"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it." William Styron  
  February 28, 2007  
 

MARGHERITA DOLCE VITA by Stefano BenniMARGHERITA DOLCE VITA
by Stefano Benni
Publisher: Europa Editions November 2006

Reviewer: Mary Whipple
Amazon readers rating: from 2 reviews

Fourteen-and-half-year-old Margherita lives with her eccentric family on the outskirts of town, a semi-urban wilderness peopled by gypsies, illegal immigrants, and no end of bizarre characters: a reassuring and fertile playground for an imaginative little girl like Margherita. But one day, a gigantic, black cube shows up next door. Her new neighbors have arrived, and they're destined to ruin everything. (read review)

 
  February 27, 2007  
 

STEP ON A CRACK by James PattersonSTEP ON A CRACK
by James Patterson
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co. February 2007

Reviewer: Chuck Barksdale
Amazon readers rating: from 44 reviews

Detective Michael Bennett is about to take on the most sinister challenge of his career. The nation has fallen into mourning after the unexpected death of a beloved former first lady, and the most powerful people in the world gather in New York for her funeral. Then the inconceivable occurs. Billionaires, politicians, and superstars of every kind are suddenly trapped within one man's brilliant and ruthless scenario. Bennett--father of ten--is pulled into the fray. (read review or excerpt)

 
  February 26, 2007  
 

STRIVERS ROW by Kevin BakerSTRIVERS ROW
by Kevin Baker
Publisher: HarperCollins January 2007
in Trade Paperback
Reviewer: Hagen Baye
Amazon readers rating: from 7 reviews

"The place is Harlem.  The time is the early 1940’s.  World War II is raging in Europe and in the Pacific. That’s the setting for Kevin Baker’s superb historical novel Strivers Row.  Harlem is a seething tinder box of rage, ready to explode at the slightest provocation; word is filtering back on the mistreatment of Black GIs, here at home (particularly at military bases in the South) and overseas.  The injustice of it all is approaching the boiling point..." (read review or excerpt)

 
  February 25, 2007  
 

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS by Giles BluntBY THE TIME YOU READ THIS
by Giles Blunt
Publisher: Henry Holt February 2007

Reviewer: Eleanor Bukowsky
Amazon readers rating: from 8 reviews

Autumn has arrived in Algonquin Bay, and with it an unusual spate of suicides. The most shocking victim yet is Detective John Cardinal’s wife, who has finally succumbed to her battle with manic depression. As Cardinal takes time to grieve, his partner, Lise Delorme, handles an unsavory assignment: a young girl appears in a series of unspeakable photos being traded online. Delorme is desperate to find the girl before she suffers more abuse. When Cardinal receives a string of hateful anonymous notes about his wife’s death, he begins to suspect homicide. (read review or excerpt)

 
  February 23, 2007  
 

TITAN by Ben BovaTITAN
by Ben Bova
Publisher: Tor Books February 2006

Reviewer: Ann Wilkes
Amazon readers rating: from 12 reviews

2095. After long months of travel, the gigantic colony ship Goddard has at last made orbit around Saturn, carrying a population of more than ten thousand dissidents and visionaries seeking a new life. Among Goddards missions is the study of Saturns moon Titan, which offers the possibility that life may exist amid its windswept islands and chill black seas. (read review)


VENUS by Ben BovaVENUS
by Ben Bova
Publisher: Tor 2000; 2001 in paperback

Reviewer: Ann Wilkes
Amazon readers rating: from 57 reviews

The surface of Venus is the most hellish place in the solar system. The ground is hot enough to melt aluminum. The air pressure is so high it has crushed spacecraft landers as though they were tin cans. The sky is perpetually covered with clouds of sulfuric acid. The atmosphere is a choking mixture of carbon dioxide and poisonous gases. This is where Van Humphries must go. Or die trying. (read review)

 
  February 21, 2007  
 

ARLINGTON PARK by Rachel CuskARLINGTON PARK
by Rachel Cusk
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux January 2007

