Novels Now

You are browsing the archives of 2009 May.

Even if I had the key to Pa’s request, I had no idea how to tackle a murder investigation. All I could do was to remain vigilant - an early morning sparrow, picking up tidbits of information, hungrily following any leads that presented themselves. - from The Scent of Oranges, page 81 -
When a [...]

People are forever asking me what it was like to grow up in a commune, and it’s a question that has no easy answer. Northern New Mexico was Commune Central in those days, and each of the twenty-odd settlements had its own vision, its own quirky dynamics, its own culture. And, of course, no [...]

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Pages: 466
First Published: Apr. 30, 2009
Genre: Gothic, historical fiction
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old.
Reason for Reading: Sarah Waters had a new book out! Need I say more!
Comments: The Ayres family have lived at Hundreds Hall since the early-mid 1700s and now in post-war [...]

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (aka Domenica de Rosa)
A Ruth Galloway Mystery, Book 1
Pages: 301
First Published: Feb. 5 ‘09 UK (Apr. 28, 2009 CAN)(Jan 5, 2010 US)
Genre: mystery
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
They wait for the tide and set out at first light.
Reason for Reading: Whenever I am reading the summary of a mystery/crime novel and the [...]

I don’t know enough about the history in Indonesia to comment on what all happened in this book, but this book made me want to look up and read some other books about Indonesia in the 1960s. I know there was a movie called The Year of Living Dangerously, but I didn’t realize it was based on a book based on a speech by the president and I wasn’t aware that the Dutch ‘owned’ Indonesia before their independence. Indonesia in this tumultuous period is the setting for this novel, providing a backdrop for some broken lives [...]

Clara’s War: A young girl’s true story of miraculous survival under the Nazis by Clara Kramer with Stephen Glantz
Pages: 339
First Published: 2008 UK (Apr. 7, 2009 CAN)(April 21, 2009 US)
Genre: memoir, nonfiction, Holocaust
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
My entire family was camped out on blankets and goosedown bedding in the apple orchard behind Aunt Uchka’s little house.
Reason for [...]

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Buckshaw Chronicles, Book 1
Pages: 292
First Published: April 2009
Genre: mystery, cozy, Gothic
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
It was as black in the closet as old blood.
Reason for Reading: At first, the title grabbed me. Then I read the publisher’s summary and was very excited to read this mystery.
Comments: [...]

On the bald spot and through the strands of his scant pale hair could be seen glistening beads of sweat. “That’s not her name, by the way,” he said. Quirke did not understand. “I mean, it is her name, only she called herself something else. Laura – Laura Swan. It was sort of her [...]

But Carlotta, though her bedside lamp glows, sleeps; down the hall, Maximilian sleeps; around the corner, Pepa, serene princess, sleeps; and, most sweetly of all, an angel on pillows of gossamer, the tiny Agustin sleeps with his thumb in his mouth, never dreaming that his home is being abandoned, his father’s and mother’s clothes, [...]

The Dragon of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen
Pages: 407
Ages: 8+
Finished: May 18, 2009
First Published: April 14, 2009
Genre: children, fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
Calen tried not to look down.
Reason for Reading: YA fantasy about dragons? Need I say more!
Comments: Calen is the apprentice to the rather surly palace mage, Serek. One day while loitering about instead of gathering herbs [...]

To find someone suddenly gone, to see them one day and not know that this will be the last day you see them, to not have the moment register until hours, days later, or years, is never easy. How we catch ourselves as life moves forward, thinking about that last moment and about what [...]

Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson
Pages: 329
Ages: 10+
First Published: April 28, 2009
Genre: children, YA, fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
“I only want to go out for a little, little while,” the faery child pleaded.
Reason for Reading: I have a fondness for faeries in fantasy as long as they are not cutesy and when I saw the title [...]

Shanghai Girls
By Lisa See
Completed May 12, 2009
Shanghai Girls is the latest book by best-selling author, Lisa See. Readers have raved about her Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I have not read, but I jumped at the opportunity to read See’s latest book. Overall, I was not disappointed.
Pearl and May were young Chinese women [...]

The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho
Pages: 343
Ages: 18+
First Published: Apr, 7, 2009
Genre: literary fiction, realistic fiction
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
The Beretta Px4 compact pistol is slightly lager than a mobile phone, weighs around seven hundred grams, and can fire ten shots.
Reason for Reading: I have never read a Paulo Coelho book before and honestly really had [...]

Hell’s Horizon by D.B. Shan (aka Darren Shan)
The City Trilogy, Book 2
Pages: 389
Ages: 18+
Finished: May 4, 2009
First Published: Mar 5, 2009 UK & Apr. 3 2009 CAN
Genre: urban fantasy
Rating: 5/5
Reason for Reading: next in the series. Received a review copy from Harper Collins Canada.
First sentence:
In room 812 of the Skylight Hotel a woman lay close [...]

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Pages: 310
First Published: Mar. 10, 2009
Genre: YA, post apocalyptic fiction, horror
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
My mother used to tell me about the ocean.
Comments: Mary’s world is very small and quite simple. Her village is large enough to roam around in and grow crops but it is completely enclosed by [...]