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May 30, 2006
"In the Garden" trilogy by Nora Roberts
Reading select romance authors is one of my guilty pleasures. I'm not into the bodice-rippers or the modern day equivalent - not enough substance with the sex - but Nora Roberts' work has yet to fail me as a source of light, entertaining reading with actual plot, characters with personality and a healthy dose of passion. Her "In the Garden" trilogy is a satisfying read, especially for anyone who has interest in either gardening or ghosts. One of Roberts' trademarks is her ability to efffectively mix reality-type romance with supernatural twists. She doesn't fail in this series, in which a trio of women work together in a nursery and deal with the hauntings of the "Harper Bride," the ghostly ancestor of the nursery owner. Roberts doesn't neglect the romance angle either. Each heroine finds her mate and the group of them form a warm family that bonds together to solve the mystery of the Harper Bride. For a good summer read, try "Blue Dahlia," "Black Rose," and "Red Lily" by Nora Roberts.
ISBNs:
Blue Dahlia: 051513855X
Black Rose: 0515138657
Red Lily: 0515139408
Jennifer, Reference
Posted by jnardine at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
"Lost in a Good Book" by Jasper Fforde
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde is the second in a series (I’d recommend starting with the first book, The Eyre Affair, ISBN: 0-14-200180-5). It is hard to select a genre for this series; the stories are part science fiction, part action/adventure, part mystery, part remakes of great literature, but very readable and a lot of fun. The main character is Thursday Next, a Literary Detective with the Special Operations Network. Thursday is just as apt to interact with a literary character such as Miss Haversham from Great Expectations, as she is with “real people.” Thursday has a full plate as she tries to deal with the blackmailers who killed her husband and are after her father (he’s a rogue ChronoGuard), searches for a way to bring her husband back, tries to figure out how to save the world from imminent destruction, works to verify the authenticity of a previously unknown play by Shakespeare, and copes with the queasiness of early pregnancy. I have enjoyed this series a great deal and I suspect that people who have read a lot of the “great literature” will get even more out of it since they will understand the references to scenes and characters from books such as The Trial, Great Expectations, Alice in Wonderland, etc., etc.
ISBN: 0-14-200403-0
Pam, Reserves
Posted by jnardine at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2006
"More to Life Than This" by Carole Matthews
Library Journal said, in their review, that "Matthews will charm Bridget Jones fans on both sides of the Atlantic." I have to agree, although this book is no Bridget Jones remake. There are less hilarious mishaps and more true-to-life moments in "More to Life."
Kate Wilson is afraid that she, her husband and her children are all in a rut. The kids are better behaved than the Bobsey twins, and she can't remember that last time that she and her husband Jeffrey were passionate about anything, much less each other. So Kate signs up for a week long course in Tai Chi, leaving her family in the care of a gorgeous au pair. Both Kate and Jeffrey learn an amazing amount about life, love and happiness during their week-long separation, and both are tempted by attractive members of the opposite sex. What really engaged me, though, was that the end of the story isn't a fluffy fairy tale where both ride off into the sunset with their new true loves. Matthews deals head-on with the heartache and the hard decisions involved in any major life change and does so with grace and tenderness for all the characters involved.
ISBN: 0-373-89568-2
Jennifer, reference
Posted by jnardine at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2006
"Wounded" by Percival Everett
Everett ponders the nuances and stark realities of racial intolerance and hate crimes in this yarn about an African American horse trainer, John Hunt, living in a rural Wyoming community. John and his elderly uncle attend to the daily chores of mucking stalls, feeding horses, and rustling up ranch victuals in a seemingly insular world, that is, until David, the son of a college friend, arrives to protest the killing of a young, gay man. John befriends David and helps him cope with his crumbling relationship with his father. Intelligent and funny, “Wounded” lays bare the stark realities of racial and sexual bigotry in America.
