Today we review three very different novels about families, none of them easy. The families, that is! Koren Zailckas is well-known for her memoir Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood (Viking, 2005). Mother, Mother is her first novel, and it introduces a doozy of a family dynamic. The story includes elements of suspense, psychological thriller and [...]
Our first review today is an account of the happenings at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during the five days after Hurricane Katrina. I will let you read the review for the details, but keep in mind that not only is this a compelling survival story, it is also a model of great and exhaustive [...]
I’m very excited to introduce today’s novels, all three centered on emotionally damaged young women, and two of which are debuts that earn starred reviews from us. I read the two debuts–Panopticon and Lotería–in short succession, about a month ago, and I’m hard pressed to say which I’m more excited about–both introduce readers to ferocious new talents [...]
Michael Schofield’s nonfiction account of his daughter’s schizophrenia has similar appeal to titles that have drawn teen readers in the past. Think Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel, A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar and perhaps especially Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Scheff. Next week I will [...]
Bryan Mealer’s exploration of football and poverty in one small Florida town brings to mind other books about high school sports, such as Friday Night Lights and Michael D’Orso’s Eagle Blue. You probably know Mealer’s previous work, even if you don’t recognize the name. He wrote The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind with William Kamkwamba, [...]
Tom Reiss’s childhood fascination with the novels of Alexandre Dumas led him to read Dumas’s memoirs. He was blown away by the superhero-like adventures of Dumas’s father and determined to uncover his larger-than-life story. In an interview with CBS News, Reiss states, “As an equal fan of history, superheroes, and adventure stories, I was enthralled.” Why [...]
“Full Body Burden” refers to the amount of radioactivity which can be safely tolerated by a human body through its lifetime. Kristen Iversen‘s memoir combines life within a dysfunctional family and the investigation of a nuclear weapons program cover-up that took place in her own backyard. Teens will be outraged by the government’s willingness to hide [...]
British author Rosamund Lupton’s much-anticipated second psychological thriller has even more potential teen appeal than her first. Lupton is a master at both plotting and characterization, using close family relationships to ratchet up the suspense. Her debut, Sister, made several “best of” lists last year; our own AB4T review was enthusiastic. The paperback cover (pictured here) [...]
Jay Heinrichs new book follows his first, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion (Three Rivers, 2007). Word Hero is a colorful paperback original with a sense of humor and its own website. Heinrichs also publishes an impressive language blog, Figarospeech.com. For teens working [...]
Welcome to October, the month of Halloween and horror fiction. We begin with a ghost story by Chris Bohjalian. Justin Cronin, author of The Passage, wrote a guest review on Amazon.com. Just what is The Night Strangers? “It’s a psychological thriller. It’s a domestic drama, the story of a family coping with the aftermath of dislocation and [...]
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