Novels Now

You are browsing the archives of 2008 March.

Pete Gall
293 pages
“I wonder what it would be like to wake up and be with other people who are awake–to live with less fear, fewer lies, less compulsive consumption and all the other junk that keeps us anesthetized. I wonder if there are people who actually live that way. Weirdos, I’m sure.” -My Beautiful Idol [...]

Atomic Lobster was one fast ride. It’s a story about Serge A. Storms, a criminal who always ends up helping the underdog, and his motley crew consisting of Coleman, a pothead alcoholic, and Rachael, a coke-sniffing stripper. In this story, Serge is hell-bent on protecting Jim Davenport, who saved Serge’s life ten years prior and [...]

In her debut novel, The Sister, former BBC producer Poppy Adams used her photographer’s eye and mind to conjure up a unique tale of two sisters, Ginny and Viv, and their lifetime of secrets that tore their family apart. The story opened with Ginny, in her seventies, waiting for the arrival of her sister, Vivien, [...]

Betts McGee fled her childhood home of Charleston, SC, after the sudden death of her mother, which drove a wedge between her and her fiance, J.D. Betts moved to New York City, became a successful financier and raised her son, Adrian. For almost 20 years, Betts never spoke to her father, sister or estranged fiance. [...]

Israel as a whole was an archaeological mother lode, but the area around Jerusalem was particularly rich, and particularly complex. Home to some of the holiest sites in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it was rich with history and rife with conflict. -From The Secret Scroll, page 31-
Josh Cohan, an American archaeologist on sabbatical in [...]

“It’s where I live, my lord,” I said. “Not in the Temple, but in the world. And in the world, I learn what the world is and what the world will teach, and I am of the world.” (page 99)
When I started to read Anne Rice’s latest book, Christ The Lord: The Road to Cana, [...]

It seemed impossible that you could stand in a kitchen making hot chocolate and grilled-cheese sandwiches with your best friend dying in the next room, the voices of her children tangled up with the voices of your own, that you could butter bread and watch, through the window, the trees relinquishing their leaves and hear [...]

The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason
I’m up to date in this series, but now I can’t wait for the next one. This third book in the series continues after the big battle in the last book. Victoria, Max and Sebastian are all around and fighting vampires, but more importantly, their attractions to each other. I [...]

Imagine that you go to bed one night and sleep late the next morning. Your country is embroiled in World War II and the rumors that German troops are drawing near are growing stronger every day.
Imagine that you wake up and your husband and all the other men of the village have disappeared without a [...]

People of the Book is a fitting title for Geraldine Brooks’s latest novel. This book explored the many people who touched an ancient Hebrew codex that traveled through Europe for 500 years. Though a work of fiction, the book is based on a true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish manuscript that was rescued [...]

From the empty streets of its ancient, golden capital spreads the land of Isidora, a land without memory, where every need is met and every sadness is forgotten. -From The Story of Forgetting, page 13-
Stefan Merrill Block’s debut novel - The Story of Forgetting - is a haunting story about shared grief, the connectivity of [...]

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Good+)
First Sentence: In Provincetown, I felt enveloped in the shivery skin of a paranoid, all goose-bumps and heartbeat.
Comments: Mark Winslow, son of a jazz singer turned painter, gave up his day job to try his hand at acting. He takes his act to Cape Cod, settling into Provincetown where he has friends, [...]

He no longer thought as a soldier because he had been a soldier. He had seen too much. And now he had to choose again. Which of these men would he take? To which of them would he grant an alternative future? What that future was, he couldn’t say. -From Resistance, page 24
What if the [...]

Dervishes by Beth Helms
Picador, March 2008
Fiction; 314 pgs
Completed: 12/03/2007
Rating: 3 Stars
First Sentence: The telephone chimed as it always did, in the deep, dead middle of the night.
Reason for Reading: One of my places to look for book recommendations is Bookbrowse. Several months ago Bookbrowse began a pre-release program called First Impressions for [...]

It is almost always easier to learn about history through historical fiction or current world events through memoirs, and this book is no exception. Daoud Hari gives us a harrowing account of his experiences translating for various media outlets in the Darfur region. The violence in Darfur, especially toward women and children, is unspeakable. Though [...]