Book reviews and more!

You are browsing the archive for June2013

MAD GIRL’S LOVE SONG by Andrew Wilson

June 30, 2013

SYLVIA PLATH’S EARLY years, vividly reconstructed in a well-researched bio that sheds new light on her poetry. B PLUS

MAD GIRL’S LOVE SONG: SYLVIA PLATH AND LIFE BEFORE TED
Scribner
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

THE END OF THE WORLD IN BRESLAU by Marek Krajewski

June 29, 2013

GRIM, LUSH, COMPLEX historical mystery, set in a brutal 1927 Poland, has an offbeat metaphysical bleakness. SOLID B

THE END OF THE WORLD IN BRESLAU
Melville International Crime
2013

Grade: SOLID B

Tags:

GULP by Mary Roach

June 28, 2013

THE ALWAYS ENTERTAINING, EVER informative Mary Roach turns her attention to the science of digestion. Yum! B PLUS

GULP: ADVENTURES ON THE ALIMENTARY CANAL
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

THE STILL POINT OF THE TURNING WORLD by Emily Rapp

June 27, 2013

RAW, BEAUTIFUL, WRENCHING memoir by a writer of her much-loved son’s life, cut short by a terrible disease. B PLUS

THE STILL POINT OF THE TURNING WORLD
Penguin Press
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

FALLING TO EARTH by Kate Southwood

June 26, 2013

LYRICAL LITERARY EVOCATION of the devastating impact of a 1925 tornado in rural Illinois. Tragic and timely. B PLUS

FALLING TO EARTH
Europa Editions
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY by Denise Kiernan

June 25, 2013

HISTORY COMES TO LIFE in this compelling look at the women who were part of WWII’s Oak Ridge atomic project. A MINUS

THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY
Touchstone
2013

Grade: A MINUS

Tags:

NOTES FROM A COMA by Mike McCormack

June 24, 2013

THE INTERTWINED STORIES OF a young Irish man’s life and the eerie global coma experiment he joins. Spooky! B PLUS

NOTES FROM A COMA
Soho Press
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME by Travis Nichols

June 23, 2013

SPLENDIDLY CREEPY EPISTOLARY novel spins the grim, satiric tale of an almost Nabokovian Internet pest. B PLUS

THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME
Coffee House Press
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags:

A DECENT INTERVAL (CHARLES PARIS SERIES #18) by Simon Brett

June 22, 2013

ACTOR/SLEUTH CHARLES PARIS is back, older and sadder but no wiser, in another sharp English theater cozy. SOLID B

A DECENT INTERVAL (CHARLES PARIS SERIES #18)
Severn House Publishers
2013

Grade: SOLID B

Tags:

EIGHTY DAYS by Matthew Goodman

June 21, 2013

AMAZING STORY OF THE real-life 1889 race around the world between journalists Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Bisland. B PLUS

EIGHTY DAYS : NELLIE BLY AND ELIZABETH BISLAND’S HISTORY-MAKING RACE AROUND THE WORLD
Ballantine Books
2013

Grade: B PLUS

Tags: