Today’s reviews are all notable debut novels by women. I spent part of my spring break tearing through Kimberly McCreight’s Reconstructing Amelia, and let me tell you — teens are going to eat this up. It came out just yesterday, so go order a couple copies now. There are several appeal elements here. First, the [...]
We have a huge backlog of wonderful reviews right now, so this week we’re giving you even more weekly reviews. The great film reviewer Jonathan Rosenbaum once commented that “it’s pretty safe to say that there are more serial killers in movies than there are in real life” and puzzled over why so many viewers [...]
Trilogies. How many of us shudder at the thought? How many of us miss those great standalone novels? A whole story arc in one book – imagine! On the other hand, many readers enjoy knowing that there is more to come. In a student bookgroup meeting last week, as we discussed what to read next, [...]
Today we review three thrillingly original works of speculative fiction. Let’s start with a post-apocalyptic, dystopian debut novel. The Office of Mercy is being marketed as a Hunger Games readalike. (I’ve also seen comparisons to recent Alex Award winner, Pure). However, debut author Djanikian is more concerned with ethical questions than fast-paced action. The Alphas had good intentions [...]
A few weeks ago, I posted about genre fiction and teen appeal. At that time I made a promise to myself that I would read more genre titles this year. So far so good because by reading The Six-Gun Tarot I covered three in one – fantasy, horror and western. Teens are going to love [...]
I am sharing two very different books today, which I can only tenuously connect thanks to the Alex Awards. (Thus the completely unimaginative title of this post!) Let’s begin on a light-hearted note. First, a review of Raiders!, which won a place on the Booklist Editors Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults, 2012. Our reviewer [...]
We may have settled on our Best Books of 2012 back at the end of November, but here we are in early January and we’re still finding great books from last year. This week, we have three very different takes on thrillers that all bring to mind (for me anyway) the movies. First up is [...]
AmazonCrossing is a program that brings books published in other languages to American audiences. Escape is translated from the Turkish. Author Perihan Mağden lives in Istanbul, where she is well-known not only for her fiction, but also for writing controversial editorial newspaper columns which get her into trouble. An interview about another of her novels [...]
They found a body. I know who it is. Such a great tag line! Three teenage girls and the jealousy-filled triangle of their friendships are at the center of Jenn Ashworth‘s dark, contemporary British murder mystery. The author is currently on a virtual (blog) tour of the U.S. that started Tuesday. ASHWORTH, Jenn. Cold Light. [...]
Simon Toyne is back with the second in the trilogy that began with last year’s widely-praised Sanctus. The Key is a well-written, intriguing, action-packed conspiracy thriller, and a great recommendation for kids who like a Da Vinci Code kind of book. The book trailer is OK, but this (the author’s visit to The British Museum in [...]
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