Some kind of fairy tale - Graham Joyce

Some kind of fairy tale - Joyce, Graham

Summary: Twenty years ago, sixteen-year-old Tara Martin disappeared from a small town in the heart of England. Now, her sudden return and the mind-bending tale of where she's been will challenge our very perception of the truth. For twenty years after Tara Martin disappeared, her parents and her brother, Peter, lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. Then suddenly on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents' home, and there, dishevelled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It's a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara's story just does not add up. And, incredibly, she barely looks a day older than when she vanished.

Booklist Reviews
Tara is just 15 when she disappears from the woods near her home. Twenty years later, she reappears on her parents' doorstep looking strangely the same as when she left. Her parents welcome her but are now uneasy around her, and her brother is angry, especially when he hears the explanation she offers, which is more fairy tale than abduction story. Only her boyfriend, who had been suspected of her murder all those years ago, is willing to accept her return with little hesitation. But although Tara hasn't really aged, her 20-year absence has been hard on those she cares about, and her return stirs emotions not all of them are prepared to face. It may even place some of them in danger. Reality and fairy tale are beautifully interwoven in this contemplative story about relationships, love, and dreams. In a unique blend of thriller and fantasy, Joyce creates a delightful page-turner that his fans and newcomers alike will find hard to put down. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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I capture the castle - Dodie Smith

I capture the castle - Smith, Dodie

Summary: The story of 17-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Over six turbulent months, she fills three diaries with sharply funny yet poignant entries and manages to find herself hopelessly in love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle" and the heart of the reader.

Kirkus Review
The author of popular theatrical hits, Autumn Crocus, etc., has produced a first novel, a gentle, genteel story of English eccentrics, kindly Americans, and an artless, unworldly background that has no current feel. The story is told in diary form by Cassandra, middle child of novelist Mortmain. At the moment, the family is stale-mated,- the father refusing to write, the stepmother able to pose only once in a while, Rose, beautiful and despairing of meeting anyone eligible to marry, even their friend, the librarian, can offer no solution. Rose wishes on a dewll -- and two Americans, Simon and Neil, appear, lost en route to the property Simon has inherited. They are fascinated by the whole unlikely thing,- the old castle, the girls, the identity of Mortmain, whose one great novel Simon knew. Both girls determine that Simon shall be Rose's -- and almost too late, with Rose in London shopping for her wedding, Cassandra realizes that it is Simon she loves, while Rose loves Neil. There's charm here -- there's a gay, English spotting of humor that makes the romance and the slight story almost a natural for the Thirkell followers -- for enthusiasts of the Jane Austen tradition. Literary Guild selection for November will give it the necessary impetus. And the crying need for clean and pleasant romance will find a measure of answer here. (Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1948)

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Drift - Rachel Maddow

Drift: the unmooring of American military power - Rachel Maddow

Summary: "Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency and shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse."--www.Amazon.com.

Booklist Reviews
The U.S. has drifted into a state of military hypervigilance that is wasting enormous sums of money and threatening our economic stability, argues Maddow, host of the MSNBC program that bears her name. She traces the historical roots of concerns about maintaining a standing army and the reliance on citizen-soldiers when needed, creating a reluctance to go to war and an eagerness to end conflicts and send soldiers home. She details how the Cold War threat justified the sanctification of defense spending and the Vietnam War pushed Congress to reassert its exclusive authority to declare war. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, presidents have gained greater latitude in going to war, with little consideration for the implications for the nation's economy or polity, even as citizens become more estranged from the military. Maddow concludes with suggestions on how to turn the trend around, including paying with specific taxes, reversing the privatization of war, and constraining the power of the president to go to war. An insightful look at the cost of military vigilance to ideals of democracy. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The host of the popular The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC has fans in both the Twitter-sphere and among TV watchers, many of whom may cross over to buy her book. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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The hypnotist's love story - Liane Moriarty

