children’s (2011), Hardcover (ISBN 1599905272 / 9781599905273) Fiction (YA), 288 pages Source: ARC from publisher (pub date July 2011) Reason for reading: Faith and Fiction Roundtable discussion Opening lines: “‘Take the wheel,’ says Starla Joy, sticking the grape lollipop she’s been working on into her mouth. She doesn’t even wait to see if I’ve followed her instructions – she just lets go and strips down, pulling […]
The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games TrilogyLeah Wilson, editor/various contributorsSmart Pop (2011), Paperback (ISBN 1935618040 / 9781935618041)Literary essays, 224 pagesSource: PublisherReason for reading: Personal interest Book description, from the publisher’s website: “Katniss Everdeen’s adventures may have come to an end, but her story continues to blaze in the hearts of millions worldwide.In The Girl Who Was on Fire, thirteen YA authors take you back to Panem with […]
Kindred Spirits Sarah Strohmeyer Dutton Adult (2011), Hardcover (ISBN 0525952225 / 9780525952220) Fiction, 304 pages The following review was originally published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (7/12/2011 edition) and is reprinted with permission. One of the things that keeps long-term relationships interesting is that there are always new things to discover about the other person. The Ladies’ Society for the Conservation of Martinis, which grew out of a PTA meeting postmortem, learns this after the […]
It’s ended now. But it will never really end. One of my earliest reviews here – back in July 2007, when about six people knew this blog existed – was the seventh and final book in Harry Potter’s story. After seeing the eighth and final movie installment this weekend, and saying goodbye to Hogwarts all over again, I thought I’d revisit and re-post it (with some minor edits and changes, but still in the format […]
Silver Sparrow Tayari Jones Algonquin Books (2011), Hardcover (ISBN 1565129903 / 9781565129900) Fiction (contemporary), 352 pages Source: Publisher Reason for reading: Everyday I Write the Book’s summer Book Club Opening Lines: “My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist. He was already married ten years when he first clamped eyes on my mother. In 1968, she was working the gift-wrap counter at Davison’s downtown when my father asked her to wrap the carving knife he had […]
Love Child: A Novel Sheila Kohler Penguin (2011), trade paper (ISBN 9780143119197) Fiction, 256 pages The following review was originally published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (7/1/2011 issue) and is reprinted with permission. Sheila Kohler’s Love Child centers on the theme of domestic complications. This novel packs a lot of story into its pages: Bill is a South African woman in the pre-apartheid years, a relatively recent and relatively young widow with two teenage sons in […]
Anthropology of an American Girl: A Novel Hilary Thayer Hamann (Facebook) (Twitter) Spiegel & Grau (2010), Edition: Revised, Hardcover (ISBN 9780385527149 / 0385527144) Fiction, 624 pages Source: Publisher, via TLC Book Tours in support of the paperback release Reason for Reading: blog tour, personal wishlist Opening lines: “Kate turned to check the darkening clouds and the white arc of her throat looked long like the neck of a preening swan. We pedaled past the mansions […]
A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller Jr. Eos (2006), Paperback (0060892994 / 9780060892999) (Reprint: original publication date 1959) Science/speculative fiction, 352 pages Source: Purchased Reason for reading: Faith and Fiction Roundtable discussion Opening lines: “Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with gilded loins who appeared during that young novice’s Lenten fast in the desert.” Book description: Winner of the 1961 Hugo […]
In the early 1900s, my mother’s family made a journey from the south of Italy to New York City. They found work in the factories and homes in the tenements, and many of them never ventured much further after that. Most of the women – my great-aunts – went to work in the factories of the city’s garment district, where they spent their adult lives producing clothing. Decades later, Kimberly Chang and her mother made […]
