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Not Untrue and Not Unkind. by Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9781590202951 Irish journalist Owen Simmons is back at his newspaper in Dublin, comfortably doing as little work as possible, when he happens upon a photograph of himself taken when he was a foreign correspondent in Africa in the wake of the Rwandan genocide. The photo inspires an extended flashback that makes up the bulk of this polished first novel. The narrative tone seems oddly matter of fact, but readers will surmise that correspondents become somewhat desensitized to the horrors of corpses lining roads for miles, epidemics, and orphaned children. But O'Loughlin also recalls a harsh ethical argument about whether correspondents should help an elderly woman bury her grandchild. He also shows them dashing back to their comfortable hotels to file their stories and get on to dinner, drinks, and trading rumors. The author, who covered Africa for the Irish Times, set himself a lofty goal, and he largely achieves it: Not Untrue & Not Unkind, already released in England, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and it vividly re-creates the life of a foreign correspondent.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2010 Booklist Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9781590202951 O'Loughlin's mixed debut finds newspaperman Owen Simmons in possession of his dead colleague's files and, more importantly, a secret they contain. It is Simmons's ensuing tale of his African war reporting that promises to reveal what that secret is, but late in the book, when a minor character publishes "a memoir of sorts" that shares the title and characters of this novel, the reader begins to suspect that Simmons has found in his dead colleague a convenient MacGuffin to string readers through his own war stories. They're good anecdotes that evoke the danger of battle, the horror of its aftermath, and the camaraderie of the brooding and maniacal "bigfeet," nomads, fixers, stringers, and "lens monkeys" who witness it, but the intrigue promised in the first chapter doesn't run evenly through the story, and Simmons doesn't give away enough of himself, leaving readers with no one to really care for. (June) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
The girl who kicked the hornet's nest by by Stieg Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland. Publishers Weekly Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9780307269997 The exhilarating conclusion to bestseller Larsson's Millennium trilogy (after The Girl Who Played with Fire) finds Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant computer hacker who was shot in the head in the final pages of Fire, alive, though still the prime suspect in three murders in Stockholm. While she convalesces under armed guard, journalist Mikael Blomkvist works to unravel the decades-old coverup surrounding the man who shot Salander: her father, Alexander Zalachenko, a Soviet intelligence defector and longtime secret asset to Sapo, Sweden's security police. Estranged throughout Fire, Blomkvist and Salander communicate primarily online, but their lack of physical interaction in no way diminishes the intensity of their unconventional relationship. Though Larsson (1954-2004) tends toward narrative excess, his was an undeniably powerful voice in crime fiction that will be sorely missed. 500,000 first printing. (May) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780307269997 *Starred Review* When we last saw Lisbeth Salander, she was teetering between life and death. And who wouldn't be after having been shot by her father and buried alive by her brother? Salander was rescued, at the end of The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), by journalist Mikael Blomkvist. She's now in a Swedish hospital, slowly mending and awaiting trial for three murders she didn't commit. Meanwhile, her father, a former Soviet spy, is down the hall, recovering from the injuries he sustained when Lisbeth stuck an ax in his head. Blomkvist, Salander's loyal friend, sets out to prove her innocence, but to do so he must expose a decades-old conspiracy within the Swedish secret service that has resulted in, among other travesties, a lifetime of abuse heaped upon Salander, whose very life threatens to expose the deadly charade. The late Larsson (this third novel in his Millennium Trilogy is his final book) can be accused of heaping too much plot between two covers in addition to the Salander story, there is an elaborate subplot involving Blomkvist's lover, Erica, and her travails as the first female editor of a major Stockholm newspaper but he is remarkably agile at keeping multiple balls in the air. But it wouldn't really matter if he weren't a skilled craftsman because Salander is such a bravura heroine steel will and piercing intelligence veiling a heartbreaking vulnerability that we'd willingly follow her through any bramble bush of a plot. She spends more than half of this novel in a hospital bed, but orchestrating the action from her Palm computer, she dominates the stage like Lear. There are few characters as formidable as Lisbeth Salander in contemporary fiction of any kind. She will be sorely missed.