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MostlyFiction.com Blogs:
"I cannot live without books." — Thomas Jefferson |
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| Feb 8, 2008 | ||
Dana Armstrong is no ordinary primatologist. In the 1970s, she was the little blond girl with a chimpanzee for a sister, a participant in her father's psychology experiment that sought to narrow the divide between species.Now, decades later, the black-and-white clips of Dana with her "sister" still flicker in classrooms across the country. As director of a chimpanzee sanctuary, she arrives at work one morning to discover that the worst has happened: someone has vandalized the buildings and opened the cages, setting loose a group of particularly dangerous chimpanzees. (read review) An awesome first novel: has it all: mystery, Victorian riddles, contemporary issues, art mirroring a most unusual life, eccentric and lovable characters, suspected and surprise villains, domestic strife, and conflicted romance. (read review) |
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| Feb 7, 2008 | ||
Suggest to the average leftist that animals should be part of broader liberation struggles and—once they stop laughing—you'll find yourself casually dismissed. With a focus on labor, property, and the life of commodities, Making a Killing contains key insights into the broad nature of domination, power, and hierarchy. It explores the intersections between human and animal oppressions in relation to the exploitative dynamics of capitalism. Combining nuts-and-bolts Marxist political economy, a pluralistic anarchist critique, as well as a searing assessment of the animal rights movement, Torres challenges conventional anti-capitalist thinking. (read review) |
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| Feb 6, 2008 | ||
A major hit in Germany that went on to become one of Europe’s biggest literary blockbusters in the last five years, Night Train to Lisbon is a compelling exploration of consciousness, the possibility of truly understanding another person, and the ability of language to define our very selves. (read review) |
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| Feb 6, 2008 | ||
| No new book review yet today -- but thought I'd share this uplifting speech from Barack Obama. WE CAN CHANGE! | ||
| Feb 5, 2008 | ||
In their heyday on the vaudeville stages of the early twentieth century, Dora Chance and her twin sister, Nora—unacknowledged daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day—were known as the Lucky Chances, with private lives as colorful and erratic as their careers. But now, at age 75, Dora is typing up their life story, and it is a tale indeed. Comic writing of the highest order. (read review) |
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| Feb 1, 2008 | ||
When, in later years, Sergeant Studer told the story of the Chinaman, he called it the story of three places, as the case unfolded in a Swiss country inn, in a poorhouse, and in a horticultural college. Three places and two murders. Anna Hungerlott, supposedly dead from gastric influenza, left behind handkerchiefs with traces of arsenic. One foggy November morning the enigmatic James Farny, nicknamed the Chinaman by Studer, was found lying on Anna's grave. Murdered, a single pistol shot to the heart that did not pierce his clothing. (read review) |
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| Jan 31 , 2008 | ||
The men aboard an impounded freighter in the port of Marseilles are divided: Wait for the money owed them, or accept their fate and abandon ship? Captain Abdul Aziz is determined to save his charge and do the right thing by his men. In these close quarters charged with physical and emotional tension, each life begins to resemble a chapter in the complex, colorful, and tragic story of the Mediterranean Sea itself-rich with romance, legend, passion, and drama. (read review) |
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| Jan 28 , 2008 | ||
Danny Parsons is a dreamer. He loves nothing better than to close his eyes and let the world slip away, dreaming of India, or Alaska, or Kenya - anywhere but his home, living any life but his life. Danny is sure that he was supposed to be someone else, living in a more interesting place, with a more interesting family. Danny's sister, Bridget, believes that Danny's life is more interesting than he knows: she thinks he can set events in motion by touching equations. (read review) |
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| Jan 26 , 2008 | ||
When British lieutenant Charles Acland returns home from Iraq, his serious head injuries are the outward manifestation of a profound inner change: he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or it may be, as his psychiatrist suggests, “the prolonged destruction of a personality.” In its timeliness, its psychological complexity, and its unstoppable suspense, The Chameleon’s Shadow is a thriller of the first order. (read review) |
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| Jan 25 , 2008 | ||
Chris Carver is living a lie. His wife, their teenage daughter, and everyone in their circle know him as Michael Frame, suburban dad. They have no idea that as a radical student in the sixties he briefly became a terrorist—protesting the Vietnam War by setting bombs around London. And then one day a ghost from his past turns up on his doorstep, forcing Chris on the run. (read review) |
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| Jan 23 , 2008 | ||
Moving seamlessly between the financial skyscrapers of New York and the crisp blue skies of Corsica and Marseille, Das Kapital is an extraordinary homage to Marx's seminal work for the twenty-first century. (read review and excerpt) |
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| Jan 21 , 2008 | ||
For the fiftieth anniversary of Sputnik, the behind-the-scenes story of the fierce battles on earth that launched the superpowers into space. "As exciting to read as the best fiction..." (read review) |
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| Jan 20 , 2008 | ||
Andrés Faulques, a world-renowned war photographer, has retired to a life of solitude on the Spanish coast. On the walls of a tower overlooking the sea, he spends his days painting a huge mural that pays homage to history’s classic works of war art and that incorporates a lifetime of disturbing images. One night, an unexpected visitor arrives at Faulques’ door and challenges the painter to remember him. (read review) |
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| Jan 18 , 2008 | ||
Set during Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan, it revolves around a family headed by a widow named Rehana Haque -- a character inspired by the author's grandmother -- and the small but remarkable role she plays in that war. (read review) |
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| Jan 16 , 2008 | ||
The 20th Kinsey Millhone crime novel is a tale of identity theft and elder abuse -- Grafton's most unsettling novel to date -- and maybe one of her best. (read review) |
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| Jan 15 , 2008 | ||
In this excellent debut collection, Reddi weaves a multigenerational tapestry of interconnected lives, depicting members of an Indian American community struggling to balance the demands of tradition with the allure of Western life. . (read review) This diverse collection, consisting of four short stories and one novella, serves to showcase Welsh’s remarkable ability to create a wide range of voices. (read review) |
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CAPTIVITY
from 5 reviews
TRUTOR & THE BALLOONIST 
MAKING A KILLING 
NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON 
WISE CHILDREN 
from 20 reviews
THE CHINAMAN 
from 2 reviews
THE LOST SAILORS 
THE QUANTUM JULY 
from 4 reviews
THE CHAMELEON'S SHADOW
MY REVOLUTIONS 
DAS KAPITAL 
RED MOON RISING 
THE PAINTER OF BATTLES 
A GOLDEN AGE 
T IS FOR TRESPASS 
KARMA AND OTHER STORIES 
IF YOU LIKED SCHOOL, YOU'LL LOVE WORK 
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