RaveLos Angeles Review of Books\"To his credit, Thomas does not shy away from the messier parts of O’Connor’s character ... By the end of Thomas’s book, one cannot but feel grateful to O’Connor. Superb as other women might have been as the First, none possessed her essential political ability, moderate tendencies, or unshakable belief in incremental changes to the law. It is hard to imagine that any other woman could have captured the same amount of public affection or respect ... First delivers the timely message that what the world needs now isn’t love, necessarily ... Deeply researched, benefiting from unprecedented cooperation from the O’Connor family, and richly entertaining, First is the happy product of that rare publishing phenomenon: the marriage of a historically significant subject with a mature, gifted, and empathetic writer. If the result is not the definitive work on the subject, it is as intimate a look into O’Connor as we may ever get.\
S.J. Watson
RaveThe Los Angeles TimesS.J. Watson's debut novel, Before I Go to Sleep, is a brilliant, nasty noir. It drags you down into deep, dark and disturbing waters. It entertains while touching on complex questions of the meaning of identity and memory ... Watson presents a character existing in a condition of perpetual now-ness, a present without context, a life without history. It is a kind of hell — an intellectual and emotional state devoid of meaning or emotion ... The amnesiac narrator and reader experience the story in the same uncertain present, searching for the truth of the past and the dangers of the future ... One can't help but be impressed by Watson's skill. This British writer's attention to detail and empathy are impressive.
