11/18/2009: Like Robin Hood, Zorro is a story that almost everyone knows, but few have read. The original book by Johnston McCulley is out of print and available in very few libraries. The Mark of Zorro 1920 with Douglas Fairbanks is very true to the book. Zorro, and especially Bernardo his Indian companion, have come a very long way from the original master/servant relationship written in 1919 to Allende's making them inseparable blood brothers in 2005. I don't know if her changes were to modernize...
11/15/2009: I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no sense to me at all) and thought that the book would suck. About a week later I started reading it out of extreme boredom. It automatically caught my attention. I couldn't put it down. I read for about 3 hours before my desire to sleep overcame me. I woke up the next morning and read on my way to school. Three Cups of Tea is incredible! I used to...
11/15/2009: Memoirs of A Geisha can be described as one word; "masterpiece." Each detail creates an unexplainable imagine and you can envision yourself in the story. The author tells her story willingly and purposely allows the reader to put themselves in her shoes as she tells you about each step of her journey through life. This book is has some advanced concepts at times, but I believe should be recommended to people of all ages both men and women. A certain respect can be gained from...
11/13/2009: On Tuesday, October 27th, 2009, Lisa Moreno, Pablo Carvallo and I attended a book review at Books & Books, Coral Gables, Florida. This book store chain has a calendar of events filled with exciting opportunities to get to know authors of books that will someday change our present day reality.
Always go early enough to acquire the book to be reviewed and to enjoy the culinary expertise of the resident staff; for they have healthy choices for a quick dinner and or dessert.
While we...
11/11/2009: Erik Larson did a great job of weaving two completely different stories together for a fascinating look at the building of the Chicago World's Fair and the first documented American serial killer in the same city at the same time. The history was fascinating and I was constantly on the internet searching for more information and photographs (my only complaint that this book should have had more photographs of the people and events covered). I loved both parts of the story equally which is a...
11/9/2009: I loved this book a lot! I found it one day on my sister's desk and I decided to read it. I loved the way the perspective kept on changing; it let you know different characters' feelings and how they coped with challenges. This book was touching and really made me think about what I would have done if I were the main character, or Sara, mother to a dying child. It really tested my morals and Sara's descriptions of motherhood and having a child with leukemia were really strong and I cried. I'm...
11/5/2009: I absolutely loved the books "Case Histories" and "One Good Turn" by Kate Atkinson and could not wait for the 3rd book in the series. Unfortunately, I just did not find it as interesting. Kate continues an write the best characters in the mystery genre, especially Jackson Brodie, but the story just wasn't as good as she normally writes. However, an average book by Kate Atkinson is going to be so much better than other books in this genre. Kate has great humor and has...
11/4/2009: A gripping and fascinating adventure of one young girl's obsession with knowing who her parents really were/are. The delving into the idea of Dracula as a modern day belief so early on in the book, initially can make the reader skeptical; however, I felt the execution (excuse the pun) of it was indeed intoxicating. I especially loved the lesser character of the mother`s mother, the reader gets a sense of organic narrative as though we are sitting down at her humble kitchen table, and being...
10/31/2009: I borrowed Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell from the library, hoping it would be a lively story of two feuding wizards. Instead, the author spends so much time explaining magic (history, theory and practice) that the characters fail to develop beyond this one aspect of their lives. The true disappointment for me was the unusual ending. How could a knowledgeable wizard get into such a mess?
That said, the author does successfully create a magical England separate from the one we know from...
10/25/2009: Growing up in West Virginia where coal miners and their families struggled to make a living, I loved Bragg's descriptions of the country surrounding and the lives of the poor. The respect for the south and the struggle of the poor is in every sentence of this book. He treated his characters (family) with respect. I loved it. It warmed my heart. Bragg took me home for a brief time and made me smile...
10/25/2009: The first page offered surprising futuristic ideas, compelling me to continue reading. However, as soon as the author referred to the "eastern shore" not capitalizing E and S, I had my doubts but was willing to allow for his choice of designation for the nine counties east of the Chesapeake Bay. I found his character development unusually diverse and rich, and shortly I was able to picture Liz, Linus, Lenwood, Kathleen, Amber, Clarence and the Patty Cannon gang as though I knew them...
10/19/2009: The Takeshima family experiences several life changing events that turns their world upside down as they are forced to move from a Japanese community in Iowa to southern Georgia in the 1950's. The inseparable sisters, Lynn and Katie, discover the world through friendship, dreams, poverty, and discrimination; but the love that bonds them together remains unbroken as their family life is interrupted by an addition to the family and a change in their parent's employment conditions which allows...
10/18/2009: What an amazing book. It should be required reading for everyone too young to remember the racial injustice and turmoil of the 1960s. In addition to simply having something important to say, The Help is exceptionally well-written. All the characters are three-dimensional, even the minor ones, and everything about it feels agonizingly real. My only complaint is that it ended too soon; I wasn’t ready to leave the marvelous women at this book’s...
10/17/2009: I loved this book. The immature, childish, innocent narration leads to a horrifying, frightful ending, in which you wouldn't expect. This book left me shaken and telling myself, "That actually happened to people." It was my eye opener to the holocaust. It was clever and interesting the way they portrayed the main character, Bruno. He is a very real, innocent 9-year-old, not knowing the horrors that are right in front of him. After a while, you forget that these people are...
10/14/2009: This book is for the discriminating reader who enjoys exquisitely written, softly beautiful prose, and who does not require an action-packed plot to appreciate a book. The subject is not upbeat, and yet the reader has a sense of sober satisfaction at the end, somehow. What transpires in the novel appeals almost entirely to one's intellect, but the story and the story within the story are emotionally rich as well. This was one of my top five reads for last year, and makes my top thirty or forty...
One of the most celebrated writers of our time gives us his first cycle of short fiction: five brilliantly etched, interconnected stories in which music is a vivid and essential character.
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their...
The acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author— "an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)—offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.
Like Robin Hood, Zorro is a story that almost everyone knows, but few have read. The original book by Johnston McCulley is out of print and ...
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I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ...
read more
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ...
read more
The 2009 National Book Award Winners(Nov 19 2009) The winners of the 2009 National Book Awards have been announced at the National Book Foundation's 60th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit...
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Google Settlement Filed(Nov 13 2009) After two delays, attorneys for the AAP, Authors Guild and Google filed an amended settlement agreement today in an effort to end litigation brought by the...
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