THE OWL KILLERS by Karen Maitland
Book Quote:
“You’ve got the spirit of a cunning woman in you. . . You mustn’t be afraid, you’ve got the strength of a woman. You. . remember that.â€
Book Review:
Review by Danielle Bullen (OCT 23, 2009)
Karen Maitland transports readers to a world of superstition in her medieval mystery The Owl Killers. In 1321, the village of Ulewic in England is ruled by the Owl Masters, pagan leaders who use violence and blackmail to keep the villagers under their control.
The village of Ulewic hangs in the balance between Christianity and paganism. The Owl Masters, masked men who are based on an actual cult, conduct rituals, including human sacrifice, to appease their gods. Read the rest of this post »
October 23, 2009
Tags: Historical, medieval, Mystery Posted in: Mystery/Suspense, Time Period Fiction 
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THE OWL IN DAYLIGHT by Tessa B. Dick
Book Quote:
“When Tony arrived home on Wednesday afternoon, wistfully daydreaming about Lorelei, instead of a little stucco house he found himself standing in front of a stone temple with statues of grotesque gargoyles standing on either side of the entrance, a double door made of iron that refused to open when he pushed and pulled on it. This turn of events did not surprise him, since he had found some sort of punishment was always imposed on him whenever he made an unethical choice. There was the battlefield in Korea, and there was the iron prison in Rome, and he even had a dim memory of gazing into the pit of hell. Yet he could not help believing that he was meant to be with Lorelei, that his real mistake had been marrying Candy. â€
Book Review:
Review by Ann Wilkes (OCT 23, 2009)
Philip K. Dick fans will recognize his unique flavor in The Owl in Daylight, written by his widow, Tessa Dick, but not his writing style. Philip Dick’s novel, Valis, set forth his imaginings of a hidden reality in which Rome never fell, but continued in a subliminal state beneath what we believe to be reality. Tessa Dick calls upon that theme. The prose in The Owl in Daylight is lighter and you’ll find more flights of fancy and fewer references to archeological finds and actual history. She has, however, succeeded in writing a touching tribute to Dick.
October 23, 2009
Tags: scifi Posted in: Speculative (Beyond Reality) No Comments
FAR NORTH by Marcel Theroux
Book Quote:
“My father used to say he decided to leave America when he noticed that the poor had all begun to look alike.
He didn’t mean their faces, and he didn’t mean only the poor of the United States. He meant poor people everywhere.â€
Book Review:
Review by Lynn Harnett (OCT 22, 2009)
The narrator of Theroux’s post-apocalyptic novel, Makepeace Hatfield (who lives up to the name), is the last survivor of an immigrant Siberian community – a place Makepeace’s British parents had come to to escape the material world. But the rescue of a starving waif awakens her longing for companionship, love and civilization, spurring the road trip that drives the novel.
October 22, 2009
Tags: 2009 NBA Finalist, Apocolypse, road novel, scifi Posted in: 2009 NBA Finalist, Literary, Russia, Speculative (Beyond Reality), World Literature No Comments
SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy
Book Quote:
“As she weeps, I observe Sheba and think she has invented herself out of masks so numerous she can no longer select her own legitimate face out of the museum she has cultivated to hide herself in. Because she is an actress, she has fashioned an entire career out of identity theft. Sitting there, I find myself believing her completely, yet not really knowing if she has spoken the truth. It is difficult to trust a woman who has built herself out of a house of exits and not a marked single entrance.”
Book Review:
Review by Jana L. Perskie (OCT 21, 2009)
After a fourteen year hiatus, author Pat Conroy is back with a long awaited novel, South of Broad. His last novel Beach Music was quite good, as is this latest offering. However, to my mind, nothing beats Conroy’s Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, although South of Broad comes close. There are similarities in all Conroy’s novels – his characters, their lives, dilemmas, and the author’s obvious love for the American South. The common thread which weaves its way throughout his work are autobiographical elements. According to a recent magazine interview, Conroy states that he writes from his own life experiences, which might explain why many of his characters have such emotionally traumatic childhoods. Conroy, the first of seven children, was born into a military family, and was the victim of his father’s violence and abuse from a young age. The military life – his father was a US Marine Corps pilot – also pushed the family from post to post, and Conroy claims to have moved 23 times before he was 18. When he was 15 he moved to Beaufort, SC, and began his love affair with the South. He is also a graduate of the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, a school featured in many of his novels. Read the rest of this post »
October 21, 2009
Tags: Charleston, Contemporary, Family Matters, South Carolina Posted in: Book Club Choice, Coming-of-Age, Family Matters, Friendship, Identity, US South No Comments
WHAT THE DOG SAW by Malcolm Gladwell
Book Quote:
“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. Not the kind of writing that you’ll find in this book, anyway. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else’s head…..”
Book Review:
Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (OCT 20, 2009)
Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures is a compilation of the author’s favorite work from The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1996. This book is divided into three parts: 1. Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius; 2. Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses; 3. Personality, Character, and Intelligence. In the first part, Gladwell includes portraits of a pitchman for kitchen gadgets who is so persuasive that he could sell clothing to a nudist. In addition, Gladwell discusses three female advertising pioneers, a canny investment strategist, and a “dog whisperer” who is able to tame even the most intransigent canine. What these people have in common is an understanding of how human beings (or four-legged creatures) think and feel, supreme self-confidence, and the ability to sell themselves and their ideas. Read the rest of this post »
October 20, 2009
Tags: malcolm gladwell, Nonfiction Posted in: Non-fiction No Comments
OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell
Book Quote:
“We pretend that success is exclusively a matter of individual merit.”
Book Review:
Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (OCT 20, 2009)
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is a thought-provoking and entertaining analysis in which the author explores why certain people fall outside the norms of human behavior and achievement. For example, how did Bill Gates became a superstar in his field while other equally talented and intelligent men and women failed to reach their potential?
Gladwell is a marvelous storyteller who opens with an intriguing description of the Italian village of Roseto, where “virtually no one under fifty-five had died of a heart attack,” and where the death rate was remarkably lower than expected. Fifty years ago, a physician conducted a study to determine whether Rosetans followed a strict diet or exercised vigorously. There had to be some explanation for their unusual good health. Why was this town an “outlier,” “a place that lay outside everyday experience, where the normal rules did not apply?” The study’s findings demonstrate that in order to understand outliers, we have to look at a number of diverse factors. Read the rest of this post »
October 20, 2009
Tags: malcolm gladwell Posted in: Non-fiction No Comments
