Fear of the Dark
Publisher Weekly Review: Though the prose is a bit rough in spots, Mosley's third outing for L.A. bookseller Paris Minton and the intrepid Fearless Jones is as entertaining as its predecessors, Fearless Jones and Fear Itself. Trouble comes to Paris's door in the form of his cousin Ulysses "Useless" S. Grant IV," who needs help […]
Thirteen Moons
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. When Frazier's debut Cold Mountain blossomed into a National Book Award?winning bestseller with four million copies in print, expectations for the follow-up rose almost immediately. A decade later, the good news is that Frazier's storytelling prowess doesn't falter in this sophomore effort, a bountiful literary panorama again set primarily in […]
Abundance: a Novel of Marie Antoinette
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. The opening sentence of Naslund's fictional memoir of Marie Antoinette ("Like everyone, I am born naked") sets a hypnotically intimate tone that never wavers as the much-maligned Austrian princess recounts her life from baptism in the Rhine and rebirth as French citizen to appointment with the guillotine. In Naslund's (Ahab's […]
Please, Mr. Einstein
Publisher Weekly Review: French screenwriter Carri?re (he worked on Belle de Jour and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) sets out to make the elegant beauty of Einstein's ideas manifest to lay readers in this thin, pleasant novel-dialogue. It is the early 21st century, and a young, nameless student intent on learning more about Einstein […]
For One More Day
Publisher Weekly Review: In this second novel from Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven author Albom, grief-stricken Charles "Chick" Benetto goes into an alcoholic tailspin when his always-attentive mother, Pauline, dies. Framed as an "as told to" story, Chick quickly narrates her funeral; his drink-fueled loss of savings, job ("sales") […]
The Book of Fate
Library Journal Review: Presidential aide Wes Holloway has what he considers the perfect life until the fateful day that an assassin strikes. His friend Ron Boyle dies, and a ricocheting bullet hits Wes in the face. Eight years later, with a bullet scar on his cheek and limited use of his facial muscles, he continues […]
The Emperor's Children
Publisher Weekly Review: Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke were buddies at Brown, certain that they would soon do something important in the world. But as all near 30, Danielle is struggling as a TV documentary maker, and Julius is barely surviving financially as a freelance critic. Marina, the startlingly beautiful daughter of celebrated […]
After This
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. A master at capturing Irish-Catholic American suburban life, particularly in That Night (1987) and the National Book Award?winning Charming Billy (1998), McDermott returns for this sixth novel with the Keane family of Long Island, who get swept up in the wake of the Vietnam War. When John and Mary Keane […]
Rise and Shine
Publisher Weekly Review: Bridget Fitzmaurice, the narrator of Quindlen's engrossing fifth novel, works for a women's shelter in the Bronx; her older sister, Meghan, cohost of the popular morning show Rise and Shine, is the most famous woman on television. Bridget acts as a second mother to the busy Meghan's college student son, Leo; Meghan […]
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 […]