MADreads

Down home zombies?
A review of The Down Home Zombie Blues by Linnea Sinclair

 Linnea Sinclair is an author who's been around for a while, though you may not have heard of her.  She started her publishing career writing romance/science fiction hybrids for a very small publisher (under the pen name ...read more

Reviewed by Jane J - Central on January 4, 2008 | 0 comments

Prepare to get very happy


...if you're a Jane Austen fan, that is.  If you love Jane Austen's books, books written in the style of Austen, or if you keep hearing her name and just want to find out, once and for all, what all the fuss is about, January is going to be a very good month for you, as PBS and Masterpiece Theatre are pairing up to offer Jane Austen January.  During the entire month they'll be showing new adaptations of ...read more

Reviewed by Sarah - Alicia Ashman on January 3, 2008 | 0 comments

All the pretty horses
A review of No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

 Has anyone seen No Country for Old Men yet?  Or read any of Cormac McCarthy's books?  Librarians tend to do a happy dance and shriek wildly when books and authors enjoy new or renewed popularity because a movie is released. ...read more

Reviewed by Robin - Pinney on January 2, 2008 | 2 comments

Them
A review of Them by Nathan McCall

 What happens when a poor, African-American neighborhood becomes attractive to whites because it is convenient to downtown (or convenient to another place whites are interested in?) Urban planners call it gentrification.  Some journalists call the whites pioneers.  Sometimes the affected African-Americans call their new neighbors something far less flattering.  It hasn't happened in Madison to the degree it has elsewhere...but its been a huge issue in our nearby Chicago ...read more

Reviewed by Liz - Central Library on December 29, 2007 | 0 comments

This time it's personal
A review of The Ever-Running Man by Marcia Muller

 Marcia Muller has been writing Sharon McCone mysteries for decades ( the first, ...read more

Reviewed by Mary K. - Central on December 28, 2007 | 0 comments

Borrowed from real life
A review of The Double Bind by Christopher A Bohjalian

 In an author's note opening his book The Double Bind, Chris Bohjalian tells us that the ...read more

Reviewed by Lisa - Central on December 27, 2007 | 1 comment

Full of listy goodness


All right, let's face it.  Many of us got into library work for one reason and one reason alone: to alphabetize things.  I'm sorry if that's not a real lofty career goal.  But I find putting books in order by their authors' last names extremely, extremely satisfying.  And calming.  And good. The same part of my tiny brain that is amused by putting titles in alphabetical order is also thoroughly stimulated by the end-of-the-year ...read more

Reviewed by Sarah - Alicia Ashman on December 26, 2007 | 0 comments

A rainbow of kites flying over Kabul
A review of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

 The Madison Public Library offered a promotional contest for free tickets to a sneak preview of the movie The Kite Runner based on the book by ...read more

Reviewed by Molly - Central on December 22, 2007 | 0 comments

The dark underbelly of libraries
A review of Free For All by Don Borchert

 When I stumbled across Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and ...read more

Reviewed by Robin - Pinney on December 21, 2007 | 0 comments

Story of survival
A review of Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein

 Living with a chronic illness can be difficult, and as Amy Silverstein points out in her book, Sick Girl, it can also be hard to live with a transplanted organ.  The difference between the two is that people expect someone to have problems with the chronic illness but not with a ...read more

Reviewed by Mary K. - Central on December 20, 2007 | 0 comments
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