Reviews

Staff Review

The Reason I Jump

By Naoki Higashida

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Apr 28, 2014

Naoki Higashida is a thirteen-year-old boy with autism so severe that he cannot speak aloud.  But using an alphabet grid, he--letter by letter--has composed this missive from the depths of autism, revealing that a clever mind and keen perception lie behind the limits of his disorder.

Staff Review

Missing You

By Harlan Coben
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Apr 28, 2014

NYPD Detective Kat Donovan finds herself in a place where her past, present, future and current case all merge.  It took years for her to recover from her father's murder which was shortly followed by her fiance calling it quits and disappearing, but Kat is finally ready to enter the dating scene and sets up an account through an online dating website.  As she is scrolling through possible matches she encounters her ex-fiance!

Staff Review

The Time Between

By Karen White
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Apr 28, 2014

Growing up on one of the South Carolina outerbanks islands, Eleanor was a wild child who knew no fear and who loved to play the piano.  Her sister was the beauty queen.  Now in her 30's, Eleanor lives with her sister, brother-in-law and mother in a small house on the mainland.  Eleanor works in an office and moonlights as a piano player in a bar to help make ends meet.  When Eleanor is offered extra work by her boss to be a companion to his elderly aunt that lives on the island she grew up on Eleanor snaps up the opportunity not only to make more money but to get out of

Staff Review

Raising Steam

By Terry Pratchett

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Apr 28, 2014

Terry Pratchett's fortieth Discworld novel tackles many of the author's favorite themes, the heart of which can be found in one of his quotations: "It was funny how people were people everywhere you went, even if the people concerned weren't the people the people who made up the phrase 'people are people everywhere' had traditionally thought of as people."  Part of what makes Pratchett a great writer is how well he does people: human people, dwarf people, troll people, goblin people, golem people...they're all people.  They're all frightened-clever-ambitious-earnest-conniving-brav

Staff Review

Siege and Storm

By Leigh Bardugo
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Josh N.
Apr 24, 2014

This sequel to Shadow and Bone takes all of the high adventure and dark drama of the first book and cranks it up to 11. The story starts off quietly for a chapter or two and then suddenly kicks the reader into a fast-paced, slam-bang, snarktastic rollercoaster ride that doesn't let up until the end of the novel. And the end...my heart was pounding and I was left breathless by the end of the book.

Staff Review

My Age of Anxiety: fear, hope, dread and the search for peace of mind

By Scott Stossel
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Michelle H.
Apr 23, 2014

In his new book, Scott Stossel describes his harrowing experience with clinical anxiety as well as its origins as a psychiatric disease. He looks at the philosophical and biological underpinnings of anxiety and the amazing response from pharmacology, both as a benefit for those who suffer from the illness and as an industry that pathologizes normal emotions upon the arrival of drugs that can alter them.

Staff Review

Shotgun Lovesongs

By Nickolas Butler
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Colleen O.
Apr 23, 2014

Shotgun Lovesongs​ revolves around Lee, Hank, Kip, and Ronny—four small-town friends in Little Wing, Michigan. They did everything together as kids and remained in each other's lives as adults, although they lead very different lives. Hank stays in Little Wing, marries his high school sweetheart, and takes over his family's farm. Ronny struggles with alcoholism, and an accident changes his life forever.

Staff Review

French Milk

By Lucy Knisley

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Apr 22, 2014

In French Milk, Lucy Knisley writes about her experience living in Paris with her mother for six weeks. As a graphic artist, she draws brief scenes taken from her day—details of the food she eats, the markets she visits, and the art she sees. The story is simply a journal of her daily life. She also speaks about her insecurities about turning 22 and finding a job as an artist after graduation.

Staff Review

The Bone Season

By Samantha Shannon
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Diane H.
Apr 22, 2014

When I first started reading The Bone Season I wasn’t sure I would like it. There was a fair amount of slang and the tone was dark. Even after finishing it, I can’t say it’ll be on my favorites list. And yet, it was compelling, drawing me in so I had to know how it would end. 

Staff Review

Quarantine

By Jim Crace
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Megan C.
Apr 15, 2014

An unconventional telling of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, Quarantine grips the reader in a mysterious world of deception and dream. We follow six characters' sojourn in the desert: a merchant and his wife, a wealthy but barren Jewish woman, an elderly Jewish man suffering from a tumor, a madman from the east, a philosophical young Greek, and Jesus the Galilean. It is a believable work of historical fiction with a twist of suspense.