About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Richard Price
Positive Associated Press The novel draws you in with its authenticity ... The book is more of a tapestry than any traditional storytelling structure.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Positive Associated Press Coates always writes with a purpose ... While it’s a message Coates clearly conveys in his essay, he realizes it’s not his story to tell.
Wright Thompson
Rave Associated Press He pauses to consider his personal history and the collective effort required to cover up details of Till’s story in this country’s stubborn refusal to confront its racist origins ... Powerful and unflinching ... Thompson does a deep dive into every facet of the story, introducing characters at such a rapid pace that it’s often hard to remember who’s who.
Louise Erdrich
Rave Associated Press Erdrich’s prose is lovely ... When we finally get the truth, it’s a powerful moment, and one that sets the scene for, if not forgiveness, some measure of peace.
Elizabeth Strout
Rave Associated Press Reads like the stories that Lucy Barton shares with Olive throughout the novel. Simple. Relatable. Elegant, even ... Strout’s gift is making readers stop and think about lives — from the exciting to the mundane — and that’s what makes this book so appealing.
Matt Haig
Positive Associated Press If you’re willing to suspend disbelief when reading fiction, this is an engaging story ... The entire book will take an average reader just a few hours to read. Really short chapters — some just a sentence long — help the pages fly. And while some may finish the last sentence shaking their head at the implausibility of it all, Grace’s realization that everything on Earth is worthy of admiration and preservation is a message the whole world can get behind.
Nathan Newman
Positive Associated Press You begin to see how it might be a better TV show than it is a book. But don’t let that stop you from reading it. Fair warning: It is graphic in its description of sexual encounters and doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, including self harm. The humor helps take the edge off a little, but Newman certainly has something to say about the up-and-coming generation. This is a bold new voice, and one to watch.
Rufi Thorpe
Rave Associated Press This is a wholly original novel ... It’s a book that grabs and keeps your attention ... It wouldn’t be fair to spoil the final two sentences of the book, and curses on any reader who now jumps ahead to them, but Thorpe is both poetic and profound in the way she brings her remarkable story to an end.
Kiley Reid
Rave Associated Press Reid has a knack for descriptive phrases as we get to know all these characters ... Despite that gossipy setup, Reid creates a story with real weight. Her ear for dialogue — honed, no doubt, by the dozens of actual interviews she conducted with college students for this book — is finely tuned. It feels like you’re reading great gossip, but the characters come across as genuine, with real problems. Come and Get It is a fun, propulsive read that puts readers in a world most of them will have long since graduated from, but which provides an ideal window to explore deeper themes — from relationships to class and privilege to racism.
Sandra Newman
Rave Associated Press Remarkable ... 1984 fans will enjoy experiencing the story from this point forward through Julia’s eyes, but for readers who aren’t Orwellian scholars, it’s important that Julia hold up on its own as well.
John Grisham
Mixed Associated Press Grisham fans will love the first 37 pages ... Grisham fans will devour it; but there were times when this reader wished the action would slow down a little so we could spend some time with the characters ... Frenetic.
Jo Nesbo, trans. by Neil Smith
Positive Associated Press \"...really isn’t a classic who-done-it horror novel, but a story of one traumatized young man’s search for meaning in the wake of a personal tragedy ... After readers turn the final page of the book, it’s fun going back and picking up all the foreshadowing, some of which seems heavy-handed in hindsight, but goes barely noticed on first read\
Millie Bobby Brown
Mixed Associated Press The story starts to sing when Nellie meets Ray, a U.S. Air Force pilot stationed nearby. The prose describing their first kiss fits the moon-eyed mood as the young couple falls hopelessly in love ... Honestly, most readers could predict the rest of the plot ... Time will tell if Brown has more stories in her, but her late, beloved grandmother would assuredly be proud of this first effort.
Richard Russo
Positive Associated Press Fans of the previous two novels will enjoy reconnecting with familiar characters ... While Sully is missed as a physical presence in the book, he’s never far from anyone’s mind ... The Fool books nail that small town vibe, where everybody thinks they know everybody’s else’s business, and more importantly, cares about what happens to their neighbors. If it all feels a little quaint in America circa 2023, that’s part of the charm.
John McPhee
Positive The San Francisco Chronicle \"Some of the best writing in this collection could be considered memoir — from McPhee’s high school job as a billy club- and flashlight-toting night watchman at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, to finding one-sentence and three-page autobiographies written by his late parents among their possessions ... Tabula Rasa” demonstrates just how broad McPhee’s \'tabula\' has always been. He’s like an NBA star who always has the green light to shoot ... I don’t know about you, but I’d buy a McPhee book featuring the characters he’d meet along the way. Instead, all we can do is wait for Volume 2.\
John McPhee
Rave AP News There are plenty of snippets here that will make readers wish McPhee had indeed delved deeper into particular topics ... Tabula Rasa demonstrates just how broad McPhee’s \"tabula\" has always been.
Ruth Ware
Mixed AP News Ware has a knack for creating female protagonists worth rooting for and Jack... is no exception. It’s the plot that gets in the way ... There’s not enough interaction with other characters to make it feel more propulsive and up the sense of danger ... The best scenes are near the end, when Jack finally gives herself more than a moment to grieve.
T. C. Boyle
Rave Associated Press Devastating ... Just before Boyle drives his characters over the edge, he eases off the accelerator long enough to find a little hope. Readers will have to wait until the final pages to feel it, but if along the way they’re convinced by a novel to eat more plants or drive an electric vehicle, Blue Skies could be a very influential book indeed.
Jeff Benedict
Rave Associated Press Benedict didn’t interview James directly for the book, but that fact drives home one of the book’s main themes — James built his empire by surrounding himself with an inner circle of close friends, all of whom he met before adulthood ... Given the fact that James didn’t speak to Benedict for the book, some critics may decry the armchair psychology in these pages. But James’ life has certainly not been unexamined. He has spoken at length about growing up fatherless, the fierce loyalty he feels toward his mother, and how grateful he is to coaches and neighbors ... LeBron makes a more compelling argument about just how remarkable it is that a player of James’ magnitude has lived a scandal-free life, and in fact, has focused his platform and celebrity on meaningful issues like Black Lives Matter or inner city education.
Charles Frazier
Rave Associated Press Frazier deftly blends an historical perspective throughout his fictional tale. The legacy of the Great Depression and America’s efforts to advance beyond it are omnipresent ... There’s a lot more worth savoring in The Trackers, including reflections on the meaning of art, the mythos of the American West, and what it really takes to start again. But Val is our narrator and after a transcontinental adventure, the book satisfyingly ends where it began, with Val working on his mural in Dawes, Wyoming, adding a couple final details to complete the painting.
Margaret Atwood
Mixed Associated Press The stories not featuring Tig and Nell are more of a mixed bag, but they’re all quick reads ... Fans of the TV version of The Handmaid’s Tale may not flock to read Old Babes in the Wood, but Atwood purists will find enough here to like.
Mensun Bound
Rave Associated Press The book recounts both of the expeditions in great detail, framed as Bound’s diary entries recounting events, and often weaving in Shackleton history. Bound’s passion for what he’s doing and his love for the most unexplored geography on Earth is evident on every page. His writing blends the required scientific explanations with what touches on poetry ... It’s captivating stuff, even for readers who will never see an iceberg.
Jane Smiley
Positive The Associated Press At 208 pages, the novel’s pace is quick. It feels like Smiley could mine more stories out of Monterey in 1854. Enough interesting characters enter and exit Eliza’s brothel bedroom to justify a series of novels. If anything like A Dangerous Business, they’d be fine stories indeed.
John Irving
Positive Associated Press An accessible introduction to the New England-born novelist whose work has always been stuffed with serious themes like religion, sex and politics, tempered by a fair dose of satire and absurdity, delivered by narrators in an endearing, matter-of-fact prose ... It’s not that you want The Last Chairlift to end, exactly, but you do want to see where all the characters end up off after that final ride up the mountain.
