Reviews

Juliette has not been touched for over three years. She has not seen a single soul, except for the hand that brings her food once a day, if she is lucky. Juliette can never be touched. It is her curse that she has borne since her infancy, and it is the cursed ability that landed her in an asylum and torn away from a life where she was shunned by everyone, including her parents.

No one loves anthropomorphisization more than me. So Unlikely Friendships is just the kind of book I like to savor over a warm mug of cocoa. Holland describes “friendships” between species, sometimes even predators with prey. Everyone knows about the gorilla Koko and her kittens, which are included here.

This fictional story takes us to an Indian Brahman household of the 1800s.  The book tells a story of a Sivakami a woman who was married at 10 and widowed at 18 (just as her husband, the village healer, predicted).

This popular title presents an interesting view into the upper echelons of French society.  Told in two voices, one of the building concierge and the other of a twelve year old girl who lives in the building with her family, this story unfolds slowly as we get to know the minds of the two characters.  Each character has her own issues reveal

Published in 1978, Once a Runner is dated; but charmingly so. While there is a noticeable absence of iPods, cell phones, and cable television, exclamations of “Great God in Heaven” and “they don’t know a flying you-know-what about spring sports” are the most notable indicators. Quentin Cassidy is a collegiate “miler”. After he is expelled from the fictional Southeastern University, fellow runner, friend and former Olympian Bruce Denton mentors him as he prepares to break the four minute mile.

“Everyone has secrets. Some are just bigger and dirtier than others. At least that’s what I told myself whenever I stood in a crowd of normal-looking people and felt like I was the only one.” Lucy has been living with a shameful secret.

This book follows two stories, one fiction and one science fiction/utopian fiction. It's a very interesting blend of these two genres, as well as others like feminist fiction.

When John Perry turns 75, he has a choice to make.  Spend his few remaining years without his wife, who recently passed away, or join the army.  The same army that somehow recruits 75 year olds and turns them into young, fit, professional soldiers.  The choice isn’t very difficult for Perry, who has little to live for and finds the prospect of renewed youth appealing.  He quickly learns that the army he’s joining turns its elderly recruits into much more than simply younger versions of themselves.

Schmitt’s Counterstrike is as lucid, clear and comprehensive an explanation of the country’s foreign policy direction as we are ever likely to have in non-government speak.  The book is not an apology, defense or condemnation.  It begins with a fact – terrorism is a l