 MostlyFiction.com Newsletter Update
Posted to subscriber list on
September 17, 2004.
Hello, MostlyFiction.com readers!
22 new reviews and one author interview were posted to MostlyFiction.com in this week. Click on the book covers to read the reviews; click on reviewers name to learn more about the reviewer.
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DUDE, WHERE'S MY COUNTRY by Michael Moore
Reviewed by Judi Clark
 I have done something different this update. The "True Adventure" section is renamed to "Nonfiction" so that it covers a wider range of books. Also, with the welcome addition of reviewer Jana L. Perskie, I have decided it is time to start including reviews of the many current events/political books that have made their way to the bestseller lists this year. You will quickly see that we have an agenda. As a "decided" in the upcoming election, I intend to share the opinions and facts that have persuaded my viewpoint and those of the majority of reviewers on this site. To understand more, please read my review of DUDE, WHERE'S MY COUNTRY?
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THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT: FINAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 The result of months of intensive investigations and inquiries by a specially appointed bipartisan panel is one of the most important historical documents of the modern era.
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FAT MAN FED UP: HOW AMERICAN POLITICS WENT BAD by Jack W. Germond
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 Reporter Jack Germond has been covering the presidential elections since the 1960s. He IS fed up with the American electoral politics and in this book tackles problems that other journalists seem reluctant to address.
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LOSING AMERICA: CONFRONTING A RECKLESS AND ARROGANT PRESIDENCY by Robert C. Byrd
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 Yes, this is a partisan senator's point of view. But his Congressional career has spanned more than 50 years; he has dedicated his life to public service as well as to the scholarly understanding of constitutional government. And that is what is of great concern here is -- our constitution.
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BUSHWORLD by Maureen Dowd
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 On to some lighter material, but no less damning! Pulitzer Prize winner Maureen Dowd is an op-editor for the The New York Times who is scathingly funny. Here is a collection of 100 columns that focus on the "alternate universe" of the Bush Dynasty.
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PLAN OF ATTACK by Bob Woodward
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 Offers not only an intimate glimpse into the Bush White House, known for its secrecy and closed door policy, it gives a reader a window into the administration's discussions, plans and decision making process to launch a preemptive strike into Saddam Hussein's Iraq and enter a war of choice.
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AGAINST ALL ENEMIES: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard Clarke
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 An absolutely riveting, intelligently written discussion of the most harrowing issue of the new century - terrorism written by the former counterterrorism czar for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
And now back to our regular programming...
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HEIR TO A GLIMMERING WORLD by Cynthia Ozick
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
 Cynthia Ozick is an American master at the height of her powers. Ozick takes us to the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s, as New York fills with Europe’s ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees. Rose Meadows unknowingly enters this world when she answers an ambiguous want ad for an "assistant" to a Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. Mary says that she won't be surprised if this is nominated for all sorts of American literary awards, including the Pulitzer.
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HAVOC, IN ITS THIRD YEAR by Ronan Bennett
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
 Set in the north of England in the early 1630s, the author artfully captures the political, social, and religious turmoil during the reign of King Charles I. This novel is long-listed for the Man Booker 2004 Award.
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THE MASTER by Colm Tóibín
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
 Focusing on the life of Henry James, this book goes way beyond the usual "novelization" of someone's biography. This novel is also long-listed for the Man Booker 2004 Award.
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SNOW by Orhan Pamuk
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
 Following years of lonely political exile in Western Europe, Ka, a middle-aged poet, returns to Istanbul to attend his mother's funeral. Only partly recognizing this place of his cultured, middle-class youth, he is even more disoriented by news of strange events: a wave of suicides among girls forbidden to wear their scarves at school. He travels to Kars, a far-off town near the Russian border and the epicenter of the suicides. A moving and political novel.
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WHITE RUSSIAN by Tom Bradby
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 A story of political intrigue and murder set on the eve of the Russian revolution. Chief Investigator of the St. Petersburg Police Department, Sandro Ruzsky, has just returned from a three-year exile in Tobolsk, Siberia and his immediately involved in a double murder.