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9780307269997 The final volume of Larsson's best-selling "Millennium" trilogy begins where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off: Lisabeth Salander lies comatose in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in the head, while a few rooms away her father, a Soviet defector, recovers from the severe axe wounds she inflicted. Meanwhile, journalist Mikael Blomqvist sets out to clear Lisbeth of murder charges by exposing a secret group of Swedish intelligence officers who had conspired to protect her father's identity by nearly destroying Lisbeth. Unfortunately, this crackerjack opening is followed by 100 pages of tedious plot rehashing and dry summaries of Swedish history and politics. Because Larsson's fascinating heroine is offstage for much of the early action, the novel lacks its predecessors' compelling narrative drive, although a few surprising scenes will keep readers hanging in there. Their patience will be well rewarded in the final 200 pages, where Larsson ties his multiple plot threads together into a satisfying conclusion. Larsson's other female characters, including Annika, Mikael's lawyer sister who kicks some serious legal butt at the climactic trial, and Berger, Mikael's old lover and business partner who battles sexism at a major newspaper, play bigger roles here and reflect the author's passionate opposition to misogyny and injustice. Verdict Despite its flaws, this is a must read for Larsson fans. New readers should start with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/10; 500,000-copy first printing.]-Wilda Williams, Library Journal Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Islands of the damned : a Marine at war in the Pacific by R.V. Burgin ; with Bill Marvel. Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780451229908 This well-narrated tale of a marine's Pacific campaigns on New Britain, Peleliu, and Okinawa inevitably invites comparison with E. B. Sledge's famed With the Old Breed (1981). Indeed, Sledge was part of Burgin's mortar platoon in the latter two campaigns. But Burgin's tale is more plainly told, as he was a Texas farm boy instead of a college student who dropped out of OCS to get into combat. But they were both good marines, who carried their weight through some of the ugliest fighting Americans have ever faced. One reads Burgin's narrative knowing that he survived and smiles when he comes home to marry his Australian fiancée and settle down to a career in the Postal Service and a retirement of attending First Marine Division reunions.--Green, Roland Copyright 2010 Booklist Known to evil by Walter Mosley. Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9781594487521 Leonid McGill, Mosley's newest hero (The Long Fall, 2009), is haunted by the bad things he used to do to people or so he keeps telling us. At first, the plot seems to support that claim: as McGill works his case, tracking a young woman for a powerful fixer, he is also consumed with helping a former victim, rescuing his son's girlfriend from her pimp, and remaining respectful in his loveless marriage. But those plotlines are decoys because the supporting characters aren't fully developed. Each exists to demonstrate something about McGill his remorse, violence, loyalty and then is quickly whisked offstage. Mosley has written some classic crime novels, and he has a devoted following, but the strikingly different setting of this series doesn't hide a glaring flaw: from start to finish, McGill and his supporting cast don't change. This is a very interior, solipsistic crime novel, and McGill's first-person narration may feel oppressive to some readers. Others may wonder how such a self-centered sleuth could possibly become a good judge of other people's characters. In marked contrast to Mosley's threadbare L.A. settings, McGill's world is lush and wealthy. But it's also cartoonish in its absolutes: McGill knows no fear but constructs spy-worthy escape hatches. He has an extensive network of criminals and stone-cold killers. He's short and ugly, but women throw themselves at him. All writing requires some degree of world-building, but the world Mosley has built here shows the marks of its invention.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2010 Booklist Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9781594487521 Bestseller Mosley scores a clean knockout in his excellent second mystery featuring New York City PI Leonid McGill (after 2009's The Long Fall). Still striving to atone for some of the lives he's ruined, the 54-year-old McGill laments that there are "no straight lines in the life or labors of the private detective." Instead, crises crowd him at every turn. A powerful, shadowy city hall official wants McGill to locate and protect a young woman named Tara Lear, a task complicated by a murder. Older son Dimitri is involved with a Russian hooker whose pimp doesn't want to let her go. Younger son Twill, trying to help his brother, risks violating parole restrictions. Relations with wife Katrina and lover Aura Ullman, "with her Aryan eyes and Ethiopian skin," are in flux. The ex-boxer has an eclectic group in his corner, including computer whiz Tiny "Bug" Bateman, but McGill is the one taking the blows and meting out punishment in this contemporary noir gem. Author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781594487521 It would be easy-but ill advised-to overlook Leonid McGill, a short, stocky, bald, middle-aged black man with a worried expression. At any given New York minute, though, McGill just might explode in your face or end up dead at your feet. He and his beautiful Scandinavian wife of 23 years have three children and an "arrangement"; he's trained himself to appreciate that one of the kids is actually his own. Still trying to shake off his past ties to crime, McGill works as a PI, mainly on the right side of the law. Fingered by an NYC power broker to investigate a woman, he arrives at her apartment to find it overrun by cops. Someone there has been shot and her assailant stabbed to death. It's enough to test even this dark knight's commitment to righting wrongs. Verdict With his second McGill outing (after The Long Fall), the neo-noir master proves that this new series has legs; this title will appeal to anybody who enjoys George Pelecanos's take on contemporary DC as well as longtime Easy Rawlins fans. