1 to 10 of 10
Review Date: 5/4/2007
Hell hath no fury like a Gen-Whatever scorned, and in Christopher Buckleys 12th book, Boomsday, Cassandra Devine has decided she aint gonna take it anymore.
Cass is a self-made woman: Her father used her college fund for his failing dotcom, thereby postponing her admission into Yale. He suggests that she go into the Army because they will pay for her college when she gets out. While serving in Bosnia, Cass is assigned to escort Congressman Randolph Jepperson to the Special Forces camp to visit with the soldiers.
The Congressman convinces Cass to let him drive, and he steers them off-road and into a minefield. Cass is injured but makes a full recovery, however Jepperson loses part of his leg. Jepperson returns a war hero, and Cass is unceremoniously discharged, sans her college-tuition money.
Fast-forward 10 years, and Cass is a 29-year-old public-relations specialist who just happens to author one of the most popular underground blogs to hit Washington D.C. since Wonkette. She is mad as hell that the baby boomers are sucking the life blood out of the National Treasury, noting that at the rate boomers are retiring, Social Security will run out of funds decades before her generation even thinks about retirement. She concocts a modest proposal whereby boomers can voluntarily commit suicide at a certain age, guaranteeing their next of kin generous benefits for their sacrifice.
The nation is up in arms, and Cass finally has people addressing her concern regarding the National Debt. The next step: Get someone in Congress on her side. Someone who owes her a favor for keeping her mouth shut about the Bosnian minefield.
With same snarky humor and intelligent arguments Buckley employed in his best-selling novel Thank You For Smoking, Boomsday can be a scary look down the path that previous generations have set up for the future. But it gets the reader thinking these are things that can be changed if we act now.
Cass is a self-made woman: Her father used her college fund for his failing dotcom, thereby postponing her admission into Yale. He suggests that she go into the Army because they will pay for her college when she gets out. While serving in Bosnia, Cass is assigned to escort Congressman Randolph Jepperson to the Special Forces camp to visit with the soldiers.
The Congressman convinces Cass to let him drive, and he steers them off-road and into a minefield. Cass is injured but makes a full recovery, however Jepperson loses part of his leg. Jepperson returns a war hero, and Cass is unceremoniously discharged, sans her college-tuition money.
Fast-forward 10 years, and Cass is a 29-year-old public-relations specialist who just happens to author one of the most popular underground blogs to hit Washington D.C. since Wonkette. She is mad as hell that the baby boomers are sucking the life blood out of the National Treasury, noting that at the rate boomers are retiring, Social Security will run out of funds decades before her generation even thinks about retirement. She concocts a modest proposal whereby boomers can voluntarily commit suicide at a certain age, guaranteeing their next of kin generous benefits for their sacrifice.
The nation is up in arms, and Cass finally has people addressing her concern regarding the National Debt. The next step: Get someone in Congress on her side. Someone who owes her a favor for keeping her mouth shut about the Bosnian minefield.
With same snarky humor and intelligent arguments Buckley employed in his best-selling novel Thank You For Smoking, Boomsday can be a scary look down the path that previous generations have set up for the future. But it gets the reader thinking these are things that can be changed if we act now.
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 12
Lee Martin's second novel, âThe Bright Forever,â is a captivating story about the disappearance of nine-year-old Katie Mackey from a small town in Indiana thirty years ago. Like the comparable âMystic River,â âForeverâ is told from the points of view of the different townspeople and neighbors of the missing girl, each chapter being a first-person account from each person as to his or her version of the events that fateful night.
Martin has created an exquisite page-turner, filled with small-town sensibilities, with the requisite small-town atrocities. One does not expect a heartbreaking crime to happen to them, especially in such a trusting town. In a time when people slept with their front doors unlocked and kept a lazy eye on their children, Katie's disappearance affects all who knew and knew of the young girl.
Each individual narrator of each first-person chapter has a distinct voice that comes alive on the page. The desperate loneliness of math teacher Mr. Dees, the young arrogance of Katie's brother Gilley, and the unfamiliar fear the people in the town feel for newcomer Raymond R. Wright, are just a few examples of the vivid feelings Martin is able to capture without exception.
As the reader absorbs the eyewitness accounts, by default they are seeing into the hearts and minds of each witness. Each quirk, every feeling of uncertainty and all displays of moral outrage are placed in full view of the reader, as the character waits for judgment or redemption.
While the âMystic Riverâ comparisons may be unavoidable, âThe Bright Foreverâ is, in it's own right, a masterpiece that draws emotion from the reader like its literary counterpart, yet deserves its own category of individual praise. The reader will be entranced by the story from the get-go and held on until the end by a string of unnerving suspense and quiet disbelief.
