Hi all,
Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the US have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:
"The Finder" by Colin Harrison - "The Finder" finds Ray Grant, a New
York firefighter injured on 9/11, coming back home to take of his
dying father. His ex-lover is Jin Li, a pretty young Chinese woman
who runs an office-cleaning business. In fact, she uses that as a
cover to steal financial do***ents from companies and sends them to
her brother's criminal business back in Shanghai who make a fortune
off this inside information. This information sends the stock price
of a company called Good Pharma into a tailspin. The investors of the
company, who are suddenly losing a lot of money instead of making a
huge profit, are willing to go at any length to find Jin Li. Her only
hope to be rescued falls to Ray Grant. Colin Harrison's novel has
received positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "A lot of
the developments in 'The Finder' are completely preposterous, if you
stop to think about them. But Harrison keeps his foot so firmly on the
gas that he rarely gives the reader a chance to notice such problems.
In doing so he succeeds in giving us a chilling, high-speed roller
coaster of a ride that doubles as a sardonic sightseeing tour of the
seamier side of New York City."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/finder
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374299498/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
"The Story of Forgetting" by Stefan Merrill Block - "The Story of
Forgetting" follows two different storylines. On a Texas farm, an
elderly and hunchbacked Abel Haggard fondly remembers his love for his
brother's wife. His brother, though, suffers from early-onset
Alzheimer's. In Austin, adolescent Seth Waller struggles with his
mother who is also suffering early-onset Alzheimer's. He sets out to
study the history of the gene that has afflicted his family. As
Abel's and Seth's stories move to a common point, interwoven among
them is the story of the alternate world of Isidora, a blissful place
where memory doesn't matter. Stefan Merrill Block's debut novel has
received positive reviews with the Austin Chronicle saying, "There are
some excruciating passages detailing the slow, many deaths of the
Alzheimer's patient (death of memory, death of motor function, and on
and on), but Block's book isn't a relentless bummer. It's too funny,
too inventive, too tender and finely written to be reduced to its
tragic engine."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/story_of_forgetting
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400066794/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
"Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and ***" by Mary Roach - In
"Bonk," Mary Roach takes her humorous scientific approach to examining
the world of *** research. While she's curious about both the past
and present scientific experiments that have contributed to our
knowledge, or not as the case may be, she's also interested in the
people doing the research. She's also not afraid to ask the questions
that we all wish someone would finally ask, and she's willing to go
anywhere, and even volunteer to be a research subject herself, to get
the story she wants to uncover. "Bonk" has received mostly positive
reviews with the Chicago Tribune saying, "'Bonk' is a fun and
enlightening go at a subject that could stand a great deal more
productive investigation, in labs and in bedrooms."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/bonk
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393064646/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
"I Was Told There'd Be Cake" by Sloane Crosley - With "I Was Told
There'd Be Cake," Sloane Crosley examines her phenomenally average
life and mines it for humorous observations about insights and truths
to which everyone can relate. The fifteen essays cover topics as
diverse as being embarrassed about doing a good deed in New York City,
to being a bridesmaid to a woman she didn't particularly like (but
whose initials after the wedding would be F. U.), to purposely losing
the computer game Oregon Trail in school because she wanted to see the
character she named after her teacher die a tragic death. "I Was Told
There'd Be Cake" has received positive reviews with the Seattle Times
saying, "Crosley's tone and style definitely take a page out of humor-
writer David Sedaris' book. She's ironic, droll and self-pillorying
and, like Sedaris, she manages to balance passages that are laugh-out-
loud funny with others that are both touching and resonant. Above all
Crosley manages, Midas-like, to take the minutiae of her life -- and
all of our lives -- and turn it into gold."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/i_was_told_thered_be_cake
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/159448306X/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
Happy reading!
Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
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