The hypnotist's love story - Moriarty, Liane

Summary: "A novel about a hypnotherapist who falls in love with a man whose ex-girlfriend is stalking him"-- Provided by publisher.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Ellen O'Farrell is a successful hypnotherapist with a thriving practice; a new boyfriend, Patrick; and a newly found emotional distance from her unconventional upbringing. Content for the first time in recent memory, Ellen realizes how tenuous her happiness is when Patrick lets her know that his ex-girlfriend, Saskia, has been stalking him ever since they broke up. As a mental-health professional, Ellen realizes that Saskia isn't a violent stalker who needs a restraining order but a jilted former lover who probably just needs a listening ear. But when Saskia's methods of surveillance become more extreme, Ellen has to decide how much longer she's willing to put up with Patrick's former life if she wants to be a part of his future. A witty modern love story in the age of cohabitation, blended families, and second chances, this is a compassionate, absorbing tale. Moriarty (What Alice Forgot, 2011) has crafted an incredibly likable heroine in Ellen, the hypnotherapist who can solve her clients' problems but can't seem to keep her own life from spiraling into soap opera. Readers who enjoy Jennifer Close and Marian Keyes will adore Moriarty's wit and warmth. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Language of flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Language of flowers - Diffenbaugh, Vanessa

Summary: "The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past"-- Provided by publisher.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Abandoned as an infant, Victoria grew up as a ward of the California foster-care system and, abused and neglected, turned into an angry, uncontrollable child. Deemed "unadoptable," she gets one final chance at a home life when she is placed with Elizabeth, a single woman running her family's vineyard in the verdant hills outside San Francisco. Days before Victoria is scheduled to be officially adopted by Elizabeth, a terrible misunderstanding violently tears them apart, and she is sent back into the system. Though the emotional damage seems insurmountable, Victoria's time on the farm taught her that there were other ways of getting her message across. Finally forced to support herself, Victoria lands a job with a florist and uses her knowledge of the hidden meaning of flowers to gradually and fitfully make her way back into the world—one that will include a career, motherhood, and the personal forgiveness necessary for her to love and be loved in return. Enchanting, ennobling, and powerfully engaging, Diffenbaugh's artfully accomplished debut novel lends poignant testimony to the multitude of mysteries held in the human heart. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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Big year - Mark Obmascik

Big year - Obmascik, Mark

Summary: Follows the 1998 Big Year competition between Sandy Komito, Al Levantin, and Greg Miller, during which the three rivals risked their lives to set a new North American birding record. - (Baker & Taylor)



Booklist Reviews
There is a well-known competition among birders called the Big Year, in which one abandons one's regular life for one whole year in order to see more species of birds in a geographic area than one's competitors. Environmental journalist Obmascik follows the 1998 Big Year's three main competitors--a New Jersey roofing contractor, a corporate executive, and a software engineer--as they crisscross the country in search of birds. Whether looking for flamingos in the Everglades, great grey owls in the frozen bogs near Duluth, or Asian rarities on the Aleutian island of Attu, these obsessed birders not only faced seasickness, insects, altitude sickness, and going into debt, they also faced each other. Their drive to win propelled all three past the rarified count of 700 species seen, and the winner saw an extraordinary 745 species--a number that will probably never be equaled. With a blend of humor and awe, Obmascik takes the reader into the heart of competitive birding, and in the process turns everyone into birders. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2004)) Copyright 2004 Booklist Reviews.

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Assault with a deadly glue gun - Lois Winston

Assault with a deadly glue gun - Winston, Lois

Summary: When Anastasia Pollack's gambling-addicted husband permanently cashes in his chips in Vegas, her life craps out. Anastasia's job as crafts editor at American woman magazine makes life even stickier when she discovers the dead body of über-ambitious fashion editor Marlys Vandenburg hot-glued to Anastasia's office chair. When evidence surfaces of an illicit affair between Marlys and Anastasia's husband, Anastasia becomes the prime suspect. Can she sew up the case and keep herself out of jail before the real killer puts a permanent end to her investigation?