Barbara Kingsolver
Positive Associated Press If you’re familiar with the Charles Dickens classic, you’ll follow the story’s beats and chuckle when you meet the Pegs, Tommy Waddles and UHaul Pyles instead of the Peggottys, Tommy Traddles and Uriah Heep, but the story certainly stands on its own ... The voice takes some getting used to, but from the start the title character feels like a reliable narrator, telling it very much like it was ... Throughout it all, [Demon] remains a sympathetic character, at least in part because we know he’s telling his own story as a cautionary tale ... What keeps you turning the pages is the knowledge that Demon has a future. The novel ends on a note of hope.
Elizabeth McCracken
Rave Associated Press Simple and lovely. McCracken’s easy prose is a joy to read, right off the bat ... Beyond honoring a mother, McCracken does something else remarkable in these 177 pages. She writes about writing ... McCracken does that with this book, processing her own grief and honoring her mother’s life, even if the subject — her hero — would assuredly have scoffed at the idea.
Ian McEwan
Rave Associated Press One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography as well as the lives of other characters in the book ... Those historic markers put the very personal story of Roland’s life in perspective ... There are other themes here McEwan explores in depth — from envy to ambition to what truly constitutes a life well-lived — but the pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you. McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers and this deserves to be near the top of the \'best books of 2022\' list.
Eleanor Brown
Positive Associated Press Brown is interested in the dynamics of the nascent modern family she’s created and the bonds the mothers have formed that are starting to fray ... Brown herself is an adoptive mother and it’s clear from the story she’s written that she thinks deeply about the issue. There’s real empathy written into each character and the novel serves as a hearty endorsement for open adoption, when the biological and adoptive parents both play roles in a child’s life. The book won’t appeal to everyone, but readers who appreciate fiction that shows them how others choose to live, will enjoy the heart at the core of
Michael Smith, Jonathan Franklin
Positive The Associated Press Smith and Franklin eschew the Bob Woodward approach, writing in the omniscient third-person, not trying to recreate dialogue. Each dispatch is dated and time-stamped as we read about the characters’ journey from \'everything’s going to be all right out here in our adult playground on the ocean\' to knocks on doors as trays of food are dropped outside cabins by crew members wearing hazmat suits. The result reads like the longest newspaper story ever written mixed with the requisite dramatic flourishes required to keep readers turning pages ... The Zaandam’s journey, of course, was well covered by the media. It was one of more than 100 cruise ships at sea when COVID broke out. Thanks to social media and wi-fi, passengers shared their misery in real time. But putting it all together in a format like this gives it the proper context. It’s easy in hindsight to think it wasn’t that bad. At least six Zaandam passengers ultimately died, but the death toll in the U.S. alone has now exceeded one million people. Smith and Franklin’s riveting recount of the cruise take readers back to a time I’m sure many of them would like to forget — when fear trumped everything and nobody knew what the future looked like. It’s an impressive example of narrative journalism. Perhaps too soon for some, but a worthy addition to the historical record.
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Rave The Associated Press ... the distinct narrative voice of the novel [is] pleasure to read. Her sharing of the family history and her role in its reconciliation drive the plot ... The beauty of the novel’s structure is that the aha moments are revealed slowly, during detailed recountings of each of the family members’ lives. We don’t even learn the name of the title character until about a quarter of the way through the book and connections are made between characters until the final page. It makes for a very satisfying read ... In addition to grief and guilt, the book tackles other weighty themes as seen through the eyes of the privileged family ... If it all sounds very heavy and serious, the reading experience is the opposite. The wry and incisive narrative voice and the hope it conveys for her family and by extension, those of us readers in the real world whose issues are closely mirrored in the novel, make the time and effort well worth it.
