My choice for Book of the Year (Fiction), 2008 The Year of Fog Michelle Richmond (blog) Bantam Discovery (Paperback), 2008 (ISBN 0385340125 / 9780385340120) Fiction, 416 pages First Sentence: Here is the truth, this is what I know: we were walking on Ocean Beach, hand in hand. Book Description: Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach. In the seconds when Abby Mason—photographer, fiancée, soon-to-be-stepmother—looks into her camera and commits her greatest error. Six-year-old […]
**Hey, it’s my first official guest post! Today’s post in the “In Praise of Book Clubs” series at Books on the Brain is my contribution – please go check it out, and spend some time over there if you haven’t visited before. You’ll find some great book-club resources, book reviews, and lots more. Thanks to Lisa for the opportunity!** And now for today’s feature: A Family DaughterMaile MeloyScribner, 2007 (paperback) (ISBN 0743277678 / 9780743277679)Fiction, 336 […]
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 […]
My choice for Book of the Year (Nonfiction), 2008 But Enough About Me: How a Small-Town Girl Went From Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet (or A Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous) Jancee Dunn Harper Collins, 2007 (paperback) (ISBN 0060843659 / 9780060843656) Memoir, 288 pages First Sentence: Approach with caution. Book Description: New Jersey in the 1980s had everything Jancee Dunn wanted: trips down the shore, Bruce Springsteen, a tantalizing array of […]
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 […]
(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.) Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up SoloDeborah Siegel and Daphne Uviller, editors and contributorsThree Rivers Press, paperback, 2008 (ISBN 0307238075 / 9780307238078)Nonfiction anthology/memoir, 272 pages First sentence (from the Introduction): What’s it like being an only child? Book Description: In this […]
*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 […]
