Just Books :: Reviews - Jenny

Edgar Sawtelle

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:59:00 -0500

Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski - Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm--and into Edgar's mother's affections.

Split Estate

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:58:00 -0500

Split Estate -- Charlotte Bacon - In her third novel, following the well-received There Is Room for You (2004), Bacon delivers another sophisticated portrait of a family in crisis. Arthur Kings wife and the mother of his two teenage children, Celia and Cam, has committed suicide by jumping from the window of their tenth-story apartment. Their home has now become a painful reminder of their loss, and Arthur moves his wounded family to his mother Lucy's ranch out west. Readable and sophisticated . . . the reader is unable to turn away from the ultimate fate of this vulnerable family unsure of just how and where they fit together, but about to discover the way.

Nice To Come Home To

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:57:00 -0500

Nice To Come Home To - Rebecca Flowers - A funny, entertaining novel of love and family for our times: a single woman who fears she's lost her chance at a family of her own, begins to accumulate an ad hoc one around her. In the tradition of Elinor Lipman or Marisa de los Santos ("Love Walked In"), Flowers delivers a smart, witty, appealing story of love, family, and community that breaks the mold of the conventional love story-and will have readers cheering. Endearing, romantic, and satisfying, "Nice to Come Home To" is a charming, crowd-pleasing debut.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:56:00 -0500

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society -- Mary Ann Shaffer/Annie Barrows - As the letters unfold, Juliet--and we readers--learn the little-known history of German occupation of Guernsey. We come to know the brave and endearing people who survived the hardships--and a few who did not....In addition to a fine story, this delightful book offers affirming messages about some of the most enduring forces in life--the power of the written word, the strength of the human spirit and the value of relationships, even unexpected ones. The book is a sweet, sentimental paean to books and those who love them....

In Hovering Flight

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:55:00 -0500

In Hovering Flight - Joyce Hinnefeld - A rich first novel about love, loss, and the fragile beauty of nature. Intense, artistic Addie Sturmer enrolls in Professor Tom Kavanagh's "Biology of the Birds" class at rural Burnham College. Addie and Tom marry, only to find life not as idyllic as envisioned - including the struggles of their only child, Scarlet. She rebels against her counterculture parents, using the beauty of poetry to express her conflicting feelings. As Addie faces the last stages of cancer, the characters reunite to deal with their demons and to find some measure of peace with each other. Hinnefeld's drama soars, especially in its depiction of Addie's complicated relationship with Scarlet, who's also trying to find her wings. A hard book to put down - one of our favorites this year.

I See You Everywhere

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:54:00 -0500

I See You Everywhere - Julia Glass - From the author of the bestselling "Three Junes" comes a richly nuanced tale about the intertwined lives of two sisters. Alternating between the women's voices, "I See You Everywhere" unfolds across 25 years, offering a candid double portrait that reveals the very nature of sisterhood. Louisa, the elder, is the steady sister on the lookout for love, while Clem is the younger sister, an adventuring, restless spirit with an unfortunate habit of chewing men up and spitting them out. A vivid, heartrending story of what we can and cannot do for those we love. Alive with all the detail and riveting characterization that mark Glass's previous work, "I See You Everywhere " is a piercingly candid story of life and death, companionship and sorrow, and the nature of sisterhood itself.

Heretics Daughter

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:53:00 -0500

Heretics Daughter - Kathleen Kent - Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived. A haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.

The Secret Scripture

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:52:00 -0500

The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry - Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, "The Secret Scripture" is an epic story of love, betrayal, and unavoidable tragedy, and a vivid reminder of the stranglehold that the Catholic Church had on individual lives for much of the 20th century. Set in a Roscommon mental hospital, the novel centers on 100-year-old Roseanne McNulty, who secretly records her life in a hidden journal. In sometimes painful detail, she describes a heartbreaking childhood in Sligo, affected triumphantly and tragically by events unfolding in the world beyond: two world wars, the emergence of the Irish Republic, and the often devastating influence of the Catholic Church on the lives of people in need.
A gorgeous new novel from the author of the Man Booker finalist A Long Long Way, Barry's latest novel flows like a 'song', with the reader able to absorb the culture and mysteries of Ireland. A profound reading experience

Perfect Family

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:51:00 -0500

Perfect Family - Pam Lewis - the lovely headstrong youngest member of the Carteret family -- has always been a strong swimmer. So when she is discovered drowned at the family's summer home on Lake Aral, Vermont, her red hair tangled in an anchor chain and her baby abandoned on shore, her family is stunned by disbelief. William Carteret, Pony's older brother, can't accept the explanation that his favorite sister's death was an accident. Determined to uncover the truth, he eventually learns the disturbing fact that a stranger had been present at the house the evening Pony died. As William digs deeper, his investigations quickly lead him to a new and more daunting series of questions, not only about the mysteries in Pony's life but also about the shadowy details of his deceased mother's past and even his own. Before long, he has opened a Pandora's box of family secrets, including one dangerous fact his mother has kept hidden for a generation. Pam Lewis's "Perfect Family" is a masterful, atmospheric taleabout the ways in which family secrets, no matter how long they're buried, can wield their tremendous power.

The Gate House

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:50:00 -0500

The Gate House - Nelson DeMille - New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille delivers the long-awaited follow-up to his classic novel The Gold Coast. When John Sutter's aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, ten years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. John finds himself pulled into a familiar web of seduction and betrayal. In THE GATE HOUSE, acclaimed author Nelson Demille brings us back to that fabled spot on the North Shore -- a place where past, present, and future collides with often unexpected results

Testimony

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:49:00 -0500

Testimony - Anita Shreve - At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices--those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal. Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller.

The Hour I First Believe

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:48:00 -0500

The Hour I First Believe - Wally Lamb - When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives. But when Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right. As unimaginable secrets emerge, Caelum grapples with the past and struggles to fashion a future from the ashes of tragedy. The #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author and two-time Oprah's Book Club pick delivers his first novel in more than a decade--the story of a woman haunted by the events at Columbine High School and her husband's examination of his family's past

Loving Frank

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:47:00 -0500

Loving Frank - Nancy Horan - This graceful, assured first novel tells the remarkable story of the long-lived affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a passionate and impossible figure, and Mamah Cheney, a married woman whom Wright beguiled and led beyond the restraint of convention. It is an engrossing, provocative reading, a novel about historical people, giving a voice to someone as mythic as Frank Lloyd Wright. This beautifully written novel about Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright's love affair is vivid and intelligent, unsentimental and compassionate.

Out Stealing Horses

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:46:00 -0500

Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson Panoramic and gripping, this novel tells the story of Trond Sander, a sixty-seven-year-old man who has moved from the city to a remote, riverside cabin, only to have all the turbulence, grief, and overwhelming beauty of his youth come back to him one night while he's out on a walk. From the moment Trond sees a strange figure coming out of the dark behind his home, the reader is immersed in a decades-deep story of searching and loss, and in the precise, irresistible prose of a newly crowned master of fiction. An exceptionally well written work of fiction that explores the present, the past and the future. A store and bookclub favorite

House of Happy Endings

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:45:00 -0500

House of Happy Endings - Leslie Garis - conveys an exquisite restraint, a measured thoughtfulness that is simply eloquent. At the same time it renders the terrible pain of its people in the most urgent way. A sense of the helplessness of love in the face of an ongoing personal disintegration, the panic of articulate educated people enduring a progressive disaster, give the story a fearsome suspense that is absolutely riveting. Its balance of judicious, insightful reflection and the evocation of heartbreak is truly rare. Its what distinguishes the best memoirs from the rest.