Leila Mottley
Positive The Associated Press This is not an easy read. The words flow easily, with a visceral, in-your-face voice, but the subject matter is graphic and relentless ... Mottley’s writing style fits the story perfectly. Ki’s voice is so honest and vulnerable, even as she’s telling stories from the past when her family was at least partially intact and life didn’t seem so hopeless ... The novel would be completely bleak without a character named Alé, a friend of Ki’s who works at her parents’ restaurant and cooks for her at least once a week to keep her from starving to death. The evolution of that positive relationship serves as the counter to the depraved inhumanity Ki experiences on the streets ... heralds a bold new voice in fiction.
Kai Harris
Positive The Associated Press ... poignant ... Kenyatta Bernice, KB for short, is the unique narrator, and for readers like me (full disclosure, again: I’m a 50-year-old white male) her voice takes a little getting used to ... There’s no need to sketch the plot any further, just to say that Harris has indeed captured what I think is a believable adolescent girl’s voice ... It’s all that figuring that makes the book worth reading. It’s not an easy read, by any means — there’s racism, sexual assault, drug use — but it feels authentic, and does what good fiction does: take readers on a journey they otherwise wouldn’t travel.
Mike Sielski
Positive The Associated Press Stories gleaned from those interviews are complemented by interviews with more than 100 other people in Kobe’s life at the time. The result is a compelling origin story of a time that really wasn’t so long ago, but through the lens of tragedy, feels like forever ... Kobe-ologists will devour this book, reveling in the anecdotes about his intensity and the engaging game recaps as he leads Lower Merion to a Pennsylvania state championship in 1996. But while Kobe is undoubtedly the star, the book also focuses on the impact Kobe’s rise had on everyone around him ... The book bogs down a bit when the focus turns away from Kobe’s exploits on the court. There’s too much about LaSalle’s employment of Joe in hopes that he’ll recruit his son to play for his alma mater. Readers will also gloss over the scenes with Sonny Vaccaro, the sports marketing executive who was consumed with landing Kobe as an Adidas client to get back at his former employer, Nike. In the end, they’re just moons in orbit around Kobe, proof that his gravitational pull was extraordinary, but not nearly as interesting as the phenom himself.
Lucy Foley
Positive The Associated Press A juicy beach read ... The pages were most definitely written to be turned quickly ... Lucy Foley keeps you guessing with multiple first person narrators and short chapters designed to leave you hanging ... [A] twisted tale ... Fans of whodunits may very well sleuth it out before the denouement, but that doesn’t make the journey any less enjoyable.
Emily St. John Mandel
Rave The Associated Press The journey to the conclusion is a relatively easy read, despite the lofty themes. The chapters are short and while some are head-scratching, you keep going and trust that the puzzle pieces will click into place. As in her other novels, St. John Mandel paints quick scenes with her characters, then moves on to something else ... It’s a real trip, and one worth taking.
Chuck Klosterman
Rave Associated Press There’s no one more qualified to write [this] than Chuck Klosterman. Always an astute cultural observer and a fan of deep dives into any subject, Klosterman is focused here on a decade in American life that he says is often portrayed as \'a low-risk grunge cartoon\' ... There’s nostalgia on every page ... Klosterman’s gift is seizing on those moments that any Gen Xer can readily recall and pulling the strings a bit to put it in some kind of historical perspective ... Klosterman does a good job putting everything in its place.
Charmaine Wilkerson
Rave The Associated Press The chapters come fast and furious...It takes some getting used to at first, but you eventually settle into a rhythm and enjoy puzzling together what happens between each short snippet. It’s 382 pages of flash fiction to fill in those 53 years between Then and Now ... The novel truly puts the \'omni\' in its omniscient narrator, with plot driven mostly by internal dialogue and flashbacks. Like the flash fiction format, it’s sometimes confusing initially, but ultimately rewarding when the whole story coalesces by the end. There’s much more to recommend here, including weighty themes about race, identity and protecting the environment, as well as the power of family recipes to convey love without words, but the fun is in the reading ... a satisfying literary meal, heralding the arrival of a new novelist to watch.
