MURDER AS A FINE ART by David Morrell
MURDER AS A FINE ART by David Morrell is one of the best mystery books I’ve read this year. It is historically based, taking place in the nineteenth century. As some of you may know, Morrell is best-known for his book, First Blood, upon which the the Rambo movies are based. Murder as a Fine Art is very different from his first writings. It is literary fiction and page-turning at its best.
December 3, 2013
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Judi Clark · 
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Tags: 2013 - authors with books coming out in 2013, Historical, Literary, Mulholland · Posted in: Character Driven, Facing History, Literary, Mystery/Suspense, Real Event Fiction, Real People Fiction, Time Period Fiction
ABSOLUTION by Patrick Flanery
Patrick Flanery’s debut novel is a very interesting example of an overarching story that incorporates another “novel” or “memoir,” a journal and more embedded inside it. Set in post-apartheid South Africa Absolution is a thought provoking book, and engaging; not necessarily, or least of all, in the sense one would initially expect.
November 30, 2013
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: Around-the-World, Literary, Riverhead · Posted in: Africa, Debut Novel, guilt, World Literature, Writing Life
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami doesn’t lend himself to easy categorization. Though his prose is spare, almost styleless, it’s more supple than muscular, and though his stories are often occupied with mundane domesticities, they’re also often founded in the surreal. It’s no surprise, then, that Murakami’s long-awaited latest, 1Q84, isn’t easy to shelf –it’s at home among either fantasy, thriller or hard-boiled noir – but one thing’s for sure: this book is grotesquely Murakami. That is, quiet domesticity punctuates adventures tenuously connected to reality, and yet for all its faults – and some have argued there are many – this is a book that haunts you long after you’re done, a book that, like a jealous lover, won’t let you move on.
December 31, 2011
· Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags: 2012 PB Release, Knopf, Literary, Speculative (Beyond Reality) · Posted in: Contemporary, Literary, Noir, Speculative (Beyond Reality), World Literature
BOLTZMANN’S TOMB by Bill Green
“This is not a book about the great Austrian physicist, Ludwig Boltzmann, nor, despite its importance in my life, is it about Antarctica. It is more about time and chance and the images and dreams we bring with us from childhood which shape who we are and what we become. It is about science and atoms and starry nights and what we think we remember, though we have made it up.”
December 18, 2011
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Tags: Bellevue, Literary, Nonfiction, Sciences · Posted in: Award Winning Author, Non-fiction
THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenides
“Reader, I married him.”
What sensitive reader hasn’t thrilled to the last lines of the novel JANE EYRE, when the mousy and unprepossessing girl triumphantly returns to windswept Thornfield as a mature woman, marrying her one-time employer and great love, Mr. Rochester?
That era of these great wrenching love stories is now dead and gone. Or is it?
November 16, 2011
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Tags: 2012 PB Release, College Setting, Contemporary, FSG, Literary, Rhode Island · Posted in: Award Winning Author, Contemporary, Literary, NE & New York, Reading Guide, Story Retold, Uncategorized
THE GREAT LEADER by Jim Harrison
Once, many years ago when I was living in Northern Michigan, Jim Harrison walked into the restaurant where I was dining. He didn’t so much walk in, in retrospect, as lumber in. It was the Blue Bird Cafe and I confess that I’d been hanging out there in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him.
October 30, 2011
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: 2013 - authors with books coming out in 2013, Contemporary, Grove Press, Literary, Michigan, Mystery · Posted in: Contemporary, Literary, Mystery/Suspense, US Midwest
