September Reviews
Title:
Tomorrow
River
Classification: Fiction
Author:
Lesley
Kagen
Publisher:
Dutton
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating: 
Reviewer Comments:
Shenny and her twin sister Woody have taken to spending most of their time in their tree fort since their Mama disappeared and their Papa started locking them in the root cellar. Woody, the delicate one of the sisters, has gone mute and is no help when Shenny decides to find out what happened to their mother and enlists the aid of friends and servants…most of whom seem to know more than they’re letting on and are reluctant to incur the wrath of her wealthy, powerful family.
So-so and predictable—pass.
Title:
Star
Island
Classification: Mystery
Author:
Carl
Hiaasen
Publisher:
Knopf
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
Twenty-two year old Cherry Pye has absolutely no talent, but she’s determined to keep performing as long as she can party. She doesn’t even realize that her parents have hired a double to cover for her when she’s suffering from another attack of “gastritis.” But paparazzo Claude Abbott is convinced that Cherry is, sooner rather than later, going to imbibe a last, fatal combination of substances and that his photos of her will make him, finally, famous.
Meanwhile, sleazy developer Jackie Sebago is planning the destruction of Atlantic coastline for luxury townhouses, a fact that has attracted the attention of Skink, a former Florida governor who devises a really interesting lesson for Jackie. (Let me say here that you will never again think of sea urchins in the same way).
A completely entertaining book!
Title:
Think
of a Number
Classification: Fiction
Author:
John
Verdon
Publisher:
Crown
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating: 
Reviewer Comments:
Pretend you’re rich, famous, admired, but that before you were all those you were a blackout drunk. Pretend you get a letter in the mail from someone who claims to know you better than you know yourself and to prove it that someone asks you to think of a number. You do, and open the extra envelope included with the letter only to find your number, the number you just thought of, written there. If you’re Mark Mellery, you call on the only person you know in law enforcement, retired detective David Gurney, even though you haven’t seen him in twenty-five years.
So begins Think of a Number, and the mystery only becomes darker, more twisted and more confusing from there in this amazing debut. Whatever you do, don’t miss this book!
Title:
Fragile
Classification: Fiction
Author:
Lisa
Unger
Publisher:
Shaye Areheart
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her police detective husband Jones are just trying to get through their son’s teen years when all hell breaks loose. Their son’s girlfriend disappears, Maggie’s teenage patient is sinking further into depression, Maggie’s mom is aging and hearing mysterious thumps in her attic and Jones is carrying a long-buried secret. How much more can a person take? If you decide to read Fragile you’ll find out but it will take lots of angst to do so and, just when you think you’re done (in fact, you should by all rights be done), the author decides to throw in a few extra chapters in case you missed all the earlier angst.
Tiresome.
Title:
Following
Polly
Classification: Fiction
Author:
Karen
Bergreen
Publisher:
St. Martin’s Press
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
In a very cute debut, recently fired Alice Teakle decides that while she waits for career inspiration she might as well take lessons from the most successful person she knows: Polly Dawson, her long-time nemesis and wildly bitchy businesswoman. Of course, since Polly doesn’t know who she is, Alice resorts to following (read stalking) her…for weeks. But just when Alice has made up her mind to stop (after all, following somebody IS a little creepy), Polly turns up dead and Alice is the only suspect.
Despite a slightly shaky plot, a very light, fun read.
Title:
Particular
Sadness of Lemon Cake
Classification: Fiction
Author:
Aimee
Bender
Publisher:
Doubleday
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
When Rose takes a bite of her mother’s homemade lemon cake, a strange and scary thing happens: Rose can taste all of her mother’s emotions. Well, of course that would be strange and scary, but when Rose continues to experience the same thing every time she eats something and when she continues her dreary description every time she eats something, it just becomes repetitive and really boring. The interesting (albeit weird and unsettling) part of the plot is that Rose’s brother regularly disappears into inanimate objects, although it takes a long time for Rose to realize where he’s gone since she’s so busy rambling about the emotions of the people who have handled her food.
It may be that this book might better be titled the Boy Who Turned Into a Chair but then Rose would miss her chance to be the sibling with a special gift.
Since there are much better books featuring paranormal activities, buy one of those and skip this one.
