Reviews

Staff Review

The Cartel

By Don Winslow

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jan 27, 2016

If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to be in the middle of a drug war, then pick up The Cartel. Art Keller is a DEA agent living in Mexico and trying to bring down the drug barons. The reader is slowly drawn into the political and economic landscape of Mexico and the reality of the effects of the “war on drugs” on Mexicans. While educating the reader about this conflict, the author entertains with a sizzling plot that is full of violence and pathos.

Staff Review

The Last Dream Keeper

By Amber Benson
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Josh N.
Jan 26, 2016

The second book in the Echo Park Coven series picks up immediately after the end of the first book, The Witches of Echo Park. Lyse and her fellow witches, or blood sisters as they prefer to call themselves, have a major threat called "the Flood" looming over them. It isn't long before the Flood comes in and washes the coven, and the plot, in many different, dangerous directions.

Staff Review

Green Hell

By Ken Bruen

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jan 21, 2016

It’s not often that you open a book to find the main character quoting author James Crumley. But Ken Bruen is clearly a student of the genre; references to the history of hard-boiled fiction keep dropping, which is a very nice treat for the reader. 

Teen Review

The Song of the Quarkbeast

By Jasper Fforde
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Jan 20, 2016

It's an occupational hazard that I read lots of different things for lots of different reasons. Don't get me wrong, they are almost all very good and I enjoy almost all of them, but there's the underlying awareness that I most likely wouldn't have read the majority of them if not for my job so they always feel just a little bit like work. Then there are books like this one that feel completely and entirely like fun.



Staff Review Jan 20, 2016

A veggie-lover’s dream! This cookbook takes us through the alphabet one vegetable at a time, with classics like potatoes to more unusual veggies like daikon. He even sneaks in a few fruits, like the tomato. V is for Vegetables is not expressly vegetarian, although some of the recipes certainly are.

Staff Review

Pretending to Dance

By Diane Chamberlain

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jan 19, 2016

It turns out that Molly Arnett is a good liar. For years, Molly has told a lie that could destroy every bit of happiness she has with the man she adores. Pretending to Dance is a story told in two distinct time periods in Molly's life. The story starts in 2014, in San Diego, California, where Molly and her spouse, Aidan James, are meeting with their social worker in preparation for becoming adoptive parents.

Staff Review

Iris (DVD)

By Albert Maysles
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Michelle H.
Jan 17, 2016

Documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles is known for treating his subjects with distance, allowing them to show themselves in ways that make us forget that they’re being filmed. In Iris, at the age of eighty-eight Maysles films Iris Apfel, herself also at a late age.  Candid and at home in front of the camera, she appears to us as if nothing is staged or otherwise manipulated.

Staff Review

Apple Tree Yard

By Louise Doughty
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Heather B.
Jan 15, 2016

Yvonne Carmichael is a respected public authority on genetics. She's a middle-aged wife and mother. She's certainly normal, perhaps even boring. She is also accused of murder. How did such an unlikely turn of events come to pass? 

Staff Review

Friction

By Sandra Brown
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Jan 14, 2016

In Friction, Judge Holly Spencer has been on the bench for less than a year, and she's trying to prove to the governor that she is worthy of the appointment and gain his support to retain her seat in the upcoming election. Texas Ranger Crawford Hunt has had a difficult five years, both personally and professionally, since his wife was killed in an accident. Now he finds himself in Judge Spencer’s court fighting for custody of his five-year-old daughter.