Martin has created an exquisite page-turner, filled with small-town sensibilities, with the requisite small-town atrocities. One does not expect a heartbreaking crime to happen to them, especially in such a trusting town. In a time when people slept with their front doors unlocked and kept a lazy eye on their children, Katie's disappearance affects all who knew and knew of the young girl.
Each individual narrator of each first-person chapter has a distinct voice that comes alive on the page. The desperate loneliness of math teacher Mr. Dees, the young arrogance of Katie's brother Gilley, and the unfamiliar fear the people in the town feel for newcomer Raymond R. Wright, are just a few examples of the vivid feelings Martin is able to capture without exception.
As the reader absorbs the eyewitness accounts, by default they are seeing into the hearts and minds of each witness. Each quirk, every feeling of uncertainty and all displays of moral outrage are placed in full view of the reader, as the character waits for judgment or redemption.
While the âMystic Riverâ comparisons may be unavoidable, âThe Bright Foreverâ is, in it's own right, a masterpiece that draws emotion from the reader like its literary counterpart, yet deserves its own category of individual praise. The reader will be entranced by the story from the get-go and held on until the end by a string of unnerving suspense and quiet disbelief.
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 8
Lee Martin's second novel, âThe Bright Forever,â is a captivating story about the disappearance of nine-year-old Katie Mackey from a small town in Indiana thirty years ago. Like the comparable âMystic River,â âForeverâ is told from the points of view of the different townspeople and neighbors of the missing girl, each chapter being a first-person account from each person as to his or her version of the events that fateful night.
Martin has created an exquisite page-turner, filled with small-town sensibilities, with the requisite small-town atrocities. One does not expect a heartbreaking crime to happen to them, especially in such a trusting town. In a time when people slept with their front doors unlocked and kept a lazy eye on their children, Katie's disappearance affects all who knew and knew of the young girl.
Each individual narrator of each first-person chapter has a distinct voice that comes alive on the page. The desperate loneliness of math teacher Mr. Dees, the young arrogance of Katie's brother Gilley, and the unfamiliar fear the people in the town feel for newcomer Raymond R. Wright, are just a few examples of the vivid feelings Martin is able to capture without exception.
As the reader absorbs the eyewitness accounts, by default they are seeing into the hearts and minds of each witness. Each quirk, every feeling of uncertainty and all displays of moral outrage are placed in full view of the reader, as the character waits for judgment or redemption.
While the âMystic Riverâ comparisons may be unavoidable, âThe Bright Foreverâ is, in it's own right, a masterpiece that draws emotion from the reader like its literary counterpart, yet deserves its own category of individual praise. The reader will be entranced by the story from the get-go and held on until the end by a string of unnerving suspense and quiet disbelief.
Martin has created an exquisite page-turner, filled with small-town sensibilities, with the requisite small-town atrocities. One does not expect a heartbreaking crime to happen to them, especially in such a trusting town. In a time when people slept with their front doors unlocked and kept a lazy eye on their children, Katie's disappearance affects all who knew and knew of the young girl.
Each individual narrator of each first-person chapter has a distinct voice that comes alive on the page. The desperate loneliness of math teacher Mr. Dees, the young arrogance of Katie's brother Gilley, and the unfamiliar fear the people in the town feel for newcomer Raymond R. Wright, are just a few examples of the vivid feelings Martin is able to capture without exception.
As the reader absorbs the eyewitness accounts, by default they are seeing into the hearts and minds of each witness. Each quirk, every feeling of uncertainty and all displays of moral outrage are placed in full view of the reader, as the character waits for judgment or redemption.
While the âMystic Riverâ comparisons may be unavoidable, âThe Bright Foreverâ is, in it's own right, a masterpiece that draws emotion from the reader like its literary counterpart, yet deserves its own category of individual praise. The reader will be entranced by the story from the get-go and held on until the end by a string of unnerving suspense and quiet disbelief.
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 1
In Adrienne Miller's seductively rich first novel, âThe Coast of Akron,â the reader gets to explore the eccentric and somewhat disjointed Haven family. To call them dysfunctional would be too much of an undeserved cliché. Dysfunctional families usually can still function on a somewhat normal level, all the while fooling their friends and neighbors. The Haven's don't even try.