Claire Keegan
Rave The Associated Press ... a gem ... Context in advance or at the end, it\'s still a deeply moving tale ... Keegan\'s economy of prose is a marvel ... The book takes just an hour or so to read, but you still feel like you know Bill Furlong by the end and understand why he does what he does. His tale of quiet heroism doesn\'t require any more words.
Anthony Doerr
Positive The Associated Press ... admirable in its ambition. Doerr’s ability to juggle all the stories and interlock them over the course of 600+ pages is quite a literary feat. It helps that the characters in the sub-stories are so likable ... piecing together the plot of the manuscript is not the point. The novel within the novel serves another purpose. It’s the story that gives all the characters the freedom to dream ... If it all sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. But it’s the kind of thing only a novel can do. And it’s a trip well worth taking with the inimitable Doerr.
Jonathan Franzen
Rave The Associated Press In many ways, this is peak Franzen, with richly created characters, conflicts and plot ... The introspection is head-spinning at times. Just when a character convinces themselves to do something, they reconsider and the plot spins off in a new direction. That’s not to say any of it feels arbitrary. Franzen has a story to tell, it’s just a story featuring characters who aren’t always sure what they want ... The writing is a marvel. Despite the super omniscient third-person narrator, Franzen also delivers economic lines...You feel throughout like you’re in the hands of a very confident storyteller and the joy of the novel is going along for the journey with each character as they make choices and live with the consequences ... You also feel when you finish that the story is just getting started.
Richard Powers
Rave Associated Press Powers’ sentences dazzle ... This is a must-read novel for anyone who loves novels, a nominee on the National Book Awards’ fiction longlist. It’s urgent and profound and takes readers on a unique journey that will leave them questioning what we’re doing to the only planet we have.
Stephen King
Positive The Associated Press The passages where Billy writes his life story are some of the best in the book. King’s adept at shifting voices ... It’s when he finds an audience for his story that the book really starts to find its groove. Before that, it’s heavy on inner monologue as Billy thinks through all the possible consequences of his actions and the motivations of the people around him. The plot is straightforward and not really very compelling until about the midway point, when Alice Maxwell enters the story ... For readers who are new to the King canon, there are literally dozens of other books — most of them are also movies or TV shows at this point — with which you’re better off beginning your Stephen King journey.
Elizabeth McCracken
Rave The Associated Press Short stories in general require a little more concentration compared to the slow build and wider frame of a novel. Thankfully, McCracken is adept at packing a lot of meaning into a few lines ... McCracken gives us beautiful insights ... do yourself a favor and read the book. McCracken has delivered a lovely collection of stories loosely tied together by one theme—the bonds of family that fracture and heal as lives are led.
Jhumpa Lahiri
Positive The Associated Press ... what is sure to be one of the more unique \'novels\' of the year ... there’s not much action in the story, which focuses instead on observations of every day life, both in the various spaces the narrator inhabits and her inner monologue. She has a writer’s eye for detail ... Each chapter floats by quickly, and this reader had trouble making it coalesce into a satisfying whole. Still, the prose is sparse and lyrical and the journey is enjoyable, wandering through an anonymous life, seeing things through one person’s eyes ... Some literary critics will love this novel novel even as some readers scratch their heads. Kudos to Lahiri for stretching the form and creating something that feels fresh.
Nick Hornby
Rave Associated Press ...an endearing love story that defies convention ... the novel is a breezy read, grounded in just enough realism to make it all feel, well, real ... Hornby’s knack for dialogue and the crackling wit he gives his characters makes the chapters fly ... It’s touching and lovely and all the things that honest relationships should be in this day and age ... The novel is full of exchanges like that about race and Brexit, as these seemingly incompatible lovers figure out that maybe, just maybe, there’s a place for their relationship in this modern world.
Sue Miller
Rave The Associated Press Miller’s gift as a writer has always been finely drawn portraits of families and that talent is on full display here. We get chapters inside each character’s head, rich with details and inner monologues ... There are tenderly realized moments like that throughout the novel, as Annie learns to live without Graham, eventually picking up her camera again in an attempt to preserve memories. She never truly wants to let Graham go, as if, in the end, that’s what monogamy really means ... It’s a beautiful book for a fall afternoon during this time when family means more than ever.
