Reviewed by Jamie W (Jul 23, 2012)

This first novel shines with vivid characters and a big heart. Former academic and 550 pound shut-in, Author Opp, recalls Ignatius J. Reilly, were John Kennedy Toole's hero achingly humane rather than tragically self-involved. The contrast between Arthur Opp and his co-protagonist, the 17 year-old, intensely self-reliant athlete, Kel Keller, couldn't be more satisfying. Liz Moore does such a masterful job tying these two conflicted souls together that she succeeds in showing the fundamental loneliness that connects us all. This excellent first novel will appeal to both literary fiction readers and YA fans.

Reviewed by Teresa G (Mar 5, 2012)

Girl Reading presents the back story for six works of art spanning the years 1333 through 2060. Each chapter is steeped in the time and place in which the art work was created. Beautifully written and full of unique characters this novel brings the stories of these women to life. Through the centuries books hold a power to captivate the reader and art, whether painting, drawing or photography captures a moment in time. The stories are brilliantly imagined and offer quirky and interesting heroines. The last chapter, set in a future where technology has changed nearly every aspect of life, ties all the other chapters together with a strange, sentient being. Never boring, each chapter grabs the reader and my only complaint is that once finished, the characters are gone forever, leaving the reader wanting to know more about them.

Reviewed by Jamie W (Feb 24, 2012)

A haunting collection of stories, Stay Awake, features men and women pursued by their past misdeeds, where dreams and reality mingle to form moments of nightmare and regret.

Reviewed by Kay W (Jan 20, 2012)

This book is perfect for anyone interested in poetry who finds the form of older poetry, all that rhyme and meter stuff, off-putting. Oliver is a good guide through the basics, and communicates her poet's sensitivity to, and excitement over, language and its poetic uses. This is concise introduction that is useful both inside classrooms and out.

Reviewed by Kay W (Jan 20, 2012)

This is a worthwhile book on several levels. A survey of the British fictions that dealt with matters of faith, most especially the three divisions of the Anglican Church: High, Low and Broad, it is written well enough to interest non-scholars who have enjoy reading novels by George Eliot or George MacDonald or other novelists of the time. It is also good for scholars of Victorian England or anyone interested in the intellectual heritage of the Church of England.

Reviewed by Daniel R (Jan 5, 2012)

This is the review I provided for our book club: It’s 1985 and most people in the Republic of Gilead (approximating the former New England) are relieved of the burden of possibility. If you’re a man chances are you’re some sort of government functionary or attached to one; if you’re a woman you’re a Martha (maid), a Wife, or a Handmaid, whose job it is to bear children. Although written a year after George Orwell’s eponymous novel take place, The Handmaid’s Tale shares many of its fears and motifs: the rise of the machine; the rise of a monolithic, all-powerful State; and the de-humanization of man. With Margaret Atwood’s tale, though, it’s especially women who suffer under this new order. A movement that presented itself as bent on restoring “traditional family values” to America quickly rose to power by machine-gunning most of the Federal government (and blaming it on Islamic terrorists), freezing women’s bank accounts, and forcing all women to leave their jobs in an effort to drag America back to a quasai-Old Testament social structure. Due to rapidly declining fertility rates (among women; men’s fecundity is officially perfect here) those women who can bear children serve as “handmaids”, and join the wives in the bedroom, portrayed in the book in excruciatingly uncomfortable three’s-a-crowd scenes. Margaret Atwood tries to combine two often-distinct genres here, and it doesn’t always work. The first three quarters is a straight-up dystopia of misogyny, totalitarianism, and theocracy; with a few satirical jabs at circa 1985 public figures (readers may notice hints of Andrea Dworkin in the portrayal of the protagonist’s mother; the villainous and tacky Wife Serena Joy is clearly modeled after Tammy Faye Bakker.) The last several pages of the book, however, careen roughly into thriller territory as our main character Offred must evade armed guards and sinister spies, involve herself in an underground resistance movement that may or may not exist, and carry on a torrid love affair, all while hoping for reunification with her long-lost daughter. This is a valuable book, a book to read carefully (if not again and again). As we hear in the very end “Certain periods of history quickly become...the occasion for a good deal of hypocritical self-congratulation.” If the author asks us to judge the society presented here, she also asks us to judge our own.

Reviewed by Jamie W (Nov 28, 2011)

In this debut novel, two young people, a boy and a girl, are unknowingly bound by their dueling magician guardians to a life-or-death contest of magical skill. The venue for their rivalry is a traveling, enchanted circus that first appears, unannounced, in an empty field at the close of 19th Century. As they grow and mature, the young magicians are drawn together and inevitably fall in love. As the novel reaches is its exciting close, they discover their tragic common bond and must then try to save the circus and each other before it's too late. While the plot here is sure to appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and the Harry Potter series, it is the circus itself, with its enigmatic black and white striped tents, awe inspiring illusions, and cast of enchanting performers that steals the show. Erin Morgenstern has succeeded in creating a world so imaginative, so appealing, and so captivating that at times it threatens to eclipse the plot of her story. It hardly matters though, as each page presents us with a fresh opportunity to plunge into a setting every bit as inventive and richly detailed as J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts.

Reviewed by Jamie W (Nov 28, 2011)

Gripping, entertaining, sprawling, and insane. I am afraid that trying to summarize the plot of 1Q84 would make it sound like the most ridiculous book of all time. So I'll just go with the publisher's copy: "Masterly Japanese novelist Murakami returns with what seems rightly billed as his magnum opus, published in Japan in three volumes in 2009-10. The title plays with the Japanese pronunciation of 1984, and indeed this is Murakami's homage to George Orwell's great novel. The lead characters include a young woman assassin and an unpublished novelist charged with punching up a manuscript that a reticent and possibly dyslexic teenager appears to have submitted to a literary contest. Another mind-blowing Murakami puzzle box that's essential for high-end readers." While this synopsis says nothing of the second moon that unexpectedly appears in the sky, the hard-boiled detective story side plot, the race of mysterious 'little people' who control the events of man, or the whole horrific sexual abuse and gruesome revenge thing, I'll save all that for you to discover. If you love Murakami, you will love this (no one is lukewarm here, you either love or hate Murakami's fiction). If you are not sure, read 1997’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” before tackling this 900+ page behemoth. You will know within the first 20 pages if you are a Murakami fan or not. If you are, then an inexplicable chain of events, much like those that ensnare Murakami's characters, will soon begin drawing you towards the inevitable...1Q84.

Reviewed by Jeff B (Oct 24, 2011)

An uncommon read which is witty, economical, inscrutable, and by turns brash, unforgettable and utterly delightful. The ending will cause you to exclaim, "Oh, Snap!" Because Her Majesty is like that. If you didn't know that before starting this gem of a read, you will most assuredly come to that realization by the time you reach the all-too quickly arrived at fini.

Reviewed by LaBae D (Oct 14, 2011)

This novel is a signature Buchi Emecheta novel focusing on African woman identity within political or social turmoil. The main character Ogbanje Ojebeta is sold into slavery by her older brother after her village is wrecked with disease and tragedy. Ogbanje and her sibling are left as orphans. Ogbanje is forced to denounce her own culture and identity and assume that of her slave owners. Although provided a nice life as a slave, Ogbanje is verbally and sexually abused and struggles with identity issues. In the end Ogbanje must choose her own way out thus forcing her to create her own identity and make her own choices.