Lucky 7 Book Recommendations-July/August 2008
We asked our reviewers to recommend books they had reviewed during the past few months. Here is a sampling of the submission. See our reviews page for the full review. Type in name of book in “Search” and they’ll pop right up.
1. Recommended by Beth Cummings
Black & White
Dani Shapiro
Anchor Books
Fiction
What makes a photograph art and not pornography? What happens when the photos are of the artist’s young daughter? In Black & White Dani Shapiro tackles these issues head on. In the process she also looks at family relationships – husband /wife, parent/child, sister/sister, and most particularly mother artist/daughter subject. Shapiro’s characters in this book are extremely well done. They have quirks and facets that would make excellent fodder for book group discussions.
I enjoyed this book immensely and could hardly put it down. I would strongly recommend it to reading groups and also to anyone (particularly women) who enjoys a good book about interesting people.
2. Recommended by Michelle Kerns
The Road Home
Rose Tremain
Little, Brown and Company
General fiction
Rose Tremain’s The Road Home is a somber yet hopeful portrayal of immigration in the 21st century. When Lev leaves his home in Eastern Europe in search of a job in England, he leaves his aging mother, his 5 year-old daughter Maya, his irrepressible best friend Rudi, and memories of his beloved wife Marina. In London, Lev is an alien—without a place to stay, only basic knowledge of the language, and no idea how to find the job he so desperately needs to support his mother and daughter, Lev must struggle against cultural misunderstandings and prejudice to succeed.
The heart of the story is the immigrant experience: its curious mixture of loneliness, determination, fear, and hope. Tremain touches with infinite sensitivity on the ultimate dilemma of the immigrant—can a person who becomes a stranger in both his homeland and his adopted country ever find the way home again?
3. Recommended by Connie Anderson
AuthorSmarts: The Little Handbook of Big Book Publishing Ideas
Jan B. King, Dawn Putney and Gail Richards
AuthorSmart
Writing
These authors do not sugar coat a single fact about writing, publishing or marketing your book. Geared to non-fiction, the book discusses every aspect, gives superb resource links and answers questions you didn’t know you should be asking. Ideal for first-time authors, regardless whether you are going after a publisher, or will publish yourself. The business end of book publishing is explained in detail.
4. Recommended by Barbara L. Fielder
Smart Women Don’t Retire-They Break Free
The Transition Network and Gail Rentsch
Springboard Press/Hachettte Book Group USA
Non-fiction
Now there is a book written for women by women that frankly discusses the newly retired, partly retired and nearly retired woman. Whether you are toying with the idea, have made up your mind or have deferred retirement this book is one of the first you should read. Each topic the author covers is vitally important and supports you in making the best and right choices for your future. The author provides an excellent list of Internet web sites that will allow you to expand your research or locate a specific resource. This book is just what a woman needs as a guide for her existing or future retirement; and it’s not what it used to be.
5. Recommended by Megan Politte
Earthly Pleasures
Karen Neches
Simon & Schuster
Romance
When Skye Sebring, a hospitality greeter inside Heaven, meets lawyer Ryan Blaine during his brush with death after a motorcycle accident, she falls so deeply in love that she follows him back to Earth, a world with strange customs she knows nothing about—until she discovers that all of life’s lessons can be learned from the lyrics of five Beatles songs.
6. Recommended by Julie Failla Earhart
Divorcing Dwayne
J.L. Miles
Cumberland House
Chick Lit
The first in a trilogy, author J. L. Miles introduces readers to one of the funniest characters to burst on the scene in a long time. It seems that Francine has caught that no-good husband of hers is catting around down at the Peel-n-Squeal with his ex-lover Carla. Even worse, he brings his raggedy self and that tramp Carla into Francine’s bed, where she catches the two of them doing the dirty. And to make matters worse, Carla is not only hunkering down with Francine’s dude, she’s changed the sleep-number on her side of the bed! Francine snaps, grabs the revolver, and takes three shots at the naked bodies floundering on the sheets. It’s a good thing for Dwayne and Carla that Francine can’t hit a barn door two feet in front her. It’s a laugh a sentence as Francine deals with Dwayne and other twists that keep the story barreling full steam ahead.
7. Recommended by Nicole Boals
Outtakes from a Marriage: A Novel
Ann Leary
Shaye Areheart Books
Fiction
A really funny look at a celebrity marriage with great characters, poignant moments, and laugh-out-loud situations.
8. Recommended by Kathy Perschmann
Undiscovered Country
Lin Enger
Little Brown
Fiction
This modern Hamlet parable set in a rural Minnesota winter will chill you and capture your imagination as you struggle along with 17-year-old Jesse to find the right path. Should he avenge his father’s murder? Was he murdered, or was it suicide?
9. Recommended by Beth Cummings
To My Dearest Friends
Patricia Volk
Vintage Contemporaries
Fiction
I read Patricia Volk’s memoir, Stuffed, several years ago and remember thinking that she described people so well that I felt I had really seen or met them. She has taken the same ability to bring characters to life in this recent novel.
Two women who don’t know each other are requested to be at a lawyer’s office to receive the key to a safety deposit box that belonged to a mutual good friend, Roberta, who recently died from breast cancer. With each chapter, Volk alternates voices between Nanny and Alice, the two women. The letter they receive is addressed “To My dearest Friends,” but in fact is a love letter to Roberta. I think that Volk has created a novel that combines humor, pathos, beauty, confusion and life stage changes in a way that is truly enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone, but especially to women in their midlife years.
10. Recommended by Rachael Dimond
Dragon Wytch
Yasmine Galenorn
Berkley
Paranormal Romance (author considers it Urban Fantasy)
Dragon Wytch is a thrilling, exciting and suspenseful new installment in this urban fantasy series. There are demons, trolls, vampires, faeries, elves, gargoyles, dragons, shape shifters and every kind of supernatural creature that you could think of in this book. Every page of Dragon Wytch sizzles with action, adventure, and magic. Yasmine Galenorn has cast a spell on me with her books!
11. Recommended by Pat Reid
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith
Grand Central Publishing
Mystery/Thriller
The story of a Russian serial killer. The book spans 1933 up to the 50s and tells much of the life in Russian during Stalin times. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
12. _Recommended by Paul Markowitz>
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Tim Weiner
Anchor Books
History
A devastating critique of the sixty year history of the CIA. It is a fascinating exploration of the few successes and many failures of this critical agency of the federal government.
13. Recommended by Connie Anderson
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
Mick Brown
Vintage
Non-fiction
This is a no-holds-barred look at the life of the genius (and often at the same time, madman) Phil Spector. Much of our musical influences from the very early 60s had his print on them. He produced the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling,” the most requested/performed song ever. If you love reading about the cultural things that affect our lives, music and a whole bunch of name-dropping, you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did.