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Positive The Associated Press Fans of Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro — the co-writer with Chuck Hogan — will appreciate the focus on the monsters at the center of the tale ... The book is a quick read, with propulsive action and just enough explication to keep readers interested ... del Toro and Hogan ground the story in just enough reality to keep you turning the pages. The relationship between Hardwicke and the dying Solomon feels real, as their twin investigations drive them deeper into a world of grave robbings, iron cauldrons and a reliance on the centuries-old wisdom of the mysterious Mr. Blackwood.
Nancy Wayson Dinan
Positive The Associated Press You’ll find Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here in the fiction section, but this debut novel from a doctoral candidate in fiction writing at Texas Tech is something more than that. An imagined story, sure, but it all takes place during a real-world event—the Memorial Day floods of 2015 in west-central Texas. There’s more than a little of Salman Rushdie’s magical realism at play ... You’ll have to decide for yourself what purpose they serve and whether the novel’s conclusion feels earned. But it’s a journey worth taking as Dinan offers readers a reminder that what happened in Texas nearly five years ago is just one small piece of the climate disasters to come.
Stephen King
Positive The Associated Press ... they’re all breezy reads with a hint of the supernatural ... If the stories have anything in common, it may be their appreciation for the little things in life ... King fans probably won’t consider this collection among his greatest works, but we’ll do anything for diversion these days and a few more hours with this master storyteller are welcome.
Elliot Ackerman
Positive The Associated Press If you know your Bosphorus from phosphorus and Gezi Park means something to you, you’ll probably love Elliot Ackerman’s new novel. If the strait that separates the European and Asian parts of Turkey and the 2013 demonstrations against urban development in Istanbul drive you to Google, you might not appreciate the novel as much at first, but don’t be afraid to give it a try ... The time hopping can be jarring at times, but a close reader is rewarded for his attention ... Turkey is the real star of the book. Ackerman, a former Marine who served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, loves the setting and his descriptions are some of the best-written lines of the book ... The whole book is taut, balanced between order and chaos, just like Istanbul in that summer of 2013 ... The back half reads much faster than the first, as earlier scenes start to make more sense and Ackerman uncovers the webs that keep his characters together. It’s a book that demands focus, best enjoyed in just a few sittings.
Paulette Jiles
Rave The Associated Press Jiles’ sparse but lyrical writing is a joy to read ... There are plots and schemes and scrapes, and above it all, music. It’s right there in the title, and it’s definitely there in the denouement as Jiles’ novel comes to a hopeful conclusion ... a beautifully written book and a worthy follow-up to News of the World.That novel is due in theaters, starring Tom Hanks, later this year (and just in time for the Oscars). Until then, lose yourself in this entertaining tale.
Emily St. John Mandel
Positive Houston Chronicle An ephemeral quality permeates the novel ... There are no heroes here and only a couple characters who inspire much sympathy, but the unique structure keeps you turning the pages. At times, you’ll find yourself flipping back to a chapter heading to find out if what you’re reading happened in 1999 or 2004, but it’s a thrill when the puzzle pieces start to fit together ... The final chapter is haunting, taking readers full circle ... It’s a sense readers will enjoy as well when they lose themselves in Mandel’s novel.
Lindsay McCrae
Mixed The Associated Press It’s an odd thing to write in a book review, but My Penguin Year is better seen than read. The good news is you can do just that...[in] the BBC series Dynasties ... The best parts of the book are the passages when McCrae is out on the ice and just can’t believe his luck ... The segments of the book that don’t quite work are the more personal parts ... He often attempts to juxtapose his thoughts about what he’s witnessing among the penguins against what he’s missing at home, and it feels unnecessary ... Writing about it bogs down the book a bit. The overall effect is perhaps a good one though—you just want McCrae to fire up his Skidoo and get back out on the ice to tell you what’s happening at the penguin colony.