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Anastasia Pollack has more problems in a matter of days than most people have in two or three lifetimes. First, her husband Karl, a secret gambling addict, dies at a Las Vegas roulette table; his "loan" from the Mob is due, and a thug named Ricardo will stop at nothing to collect it. Then Karl's militantly Marxist mother Lucille's house is torched while she and her evil bulldog, Manifesto, recuperate at Anastasia's home after being hit by a car. Suddenly widowed, Anastasia's DAR mother, Flora Sudberry Periwinkle Ramirez Scoffield Goldberg O'Keefe, shows up with her persnickety Persian cat, Catherine the Great. Naturally, Lucille and Flora and their pets all hate one another. Things are even worse at work. The crafts editor for a popular woman's magazine, Anastasia becomes a prime murder suspect when the most hated staff member is killed. Winston has hit a home run with this hilarious, laugh-until-your-sides-hurt tale. Oddball characters, uproariously funny situations, and a heroine with a strong sense of irony will delight fans of Janet Evanovich, Jess Lourey, and Kathleen Bacus. May this be the first of many in Winston's Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.

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Fooling Houdini - Alex Stone

Fooling Houdini - Stone, Alex

Summary: "When Alex Stone was five years old, his father bought him a magic kit, sparking a lifelong love. Years later, living in New York City, he discovered a vibrant underground magic scene populated by a fascinating cast of characters: from his gruff mentor, who holds court in the back of a rundown pizza shop, to one of the world's greatest card cheats, who happens to be blind. From New York City's century-old magic societies to cutting-edge psychology labs, Fooling Houdini recounts Stone's quest to join the ranks of master magicians. But his journey is more than a tale of tricks, gigs, and geeks. In trying to understand how expert magicians manipulate our minds to create their illusions, Stone investigates some of the lesser-known corners of psychology, neuroscience, physics, history, and even crime."--From publisher description.

Booklist Reviews
This book is much more than it appears to be. It's a memoir about the author's efforts to become a world-class magician; it's a lively introduction to the subculture of magic (the kind practiced by stage magicians, that is, not occultists); it's an exploration of the links between magic and the sciences (which are not as tenuous as you might think); and it's a portrait of some quite interesting characters, including the narrator, Stone, who pursued a PhD in physics at the same time he was studying magic, and Wes James, a veteran sleight-of-hand master who was Yoda to Stone's Luke Skywalker (and who also holds a PhD, in computer science). The author uses magic, which relies on making the audience think they're seeing one thing while something entirely different is going on, as a jumping-off point to probe the ways in which we perceive the ordinary world and how we often, and mostly subconsciously, allow our perceptions to be colored by our expectations. A very entertaining book for budding magicians, students of psychology and neuroscience, and anyone who lands at various points in between. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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The demi-monde: winter - Rod Rees

The demi-monde: winter - Rees, Rod

Summary: The Demi-Monde, a computer-simulated military training world, begins bleeding into the real world when the U.S. president's daughter becomes trapped inside and enlists the assistance of a reluctant teenager to escape.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Already published to acclaim in the UK, this highly imaginative novel, the first in a projected series, blurs the line between reality and computer-generated fantasy until the line simply ceases to exist. Ella Thomas, an 18-year-old jazz singer, is recruited for a dangerous and mind-boggling job, to go inside the Demi-Monde, an elaborate computer program designed to train combat soldiers, and bring out the daughter of the president of the U.S., who has become stranded inside it. Like Philip Jose Farmer's classic Riverworld series, the novel features an assortment of historical characters from various eras (its primary villains are the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich and black magician Aleister Crowley), and the Demi-Monde, a computer-construct with its own geographical, political, religious, and social structure, may remind some readers of the film The Matrix. Despite similarities to genre classics, the book stands on its own two feet. It's elegantly constructed, skillfully written, and absolutely impossible to stop reading. It ends on a beauty of a cliffhanger, too, pretty much guaranteeing that readers will be biting their nails until the sequel appears. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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Epic - Conor Kostick

Epic - Kostick, Conor

Summary: On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik persuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik's father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.


Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ Kostick was a designer for the world's first live fantasy role-playing game in England, and his expertise is evident in this gripping first novel, set on New Earth, where violence has been banned for generations and conflicts are settled in the fantasy computer game Epic. Getting ahead in the real world means winning in the gaming world--and everyone plays. The unjust treatment of his parents by the Central Allocations committee, which ruthlessly rules the planet, sets teenager Erik and his friends on a perilous mission to challenge the committee and put an end to Epic. Erik's fantasy persona has been killed in a battle with a dragon, and he must prepare a new gaming identity. This time, he is a beautiful female swashbuckler named Cindella the sailor, and as he undertakes a dangerous struggle against the committee, he is threatened by death in both the fantasy world and hardscrabble reality. The action is nonstop, it's easy to keep track of who's who, and the story flows seamlessly as characters move between worlds, maintaining their individuality in both. A surefire winner with a sequel in the works and a third planned. ((Reviewed March 1, 2007)) Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews

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Mission to Paris - Alan Furst

Mission to Paris - Furst, Alan

Summary: Arriving in Paris on the eve of the Munich Appeasement in 1938, Hollywood star Frederic Stahl is unwittingly entangled in the region's shifting political currents when he discovers that his latest film is linked to the destinies of fascists, German Nazis, and Hollywood publicists.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Through his dozen historical-espionage novels, most set just prior to or during WWII, Furst has taken us across Europe, but he is most at home in Paris, which is why legions of his fans, upon seeing the title of his latest book, will immediately feel their pulses quicken. It only gets better. Recalling The World at Night (1996), which starred Parisian filmmaker Jean Casson dodging Nazis in 1940, this equally entrancing tale returns to the world of moviemaking, this time in 1938. Hollywood movie star Fredric Stahl, on loan from Warner Brothers to appear in a French production, arrives in Paris just as Neville Chamberlain is negotiating "peace in our time." A Slovenian who was raised in Vienna, Stahl is quickly contacted by old friends, now all Nazi supporters, who see him as a valuable asset in their "political warfare" against the French. But Stahl has other ideas and, like so many casual hedonists in Furst's books, finds himself drawn into the prewar cloak-and-dagger world—but not on the side of his former friends. There is romance, too, of course, but, as always, it carries that familiar carpe diem double edge, as lovers' attention jumps from one another to an unexpected knock on a hotel door. Furst has been doing this and doing it superbly for a long time now, and fans will note sly nods not only to The World at Night (Casson makes a kind of cameo) but also to Kingdom of Shadows (2001) and The Foreign Correspondent (2006). Is Furst repeating himself? Not really, but who would care, even if he was? Rather, he is revisiting a familiar moment in time but viewing it from a slightly different angle, through the eyes of other sets of characters. Thank heavens for that. It looks like we'll always have Furst's Paris. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Long ago Furst made the jump from genre favorite to mainstream bestsellerdom; returning to his signature setting, Paris, he only stands to climb higher. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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New Jersey noir - Joyce Carol Oates

New Jersey noir - Joyce Carol Oates

Summary: Sitting between the great cities of New York and Philadelphia, New Jersey has been by tradition a heavily "organized" Mafia state, as it was at one time a northern outpost of the Ku Klux Klan, with a concentration of members in Trenton, Camden, Monmouth County, and South Jersey . . . In such ways, the most civilized and "decent" among us find that we are complicit with the most brutal murderers. We enter into literally unspeakable alliances--of which we dare not speak except through the obliquities and indirections of fiction, poetry, and visual art of the sort gathered here in New Jersey Noir.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
Oates's introduction to Akashic's noir volume dedicated to the Garden State, with its evocative definition of the genre, is alone worth the price of the book. While few of the 19 selections qualify as outstanding, highlights include Lou Manfredo's "Soul Anatomy," in which a politically connected rookie cop is involved in a fatal shooting in Camden; S.J. Rozan's "New Day Newark," in which an elderly woman takes a stand against two drug-dealing gangs; and Jonathan Santlofer's "Lola," in which a struggling Hoboken artist finds his muse. Two stories reflect historical events. In Bradford Morrow's "The Enigma of Grover's Mill," Orson Welles's infamous broadcast of The War of the Worlds changes the life of one local family, while in Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini's "Meadowlands Spike," a man's confession details the end of Jimmy Hoffa. Poems by C.K. Williams, Paul Muldoon, and others—plus photos by Gerald Slota—enhance this distinguished entry. (Nov.)