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PYRO by Earl Emerson
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
 Earl Emerson's compelling new mystery gives an inside look at fire department behavior and procedure, carrying all the excitement of a police procedural. Emerson is a veteran writer and a lieutenant in the Seattle Fire Department.
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THE ACCUSERS by Lindsey Davis
Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
 Marcus Didius Falco returns to rome after his adventures in Londinium in the previous two books in the series. Now Falco needs to reestablish business as an informer in Imperial Rome. A good look at lawyers and litigation in ancient Rome, that might not be too far off our own system.
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EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynne Truss
Reviewed by Poornima Apte
 Strangely, this book is a bestselling novel about punctuation. I'll admit that it is difficult to include a review of this book without being totally self-conscious of one's own writing style. Did I get that sentence right?
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FROM THE ASHES by Meghan Brunner
Reviewed by Josh Aterovis
 Here is a new series that is set around the magic (and Magick) of the Renaissance faires written by an author who has spent nearly ten years participating in the festivals.
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THE IMMORTAL HIGHLANDER by Karen Marie Moning
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 Adam Black belongs to a highly advanced race of immortal beings that settled in Ireland thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Adam is a rogue among his own kind and he is punished for his interference with the humans by being stripped of his immortality. No fairies will talk to him and no human can see him. Except for the mortal Gabrielle O'Callaghan, as much as she tries to hide it. He must persuade her to help him in his quest for immortality.
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GOOD MORNING, DARKNESS by Ruth Francisco
Reviewed by Judi Clark
 Ruth Francisco follows her acclaimed debut (Confessions of a Deathmaiden) with a new mystery about a young woman's explained disappearance, which begins with a Mexican man who finds what he assumes is her arm on the beach while fishing one morning.
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SIREN SONG by Stephen Schwandt
Reviewed by Judi Clark
 In an effort to escape the pain of a failed marriage and a muddled teaching career, J.P. Griffin buys a small cabin cruiser and plans a carefree summer of boating on the waters surrounding Door Country, Wisconsin. But he soon discovers that the boat is full of secrets. On the boat he finds clues to an old murder and to the victim's hoard of cash.
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SOMETHING RISING (LIGHT AND SWIFT) by Haven Kimmel
Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
 Cassie Claiborne's world is riddled with problems beyond her control: her hard- living, pool-shooting father has another wife; her stoic, long-suffering mother is incapable of moving herself mentally away from the kitchen window; her sister Belle is a tempest of fragility and brilliance; her closest friends, Puck and Emmy, are adolescent harbingers of their own doomed futures. Frustrated by her inability to care deeply enough for so many troubled souls, Cassie finds in the local pool hall an oasis of green felt where she can master objects and restrain her emotions. An ultimately uplifting story.
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SECRET SMILE by Nicci French
Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
 A chilling novel about a broken affair that leads to a deadly obsession. No one believes Miranda's side of the story -- not her family, not her friends, and certainly not the police -- because her ex-lover, Brendan, has managed to charm and manipulate everyone around her.
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THE GOLDEN AGE by John C. Wright
Interview by Greg West
 After Greg reviewed this book in June, the author contacted him about a comment he made about the artwork. This led to an actual interview -- a lengthy and interesting one in fact. Greg left it up to me as to whether I wanted to edit any of it and I decided not to -- that you as the read can skip through it read what you want out of it. Wright discusses many things about his writing, books, dreams,  mythology, movies, difference between science fiction and fantasy, his new book and what he likes to do when he's not writing books.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
 This is definitely one of the very first books that I added to MostlyFiction.com way back in 1997 when I didn't even have a vision for this website. Back then I was content with one or two paragraphs simply recommending a book. Actually, that's how this site stared, as a list of books for my friend Barbara, which I converted to HTML so that I could learn something new. Anyway, Jana's review says what I would want to say if I was to rewrite my original review.
Please don't hesitate to forward copies of this page or any review that you find interesting to a friend. Meanwhile, I hope that you find our selection of books both fiction and nonfiction interesting and helpful in selecting your next great book.
Happy reading!
Judi Clark
MostlyFiction.com
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