Reviewer: Poornima Apte
Amazon readers rating: from 4 reviews

"Even as one reads the precisely observed nuggets of suburban life that make up Arlington Park, one starts to worry. Could this book be classified as “Mommy Lit?” and shoved aside? For that would be a pity because Arlington Park is chock full of a quality vital for good fiction -- empathy..." (read review)

 
  February 20, 2007  
 

I'M NOT JULIA ROBERTS by Laura RubyI'M NOT JULIA ROBERTS
by Laura Ruby
Publisher: Warner Books January 2007

Reviewer: Guy Savage
Amazon readers rating: from 5 reviews

"I’m Not Julia Roberts from author Laura Ruby is a novel of manners written for the bleak realities of the 21st Century. The novel spits and crackles with wicked humour while chronicling the petty, nasty dysfunctional relationships between several middle-aged divorced urbanite couples. This often painfully funny look at the roles of ex-husbands and ex-wives..." (read review or excerpt)

 
  February 19, 2007  
 

THE HILL ROAD by Patrick O'KeeffeTHE HILL ROAD
by Patrick O'Keeffe
Publisher: Penguin October 2006

Reviewer: Mary Whipple
Amazon readers rating: from 4reviews

"Without a trace of romanticism, Patrick O'Keeffe recreates the lives of four sets of characters who live in and around Kilroan, a small town on the southwestern coast of rural Ireland.  Winner of the Story Prize for the four overlapping stories/novellas in this book, O'Keeffe depicts the hard lives of those who did not emigrate, those who stayed behind..." (read review)

 
  February 18, 2007  
 

DECEIT by James SiegelDECEIT
by James Siegel
Publisher: Warner Books August 2006

Reviewer: Guy Savage
Amazon readers rating: from 20 reviews

It looks like just another car crash: a head-on collision on a lonely stretch of desert highway that leaves one driver dead. But Tom Valle, the local newspaperman assigned to the story, is damned good at spotting lies. And for Valle, once a star reporter at America's most prestigious daily, this so-called accident may be just the ticket he needs to resurrect his career and get him out of the aptly named town of Littleton, California, for good. (read review and excerpt)

 
  February 16, 2007  
 

THE SUSPECT by John LescroartTHE SUSPECT
by John Lescroart
Publisher: Dutton Adult January 2007

Reviewer: Eleanor Bukowsky
Amazon readers rating: from 9 reviews

When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart was recently asked for a divorce . . . and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi—that he was at his cabin on Tamarack Lake that weekend—doesn’t keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will. Gina Roake, a partner in Dismas Hardy’s firm, is eager to take on such a high-profile case. (read review)

 
  February 14, 2007  
 

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan DidionTHE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
by Joan Didion
Publisher: Vintage February 2007
in paperback
Reviewer: Debbie Lee Wesselmann
Amazon readers rating: from 342 reviews

As a writer of nonfiction, Joan Didion has an unparalleled reputation as a no-nonsense journalist who cuts to the heart of an issue.  The beauty of her prose has always derived from the clear-eyed precision of it, the way a phrase nails down a truth without flourish.  In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion's style is startling as it turns inward to the exploration of bereavement and the struggle to survive it... (read review)

 
  February 12, 2007  
 

TRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM by Paul AusterTRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM
by Paul Auster
Publisher: Henry Holt January 2007

Reviewer: Leland Cheuk
Amazon readers rating: from 9 reviews

Auster’s thirteenth book turns out to be a worthy synopsis of his first twelve, an excellent place to start for those who haven’t read one of America’s most prolific and under-celebrated authors. (read review)

 
  February 11, 2007  
 

AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John GreenAN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES
by John Green
Publisher: Dutton September 2006

Reviewer: Tony Ross
Amazon readers rating: from 13 reviews

A quirky coming of age story about recent high-school graduate and former child prodigy, Colin Singleton who has had his heart-broken by one too many Katherines. (read review)

 


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