The AlchemistPaulo CoelhoHarperCollins, 2006, paperback (ISBN 0061122416 / 9780061122415)Fiction, 208 pages If you have reviewed this book, please leave the link in a comment or e-mail it to me at 3.rsblog AT gmail DOT com, and I’ll edit this review to include it! First Sentence: The boy’s name was Santiago. Book Description: The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho’s charming fable, now available in English for the first […]
Eleanor RushingPatty FriedmannCounterpoint, 2000 (ISBN 1582430772 / 9781582430775)Fiction, 288 pages If you have reviewed this book, please leave the link in a comment or e-mail it to me at 3.rsblog AT gmail DOT com, and I’ll edit this review to include it! First Sentence: I think it is impossible to change the world unless you are truly evil and so mad for control you never sleep. Book Description: From Booklist – How to explain an […]
The Ruins of California Martha Sherrill Riverhead Trade (paperback) (ISBN 1594482314 / 9781594482311) Fiction, 384 pages First Sentence: “Two things always signaled that she was suffering: stage makeup worn during the day and loudness.” Book Description: According to the precocious Inez, life for the Ruin family in 1970s California is complex. Her father, Paul, is self-obsessed, intrusive, opinionated, and profligate, but also brilliant, adoring, magnetic, and liberating. Unable and unwilling to sustain a monogamous relationship, […]
Best FriendsMartha MoodyRiverhead Trade, 2002 (ISBN 1573229350 / 9781573229357)Fiction, 496 pages First sentence: Really, all I wanted in a college was unrest and demonstrations. (See the first sentence on page 123 here.) Book description: When Clare Mann arrives at Oberlin in 1973, she’s never met anyone like Sally Rose. Rich and beautiful, Sally is utterly foreign to a middle-class, Midwestern Protestant like Clare—and utterly fascinating. The fascination only grows when Sally brings her home to […]
*We interrupt our regularly-scheduled blog programming for a Tuesday book review; this week’s version of Ten on Tuesday will appear on Thursday.* (Advisory note: I was offered the opportunity to review this book by MotherTalk, which arranged for me to receive a promotional copy; I received no other compensation.) The Ten-Year NapMeg WolitzerRiverhead Books, 2008 (ISBN 1594489785 / 9781594489785)Fiction, 368 pages First Sentence: All around the country, the women were waking up. Book Description: For […]
No, seriously, that’s the title. Ask Again Later Jill A. Davis Harper Paperbacks, 2007 (ISBN 0060875976 / 9780060875978) Fiction, 272 pages First sentence: I can remember the first Christmas after my father left. Book Description: Emily Rhode has a tendency to live with one foot out the door. For her, the best thing about a family crisis is the excuse to cut and run. When her mother dramatically announces they’ve found a lump, Emily gladly […]
* Today is Sunshine‘s birthday! Go wish her a happy day!* IntuitionAllegra GoodmanDial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2007 (ISBN 0385336101 / 9780385336109)Fiction, 400 pages First sentence: All day the snow had been falling. Book Description: Sandy Glass, a charismatic publicity-seeking oncologist, and Marion Mendelssohn, a pure, exacting scientist, are codirectors of a lab at the Philpott Institute dedicated to cancer research and desperately in need of a grant. Both mentors and supervisors of their young postdoctoral […]
One Good Turn Kate Atkinson Back Bay Books, 2007 (ISBN 0316012823) Fiction, 448 pages First sentence: He was lost. Book description: On a beautiful summer day, crowds lined up outside a theater witness a sudden act of extreme road rage: a tap on a fender triggers a nearly homicidal attack. Jackson Brodie, ex-cop, ex-private detective, new millionaire, is among the bystanders. The event thrusts Jackson into the orbit of the wife of an unscrupulous real […]
Firefly LaneKristin HannahSt. Martin’s Press, 2008 (ISBN 0312364083)Fiction, 496 pages First sentence: They used to be called the Firefly Lane girls. Book Description: They were known as the Firefly Lane girls — a single, inseparable unit. On the surface, they were as opposite as two people could be. Kate, doomed to be uncool, had a loving family. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, had a secret home life that was destroying her. The best friends […]
Last weekend was about babies, in one way or another. Baby Proof Emily GiffinSt. Martin’s Griffin (paperback) 2007 (ISBN 0312348657)Fiction, 368 pages First sentence: I never wanted to be a mother. Book description: First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes….a baby carriage? Isn’t that what all women want? Not so for Claudia Parr. And just as she gives up on finding a man who feels the same way, she meets warm, wonderful Ben. Things […]
The last book read in 2007 was finished at 9:30 AM on January 1 and becomes the subject of the first review posted in 2008. The review format is somewhat new, borrowed and adapted from Literary Feline. The Emperor’s ChildrenClaire Messud Vintage paperback, 2007 (ISBN 978-0-27666-7)Fiction; 479 pgs First Sentence: “Darlings! Welcome! And you must be Danielle?” Sleek and small, her wide eyes rendered enormous by kohl, Lucy Leverett, in spite of her resemblance to […]
The Man of My DreamsCurtis Sittenfeld I read Curtis Sittenfeld’s first novel, Prep, earlier this year, and it earned a place on my personal “best first novels” list. Her second book, The Man of My Dreams, avoids the archetypal “sophomore slump,” but it didn’t hit me in quite the same way. One reason for that is probably the choice of third-person narration in this novel, which always has less of a sense of immediacy to […]