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Smut - Alan Bennett

Smut - Bennett, Alan

Summary: Presents two short tales of sex, secrets, and misrepresentation, including "The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson," in which a widow supplements her income by being a test subject for medical students.


Booklist Reviews
Bennett is best-known for The Madness of King George (1991) and The History Boys (2004), acclaimed, sophisticated plays brimming with deadpan humor. This mildly smutty volume contains just two stories, which lack the barbed wit of his earlier work. In the first, "The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson," we are given a peek inside the life of a prim widow who opens up her spare room to some horny young medical students more than willing to get creative with their rent payments. In the second, "The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes," we meet an overbearing shrew who henpecks her deflated husband and micromanages her self-absorbed son's life, turning a blind eye to the semi-obvious fact that he prefers the company of men, even as he enters into a closeted marriage. Bennett's views of the repressed British middle class—the keeping up of appearances, the slumbering vivacity of middle-agers, and the hidden shame of homosexuals—seem at odds with the modern setting. However, most characters are crisply drawn and should please fans of his seasoned style. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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This side of brightness - Colum McCann

This side of brightness - McCann, Colum

Summary: Tells the story of a group of tunnel diggers in New York and how a spectacular accident underground changes their lives and affects the next three generations - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ It is 1916, and somewhere under the East River in New York, the sandhogs and other workers labor through mud and muck and darkness to build a transit system for a fledgling metropolis. The sandhogs, the men out front who burrow through the earth, are the physically strong and mentally tenacious among the working poor; many of them once labored in mines. The earth is close in life and death; but they take pride in their work, which allows them a livable wage at the cost of their health. On this side of brightness, it is anathema to play the petty game of race that sports itself on earth's surface. Nathan Walker, a young black from Georgia, handsome, well formed, and generous, who reminds one of Melville's lovely Billy Budd, comes to New York with love in his heart for his home near the Okefenokee swamp and will build a bond with his fellow sandhogs--two Irishmen, Conn O'Leary and Sean Power, and an Italian, Rudy "Rhubard" Vanucci. Their bond is cemented in a way they could not have dreamed of when a small hole in the tunnel wall results in a spectacular river blowout. The tragedy shapes Walker's life in a story that spans generations. McCann is a fine and bold writer, as his previous books prove (Songdogs, 1995, and Fishing the Sloe-Black River, 1996). So it's not surprising to find him tackling the peculiar, unexplored, and violent nexus between the downtrodden and persecuted Irish and African American in a flawed promise land; but one is jolted by the level of understanding he conveys about the needs and compunctions of human existence. ((Reviewed March 1, 1998)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

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A cast of killers - Sidney Kirkpatrick

A cast of killers - Kirkpatrick, Sidney

Summary: This account of the 1922 murder of film director William Desmond Taylor reveals the complete untold story--secretly solved by director King Vidor prior to his death in 1982--of one of the most famous crime mysteries in America - (Baker & Taylor)



Library Journal Reviews
In 1922, Hollywood film director William Desmond Taylor was murdered, and the crime was never officially solved. In 1967, the late director King Vidor decided to investigate the mystery in order to make a film about it. (No film resulted.) Kirkpatrick recounts the story of Vidor's sleuthing, which uncovered scandal, corruption, coverups, and, ultimately, Vidor believed, the identity of the killer. This is a well-researched book, breezily related, whose impact is lessened somewhat by digressions into Vidor's personal life. The combination of Hollywood and murder is likely to be popular. For most public libraries. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis Copyright 1986 Cahners Business Information.

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Dreamland - David K. Randall

Dreamland - Randall, David K.