ISBN: 1555974279
Renoir, Reference
Posted by jnardine at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2006
"Dating is Murder" by Harley Jane Kozak
Like many of my colleagues, I read a lot of mysteries. Dating is Murder, by Harley Jane Kozak is the second in a relatively new series. If, like me, you want to read series in order, start with the first book, Dating Dead Men (ISBN: 0-7679-2123-2). The lead in these books is Wollie (short for Wollstonecraft) Shelley, an independent greeting card artist. In this book Wollie has taken on a “side-job” as a contestant on a reality TV show called “Biological Clock.” On this show three women and three men date each other in rotating fashion and in the end the audience will vote on which two would make the best parents. Although she wants a baby, Wollie’s biggest interest in the show is the health insurance (she supports a mentally ill younger brother who is currently undergoing treatment in an experimental drug trial). A young German woman, Annika, who volunteers behind the scenes on the show disappears. In addition to her work on this show, Annika is also an au pair, Wollie’s math tutor, and a volunteer with several organizations. When the police and au pair agency seem uninterested in locating Annika, Wollie begins her own search. The story is populated with Wollie’s friends and family, people Annika knew, and a mysterious stalker. Although many of the reviews of this series compare it to Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, I think I may even enjoy these more (and I love the Plum series) because the characters, though colorful are not quite so over-the-top.
ISBN: 0-7679-2124-0
Pam M, Reserves
Posted by jnardine at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2006
"Penelopiad" by Margaret Atwood
Internationally acclaimed writer Margaret Atwood spins an entertaining retelling of the myth of Odysseus and his wife Penelope from the narrative perspective of women: the now dead Penelope and twelve of her maids who were hanged by Odysseus and his son Telemachus. Atwood’s Penelope counters patriarchal versions of the “wily Odysseus” and the male gaze of her beautiful, adulterous cousin, Helen of Troy, through an internal monologue that illuminates her own compassionate, faithful character. In the tradition of Aristophanes, the maids are given voice as a classical chorus, burlesquing heroic action and questioning cultural conventions. Atwood weighs the validity of Odysseus as classical Greek hero against contemporary moral conventions in this spare, yet dramatically disturbing narrative, a tension certain to keep the pages turning.
ISBN: 1841957178
Renoir G., reference
Posted by jnardine at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2006
"Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic" by Marla Cone
Who expects the world’s worst toxic contamination to be in the Arctic? No, this isn’t a rhetorical question. In the tradition of “Silent Spring” author Rachel Carson, Cone delivers a whirlwind tour of one of the most perplexing environmental disasters in modern times: the pollution of sparsely populated, isolated Arctic regions by organochlorines (DDT and PCBs) and methyl mercury. Cone explores the global voyage of such toxins as they make their way from southern, industrialized countries by mainly hitchhiking on atmospheric and ocean currents before settling on various rungs of the food chain necessary for the survival of the Inuit and other indigenous peoples. Cone does a fine job sifting through scientific data and interpreting the phenomenon with a layman’s stark curiosity and wonder. She paints a humane, highly personal portrait of families and wildlife whose lives and communities are directly threatened by the contamination. This Arctic dilemma has global implications. And this book shines a much needed light upon its legacies.
ISBN: 080211797X
Renoir, Reference
Posted by jnardine at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, was first published in 1992, but many of the issues these college students face are the same 13 years later. Exam stress, relationships, drinking, drugs, bacchanalian frenzies...well, maybe most of these things are typical college experiences! The narrator, Richard Papen, transfers to a private college in Vermont, and is quickly immersed in a tiny class of elite students who are studying Greek -- the charming gay Francis, obnoxious sponger Bunny, frightening super-intellect Henry and the beautiful, too-close twins Charles and Camilla. When an attempt to perform an ancient rite goes horribly wrong, Richard and his classmates must make decisions that will haunt the rest of their lives.
ISBN: 0679410325
Amanda F., instruction
Posted by jnardine at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)