January 29, 2012 – 6:59 pm
The Book: Gone, Baby, Gone, by Dennis Lehane
The Story: A four year old girl, Amanda, is reported missing after having been gone several days. The private detective team of Patrick and Angie are put on the case because of their track record in being able to figure out tough cases that no one else can. [...]
January 16, 2012 – 8:51 pm
The Book: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
The Story: Hazel is a 16 year old girl that was diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer two years ago. Because of some experimental drugs, she is still alive and still hanging on. She isn’t in school and most of her friends have ditched her, but she [...]
January 7, 2012 – 9:14 am
The Book: Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier
The Story: When he is young, Will Cooper is orphaned and sent to live with his aunt and uncle. They don’t have time money to take care of him so they get him hooked up with a job running a small trading post out in the middle of Indian [...]
January 5, 2012 – 9:03 pm
The Book: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Catherine Howe
The Story: Connie is an academic who is challenged a bit by her academic advisor. He asks her to consider the possibility that the people accused in Salem in the 1690’s were actually just witches.
She kind of shoves his question to the back of [...]
December 20, 2011 – 9:09 am
The Book: Cloudsplitter, by Russell Banks
The Story: Cloudsplitter is a novel about the abolitionist John Brown (of Harper’s Ferry/Bloody Kansas fame), as told by his last surviving son, Owen. This book is Owen’s life story and confession.
Owen describes what it was like being John Brown’s son, kind of revealing him as a deeply religious father [...]
December 13, 2011 – 8:36 am
The Solace of Leaving Early, by Haven Kimmel
I read Haven Kimmel’s A Girl Named Zippy maybe five years ago and LOVED it. I remember sitting on the porch swing at my moms and laughing until I couldn’t breathe at this book. A couple of years ago, I picked it up again and if it is [...]
December 11, 2011 – 1:08 pm
The Book: The Slow Moon, by Elizabeth Cox
The Story: Sophie and Crow (yeah, his name is Crow) have been dating for awhile. He is 16 and she is 14 and one night at a party they sneak out in the woods for a little *ahem* alone time. When Crow realizes that he needs some protection [...]
December 7, 2011 – 10:17 am
The Book: The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson
The Story: One chilly morning a hugely-pregnant girl named Lillie is found floating in the town’s reservoir. Initially, it is assumed to be a suicide and kind of swept under the rug. A detective notices some clues that say otherwise and a group of men start investigating and [...]
December 4, 2011 – 5:46 pm
The Book: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Story: I have a feeling I’m not going to do justice to this story if I try to explain it, but I’ll give it a go.
Daniel is the son of a bookstore owner in post-war Barcelona. His mother died when he was [...]
November 26, 2011 – 10:54 am
The Book: Brick Lane, by Monica Ali
The Story: Nazneen is born and raised in Bangladesh. Nazneen’s marriage is arranged when she is young. She is married in Bangladesh then promptly removed from her family and moved to London. Her husband is a good man, but is not attentive to her needs in any way.
Through her [...]