Stephen King
Positive The Associated Press ... classic King. The best scenes in the first half of the book are when the kids are talking with each other, trying to figure out where they are, why they\'re there, and eventually what to do about it. King has always had a great ear for childish conversation ... King fleshes out the supporting characters nicely and there\'s a Rocky vs. Drago feel to it as you really begin to root for the kids and their sympathetic grown-ups ... Anyone who avoids King because they don\'t like \'horror\' novels will be safe reading this one. It\'s more mystery than horror, with the evil concentrated on inhumanity. There\'s no bloody gore or supernatural forces, just adults treating children horribly. As the book climaxes and then reaches its resolution, you\'ll have to decide for yourself if the good or the bad guys win.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Rave The Associated Press If the power of fiction is to transport readers to a world they otherwise couldn’t imagine, The Water Dancer is a smashing success ... Coates’ first novel dazzles with a story firmly grounded in the harsh realities of slavery, yet elevated by a modicum of mysticism ... this is a book that needs to be experienced. Readers need to find a quiet place and lose themselves in it, letting Coates’ words work their magic as he tells a tale about \'the awesome power of memory ... how it can open a blue door from one world to another\' ... t’s a remarkable debut novel that reminds us in a fresh way why it’s so important we remember all of humanity’s stories — from the depraved to the glorious.
Jo Nesbo
Positive The Associated Press ... a sharp example of its genre. The pages turn, the violence is brutal, and the characters are well-drawn and mysterious ... Nesbø has a great sense of pacing. Each reveal — did he do it? did she? — is meticulously laid out as he takes readers along for the ride. I never felt like I was ahead of Harry in my deduction. The final whodunit is powerful and leaves Harry — and readers — wondering what\'s next ... If you\'re already high on Harry, I suspect Knife will scratch all your itches until the very end, when Nesbø does the only sensible thing an author can do after writing 12 books featuring one character — set you up for book 13.
Anna Quindlen
Positive The Associated Press In the tradition of her best New York Times and Newsweek columns over the years, Quindlen mixes wit and wisdom as she shares her thoughts on this new stage in life ... In addition to those laugh-out-loud moments, the book contains enough facts and historical insights to ground it as more than just a proud nana sharing family stories ... worth a visit for anyone whose baby either now has a baby or is getting ready to welcome one.
T.C. Boyle
Positive Associated Press \"The historical references may intrigue some readers and thankfully there’s Google for that. But the heart of the story is the Loney family ... The novel poses some interesting questions about the nature of belief and the very existence of God, but like the hallucinations they sprout from, the questions dissolve as the drug’s effects dissipate. What Boyle leaves us with, instead, is a cautionary tale. No matter how hard humans try, we can’t escape the messy realities of life in a world where there are rules of behavior and consequences for those who don’t follow them.\
Liane Moriarty
Rave Portland Press Herald The first half of the 450-page novel is a little slow, but once the nine guests complete their five-day \'noble silence,\' the pace accelerates and the story moves from a series of character perspectives (each chapter title is a character’s name) to a light-hearted thriller. As soon as the strangers can talk, they find themselves with a lot to talk about ... Readers learn much more about each of the nine as the novel speeds toward its climax. You root for them all and get the impression that Moriarty does too, so much so that she has a hard time saying goodbye, writing a series of final chapters updating readers weeks, months and even years later about what happened to them after the events at Tranquillum House. It’s an ending fit for a book destined to be a TV series.