August Reviews
Title:
Devil
Amongst the Lawyers
Classification: Mystery
Author:
Sharyn
McCrumb
Publisher:
Thomas Dunne Books
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
In a fictionalized account of the 1935 trial in Wise County, Virginia, of a young woman on trial in the murder of her father, McCrumb exposes the power of the press to influence public perception of guilt and innocence. Sent to cover the sensational event are big city reporters, most of whom have written their descriptions of the small mountain town and its people before having seen them, and who have already decided what the outcome of the trial should be. Only one newspaperman is determined to find the truth, but at what cost?
A very good read!
Ballad Series:
-
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O
-
Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
-
She Walks These Hills
-
Rosewood Casket
-
Ballad Of Frankie Silver
-
Songcatcher
-
Ghost Riders
-
Devil Amongst the Lawyers
Title:
Ice
Cold
Classification:
Fiction
Author:
Tess
Gerritsen
Publisher:
Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
Wrestling with whether to end her affair with a priest, Dr. Maura Isles welcomes the chance to attend a medical conference in Wyoming, never guessing that she’d run into a former classmate: handsome, personable Doug Comley. When Maura is invited to join Doug and his friends for a ski trip it proves to be irresistible—a chance to forget her problems for awhile. Little do any of them realize the horrors that lay before them as they are forced to find shelter in an abandoned village tucked into a remote valley.
This is just about the best suspense book of 2010! Stunning…don’t miss it!
Title:
As
Husbands Go
Classification:
Fiction
Author:
Susan
Isaacs
Publisher:
Scribner
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
Susie Gersten and her husband Jonah are the happily married parents of triplets. So when Susie wakes to find Jonah hasn’t come home all night she knows something terrible has happened, never imagining that his body would be found in the home of a prostitute. Although everything points to the call girl as the murderer, Susie doesn’t buy it and sets out to discover the real killer.
A little peripatetic, but a fun, fast read. A great choice for the beach.
Title:
Never
Wave Goodbye
Classification:
Fiction
Author:
Doug
Magee
Publisher:
Touchstone
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
Lena Trainor is nervous and excited about her daughter’s first time away at camp, so it’s hard for her to see Sarah leave in the camp van. It isn’t until another van arrives for Sarah that Lena and three other families realize that they’ve been duped and that their children are in the hands of kidnappers. Remembering her grandmother’s advice to never wave goodbye, Lena can’t believe she’ll never see her daughter again but there seems to be know one who knows where the children are.
A dynamite debut novel! A page-turner of the first order.
Title:
Live
To Tell
Classification:
Fiction
Author:
Lisa Gardner
Publisher:
Bantam
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
Twenty-five years ago, Danielle’s father murdered her mother and siblings before killing himself and for all these years Danielle has been haunted by the guilt of being the only one he left alive. Now a nurse working in a pediatric psych ward, caring for disturbed and violent children, Danielle is stunned when detective D.D. Warren comes with questions about one of their former patients. Not only are families being massacred but each family has a link to the hospital and each killing bears a chilling resemblance to the deaths of Danielle’s family.
Completely riveting and heart-pounding…Gardner’s best to date.
Title:
Fly
Away Home
Classification:
Fiction
Author:
Jennifer
Weiner
Publisher:
Atria Books
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
So Sylvie Woodruff has been married to Senator Richard Woodruff for thirty-two years and has spent those years being the perfect political wife, much to the detriment of her own life and the lives of their daughters. Little surprise that their daughters are totally screwed up and that her husband succumbs to the charms of a younger woman because (give me a break here) she reminds him of Sylvie.
This has to be the most hackneyed, clichéd mess of a book I’ve read this year. What a disappointment from Weiner...that the freshness of her earlier books has been replaced by this stale disaster.
To read Nancy's past reviews, please visit The Back Shelves
Meet Nancy
After working in several word-related fields: copy writing, editing, freelance voice talent and theatre--followed by a long career as a stay-at-home mom I started working at the bookstore almost nineteen years ago, and was fortunate enough to be the manager for eighteen years. From my first day at work I had a sense of being home among the books and fellow book-junkies and that feeling only grew with the ensuing years.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a terrific team of booksellers and customers, and I am especially indebted to my fantastic family who supported my choice of jobs despite work hours that were definitely not conducive to family and social activities. I'm just now learning what all the fuss about weekends is all about!
My thanks to all of you who supported the store, who mourned its closing, and who asked us to establish this forum so that we can continue our tradition of exchanging opinions and ideas about books.