Reviews

Chaon’s latest novel, Await Your Reply, is a fast moving moody thriller containing three blended stories. In one, Miles Cheshire abandons his job at a magic shop in Cleveland to find his missing twin brother.

Growing up, I enjoyed watching good western movies on Saturday night television. Some of these movies depicted an exciting time period when settlers in covered wagons travelled west to explore, live, and stake claims in new lands. Others depicted Native Americans as ruthless.

So…..I am sitting in my chaise, under my blanket, one cold February evening reading Dean Koontz’ newest novel. My husband is watching TV and, for some unknown reason, talking to me during the commercials. I am totally enthralled with this book and have no time to chat.

This is the story of an unusual friendship that developed between poor, uneducated Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster in early 1800’s England, pre-Darwin. They shared a common passion, fossil hunting and through trials and tribulations maintained a friendship for several decades.

If you’ve ever done genealogical (or historical) research and felt the intrigue and energy of peeling back layers of information to open windows on the past, this is a beautifully written description of the process. Ms. Gerzina embarked on a search to authenticate the story of Lucy Terry. Born a slave in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts, Lucy Terry was reputed to have argued a case before the Supreme Court. How much of this story could be true? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to document it?

The Best Skillet Recipes is just one of many great cookbooks put out by America’s Test Kitchen.  Their mission is to test recipes over and over until they find the “best” version, using blind taste tests.  This particular test kitchen book has chapters on skillet basic

At the age of three Mike May was blinded after trying to clean a glass jar scrounged from the cluttered garage in the plastic swimming pool in his yard. The jar contained chemicals that, when combined with water, caused an explosive reaction. After several corneal transplants, May  was told he would never see again.

Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has been one of the most popular novels of recent years, and the furor has only continued with the release of the second novel in the series: The Girl Who Played with Fire. His last book (both in the Millennium Trilogy, and forever - Larsson is being published posthumously), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, is due out in the US May 25th.

Written in 1993, Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying takes us back to the 1940s South and young, innocent Jefferson sitting in a Louisiana jail waiting to be executed. His Tante Lou and Godmother Miss Emma are determined that he should die like a man. Their nephew Grant, the one-room school teacher, is sent to teach the despondent prisoner the lessons of life. Gripping, gritty and heartbreaking this novel goes to the depths of the soul yet takes us up to the universal meaning of life.