Category: FICTION

January 26, 2011

Squirrel seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris *** (of 4)

A very deft interplay of human characteristics and foibles overlain upon our stereotypes of animals. Thus, we meet with mice who taken in homeless animals...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

January 26, 2011

The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien *** (of 4)

A series of related stories about the life of U.S. soldiers trying to get by during the grind of the Vietnam War. O’Brien wavers across...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

January 1, 2011

Still Life by Louise Penny *** (of 4)

An aging, blue-haired, naif artist with a secret is killed by an arrow in a small, eccentric village outside Montreal. An elegant Francophone detective interviews...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

December 25, 2010

Peony in Love by Lisa See * (of 4)

Hard to believe this sold as many copies as it did. The veil over this novel, that belongs on the mass market Romance shelf with...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

November 13, 2010

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *** (of 4)

A depression era circus full of interpersonal and interspecies drama occurs as characters and the circus menagerie travel by train from city to city. The...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

October 31, 2010

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston **** (of 4)

Written in 1937, Hurston captures the lives of post-slavery, southern African Americans battling to overcome poverty and profound segregation. Janie, the story’s protagonist, is married...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

October 18, 2010

City of Thieves by David Benioff **** (of 4)

Lev Benioff, a 15-year-old Russian, Jewish kid and Kolya, a deserter from the Russian Army with an overactive libido and terrible constipation, find themselves trapped...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

October 6, 2010

Exodus by Leon Uris ** (of 4)

Still singed by Holocaust crematoria, Jewish rebels fight to throw off the yoke of British imperialism in Palestine. This is a book that launched a...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

August 23, 2010

Firewall by Henning Mankell *** (of 4)

What’s not to like about a depressed, grumpy 50-year-old detective fed up with being overworked and being surrounded by nincompoops? Let’s just say I could...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

July 20, 2010

The Imperfectionists ** (of 4)

An English language newspaper based in Rome is staffed by a bunch of losers: men with four ex-wives, women with no self-esteem, Asian over-achievers with...

Book Reviews

0 Comments