John McPhee
Positive The Associated Press \"McPhee’s curiosity is legendary and evident throughout this volume ... Fans will recognize many of the subjects from the books McPhee has published — Bill Bradley, geology, Alaska, to name a few — but they don’t read as outtakes and are as fresh as when he first encountered them. Some context before each patch of the [metaphorical] quilt [of the book] would have been welcome, just a line or two detailing when and why he wrote it. But McPhee, famous for the unique ways he structures his creative process, has decided to present it as a quilt that can be enjoyed as individual squares or an entire blanket, and really, who are we to quibble with such a Master Seamstress?\
Joshua Cohen
Positive The Associated Press If curiosity is a writer’s greatest innate gift, Joshua Cohen may be America’s greatest living writer. Or maybe just the most focused. His first collection of non-fiction...is dazzling in its scope, but, oh the irony, it’s also very hard to get through ... what you have is a hodgepodge of writing that makes your head spin ... Digested in very small doses—an essay per night before bed, say, or a short one on the john—it will still take you weeks to reach the end of this book. And when you get there, you’ll probably have forgotten how Hrabal redeemed Socialist Realism. Still, writing like this does deserve some praise. Cohen truly commits to his subjects, dropping knowledge and literary criticism all over the place ... The whole book is like that, filled with topics that will be foreign to most readers, forcing them to really engage if they want to comprehend any of it ... you’ll find essays here to love ... You’ll just have to work at it.
Barbara Kingsolver
Rave Associated Press Barbara Kingsolver does something amazing in her new novel ... The novel alternates eras from chapter to chapter and Kingsolver has a little writerly fun ending each chapter with the word(s) that name the next one ... Uncovering and appreciating the connections is the best reason to read the book ... Both stories are compelling ... It is a novel well worth your time.
Andre Dubus III
Positive The Associated Press \"Gone So Long isn’t a thriller, but it’s taut with tension. Dubus manages to keep readers on edge despite telling a tale in which very little happens in the present ... The characters are complex, but Dubus’ writing is simple as he fleshes them out ... Gone So Long is a multilayered character study, told in flashbacks and memoir excerpts and present-day prose, slowly revealing the strength and resilience of its two main female characters and ending with a hint of hope.\
David Sedaris
Positive The Associated Press ...firmly grounded in the present, but with the same sense of twisted nostalgia that has always marked his best work ... The best stories here are the work of a man seeking catharsis by coming to terms with tragedy the only way he knows how — storytelling. For the reader, they’re even more than that — a chance for us to know once and for all that our families aren’t nearly as messed up as we think they are.
Anna Quindlen
Mixed The Associated Press Anna Quindlen has written a book that only a New Yorker — or at least someone who has lived there for a stint — could love. The rest of the world may have a hard time relating to the characters ... At 284 pages, the novel is taut and well-paced. You turn the pages wanting to know where things are headed. But in the end, the story seems all too unfamiliar to anyone who didn’t go to private school or attend catered community barbecues. You realize the events of the novel are Very Important to the characters, but to those of us looking in from the outside, it’s a story filled with first-world problems ... All told, if you’ve read Quindlen before and liked it, you’ll probably like this book. If this is your first time, it may be an acquired taste, but don’t let this review prevent you from giving it a shot.
Meg Wolitzer
Positive The Associated Press \"Each character gets chapters that go deep inside their heads. There\'s a lot of inner monologue, sometimes to a fault. The issues are complex, certainly, but some readers may wish the characters would simply act rather than reading paragraphs about what might happen if they do ... Wolitzer\'s talent as a writer shines in lines that say more in a sentence than most writers do in paragraphs ... There\'s much more to admire here as the novel ponders friendship, love and parent-child relationships. But in the end, Wolitzer\'s real gift to her readers is a story that feels both timeless and very much of the zeitgeist.\
Stephen King & Owen King
Mixed The Chicago Tribune King fans who crack open Sleeping Beauties may be disappointed. The book lacks the page-turning intensity found in so many of his classics. Father and son started with an intriguing premise: What if men and women were separated into two different worlds? Would the men freak out? Would the women create a kinder, gentler society? They're existential questions that would seem to lend themselves to a 700-page book, but the novel's answers to both don't seem nuanced enough ... [Evie] is certainly the most intriguing character, but her existence is explained away as supernatural. She's been sent to Earth, we're told, but by whom? And why? The Kings let those questions linger and instead focus on the men who want to kill Evie versus the men who want to save her ... King fans who enjoy his blunt language and vivid gore will find lots to like...In the end, though, the novel feels like it wanted to say something really meaningful about gender relations and settles instead for, 'Can't we all just get along?'