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/09.]-Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Getting the pretty back : friendship, family, and finding the perfect lipstick by Molly Ringwald ; illustrations by Ruben Toledo. Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780061809446 Famous for her roles as an angst-ridden teen in John Hughes classics like Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, Ringwald, now a 40-year-old wife and mother living largely outside the celebrity spotlight, seems a credible source of advice for young women and a likely fount of behind-the-scenes Hollywood anecdotes; unfortunately, she provides little of either in this uninspired self-help memoir. Like a well-meaning but distant friend, the actress shares advice and observations on topics like love, clothes, and food, often focusing on the inane and obvious (souvenir t-shirts are both ugly and ill-fitting; rushing into sex is usually a mistake) rather than the personal or perceptive: "When you're a teenager, you're forever thinking: Do they like me? When you're a grown-up. the question becomes: Do I like them?" Ringwald occasionally involves her personal history, including the fact that the early stages of her romance with husband number two were mostly conducted over email, but she skimps on the details that her fans are probably looking for, with surprisingly little reference to the movie work that made her an icon of suburban youth in the 1980s. Color illustrations. (May) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
How we heal : understanding the mind-body-spirit connection by by Douglas W. Morrison ; foreword by David J. Pesek. |
Hot Titles
The Help by Kathryn Stockett Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9780399155345 Set in Stockett's native Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s, this first novel adopts the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. A century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black maids raised white children and ran households but were paid poorly, often had to use separate toilets from the family, and watched the children they cared for commit bigotry. In Stockett's narrative, Miss Skeeter, a young white woman, is a naive, aspiring writer who wants to create a series of interviews with local black maids. Even if they're published anonymously, the risk is great; still, Aibileen and Minny agree to participate. Tension pervades the novel as its events are told by these three memorable women. Is this an easy book to read? No, but it is surely worth reading. It may even stir things up as readers in Jackson and beyond question their own discrimination and intolerance in the past and present. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/08.]-Rebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780786868728 In his thirties, Albom's rabbi, after hearing him deliver a speech, asked Albom to deliver the eulogy at his funeral. Not big on faith and married to a Christian woman of Lebanese background, Albom was taken aback. He'd known Rabbi Albert Lewis since he was a child, seeing him as the tall and distant figure somewhere between God and the congregants of the synagogue in a New Jersey suburb. He consented and asked to spend time with Reb to get to know him as a man. In eight years, what began as a reluctant assignment grew into a treasured friendship with a man of unbounded joy, singing everything from show tunes to greetings to his visitors. In his new hometown of Detroit, where he developed a charitable foundation, Albom met Henry Covington, pastor of a dilapidated inner-city church and a humbled former drug dealer and ex-con. Covington's church, with a huge hole in the roof and very few and very poor congregants, obviously needed help. But Albom wasn't sure how much to invest until he began to witness the faith of Covington and his congregation, struggling to overcome poverty, addictions, and hopelessness. Albom parallels time spent with Rabbi Lewis, Pastor Covington, and his own personal spiritual journey as he learned the incredible complexities of faith, finding it, holding on to it, and seeing and appreciating it at work in others. Albom, author of the acclaimed Tuesdays with Morrie (1997), offers another inspirational and heartwarming story about the strength of friendship and power of faith.