***** Page Spring Publishing, 2013 ISBN-10: 1939403081 The Button Collector is a book about little things that can come to stand for big ideas and anchor us to life and to who we are. In a beautifully written novel, Elizabeth Jennings presents a woman’s history and life choices through a jar of buttons she inherited from […]
Tag Archives: literature
June
04
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
posted by lasesana
***** Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides Knopf, 2002 ISBN-13: 978-1-4299-5627-7 “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen […]
April
16
El pergamino de la seducción (The Scroll of Seduction), Gioconda Belli
posted by lasesana
**1/2 Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2005 (Spanish) WASHINGTON, DC, April 16, 2013 – Gioconda Belli’s El Pergamino de la Seduccion,The Scroll of Seduction weaves together two stories: the life of Juana of Castile in sixteenth century Spain and the story of Lucía, a young girl in 1970s Madrid. Perceptive and extensively researched, Belli’s narrative reveals a […]
February
08
The Kitchen House, Kathleen Grissom
posted by lasesana
****½ The Kitchen House Author: Kathleen Grissom First Edition: 2010 Original language: English Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction, Debut Author (2010) Summary: Told from the point of view of an orphaned Irish indentured servant and the illegitimate daughter of a tobacco plantation owner and one of his slaves, The Kitchen House tells […]
January
22
The Last Chinese Chef, Nicole Mones
posted by lasesana
***½ The Last Chinese Chef Author: Nicole Mones First Edition: 2007 Original language: English Summary: It has been a year since Maggie’s husband passed away, but she has been unable to rebuild her life after his sudden death. She has sold their house and moved into a small house boat, and her work as an […]
January
10
Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
posted by lasesana
***** Choke: A Novel Author: Chuck Palahniuk First Edition: 2001 Original language: English Website: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/palahniuk/ Author Website: http://chuckpalahniuk.net Twitter: @chuckpalahniuk Summary: Sex addict Victor Mancini works in Colonial Dunsboro by day. In the afternoon he cruises sex addiction meetings for dates. By night he pretends to choke at restaurants so that a stranger can save […]
Tell No One, Harlan Coben
posted by lasesana
** Tell No One: A Novel Author: Harlan Coben First Edition: 2000 Original language: English Awards: Barry Award Nominee for Best Novel (2002), Macavity Award Nominee for Best Mystery Novel (2002), Anthony Award Nominee for Best Novel (2002), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2008) Summary: Dr. David Beck is still suffering from the murder of […]
December
07
10 Disturbing Novels
posted by lasesana
From my column in the Washington Times Communities WASHINGTON, DC, December 6, 2012- You know that book that you simply cannot put down? The one that you keep thinking about when you do put it down and way after you’ve finished reading it? The one that makes you just a little bit uncomfortable when you think […]
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
posted by lasesana
**** We Need to Talk About Kevin Author: Lionel Shriver First Edition: 2003 Original language: English Awards: 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction Summary: We Need to Talk About Kevin is an epistolary novel, written as letters from Eva Katchadourian to her husband Franklin in the wake of their son’s killing 11 people at his school. […]
Tai-Pan, James Clavell
posted by lasesana
****1/2 Tai-Pan (Asian Saga #2) Author: James Clavell First Edition: Atheneum, 1966 Original language: English Summary: The novel opens with the British seizure of Hong Kong after the first Opium War. Long and sweeping, covering the lives of many characters, the book focuses on Dirk Struan, the Tai-Pan, the most powerful trader in Asia and […]
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