MADreads

The definition of mordantly funny
A review of The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

 It's been six years since the last book in Keyes' Walsh Family series so she'd fallen off my radar a little bit. Which turned reading her newest into something of a surprise. It's been long enough (though Keyes did have a standalone novel out in 2009) that I forgot how darkly funny she can be - and in this case I mean DARKLY funny. You know that phrase you see in book reviews? "Mordant humor"? Well here is the book that defines what that is. Helen Walsh is having a very bad time. Her career as ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on January 16, 2013 | 0 comments

Good grief, Charles Schulz!
A review of Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaels

 A recent viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, without which my holidays would be incomplete, got me thinking of the Peanuts strip and its creator, Charles Schulz. Over the course of nearly fifty years and 17,897 strips,** Schulz singlehandedly created a bittersweet epic in the travails and triumphs (however fleeting) of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the Peanuts gang. That the strip, with its slightly melancholy take on life and philosophical musings, endured so ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on January 15, 2013 | 0 comments

Well deserved award
A review of The Round House by Louise Erdrich

 Louise Erdrich knows how to write a book. She's received high praise for most of her past novels, and her latest, The Round House, is every bit as good as the rest. Critics seem to agree: it won the 2012 National Book Award. This story is part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part analytical look at Native American tribal life and law in the late 1980s. Joe Coutts has considered himself a pretty normal kid until he turns 13 ...read more

Reviewed by Kylee on January 11, 2013 | 0 comments

Bend low
A review of Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

 At first I found the language jarring, but as I continued to read, I found myself engrossed in McCormick’s fictionalization of Arn Chorn-Pond’s story of his years as a child caught in a horrific combination of genocide and war in Cambodia during the reign of the Kmehr Rouge.When the Kmehr Rouge come to his village and begin rounding up his family, friends and neighbors, Arn’s Aunt advises him to “bend low, and then bend lower” in order to survive. From age 11 to 14, Arn bends in ways no one ...read more

Reviewed by Karen on January 11, 2013 | 0 comments

Other people's recollections
Best Memoirs of 2012

Like reading about other people's experiences? Then here is a list for you. These titles are from various "best of" lists, including the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year. Below are a few from a new library list-- Memoirs, ...read more

Reviewed by Kathy K. - Central on January 10, 2013 | 0 comments

A good book enhanced by a good narrator
A review of The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

 The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty is a solid historical novel and the audiobook, downloadable through Overdrive or available on compact disc through Linkcat, is read by Elizabeth McGovern, the actress who plays Cora on the very popular PBS series Downton Abbey. She is a polished and accomplished reader and her interpretation add to the interesting story of the life of Cora Carlisle, who we meet when she is in her late thirties and is beginning a stint as a chaperone for fifteen Louise ...read more

Reviewed by Mary K. - Central on January 9, 2013 | 3 comments

My therapist has been dead for 400 years
A review of How to Live, or, a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

 Essayer: Fr. To try. It seems a simple idea now, but in mid-sixteenth century France, no one had thought to simply write down what they were feeling, or how they thought. Writing about life was reserved for great deeds in stilted prose, meant to serve as a monument to its subject. Michel Eyguem de Montaigne didn’t want to commit any great deeds—in fact, the efforts he made to not be called upon to power and influence is almost comical. But there was one thing that Montaigne wanted to ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on January 8, 2013 | 0 comments
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Love in Scotland in December
A review of The Lady Most Willing: A Novel in Three Parts by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway

 Three of my favorite romance authors have written a new historical romance. The Lady Most Willing: A Novel in Three Parts is co-written by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway. It is a humorous tale of a drunk uncle trying to find brides for his two unmarried nephews by kidnapping some eligible Scottish ladies in the middle of winter. In December of 1819 Laird Taran Ferguson is bemoaning ...read more

Reviewed by Kathy K. - Central on January 7, 2013 | 0 comments

Imagination gone wild
A review of Princess Super Kitty by Antoinette Portis

 I love to play pretend so I loved spending a day with Maggie, the heroine of Princess Super Kitty. Maggie does some of the same everyday things I do (eating lunch, lifting heavy things, helping other people) but she has so much fun doing them, because she uses her imagination the whole time. If you are ready to take your day (or even just your princess play) to the next level, reach for Princess Super Kitty. And don't forget Antoinette Portis' other fantastic books about ...read more

Reviewed by Abby on January 4, 2013 | 0 comments

Calamity Jane meets Buffy
A review of The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins

 I didn't have many expectations going into Lee Collins' The Dead of Winter other then that it was probably going to be different from just about everything else I've read recently. Boy was I right about that. This is a western featuring a Calamity Jane tough-gal protagonist who hunts vampires, hellhounds and other creatures of the night.  Cora Oglesby and her husband Ben are the wild west's answer to monster hunters. It's the 1880's and the pair have been summoned, very ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on January 3, 2013 | 0 comments
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