Leonardo Da Vinci
Starred Review. With this illuminating biography, Krull (The Boy on Fairfield Street) kicks off her planned six-volume Giants of Science series. Krull convincingly portrays her subject, noting the Renaissance man's remarkably far-reaching accomplishments while also conveying his humanity and sense of humor. She places him in the context of his times, describing him as an […]
Special Topics In Calamity Physics
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. Pessl's stunning debut is an elaborate construction modeled after the syllabus of a college literature course?36 chapters are named after everything from Othello to Paradise Lost to The Big Sleep?that culminates with a final exam. It comes as no surprise, then, that teen narrator Blue Van Meer, the daughter of […]
Swapping Lives
Publisher Weekly Review: This fun but familiar novel from Green (The Other Woman) follows the seemingly perfect lives of two women?one married with children, one single with a high-powered job?who wish to see how the other half lives, only to have the misfortune to get what they wish for. When Amber Winslow, a wealthy Connecticut […]
Miss Julia Stands Her Ground
Publisher Weekly Review: Ross, reminiscent of Jan Karon and Fannie Flagg, reintroduces the popular Miss Julia, a plucky busybody "of a certain age," in this seventh novel (after Miss Julia's School of Beauty) in her ongoing series. Miss Julia again stands tall in a quaint, narrow-minded Southern city in the western North Carolina mountains, this […]
Isaac Newton
School Library Journal Review: Starred Review. Gr 5-7?Krull fulfills the promise of the outstanding previous volume in this series, Leonardo da Vinci (Viking, 2005) with this follow-up. Writing in a style aptly described in the blurb as juicily anecdotal (a tone reflected in Kulikovs witty illustrations), she offers a multifaceted portrait of a genius who […]
Mayflower : a Story of Courage, Community, and War
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. In this remarkable effort, National Book Award?winner Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea) examines the history of Plymouth Colony. In the early 17th century, a small group of devout English Christians fled their villages to escape persecution, going first to Holland, then making the now infamous 10-week voyage to […]
The Armor of Light
March
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. Brooks's luminous second novel, after 2001's acclaimed Year of Wonders, imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that […]
The Old Wine Shades : a Richard Jury Mystery
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Grimes's compelling 20th Richard Jury mystery, the Scotland Yard detective is on suspension because he decided to save lives rather than wait for a warrant in his previous outing, The Winds of Change (2004). With time on his hands, Jury is ensnared by the intriguing […]
Rasputin's Daughter
Publisher Weekly Review: In an endeavor similar to his debut novel, The Kitchen Boy, Alexander couples extensive research and poetic license, this time turning his enthusiasm toward perhaps the most intriguing player in the collapse of the Russian dynasty: Rasputin. This eyebrow-raising account of the final week of the notorious mystic's life is set in […]