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 Spies of Warsaw" by Alan Furst - At the center of "The Spies of
Warsaw" is Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier who has been assigned to be
the new military attache at the French embassy in Warsaw in 1937.
Mercier's assignment is to find out what he can about any future
German military plans for Poland and France. Mercier finds plenty of
evidence that the Nazis have plans to invade Poland and to strike at
France through Belgium, but the generals and politicians back in Paris
decline to put much faith in his intelligence. Mercier also deals
with romantic entanglements and who might really be an ally or an
enemy, and the loss of a minor spy whom he had been controlling. Alan
Furst's latest historical spy novel has received mostly positive
reviews with the Houston Chronicle saying, "'The Spies of Warsaw' adds
another layer to the world he has created, and this engaging
historical fiction should be read by anyone who loves a compelling
story well told."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/spies_of_warsaw
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400066026/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
"A Case of Exploding Mangoes" by Mohammed Hanif - In 1988, a C-130
airplane carrying Pakistan's dictator General Zia ul-Haq, several of
his generals, and the American ambassador crashed soon after takeoff.
A late addition to the manifest, a case of mangoes, was often
suspected of aiding in the crash. In "A Case of Exploding Mangoes,"
Mohammed Hanif takes a satirical approach to who might have been
behind the assassination of General Zia. The novel is narrated by Ali
****gri, a Pakistan Air Force pilot who suspects that Zia had his
father killed. He's constantly working on plans for revenge, bringing
in and dropping conspirators and making changes as needed. It's a
crazy cast of characters, each warped by the absurdities of their own
personalities and events they think they can control, but they really
don't understand. "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" has received mostly
positive reviews with the Wa****ngton Post saying, "'A Case of
Exploding Mangoes' belongs in a tradition that includes 'Catch-22,'
but it also calls to mind the biting comedy of Philip Roth, the
magical realism of Salman Rushdie and the feverish nightmares of
Kafka. But trying to compare his work to his predecessors is like
trying to compare apples to, well, mangoes, because Hanif has his own
story to tell, one that defies expectations at every turn."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/case_of_exploding_mangoes
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307268071/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink
of Nuclear War" by Michael Dobbs - "One Minute to Midnight" is
Wa****ngton Post re****ter Michael Dobbs' retelling of the Cuban Missile
Crisis in 1962 based on the latest information uncovered and
declassified. He focuses on the actions of the American, Soviet, and
Cuban armies and well as the politicians and generals that brought us
to the brink of the nuclear war. "One Minute to Midnight" has
received positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "Any new
entry in the crowded field of books on the 1962 Cuban missile crisis
must pass an immediate test: Is it just another recapitulation, or
does it increase our net understanding of this seminal cold war event?
By focusing on the activities of the American, Soviet and Cuban
militaries during those tense October days, Michael Dobbs's 'One
Minute to Midnight' p***** this test with flying colors. The result is
a book with sobering new information about the world's only superpower
nuclear confrontation - as well as contem****ary relevance."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/one_minute_to_midnight
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400043581/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
"The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi - "The
Monster of Florence" is the moniker given to a famous serial killer in
Florence, Italy who remains free to this day. In 2000, Douglas
Preston moved his family to Florence so he could get background for a
thriller he wanted to write. When he discovered that one of the
murders occurred in the olive grove near his 14th-century farmhouse,
he was intrigued. He met Italian journalist Mario Spezi, who has been
investigating the case, and they teamed up to find out as much as they
could. They even interviewed the man they believed responsible for
the murders. For their efforts, Preston was thrown out of the country
without being able to return and Spezi was jailed for a while under
suspicion that he was the serial killer. "The Monster of Florence"
has received positive reviews with BookPage saying, "'The Monster of
Florence' reads like fast-paced fiction, no surprise really, since
Preston is a first-rate novelist ('The Codex,' 'Blasphemy'), and Spezi
is a well-respected journalist. That the story is true lends an edge
to it that is rarely achieved in fiction."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/monster_of_florence
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0446581194/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20
Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the UK have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:
"The Impostor" by Damon Galgut - In "The Impostor," Adam Napier loses
his job in a Johannesburg office to a black intern and retires to a
rural house his brother owns, yet has never lived in. Adam published
a book of poetry twenty years before, so he decides he'll become a
poet again. Adam meets a man, Canning, who claims to be an old school
chum, although Adam has no recollection of him. Having nothing better
to do, Adam begins to spend his time with Canning and his black wife,
Baby. Canning has inherited a game farm outside of town and is doing
his best to destroy his father's legacy by turning it into a resort,
using nefarious accomplices to achieve his revenge. As Adam is drawn
toward Baby and drawn further into Canning's schemes, where the truth
lies becomes increasingly murky. Damon Galgut's novel has received
glowing reviews with The Observer saying, "This is also a novel that
works on several levels. In one sense, it is a conventional crime
caper, the story of an innocent man who gets sucked into a world that
he doesn't understand. In another, it is a critique of contem****ary
South Africa, a country that, as Galgut depicts it, is beset by
cruelty and a spirit of brutish materialism."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/impostor
Amazon.co.uk link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1843547570/?tag=bookreviews-21
"Human Love" by Andrei Makine - "Human Love" tells the story of Elias
Almeida, an Angolan who grew up in the 1960s and whose father was a
freedom fighter and his mother forced into prostitution before she was
murdered. Elias follows his father's footsteps and becomes a
revolutionary, fighting for rebel armies provisioned and advised by
the Soviets. He's sent to Moscow to be trained by the KGB where he
meets Anna, a Siberian woman who captures his heart. When he's sent
back to Africa, Elias fights for an ideal that is repeatedly corrupted
by the same greed for money and power that has undone his homeland
time and again. His longing for Anna is the incentive that keeps
pu****ng him forward. Andrei Makine's novel has received positive
reviews with The Observer saying, "'Human Love' is a beautiful,
haunting fugue that carries the weight of decades of suffering on a
continent that the West prefers to romanticise or ignore."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/human_love
Amazon.co.uk link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0340936770/?tag=bookreviews-21
Happy reading!
Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
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