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February 2, 2010
Tags: Blog Thoughts Posted in: Xtra 
No Comments
THE ENDLESS FOREST by Sara Donati
Book Quote:
āShe slipped around to the rear door. She knew which steps creaked, and how to slip the latch so quietly that no one — not even her father with his hearing like a bat — would know.
Once in the hall she had little choice. The only place she could be sure of hearing them talk was the cloakroom, which opened onto both classrooms. Ā She Ā hesitated forĀ less than a heartbeat before she made up her mind.
Jennet said, “Well, is this no a fine mess? What a good thing Daniel kept Martha behind. Jemima willna dare step foot on Hidden Wolf.”
Book Review:
Review by Katherine Petersen (MAR 20, 2010)
When Sara Donati, a pseudonym used by Rosina Lippi, first introduced us to the Bonners, it was 1792 in Into the Wilderness, the first book of her epic Wilderness series. Five books later, she gives readers the final book of the series, The Endless Forest, set 32 years from the first. Readers who have not followed the series from its inception might enjoy the story, but the book will have more meaning and answer more questions for readers who have grown to know and love the Bonners since the beginning.
March 20, 2010
Tags: 1800s, Historical Posted in: Contemporary, Facing History, NE & New York No Comments
STARBOUND by Joe Haldeman
Book Quote:
“It was a most strange feeling. The water was only a little more than a meter deep, but it had splashed all over me. I had never been completely wet except in the process of being impregnated, so with the approaching footsteps I felt somewhat indecent, and was also embarrassed that I had splashed so much precious water out of the pool.
I did feel lighter, even though my feet were on the floor, which is to say the bottom of the pool. Then I moved sideways and tipped overāI was suddenly floating and had no weight at all! I inhaled some water and had a little coughing fit, but of course was in no danger, since my breathing spiracles are distributed evenly around my body surface. The noise did upset Carmen, though, who was the first human on the scene. She cried out my name and Snowbird’sāof course she couldn’t tell us apart without our clothingāand seized my head and pulled me upright. ”
Book Review:
Review by Ann Wilkes (MAR 20, 2010)
Armed with nothing but diplomacy and time on the long flight to plan strategies, Starbound’s Ad Astra crew of transplanted Martians, humans from the Mars colony and trained spies from Earth heads to its possible doom at the Wolf 25 system. Their mission is to negotiate peace with an alien force that has delivered Earth a warning. A sequel to Marsbound, Starbound follows the thread of the woman dubbed “Mars Girl,” aka Carmen Dula, on what may be a fools errand or the saving of humanity.
March 19, 2010
Tags: scifi Posted in: Award Winning Author, Speculative (Beyond Reality) No Comments
THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS by Paolo Giordano
Book Quote:
āPrime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves. They hold their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed, like all numbers, between two others, but one step further than the rest. They are suspicious, solitary numbers, which is why Mattia thought they were wonderful.ā
Book Review:
Review by Bonnie Brody (MAR 18, 2010)
The Solitude of Prime Numbers is written by Paolo Giordano, an Italian physicist who is also the youngest winner of the Premio Strega, a prestigious literary award. Currently he is working on a doctorate in particle physics and resides in Italy. It is not every day that a physicist writes a beautiful and stirring novel such as this one.
March 18, 2010
Tags: Contemporary, Sciences Posted in: Award Winning Author, Contemporary, Debut Novel, Mental Health, italy No Comments
BONE FIRE by Mark Spragg
Book Quote:
“Crane knocked on the door again and waited. To the east a weedy lot, the sage grubbed out around a swing set, the pipe-metal uprights peeling and rusted, a plastic seat hanging by a single chain, paddling in the wind, the slide broken loose from its base and twisted Mobius-wise, and beyond a sagging barbed wire fence and an overgrazed stretch of prairie. He wondered briefly if he would have been good at any trade that didnāt require a uniform and confrontation.”
Book Review:
Review by Poornima Apte (MAR 8, 2010)
Author Mark Spragg has written about Wyoming beforeāin his latest novel, Bone Fire, he revisits the fictional town of Ishawooa. Even as much as the town retains many of its tough Wyoming characteristics, change is sweeping in slowly. For example, thereās new cafĆ© in town, which serves plenty of salads, meatless soups, herbal teas. It is here that one of the novelās primary protagonists, Griff, gets together with her mother, Jean, once in a while for lunch or a cup of tea.
March 17, 2010
Tags: Knopf, Wild West Posted in: Wild West 2 Comments
SO MUCH FOR THAT by Lionel Shriver
Book Quote:
“You know what they say about life and making other plans.”
Book Review:
Review by Bonnie Brody (MAR 16, 2010)
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver is a timely novel about the dire straits of our country’s healthcare system. It is also a diatribe about our country’s policies of taxation, what the average Joe gets in return for his taxes, and the government’s rip-off of average tax payers. The novel does not spare the evils of the banking industry, corporate America, or the wealthy as they are vilified for creating an environment that harms poor workers and the middle class.
March 16, 2010
Tags: Contemporary, Health Care Posted in: Award Winning Author, Contemporary No Comments
SECRETS OF EDEN by Chris Bohjalian
Book Quote:
āMost individuals on this planet have a religion they approach with some degree of earnestness,ā I said. āAnd what is a religion but a belief in the unseen and a faith in the impossible? Remember what Jesus says in Mark? āFor all things are possible with God,ā Magic is about the endless ways in this world that the impossible becomes possible–just like religion. Religion, in essence, is ritualized magic.ā
Book Review:
Review by Doug Bruns (MAR 15, 2010)
There are no secrets of Eden, at least not by the time you finish the last sentence of this page-turner of a novel. In all likelihood, you will probably rush to discover them all, they are presented so deftly constructed and poised.
Stephen Drew is a minister in the small Vermont town of Haverill. He is loved by his congregation, and performs his ministerial duties with grace and diligence. The novel opens as the minister is performing an outside, pond-dunking, baptism on a congregant, Alice Hayward. As he lifts her arching back out of the water she utters one word: āThere.ā āIād nodded,when Alice had said it,ā relates minister Drew, in the first person account that kicks off the novel. āShe was thinking of John, and of Christās three words at the end of his torment on the cross; she was imagining that precise moment when he bows his head and gives up his spirit.ā And then the chapter closes, āIt is finished, said Christ. There. And Alice Hayward was ready to die.ā
March 15, 2010
Tags: Domestic Violence, murder mystery Posted in: Book Club Choice, Mystery/Suspense No Comments