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2009 Booklist Paper Towns by Green, John School Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9780525478188 Gr 9 Up-Quentin Jacobsen, 17, has been in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, for his entire life. A leader at their Central Florida high school, she has carefully cultivated her badass image. Quentin is one of the smart kids. His parents are therapists and he is, above all things, "goddamned well adjusted." He takes a rare risk when Margo appears at his window in the middle of the night. They drive around righting wrongs via her brilliant, elaborate pranks. Then she runs away (again). He slowly uncovers the depth of her unhappiness and the vast differences between the real and imagined Margo. Florida's heat and homogeneity as depicted here are vivid and awful. Green's prose is astounding-from hilarious, hyperintellectual trash talk and shtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths. He nails it-exactly how a thing feels, looks, affects-page after page. The mystery of Margo-her disappearance and her personhood-is fascinating, cleverly constructed, and profoundly moving. Green builds tension through both the twists of the active plot and the gravitas of the subject. He skirts the stock coming-of-age character arc-Quentin's eventual bravery is not the revelation. Instead, the teen thinks deeper and harder-about the beautiful and terrifying ways we can and cannot know those we love. Less-sophisticated readers may get lost in Quentin's copious transcendental ruminations-give Paper Towns to your sharpest teens.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780525478188 *Starred Review* Quentin or Q. as everyone calls him has known his neighbor, the fabulous Margo Roth Spiegelman, since they were two. Or has he? Q. can't help but wonder, when, a month before high-school graduation, she vanishes. At first he worries that she might have committed suicide, but then he begins discovering clues that seem to have been left for him, which might reveal Margo's whereabouts. Yet the more he and his pals learn, the more Q. realizes he doesn't know and the more he comes to understand that the real mystery is not Margo's fate but Margo herself enigmatic, mysterious, and so very alluring. Yes, there are echoes of Green's award-winning Looking for Alaska (2006): a lovely, eccentric girl; a mystery that begs to be solved by clever, quirky teens; and telling quotations (from The Leaves of Grass, this time) beautifully integrated into the plot. Yet, if anything, the thematic stakes are higher here, as Green ponders the interconnectedness of imagination and perception, of mirrors and windows, of illusion and reality. That he brings it off is testimony to the fact that he is not only clever and wonderfully witty but also deeply thoughtful and insightful. In addition, he's a superb stylist, with a voice perfectly matched to his amusing, illuminating material.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2008 Booklist Publishers Weekly Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9780525478188 Green melds elements from his Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines-- the impossibly sophisticated but unattainable girl, and a life-altering road trip--for another teen-pleasing read. Weeks before graduating from their Orlando-area high school, Quentin Jacobsen's childhood best friend, Margo, reappears in his life, specifically at his window, commanding him to take her on an all-night, score-settling spree. Quentin has loved Margo from not so afar (she lives next door), years after she ditched him for a cooler crowd. Just as suddenly, she disappears again, and the plot's considerable tension derives from Quentin's mission to find out if she's run away or committed suicide. Margo's parents, inured to her extreme behavior, wash their hands, but Quentin thinks she's left him a clue in a highlighted volume of Leaves of Grass. Q's sidekick, Radar, editor of a Wikipedia-like Web site, provides the most intelligent thinking and fuels many hilarious exchanges with Q. The title, which refers to unbuilt subdivisions and "copyright trap" towns that appear on maps but don't exist, unintentionally underscores the novel's weakness: both milquetoast Q and self-absorbed Margo are types, not fully dimensional characters. Readers who can get past that will enjoy the edgy journey and off-road thinking. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Horse Song: The Naadam of Mongolia by Lewin, Ted and Betsy. Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9781584302773 *Starred Review* The Lewins follow travelogue titles such as Top to Bottom Down Under (2005) with another picture-book chronicle of international adventure. This time, they visit Mongolia, where they witnessed the Naadam festival a celebration that brings together nomadic tribes for sports competitions. The most popular events are the horse races featuring child jockeys who guide their half-wild steeds through a long, arduous course. In simple, captivating language, the Lewins describe their long journey to the horse trainers' camp, where they connect with a skilled nine-year-old jockey, Tamir, and his family, and learn about local customs from the specifics of Mongolian horse wrangling to staple foods, such as mare's milk. Then the festival begins, and the Lewins give a heart-pounding, moment-by-moment account of Tamir's race: The crowd strains forward. The pounding of hooves grows louder . . . The stallions are at full gallop. Throughout, clearly presented cultural specifics mix with vivid sensory perceptions that will help children imagine themselves on the windy steppes, but it's the color-washed sketches and beautiful full-page spreads of the thundering horses and jubilant festivalgoers that will truly capture readers' attention and draw them into this handsome, heartfelt glimpse of a rarely featured culture. Children, and teachers, seeking more information will appreciate the closing spreads, which include additional cultural commentary and a glossary.