 MostlyFiction.com Newsletter Update
Posted to subscriber list on
December 19, 2004.
Hello, MostlyFiction.com readers!
19 new reviews were (finally) posted to MostlyFiction.com today. Click on the book cover to read the review; click on reviewer's name to learn more about the reviewer.
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 THE STUPIDEST ANGEL
by Christopher Moore
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing: dragging garland, ribbon, and sleigh bells, oozing eggnog, reeking of pine, and threatening festive doom like a cold sore under the mistletoe....
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 A SALTY PIECE OF LAND
by Jimmy Buffett
Reviewed by Judi Clark
Join Tully Mars and a perfect sun-soaked island-hoppping quest for a lens for a lighthouse owned by octagenarian Captain Cleopatra Highbourne and aided by lots of interesting characters. If you are even the least bit of a parrot-head, you know you have to read this.
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 MY LIFE WITH CORPSES
by Helen Dunbar
Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
This novel blends a sharply defined reality with a soaring leap of imagination in the story of an enigmatic narrator we know only as Oz, a Kansas girl raised by a family
of dead people.
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 THE MILLION DOLLAR DIVORCE
by RM Johnson
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
An absorbing an provacative novel about the lowdown schemes and broken dreams that follow a fractured marriage.
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 DATING GAMES
by RM Johnson
Reviewed by Judi Clark
An urban soap opera of sex, drugs, and deceit -- all mixed up into a story about finding love and finding self. A surprisingly good read. 
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 JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL
by Susanna Clarke
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England.
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 COLORS INSULTING TO NATURE
by Cintra Wilson
Reviewed by Olivia Boler
Cintra Wilson has fused an hilarious yet strangely touching coming-of-age story with a blistering satire of our celebrity-debased culture.
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 THE DOUBLE
by Jose Saramago
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a history teacher in a secondary school. He is divorced, involved in a rather one-sided relationship, and he is depressed. To lift his depression, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film and is unimpressed. During the night, noises in his apartment wake him. He goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video, and as he watches in astonishment he sees a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like the man he was five years before.
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 FOUR SOULS
by Louise Erdrich
Reviewed by Carisa Richner
Fleur Pillager takes her mother's name, Four Souls, for strength and walks from her Ojibwe reservation to the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. She is seeking restitution from and revenge on the lumber baron who has stripped her reservation.
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 THE LAST REPORT OF THE MIRACLES AT LITTLE NO HORSE
by Louise Erdrich
Reviewed by Carisa Richner
For more than a half century, Father Damien Modeste has served his beloved
people, the Ojibwe, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse. Now, nearing
the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical
identity, for he is a woman who has lived as a man.
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 SKELETON MAN
by Tony Hillerman
Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn comes out of retirement
to help investigate what seems to be a trading post robbery. A simple-minded kid
nailed for the crime is the cousin of an old colleague of Sergeant Jim Chee. He
needs help and Chee, and his fiancée Bernie Manuelito, decide to provide it.
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 HARD, HARD CITY
by Jim Fusilli
Reviewed by Chuck Barksdale
In the latest installment of Jim Fusilli's critically acclaimed series,
enigmatic hero and occasional private eye Terry Orr has been asked by his
precocious daughter, Bella, and her friend Daniel Wu to search for a gifted
student who has suddenly disappeared.
Orr's search uncovers a hornet's nest of family secrets.
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 SANDSTORM
by James Rollins
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
James Rollins has transported readers to the
dark heart of the Amazon, the bowels of the earth, far below the ocean, and the
top of the world. Now he embarks upon another gripping and terrifying adventure: to a nightmare buried beneath a treacherous desert wasteland.
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 BENEATH A MARBLE SKY
by John Shors
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
In 1632, the Emperor of Hindustan, Shah Jahan, overwhelmed with grief over the
death of his beloved wife commissioned the building of a grand
mausoleum to symbolize the greatness of their love. The story surrounding the
construction of the Taj Mahal occurs, however, against a scrim of fratricidal
war, murderous rebellion, unimaginable wealth, and, not least of all, religious
fundamentalism. Beneath a Marble Sky recounts that story.
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 BLACKBIRD HOUSE
by Alice Hoffman
Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House, a small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod. These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as
luminous as they are unusual.
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 EAST SIDE STORY
by Louis Auchincloss
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
In his sixtieth book, Auchincloss offers another illuminating historical glimpse into the rarified world of Manhattan's high society from an author who has spent his entire life and career immersed in it.
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 THE RED QUEEN
by Margaret Drabble
Reviewed by Mary Whipple
Barbara Halliwell, on a grant at Oxford, receives an unexpected package--a memoir by a Korean crown princess, written more than two hundred years ago. A highly appropriate gift for her impending trip to Seoul; but from whom? The story she avidly reads on the plane turns out to be one of great intrigue as
well as tragedy. Then she meets a certain Dr. Oo.
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 HOUR GAME
by David Baldacci
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
As a series of brutal murders darkens the Wrightsburg, Virginia countryside, the
killer taunts police by leaving watches on the victims set to the hour
corresponding with their position on his hit list. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are already investigating a
crime involving an aristocratic and dysfunctional Southern family, but when
they're deputized to help in the serial killer hunt they realize the two cases
may be connected.
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 SPLIT SECOND
by David Baldacci
Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie
It was only a split second--but that's all it took for Secret Service agent Sean
King's attention to wander and his "protectee," third-party presidential candidate Clyde Ritter, to die. King retired from the Service in disgrace, and now, eight years later, he hears the news: Once again, a third-party candidate has been taken out of the presidential race--abducted right under the nose of Secret Service agent Michelle Maxwell.
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Well that wraps up book reviews at MostlyFiction.com for this calendar year. If you want to see a complete list of all books reviewed, check here. We posted a few less reviews this year than last year, but that's only because I ran out of time and missed posting a review three weeks ago. (I think that means I'm behind before the new year even starts... ugh, don't even think about it.)
2004 has been a great year for MostlyFiction.com. We've added some wonderfully talented volunteers to our "staff" and have been able to diversify further in our reading recommendations. Although I've had to cut down on many of the features that the site used to offer (i.e. monthly raffles), site visitors have increased nonetheless -- I'm finding people will visit even when not bribed! It must be because you appreciate that we have honest, well-written reviews; that we don't just fall for the market hype even though we do like to keep abreast of the new books. You are also very understanding that we are a volunteer organization and that we take the time to write reviews because we love to read. And you are super patient that since this is our hobby (and we must work day jobs) that we can't adhere to a schedule, and that sometimes we are very, very late in posting new reviews (such as this past six weeks). Anyway, the point is I am thankful for all of you that visit us and to the reviewers who volunteer their precious time and talent.
So it is with these thoughts that I sincerely wish everyone the warmest and happiest of holidays.
Keep reading!
Judi Clark
MostlyFiction.com
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