Novels Now

You are browsing the archives of 2010 January.

Leaving Gee’s Bend by Irene Latham
Pages: 263
Ages: 8+
First Published: Jan. 7, 2010
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Mama pulled a chicken egg from behind the azalea bush in our front yard and narrowed her eyes.
Reason for Reading: I love books set in 1930s Southern USA.
Summary: Ludelphia Bennett is ten years old, her family is part of a sharecropping community. [...]

This was not an ordinary pandemic: it wouldn’t be contained after a few hundred thousand deaths, then obliterated with biotools and bleach. This was the Waterless Flood the Gardeners so often had warned about. It had all the signs: it traveled through the air as if on wings, it burned through cities like fire, spreading [...]

The Silver Anklet by Mahtab Narsimhan
Tara Trilogy, Book Two
Pages: 263
Ages: 10+
First Published: Dec. 12, 2009
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
The patch of sunlight at the edge of the forest had an odd look; dirty yellow and striped.
Reason for Reading: Next in the series.
Summary: Tara and her brother, Suraj, along with his friend, have gone to the local fair. [...]

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
Shades of Grey, Book 1
Pages: 389
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
It began with my father’s not wanting to see the Last Rabbit, and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant.
Reason for Reading: I haven’t read Jasper Fforde before. I really want [...]

The Jungle Vampire by David Sinden, Matthew Morgan & Guy Macdonald; illustrated by Jonny Duddle
An Awfully Beastly Business, Book 4
Pages: 204
Ages: 8+
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
Late one night, on the outskirts of a grimy town, a man in a long fur coat hurried through the rain.
Reason for Reading: My son loves this series [...]

Graphic Classics: Louisa May Alcott edited by Tom Pomplun
Graphic Classics, Vol. 18
Pages: 144
Ages: 13+
First Published: Nov. 2009
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
It’s so dreadful to be poor.
Reason for Reading: I love this series and will eventually read them all.
Comments: I’ll start with my immediate response to finishing this volume, “Fantastic!”. This is the second full colour offering in [...]

Fallen by Lauren Kate
Fallen series, Book 1
Pages: 452
Ages: 13+
First Published: Dec. 8, 2009
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape.
This review contains one obvious spoiler. If you intend to read this book and know absolutely nothing about it don’t continue but if you do know a bit about it, my one little spoiler [...]

Innocent War by Susan Violante
Nino Series No. 1
Pages: 183
First Published: Apr. 17, 2009
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
“Nino, wake up! You’re going to be late,” hollered Papa from the hallway outside of my room.
Acquired: I received a review copy from the book’s publicist.
Reason for Reading: The plot and point of view intrigued me.
Summary: The author received five cassette [...]

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
Pages: 274
First Published: Oct. 1 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
Yeah, so things have fallen apart.
Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away.
Summary: Hattie in Paris, who has just been dumped by her boyfriend, receives an urgent message from her niece in Manitoba to come home quickly. Hattie’s sister Min [...]

Irredeemable by Mark Waid
Afterward by Grant Morrison
Volume 1
Pages: 128
Ages: 15+
First Published: Oct. 2009
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
SARAH!
Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away.
Comments: One day The Plutonium, a very powerful superhero turns evil and becomes the world’s greatest super villain. He belonged to a group of superheroes, yet none of them came close [...]

Twisted by Andrea Kane
Sloane Burbank, book 1
Pages: 376 pgs.
First Published: Mar. 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
She was a true warrior.
Reason for Reading: Honestly, the cover put me off this for some reason. So it has taken me a while to get around to reading it.
Summary: Sloane Burbank is a former FBI agent who was injured in the [...]

Paul McCartney: A Life by Peter Ames Carlin
Pages: 340 pgs. + notes, index
First Published: Nov. 3, 2009
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Paul McCartney is almost home.
Reason for Reading: I like the Beatles but I love Paul.
Comments: Normally, I steer away from biographies, trying to read memoirs instead unless the person in question is dead and never wrote their [...]

The Levee by Malcolm Shuman
Pages: 211
First Published: Nov. 2008
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
When I was fifteen we used to drive down to the levee to camp.
Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away and being a mystery fan I just had to read this one.
Summary: Colin, now in his sixties, is haunted by dreams [...]