About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Thomas Morris
Positive Daily News It’s a gruesome but weirdly compelling trip through several centuries of quack cures, horrific operations, and bizarre accidents ... The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth is full of stories like ... a few cases of acute toothaches followed, mysteriously, by the tooth breaking apart with great force. No explanation has been found. Weird illnesses and accidents can be, oddly compelling, but it’s the ludicrous remedies that linger.
Marion Winik
Rave Newark Star Ledger Marion Winik is one of the most elegant, evocative and incisive writers I have encountered ... Her gift is using the fewest words to capture their spirits, and though as the title broadcasts, this is a book about the dead, it is a glorious account of living ... her tight characterizations pack such power they will hit all on a visceral level. She\'s written 11 other books, now on my to read list.
Frances Mayes
Positive NJ.com This is a determinedly happy book so that means women in their 50s, 60s and 70s hit the restart button and a woman in her mid-40s, who thought she could not have children, bears a healthy son. In Mayes' finely tuned imagination, we come to love these women who learn Italian, refine their cooking, start amazing gardens and revive a tired villa. Still, the novel feels padded, with many ancillary characters ... this veers a bit into fantasy territory. No money worries and exciting interesting men for these women. It's a lovely notion ... Given the constant barrage of horrific news, the happy tidings in this are a balm.
Karen Crouse
Positive The New York Daily News In Norwich: One Tiny Vermont Town’s Secret to Happiness and Excellence, sports journalist and onetime elite swimmer Karen Crouse charts how the town did it ... Crouse notes that though there are working class and some poorer residents, Norwich’s median income is $89,000. But why so many top athletes come out of there comes down to an attitude ... Sports are an integral part of Norwich, but they’re not practiced in the cutthroat way common in other places. As the athletes competed in the Olympics, Norwich cheered them all equally — medalists or not ... 'The Norwich way gives kids ample space to discover their passions and pursue them for their own reasons and at their own pace,' Crouse writes ... And she makes the case that if towns could win medals for doing the right thing, Norwich would take gold.
Scott Kelly
Positive The New York Daily News Kelly, who holds the American record for the longest time in space, recounts his years as an astronaut, in the Navy and growing up in New Jersey in Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery ... There’s a sense of fun that comes through ... makes a point of staying clear of the political fray other than to say he did vote from space... His chapters about being in space begin with summaries of dreams and, like anyone’s, some of his are weird ... Kelly shares some very personal information ... And by the end, Kelly’s back on Earth, where he found he did have the right stuff.
Harlan Coben
Rave The Newark Star-Ledger This is great Coben. Even if we never see the characters again, that's fine. They're fully realized people and he had me guessing who did it until he was ready to reveal it … Maybe Nap does take more of a beating than anyone outside of a robot could endure. Coben weaves in twists and rich characters such as Andy Reeves, a strange melange of a dollar-store Liberace with a despot's appetite for torture. And that's just it with Coben, there are enough fun twists without being gimmicky. It's plotted, logical and incisive.