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2008 Booklist School Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9781584302773 Gr 2-6-This colorful travelogue recounts the Lewins' trip to Mongolia to experience the annual summer celebration Naadam, in particular the horse-racing competition. It focuses on young Tamir as he prepares for and participates in the event. Information about Mongolian culture and the holiday's traditions are interspersed with an account of the competition. An introduction provides brief background, and unfamiliar terms are explained in context and in the glossary. Betsy Lewin's lively line-and-wash cartoon sketches and spot drawings are intermingled with Ted Lewin's sweeping watercolor paintings, which make effective use of light and rich color to portray both the intensity of the competition and the pageantry of the celebration. For the most part, the writing is tight and fast-paced, reflecting the event it describes. At other times, it becomes flowery and chatty. While perhaps not an essential purchase, the book provides a dynamic view of a culture rarely portrayed in children's books and an event that is sure to interest many young readers.-Heide Piehler, Shorewood Public Library, WI Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780374153892 As his life winds down, Rev. John Ames relates the story of his own father and grandfather, both preachers but one a pacifist and one a gun-toting abolitionist. Amazingly, just Robinson's second novel. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780374153892 Fans of Robinson's acclaimed debut Housekeeping (1981) will find that the long wait has been worth it. From the first page of her second novel, the voice of Rev. John Ames mesmerizes with his account of his life-and that of his father and grandfather. Ames is 77 years old in 1956, in failing health, with a much younger wife and six-year-old son; as a preacher in the small Iowa town where he spent his entire life, he has produced volumes and volumes of sermons and prayers, "[t]rying to say what was true." But it is in this mesmerizing account-in the form of a letter to his young son, who he imagines reading it when he is grown-that his meditations on creation and existence are fully illumined. Ames details the often harsh conditions of perishing Midwestern prairie towns, the Spanish influenza and two world wars. He relates the death of his first wife and child, and his long years alone attempting to live up to the legacy of his fiery grandfather, a man who saw visions of Christ and became a controversial figure in the Kansas abolitionist movement, and his own father's embittered pacifism. During the course of Ames's writing, he is confronted with one of his most difficult and long-simmering crises of personal resentment when John Ames Boughton (his namesake and son of his best friend) returns to his hometown, trailing with him the actions of a callous past and precarious future. In attempting to find a way to comprehend and forgive, Ames finds that he must face a final comprehension of self-as well as the worth of his life's reflections. Robinson's prose is beautiful, shimmering and precise; the revelations are subtle but never muted when they come, and the careful telling carries the breath of suspense. There is no simple redemption here; despite the meditations on faith, even readers with no religious inclinations will be captivated. Many writers try to capture life's universals of strength, struggle, joy and forgiveness-but Robinson truly succeeds in what is destined to become her second classic. Agent, Ellen Levine. 5-city author tour. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780374153892 Robinson's first book, Housekeeping (1981), remains an astonishment, leading to high expectations for her longed-for second novel, which is, joyfully, a work of profound beauty and wonder. Reverend John Ames of Gilead, Iowa, a grandson and son of preachers, now in his seventies, is afraid he hasn't much time left to tell his young son about his heritage. And so he takes up his pen, as he has for decades--he estimates that he's written more than 2,000 sermons--and vividly describes his prophetlike grandfather, who had a vision that inspired him to go to Kansas and make himself useful to the cause of abolition, and the epic conflict between his fiery grandfather and his pacifist father. He recounts the death of his first wife and child, marvels over the variegated splendors of earth and sky, and offers moving interpretations of the Gospel. And then, as he struggles with his disapproval and fear of his namesake and shadow son, Jack, the reprobate offspring of his closest friend, his letter evolves into a full-blown apologia punctuated by the disturbing revelation of Jack's wrenching predicament, one inexorably tied to the toxic legacy of slavery. For me writing has always felt like praying, discloses Robinson's contemplative hero, and, indeed, John has nearly as much reverence for language and thought as he does for life itself. Millennia of philosophical musings and a century of American history are refracted through the prism of Robinson's exquisite and uplifting novel as she illuminates the heart of a mystic, poet, and humanist. --Donna Seaman Copyright 2004 Booklist |
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