 MostlyFiction.com Newsletter Update
Posted to subscriber list on
June 4, 2006
Hello, MostlyFiction.com readers!
28 new reviews were recently posted to MostlyFiction.com. Click on the book cover to read the review; click on reviewer's name to learn more about the reviewer.
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 WOLF BOY
by Evan Kuhlman
Reviewed by Tony Ross
A unique and compelling novel about a dysfuntional family trying to understand the accidental death of the oldest son. Embedded within this novel is a graphic novel, adding a layer of richness to this already excellent novel.
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 HOPE AND OTHER DANGEROUS PURSUITS
by Laila Lalimi
Reviewed by Poornima Apte
This novel begins with an illegal journey of four Moroccans crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. Moments away from the shore, the boat capsizes.
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 THE SUMMER SNOW
by Rebecca Pawel
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
Fourth in this post Spanish Civil War novel to feature Carlos Tejada Alonso y Léon.
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 EYE OF VENGEANCE
by Jonathan King
Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky
An edgy, brooding stand-alone novel about a professional crime reporter who is a crime victim, himself.
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 A DIRTY JOB
by Christopher Moore
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
Cult-hero Christopher Moore tackles death in his latest wonderful, whacked-out yarn.
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 ON BEAUTY
by Zadie Smith
Reviewed by Nora Kathleen Reilly
A 21st century story about two academic rivals (and their families) who detest each other's politics. Her best novel yet.
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 DEAD CENTER
by David Rosenfelt
Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky
New Jersey wisecracking defense lawyer Andy Carpenter returns for a fifth outing. When his former lover, Laurie, a police detective who has moved home to Wisconsin, calls to tell him she may have arrested an innocent man for murder, Andy packs his bags and sets off for the Midwest to lend a hand.
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STRANGE AFFAIR
by Peter Robinson
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
Living in a rented flat (after his cottage was burned in the previous outing), Banks is struggling to put his life back together when an urgent phone message from his younger brother, Roy—a successful, slightly shady London businessman—requests his help.
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 COMPANY
by Max Barry
Reviewed by Debbie Lee Wesselman
Barry once again satirizes corporate America in his third caustic novel.
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 MOHR
by Frederick Reuss
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
Max Mohr, a real-life German-Jewish novelist and playwright, died mysteriously in Shanghai, China in 1937. Reuss sets out in this novel to imagine the man's life and choices.
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 SOLDIERS OF SALAMIS
by Javier Cercas
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
The unnamed speaker is investigating the story of Rafael Sanchez Mazas, a "good, not great" writer of the 1930s, who, in the final days of the Spanish Civil War escaped a firing squad.
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 THE HARD WAY
by Lee Child
Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky
Jack Reacher, ex-army MP, helps to track down the kidnapped wife and daughter of ex-army officer Edward Lane.
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 WHEN THE NINES ROLL OVER
by David Benioff
Reviewed by Tony Ross
Strong and highly recommended short story collection.
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 MANY WAYS TO GET IT, MANY WAYS TO SAY IT
by Cris Mazza
Reviewed by Debbie Lee Wesselman
Two novellas, one set in the '80s and the other in the '90s with a linking character, which explore two reversals of sexual harassement and gender inferiority.
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 DEPARTURE LOUNGE
by Chad Taylor
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
This enigmatic noir thriller from New Zealand author Chad Taylor opens on a friendly pool game between disarming narrator Mark Chamberlain (who has a secret criminal life) and property developer Rory Jones at an Auckland billiards parlor and turns into a mystery about a high school classmate's disapearance.
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 IN THE MISO SOUP
by Ryu Murakami
Reviewed by Tony Ross
20-year-old Kenji works as a guide for Western tourists looking for action in Tokyo's sex districts. A few days before the end of the year, he meets up with a new American client named Frank. And right off there is a sense that something is not right with Frank.
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 GILEAD
by Marilynne Robinson
Reviewed by Nora Kathleen Reilly
2005 Pulitizer prize winning novel that is a letter from a father to his son.
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 BACKWARD-FACING MAN
by Don Silver
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
A nonlinear trip into the past of three political radicals from the late 1960s.
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 GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES: THE SECRET LIFE OF A CRITIC IN DISGUISE
by Ruth Reichl
Reviewed by Pat Neuman
Reichl writes about her years as the food critic for The New York Times and the efforts she had to make not be recognized, all the more difficult as she never writes her opinion based on on just one dining experience.
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 KINGDOM COME
by Tim Green
Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky
A chilling cautionary tale based loosely on Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Macbeth.
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 EXPLORERS OF THE NEW CENTURY
by Magnus Mills
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
In this allegorical novel, two unidentified nations at an unidentified time send coordinated expeditions into an uninhabited place of extreme weather—"the Agreed Furthest Point from Civilization."
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 MODERN RANCH LIVING
by Mark Jude Poirier
Reviewed by Tony Ross
In the dusty, gated desert community of Rancho Sin Vacas a handful of residents are finding that neighborhood life is becoming increasingly bizarre among the crumbling swimming pools, overwatered lawns, and disaffected children.
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 MY LIFE SO FAR
by Jane Fonda
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
Jane Fonda's interesting auto-biography.
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 THE CATTLE
by Greg Sarwa
Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky
The evening before the National Identification System officially becomes a reality, during the last control tests of the system, something goes wrong: someone accidentally discovers the real purpose of the implants.
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 THE BEAN TREES, PIGS IN HEAVEN
by Barbara Kingsolver
Reviewed by Pat Neuman
Two excellent novels that tell the story of Taylor Greer and her informerly adopted daughter, Turtle. The first novel is set in Arizona. The second brings us to the Cherokee nation. Kingsolver's first and fourth novels.
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 SULA
by Toni Morrison
Reviewed by Debbie Lee Wesselman
Follows two friends, Sula nd Nel, who grow up together in the Bottom, a black section of an Ohio town. Morrison's second novel first published in 1973.
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 CRAZY HORSE
by Larry McMurtry
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
Part of the Penguin Lives series, featuring the great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse.
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Why so many reviews this month? Partially because I couldn't make up my mind which ones to post since there were so many good ones to choose from. When I realized that I had formatted more than I needed for the update, I decided not to wait. June is going to be particularly busy month for me at Wishpets (my day job) and will involve lots of overtime (time to update more catalogs). That means not enough time for MostlyFiction.com. So enjoy the extra reviews -- make them stretch into mid July -- that's about when I should have another update ready.
Happy SUMMER reading!
Judi Clark
MostlyFiction.com
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