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THE PANOPTICON by Jenni Fagan

October 22, 2013

HAUNTING, BLEAK PORTRAIT of a young Scottish woman spending her life in custody. Devastating first novel. B PLUS

THE PANOPTICON
Hogarth
2013

Grade: B PLUS

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A SOUTHERN TRAGEDY, IN CRIMSON AND YELLOW by Lawrence Naumoff

October 21, 2013

IMPASSIONED, TOUCHING, POETIC novel based on a real-life tragedy: a chicken plant fire that killed dozens. SOLID B

A SOUTHERN TRAGEDY, IN CRIMSON AND YELLOW
Zuckerman Cannon
2005

Grade: SOLID B

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On A SOUTHERN TRAGEDY, IN CRIMSON AND YELLOW, by Lawrence Naumoff

October 20, 2013

The last book about a meat processing plant that made me cry was The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair; the last book about a deadly fire that made me cry was Stewart O’Nan’s The Circus Fire. In A Southern Tragedy, In Crimson and Yellow, Lawrence Naumoff combines the clarity and passion of Sinclair and other 20th-century social realists with the same poet’s eye for telling, humanizing details and vivid touches of regional culture that mark the very best of today’s Southern writing, and creates a heart-wrenching and sobering tale.

A Southern Tragedy takes as its basic material the horrific 1991 fire at a Hamlet, North Carolina chicken processing plant, which killed dozens of workers and injured dozens more. In a heartbreaking echo of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, plant management had locked emergency doors and workers were trapped inside.

The basic story is tragic enough. Where Naumoff’s novelization brings additional emotional power is in his vivid evocation of the town and its people, and of the intermeshed destinies and choices that brought both victims and survivors together. That human element is what gives the story its lasting power as a haunting elegy and a call to action.

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A SOUTHERN TRAGEDY, IN CRIMSON AND YELLOW, by Lawrence Naumoff

IMPASSIONED, TOUCHING, POETIC novel based on a real-life tragedy: a chicken plant fire that killed dozens.

Grade: SOLID B

A SOUTHERN TRAGEDY, IN CRIMSON AND YELLOW
Zuckerman Cannon
2005

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FIREFLY by Janette Jenkins

October 19, 2013

LOVELY, ELEGAIC BIOGRAPHICAL novel follows the great Noel Coward through his last days at his Jamaica retreat. B PLUS

FIREFLY
Europa Editions
2013

Grade: B PLUS

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MY EDUCATION by Susan Choi

October 18, 2013

A WILD, CRAZY LOVE in youth, revisited as a wiser friendship fifteen years later, captured in elegant detail. B PLUS

MY EDUCATION
Viking Books
2013

Grade: B PLUS

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ANONYMOUS SOURCES by Mary Louise Kelly

October 17, 2013

FAST-PACED THRILLER ROCKETS from a mysterious death on the Harvard campus to a crisis at the White House. B PLUS

ANONYMOUS SOURCES
Gallery Books
2013

Grade: B PLUS

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THE INTERNET POLICE by Nate Anderson

October 16, 2013

AN INTRIGUING LOOK AT Internet crime, from spam to stalking, and how law enforcement agencies prosecute it. SOLID B

THE INTERNET POLICE : HOW CRIME WENT ONLINE, AND THE COPS FOLLOWED
W. W. Norton & Company
2013

Grade: SOLID B

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THE FUNERAL DRESS by Susan Gregg Gilmore

October 15, 2013

POIGNANT, ROUGH-HEWN STORY of an unlikely friendship between two proud Southern Appalachian women. Touching. SOLID B

THE FUNERAL DRESS
Broadway Books
2013

Grade: SOLID B

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FROM BANGKOK WITH DESPAIR by Tichakorn Khroopan Hill

October 14, 2013

A FRESH THAI TWIST on the chick-lit thriller! Charming novel stars a Bangkok reporter new to Washington, DC. SOLID B

FROM BANGKOK WITH DESPAIR: (MIS)ADVENTURES IN D.C.
Tichakorn Hill
2013

Grade: SOLID B

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