Summary: A reporter for the Associated Press examines the complex world of sleep and discusses interesting questions as to whether or not women sleep differently than men and if you killed someone while sleepwalking, whether it would count as murder. 15,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
Veteran journalist Randall tackles the mysterious landscape of sleep by surveying the many areas of sleep research. He proceeds in a somewhat chronological order, beginning with historical sleep patterns. According to some research, when sleep patterns were determined by daylight, before interior lighting became prevalent, a typical night's rest was split into "first sleep" and "second sleep," with approximately an hour awake in between. In the modern age, Randall argues, the advent of gaslights and electric lightbulbs have radically changed the way our bodies want to sleep. From here, he covers the perfect mattress (there isn't one: it's merely what a person finds most comfortable); bed sharing; labor laws; and the future of sleep monitoring. Randall is at his best when talking about sleep disorders, such as violent parasomnias, wherein a person can unknowingly commit assault or even murder in his or her sleep. Though he doesn't go into minute detail, Randall provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to a mystifying but necessary part of life. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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The orphan master's son - Adam Johnson

The orphan master's son - Johnson, Adam

Summary: The son of an influential father who runs an orphan work camp, Pak Jun Do rises to prominence using instinctive talents and eventually becomes a professional kidnapper and romantic rival to Kim Jong Il.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Pak Jun Do lives with his father at a North Korean work camp for orphans. In a nation in which every citizen serves the state, orphans routinely get the most dangerous jobs. So it is for Jun Do, who becomes a "tunnel soldier," trained to fight in complete darkness in the tunnels beneath the DMZ. But he is reassigned as a kidnapper, snatching Japanese citizens with special skills, such as a particular opera singer or sushi chef. Failure as a kidnapper could lead directly to the prison mines. But in Johnson's fantastical, careening tale, Jun Do manages to impersonate Commander Ga, the country's greatest military hero, rival of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il and husband of Sun Moon, North Korea's only movie star. Informed by extensive research and travel to perhaps the most secretive nation on earth, Johnson has created a remarkable novel that encourages the willing suspension of disbelief. As Jun Do, speaking as Ga, puts it, "people have been trained to accept any reality presented to them." Johnson winningly employs different voices, with the propagandizing national radio station serving as a mad Greek chorus. Descriptions of everyday privations and barbarities are matter of fact, and Jun Do's love for Sun Moon reads like a fairy tale. Part adventure, part coming-of-age tale, and part romance, The Orphan Master's Son is a triumph on every level. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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Hello goodbye hello - Craig Brown

Hello goodbye hello: a circle of 100 remarkable meetings - Craig Brown

Summary: A collection of whimsical true encounters between famous and infamous individuals describes the unlikely meetings of Marilyn Monroe with Frank Lloyd Wright, Michael Jackson with Nancy Reagan and more. 35,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)


Kirkus Reviews
A hilarious collection of strange-but-true tales of encounters between the rich and famous. BBC Radio Host, Daily Mail columnist and all-around English wit Brown (The Lost Diaries, 2010, etc.) delivers a fine and funny assortment of oddball celebrity meetings and matchups. Some are well-known, such as when a drug-addled Elvis Presley met Richard Nixon, or Marilyn Monroe snuggled up to visiting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. At least one is historically important: when Prince Felix Youssoupoff lured Grigori Rasputin to his death. Most, however, are delightfully inconsequential, whether it's Harpo Marx driving Sergei Rachmaninoff bonkers with his harp playing, Sarah Miles sharing tea with a thigh-squeezing nonagenarian named Bertrand Russell, or Leonard Cohen having a quickie with Janis Joplin (and getting a song out of it). Some encounters go off without a hitch, such as between mutual admirers Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain. Others slightly misfire; Groucho Marx tries to impress dinner companion T.S. Eliot by quoting The Waste Land, only to find the poet "was thoroughly familiar with his poems and didn't need me to recite them." At least they talked, which is barely more than can be said for James Joyce and Marcel Proust. There are also plenty of bad dates, whether it's Madonna snatching off Michael Jackson's glasses and sailing them across the room, Isadora Duncan tempting Auguste Rodin with her perfect young body, or Allen Ginsberg making an awkward pass at Francis Bacon. Brown is as smart as he is puckish, and there are plenty of laughs on this terrific trip through modern fame. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

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Tolstoy and the purple chair - Nina Sankovitch

