Archive for May, 2011

THE INFORMANT by Thomas Perry

One of Thomas Perry’s most iconic characters is “The Butcher’s Boy,” a professional hit man with an impressive resume. In his prime, he was the go-to guy for gangsters who wanted to get rid of their enemies. Taught by his foster father, Eddie Mastrewski, who worked as a butcher but also rubbed out individuals for a fee, the Butcher’s Boy (who now goes by the name Michael Schaeffer) is mentally tough, remorseless, practical, and a perfectionist who has stayed alive by taking nothing for granted. He is a master of weaponry and surveillance; is good at blending into the background; can bypass most alarm systems; and has a sixth sense that alerts him to subtle clues in his environment. Although he can improvise when necessary, he prefers to plan ahead. He does not toy with his victims; he strangles, shoots, or stabs them, and then quickly vanishes.

May 8, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags:  · Posted in: 2011 Favorites, Thriller/Spy/Caper

LIVE WIRE by Harlan Coben

Myron Bolitar is back in LIVE WIRE, the tenth book in this great series and the first since Long Lost (2009). Last time, Myron was in France but this time he’s back in New York and north Jersey where he works as an agent representing sports professionals and other celebrities. Myron is asked for help by one of his first clients, former tennis star Suzze T. (Trevantino) who is now eight months pregnant. She wants Myron to find her husband, Lex Rider who is missing after seeing the post of “Not His” about his wife’s pregnancy on her Facebook page.

May 7, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  · Posted in: Family Matters, New York City, Sleuths Series, Thriller/Spy/Caper, y Award Winning Author

PULSE by Julian Barnes

This lovely passage of a husband at the bedside of his paralyzed wife, who has lost everything except the sense of smell and perhaps hearing, is Barnes at his very best. It is even better in context, for the husband has lost his own sense of smell and cannot even share those memories. It comes from the title story, “Pulse,” printed at the very end of the book, a moving account of a happy marriage contrasted with a troubled one…

May 6, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags:  · Posted in: Short Stories, y Award Winning Author

THE LEMON TABLE by Julian Barnes

One of the things I most enjoy about Julian Barnes is his variety. Each of his books questions the conventional idea of a novel, and each does so in a different way. So I open this collection of eleven short stories expecting an intriguing range of subject and technique, united by a humanity that Barnes has never yet failed to provide. I was not disappointed. This book is as wonderfully written as it is pleasant to hold in the hand, in this beautiful Vintage paperback edition. The range of subjects is indeed large, with scenes of contemporary London alternating with historical stories set in France, Sweden, or Russia. Although all the stories are about twenty pages long, some take place in a single hour, others span a lifetime. They are linked by the common theme of aging, but this should not be a deterrent; few are sad, but rather wry, tender, surprising, or even hysterically funny. Barnes’ range of emotion is as great as his range of style.

May 6, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags:  · Posted in: Short Stories, y Award Winning Author

THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME by Jean Thompson

Jean Thompson has been aptly labeled “an American Alice Munro,” and as a reader who has been mesmerized time and again by her captivating short-story collections, I wholeheartedly concur.

Now, in THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME, Ms. Thompson leverages all her strengths and skills as a short-story writer and creates a sweeping and emotionally satisfying novel composed of interlocking, decade-spanning stories of a family in flux. As her grand theme, she takes on the universal quest for “home,” exploring all the manifestations of that search.

May 5, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  · Posted in: Contemporary, US Midwest

FUNERAL FOR A DOG by Thomas Pletzinger

Husbands and wives who work together either end up with their marriage in trouble or being the best of friends. In German author, Thomas Pletzinger’s novel, FUNERAL FOR A DOG, it’s the first scenario for journalist Daniel Mandelkern. Mandelkern is an ethnologist who is supposed to be writing “about anthropological concepts like matrilineality and male childbed,” but instead he’s been getting a series of shit assignments from his boss/wife Elisabeth. Mandelkern is beginning to wonder if there’s an underlying message to these assignments and then he’s told to interview the reclusive Dirk Svensson, the author of a wildly successful illustrated children’s book “The story of Leo and the Notmuch.” Mandelkern protests against the assignment, and with his marriage in crisis, he storms out of his apartment on the journey to interview Svensson.

May 4, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  · Posted in: Contemporary, Germany, New York City, Unique Narrative, World Lit