Category: FOUR STARS ****

February 25, 2011

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larson **** (of 4)

The by now famous protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, is once again assaulted, chased, and utterly alone. The plot contains full doses of sex and violence, the...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

January 9, 2011

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson **** (of 4)

Immediately following the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation most African Americans in the south were subject to what we today would call a campaign...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

December 4, 2010

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux **** (of 4)

Fresh out of college in the mid 1960s, just before he became famous as one of the great travel writers of a generation, Paul Theroux...

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

July 16, 2010

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick **** (of 4)

I turned pages as fast as I could shaking my head in disbelief with each new revelation. North Korea is the last totalitarian communist dictatorship...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

July 14, 2010

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon **** (of 4)

Hard to say if this book plays in Peoria, but Chabon prepares a perfect rendition of two genres: 1940s noir detective novels and Yiddish culture....

Book Reviews

0 Comments

July 14, 2010

Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman **** (of 4)

One of Hillerman’s better stories. I feel like he is wrapping up his characters as he wraps up his writing career so this book has...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

July 14, 2010

The Number One Lady’s Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith **** (of 4)

A very sweet, fun read about the Miss Marple of Botswana.

Book Reviews

0 Comments

July 14, 2010

Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottoline **** (of 4)

It’s the usual Scottolini fare: shrimpy, gutsy, wise-cracking lawyer (Penn professor of law in this case) without a decent boyfriend gets caught up in violent...

Book Reviews

0 Comments