Book reviews and more!

You are browsing the archive for September2011

VIOLETTE NOZIERE, by Sarah Maza

September 20, 2011

A HEADLINE-GRABBING MURDER in 1933 Paris, examined in depth, illuminates the culture and politics of the era.

Grade: B PLUS

VIOLETTE NOZIERE: A STORY OF MURDER IN 1930S PARIS
University of California Press
2011

Tags: , , , , ,

TWICE AS DEAD, by Sue Ann Jaffarian

September 19, 2011

A CORPSE AT A WEDDING launches the peppy plus-size paralegal Odelia Grey on her 6th juicy murder investigation.

Grade: SOLID B

TWICE AS DEAD
Midnight Ink
2011

Tags: , ,

REVOLUTION, by Deb Olin Unferth

September 18, 2011

A NAIVE AMERICAN TEEN’S days of revolution-chasing in 1980s South America revisited in a rueful, witty memoir.

Grade: B PLUS

REVOLUTION: THE YEAR I FELL IN LOVE AND WENT TO JOIN THE WAR
Henry Holt
2011

Tags: , , , ,

SOFT APOCALYPSE, by Will McIntosh

September 17, 2011

NEAR-FUTURE DISASTER novel places its slacker protagonist in a world where civilization ends with a whimper.

Grade: SOLID B

SOFT APOCALYPSE
Night Shade Books
2011

Tags: , ,

NO REGRETS: THE LIFE OF EDITH PIAF, by Carolyn Burke

September 16, 2011

NEWEST EDITH PIAF biography will delight fans of the French singer with the breadth and depth of its research.

Grade: SOLID B

NO REGRETS: THE LIFE OF EDITH PIAF
Knopf Doubleday
2011

Tags: , , , ,

THIS LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS, by Melissa Coleman

September 15, 2011

HEARTBREAKINGLY DIRECT, BEAUTIFUL and wrenching memoir of a 1970s childhood on a pioneering organic farm.

Grade: B PLUS

THIS LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS: THE STORY OF MY FAMILY'S DREAM
HarperCollins
2011

Tags: , ,

THE NIGHTMARE THIEF, by Meg Gardiner

PAMPERED RICH KIDS on an adventure game turned deadly find help from an intrepid shrink, EMT in tense thriller.

Grade: SOLID B

THE NIGHTMARE THIEF
Penguin Group
2011

Tags: , ,

MIDNIGHT MOVIE by Tobe Hooper

September 14, 2011

TOBE HOOPER’S DEBUT novel provides the gritty, witty, gross horror you expect from Mr. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. B PLUS

MIDNIGHT MOVIE
Crown Publishing Group
2011

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

THE INSTANT PHYSICIST by Richard A. Muller

September 13, 2011

LIGHTHEARTED AND INFORMATIVE illustrated look at the physics of everyday life has laughs and facts aplenty. SOLID B

THE INSTANT PHYSICIST
W. W. Norton & Company
2010

Grade: SOLID B

Tags:

A MOST DANGEROUS BOOK by Christopher B. Krebs

September 11, 2011

COMPELLING, IMPECCABLY RESEARCHED look at the power of Tacitus in German mythmaking through history. Chilling! B PLUS

A MOST DANGEROUS BOOK: TACITUS’S GERMANIA FROM THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE THIRD REICH
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
2011

Grade: B PLUS

Tags: