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Browsing all posts tagged 'fiction'
Title: Arctic Chill
By: Arnaldur Indridason
Arctic Chill opens with the stabbing death of Elias, a half-Thai and half-Icelandic boy of ten. Paralleled with Elias’ death is the murder case of a new wife by her unfaithful husband. Unlike his previous four mysteries, Arnaldur’s fifth book is haunted by a series of polemic clashes. Apart from ... [Read more]
Posted by Hui-Lan on Feb. 5, 2010
Tags: fiction, mystery
0 Comments
Justice and Atonement and Capital Punishment
Title: Change of Heart
By: Jodi Picoult
Change of Heart is a thought provoking and compelling novel about religion, murder, incest, organ donation, and the death penalty. As the characters in the book reevaluate their beliefs and feelings about these issues, the reader is compelled to do the same. Picoult skillfully weaves together a story of all ... [Read more]
Posted by ogradyj on Jan. 11, 2010
Tags: fiction, audiobook
0 Comments
Sleuthing Fun in San Francisco
Title: Revenge of the Spellmans
By: Lisa Lutz
Everybody's favorite thirty-something, Guinness-drinking private investigator with a checkered past is back in this third installment of the Spellman mysteries. Isabel Spellman continues to entertain as only she can in this heavily footnoted, case file format mystery set in San Francisco. Isabel's court-ordered therapy, insomnia, and secret new digs, along ... [Read more]
Posted by Abbey on Jan. 2, 2010
Tags: fiction, mystery
0 Comments
Title: The Eye of the Leopard
By: Henning Mankell
Henning Mankell, the creator of Kurt Wallander mysteries, does not restrict himself just to the boundaries of Sweden, his native country. By working as director at Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique since 1985, he has truly made Africa his second home. The Eye of the Leopard has shown us a ... [Read more]
Posted by Hui-Lan on Dec. 9, 2009
Tags: fiction
0 Comments
Title: Out Stealing Horses
By: Per Petterson
The beautiful, spare prose of this short novel helps create an atmosphere and characters that will be remembered long after the last page has been turned. Set in Norway, the story moves back and forth in time--from the summer of 1948 to the present. The narrator, aging widower Trond Sander, ... [Read more]
Posted by fatorangecat on Nov. 20, 2009
Tags: fiction
0 Comments
Title: Shanghai Girls
By: Lisa See
Sometimes I think I am the only person who didn't enjoy Lisa See's earlier novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. For this reason I was reluctant to try Shanghai Girls, but I found myself with a copy in my hands and decided to give it a chance. I'm glad ... [Read more]
Posted by Abbey on Nov. 1, 2009
Tags: fiction
1 Comment
Title: Midwives
By: Chris Bohjalian
Reading this book was my first taste of Chris Bohjalian and it leaves me hungry for more. The story is told by Connie, who is fourteen the fall of her mother's trial. Her mother, Sibyl Danforth, is charged with manslaughter for the death of a mother in a home birth ... [Read more]
Posted by Abbey on July 27, 2009
Tags: fiction
0 Comments
A Wild Romp Through the French Quarter!
Title: A Confederacy of Dunces
By: John Kennedy Toole
This book made laugh so hard that I literally cried. Ignatius J. Reilly is one of the most colorfully hilarious characters I have ever come across. This is the best tour through the French Quarter that I could ever possibly take, without actually going there, especially with a paradoxically intelligent ... [Read more]
Posted by Jean Poole on June 3, 2009
Tags: fiction
2 Comments
Like Reading an Episode of "The Wire"
Title: Lush Life
By: Richard Price
Reading Lush Life is like reading an extended episode of HBO's series "The Wire." Not coincidentally, Price writes for the series and was recently nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for his writing on the show. The novel starts with the murder of a young screenwriter and bartender ... [Read more]
Posted by Abbey on June 1, 2009
Tags: fiction
0 Comments
Cathedrals, Fog and Gothic Suspense
Title: The Unburied
By: Charles Palliser
If your brain is ready for a workout, you might want to try this intricately plotted atmospheric thriller set in Victorian England. It is a framed story--a mystery within a mystery wrapped in yet another mystery. And it has all of the elements you might expect in this genre: missing ... [Read more]
Posted by fatorangecat on April 29, 2009
Tags: fiction, mystery
0 Comments
Six Degrees of Separation in London
Title: London Bridges
By: Jane Stevenson
An affectionate homage to the classic English detective story, London Bridges is set in 1990s London. Its plot centers on a treasure lost in the Blitz and newly discovered by an unscrupulous lawyer, who is tempted by greed into a series of crimes leading to murder. A diverse cast of ... [Read more]
Posted by Gigi on April 27, 2009
Tags: fiction
0 Comments
Perfect Book for a Long Flight
Title: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
By: Dai Sijie
This is a lovely funny book which can easily transport you from a cramped seat in economy to an elegantly constructed world in China. Set in the Chinese countryside during the Cultural Revolution, Sijie tells us the story of two city boys sent to be re-educated by poor peasants in ... [Read more]
Posted by Ruby Boggs on April 6, 2009
Tags: fiction
0 Comments
Correspondence from the German Occupation
Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Upon a strong recommendation and kind provision of the book, I started to embark on the reading of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. However I had a slow start. For some reason, I was deterred by its format consisting of letters or correspondence between the protagonist Juliet ... [Read more]
Posted by Hui-Lan on Feb. 17, 2009
Tags: fiction, history
4 Comments
Short Stories in a Northern Setting
Title: Island: The Complete Short Stories
By: Alistair MacLeod
Modern Library named Canadian author Alistair MacLeod one of the greatest writers in the English language since 1950. After spending some time with this collection of stories, it is clear why. These short stories, set for the most part in the stark but evocative landscape of Cape Breton Island, are ... [Read more]
Posted by fatorangecat on Oct. 31, 2008
Tags: short stories, fiction
1 Comment
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