Tolstoy and the purple chair - Sankovitch, Nina

Summary: Torn apart by grief after losing her sister, the author, a 46-year-old mother of four, turned to literature for comfort, devoting herself to reading one book a day for a year, which brought much needed joy, healing and wisdom into her life. 30,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
Reading was paramount in Sankovitch's Evanston, Illinois, home, so she turned to books for solace in the wake of her oldest sister's cruel death at age 46. While Sankovitch knew she could rely on books "for wisdom, for succor, and for escape," however, she realized that as the mother of four sons, and as an attorney on hiatus, she needed structure to cope with her grief. Hence her "book-a-day project." Nestled in her beloved old purple chair, Sankovitch read a book each day, primarily novels, then reviewed each title on her book-exchange website, Read All Day. She now recounts her "year of magical reading" in a beautifully fluid, reflective, and astute memoir that gracefully combines affecting family history––her parents immigrated to America after surviving WWII in Belgium and Poland—with expert testimony about how books open our minds to "the complexity and entirety of the human experience." Sankovitch's reading list in all its dazzling variety is top-notch, and every ardent reader will find her perceptive thoughts about stories, remembrance, resilience, and "book bliss" incisive and affirming. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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The extraordinary education of Nicholas Benedict - Trenton Lee Stewart

The extraordinary education of Nicholas Benedict - Stewart, Trenton Lee

Summary: Nine-year-old Nicholas Benedict, an orphan afflicted with an unfortunate nose and with narcolepsy, is sent to a new orphanage where he encounters vicious bullies, selfish adults, strange circumstances, and a mystery that could change his life forever.



Horn Book Magazine Reviews
Nicholas Benedict, brilliant narcoleptic mentor of the eccentric, puzzle-loving Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society, rev. 3/07; and sequels), is here the focus of a story set in his own childhood. Bounced to yet another orphanage, nine-year-old Nicholas discovers a mystery to be solved but also a gang called the Spiders who bully and humiliate him. Well, they try to: with his powers of observation and prodigious intellect, Nicholas stays one jump ahead of them while he and John, his only friend, race the grasping orphanage director to find the hidden treasure they hope will rescue them from orphanage life. Stewart balances the elements of his story beautifully, using the mystery puzzle to drive the plot while heightening tension through encounters with the Spiders and deepening the tenderness by following Nicholas's emotional development. Stewart handicaps the advantage of Nicholas's almost superhuman intellect by challenging him with uncontrollable narcolepsy and the unfolding realization that even his genius is susceptible to being led astray by his feelings. It is this very human, very relatable realization that really opens up the story after a chance encounter at the climax, leading to the kind of entirely earned, feel-good ending that Mysterious Benedict Society fans have come to expect (and love) from master storyteller Stewart. anita l. burkam Copyright 2012 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

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Grave mercy - Robin LaFevers

Grave mercy - LaFevers, Robin

Summary: In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* In the late fifteenth century, Mortain, the god of death, has sired Ismae to be his handmaiden. She will carry out his wishes by working through the Convent, where she has found refuge from a brutal father and husband. After learning the Convent's wily warfare and womanly arts, and being apprenticed to Sister Serafina (poisons mistress and Convent healer), 17-year-old Ismae is sent to the high court of Brittany, ostensibly as the cousin (aka mistress) of the Breton noble Duval—but, in truth, she is there as a spy. Her tacit assignment is to protect the young duchess by assassinating Duval if he proves to be a traitor, a charge made more difficult because of the couple's attraction to each other. LaFevers has written a dark, sophisticated novel true to the fairy-tale conventions of castles, high courts, and good versus evil, and spiced with poison potions; violent (and sometimes merciful) assassinations; subtle seductions; and gentle, perfect love. With characters that will inspire the imagination, a plot that nods to history while defying accuracy, and a love story that promises more in the second book, this is sure to attract feminist readers and romantics alike. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a $100,000 marketing campaign, including national print, online, and social-media outreach; a video trailer; and a vintage T-shirt promotion, the publisher is pushing LaFevers' novel in a big way. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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