Novels Now

Against Medical Advice: A True Story by James Patterson and Hal Friedman
Amarcord: Marcella Remembers by Marcella Hazan
American Prince: A Memoir by Tony Curtis with Peter Golenbock
The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe by William I. Hitchcock
Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher
Bones: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman
Bright Hair About the Bone: A Laetitia Talbot Mystery by Barbara Cleverly
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
Burn Out by Marcia Muller
By Chance by Martin Corrick
Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession by Anne Rice
A Cedar Cove Christmas by Debbie Macomber
Champlain’s Dream: The European Founding of North America by David Hackett Fischer
A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry
Dark Summer by Iris Johansen
Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago
The Dracula Dossier by James Reese
The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig
Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners by Laura Claridge
Exposed by Alex Kava
Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn
The Fire by Katherine Neville
The Gate House by Nelson DeMille
Ghost at Work: A Bailey Ruth Mystery by Carolyn Hart
The Glass of Time by Michael Cox
The Goliath Bone: A Mike Hammer Novel by Mickey Spillane with Max Allan Collins
Good Luck by Whitney Gaskell
Grace by Richard Paul Evans
Hardly Knew Her: Stories by Laura Lippman
I Am Not a Cop! by Richard Belzer
I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
Lulu in Marrakech by Diane Johnson
Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds by Joel L. Kraemer
The Memorist by M.J. Rose
A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre
Murder Inside the Beltway: A Capital Crimes Novel by Margaret Truman
Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War by Robert Roper
Old World, New World: Great Britain and America From the Beginning by Kathleen Burk
On Cats by Doris Lessing
Once Were Cops by Ken Bruen
An Outrageous Affair by Penny Vincenzi
Queen Takes King by Gigi Levangie Grazer
The Quilter’s Kitchen: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel with Recipes by Jennifer Chiaverini
A Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York by Liz Robbins
The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow by Walter Mosley
Rough Weather: A Spenser Novel by Robert B. Parker
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Searching for Schindler: A Memoir by Thomas Keneally
The Shiksa Syndrome by Laurie Graff
A Single Thread by Marie Bostwick
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan
Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto
Testimony by Anita Shreve
Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch
‘Tis the Season! by Lorna Landvik
Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler by Brad Matsen
Tommorrow You Go Home: One Man’s Harrowing Imprisonment in a Modern-Day Russian Gulag by Tig Hague
Trigger City by Sean Chercover
The Unpossessed City by Jon Fasman
The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler
The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story by Matt Bondurant
What Makes a Child Lucky by Gioia Timpanelli
The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
Winging It: Dispatches from an (Almost) Empty Nest by Catherine Goldhammer
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Anita Shreve
305 pages

ARC from Hachette Book Group

Several students at a private boarding school have participated in illicit sexual activity. Worse than that, they were foolish enough to tape it. When the tape makes it’s way into the hands of the headmaster, that’s just the beginning of a cascade of events that will leave many lives changed forever.

This was my first book by Anita Shreve and I didn’t really know what to expect. However, I found this to be a nice easy read and one that I didn’t want to put down. I did spend a good portion of the book thinking that I was reading about the sex scandal, only to be brought up short once I understood the true focus of the story. This had both a positive and negative impact on me. I enjoyed the fact that the true story was not what it seemed but once I began to catch on, things got a teeny bit predictable. Despite that, I really enjoyed reading Testimony and I definitely look forward to reading more by Anita Shreve. (3.5/5)

July, 2005. It was the summer of her Chevette, of J.P. and letting her hair grow. The last summer, the best summer, the summer they’d dreamed of since eighth grade, the high and pride of being seniors lingering , an extension of their best year. She and Nina and Elise, the Three Amigos. In the fall they were gone, off to college, where she hoped, a long and steady effort, she might become someone else, a private, independent person, someone not from Kingsville at all. -From Songs for the Missing, page 1-

In the summer of her 18th year, Kim Larsen disappears without a trace - leaving behind friends and family who are bewildered and hurting. This is not an unusual story. It is a story we see every day in America - the young women filled with potential disappearing into the darkness of uncertainty. Many are never found. Many are found murdered or raped. It is an old story. Stewart O’Nan, with his refined and elegant prose, takes this story and makes it unforgettable.

Songs for the Missing is about those left behind. It is about relationships and expectations and faith and the very human need to know why and where. The characters in this beautifully written novel include Kim’s mother Fran, her sister Lindsey (only 15 when Kim goes missing), her father Ed, and friends - J.P., Elise and Nina. Each character deals with Kim’s disappearance differently, and as the months rolls into years they each come to terms with it in their own unique way. My heart felt broken by Ed - the father who searches relentlessly for the daughter he could not keep safe and who wishes for her to come to him in his dreams.

One reason he didn’t take the pill was that he longed for a dream of Kim. He didn’t expect her to tell him what had happened, he just wanted to see her again, to be in her presence as if she were alive and none of this had happened. Every night he went to bed hoping she’d come to him. Every morning he was disappointed. -From Songs for the Missing-

This novel touched my heart, especially because of my own involvement with Search and Rescue. O’Nan got it perfectly when he describes the searches, the role of law enforcement and the nearly unbearable hope of the lost one’s family which permeates every search. As the novel unfolds, I found myself immersed in the emotions of the characters, hoping they would find Kim and come to a resolution.

O’Nan has written a tender, sensitive and all too real novel about what happens when a loved one disappears. Highly recommended.

Songs for the Missing
By Stewart O’Nan
Completed May 25, 2008

I cannot imagine one of my sons disappearing into thin air. The panic, the fear, the anger, the questions – it would be all too much to bear. In Songs for the Missing, Stewart O’Nan tackled this topic head on, and after finishing this page-turner (I finished the book in one day), I was left exhausted and heart-broken. Despite the devastating topic, though, I am glad to have read this spellbinding novel.

The story is about the disappearance of Kim Larsen, Kim was pretty, popular and counting the days until she left for college. One afternoon, Kim did not show up for work. It wasn’t until almost dawn when her parents detected that she was missing. They called the police and the search for Kim was on.

Each chapter of Songs for the Missing was written from a different person’s viewpoint. At first, Kim had her voice until she went missing. Then, her father, mother, sister, boyfriend and best friend each “took turns” telling about the search, their hope for a positive outcome and how they tried to cope with the day-to-day aspects of living.

As days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, you saw how each character realized that Kim might not return home. Each character dealt with the grief in different ways. I specifically thought the age-relevance of each character was realistic. The teenagers were equally scared about their fates as the police investigation uncovered drug use; the younger sister dealt with (again) being in her sister’s shadow; the mother worked furiously, advocating for missing persons; and the father struggled emotionally, financially and psychologically but never wanted to show these “weaknesses” to his loved ones.

Their plight was so realistic and heart breaking. Thanks to O’Nan’s superb writing style, you could not help but be drawn to these characters and wonder what happened to Kim. I kept hoping that Kim would be found alive because I wanted these characters to have a “happily ever after” ending. I was so invested in each one of their lives that their grief was my own.

This is my first Stewart O’Nan book, but it certainly won’t be my last. His writing style was gripping and the way he drew his characters reminded me of Jodi Picoult. I highly recommend Songs for the Missing to anyone. I don’t think any reader of literary fiction could be disappointed with this engaging story. ( )