Lowell Haven, the father, is most likely in his mid-fifties and has been with his lover, Fergus, for over 30 years. They live in an opulent 65-room Tudor-style mansion in Akron, Ohio. Lowell is a famous artist, known for his self-portraits, who suddenly quit his art 5-years before. Fergus is the independently wealthy one, having made his fortune turning inherited land into shopping malls. He is also a socially reserved and shy hypochondriac who is always in fear of Lowell leaving him for someone or something better.
Thirty years previous, Fergus' ex-best friend, Jenny, married Lowell and together they had a daughter, Merit. For a while, the four of them played house together, but Jenny soon left, taking Merit with her. Merit has since grown into a mild-mannered, slightly hippie-ish young women. She is married to an anal-retentive engineer named Wyatt and is helping to raise his young daughter, Caroline.
Merit grudgingly visits her father and âUncleâ Fergus every once in a while, but has slowly been withdrawing from him and his overly eclectic ways. Fergus feels that if Merit would become more a part of Lowell's life, then perhaps Lowell could find his muse again and be able to paint. When Fergus decides to throw a lavish dinner party to lure Merit home, he sets off a chain of events that won't necessarily go how he wants them to.
In "The Coast of Akron" Adrienne Miller's portrait of a family is at once disarming, amusing, heartbreaking and riveting. Her ingenious debut effort is one that should not be overlooked.
Lowell Haven, the father, is most likely in his mid-fifties and has been with his lover, Fergus, for over 30 years. They live in an opulent 65-room Tudor-style mansion in Akron, Ohio. Lowell is a famous artist, known for his self-portraits, who suddenly quit his art 5-years before. Fergus is the independently wealthy one, having made his fortune turning inherited land into shopping malls. He is also a socially reserved and shy hypochondriac who is always in fear of Lowell leaving him for someone or something better.
Thirty years previous, Fergus' ex-best friend, Jenny, married Lowell and together they had a daughter, Merit. For a while, the four of them played house together, but Jenny soon left, taking Merit with her. Merit has since grown into a mild-mannered, slightly hippie-ish young women. She is married to an anal-retentive engineer named Wyatt and is helping to raise his young daughter, Caroline.
Merit grudgingly visits her father and âUncleâ Fergus every once in a while, but has slowly been withdrawing from him and his overly eclectic ways. Fergus feels that if Merit would become more a part of Lowell's life, then perhaps Lowell could find his muse again and be able to paint. When Fergus decides to throw a lavish dinner party to lure Merit home, he sets off a chain of events that won't necessarily go how he wants them to.
In "The Coast of Akron" Adrienne Miller's portrait of a family is at once disarming, amusing, heartbreaking and riveting. Her ingenious debut effort is one that should not be overlooked.
Review Date: 3/5/2007
Helpful Score: 7
This book is a must-read, especially for anyone who spent his/her youth in a small, midwestern town. While Zippy's life is not like anyone's I've known, her stories and predicaments just took me back to my own youth in the late '70s, early '80s. This book is truly a gem and worth savoring!
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 1
âThe Messiah of Morris Avenueâ is hands-down the best book of 2006. If you are familiar with Tony Hendra only as the editor of âNational Lampoonâ or as Ian Faith in âThis Is Spinal Tap,â then you are missing an entirely different side to this man.
Much like his nonfiction book, âFather Joe,â swept across America to numerous kudos and accolades, so should âMessiah.â With âMessiah,â Hendra has brought forth a novel of hope, faith, wit and insight.
As the story begins, it is the second decade of the second millennium. There is no longer a separation of church and state, and Christianity is the law of the land. Anything deemed to be vulgar or un-Christian-like is strictly prohibited, and in many cases is punishable by death.
Seasoned and jaded reporter, Johnny Greco, is subjected to a life of mundane ânews coverageâ that consists of covering the Academy Awards from Grauman's Christian Theater in Holywood, Calif., with Reverend James Sabbath, the spiritual adviser to the president of the United States, presiding over the ceremony. Greco yearns to be able to report a âreal story,â but the current government suppresses such information and punishes anyone who would do otherwise.
He has resigned himself to a meaningless life of fluff-pieces and pandering when he gets wind of a real news story: A young man in New Jersey has proclaimed himself to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. Greco is used to dealing with such crackpots who think they are the Lord, but something about this man makes Greco want to know more.
He begins an investigative piece that will lead him to discover the passion of faith, the joy of miracles and the inspiration a single man can bring to many. And in doing so, Hendra manages to instill these lasting emotions in his readers. âThe Messiah of Morris Avenueâ needs to be on the top of everyone's Must Read list.
Much like his nonfiction book, âFather Joe,â swept across America to numerous kudos and accolades, so should âMessiah.â With âMessiah,â Hendra has brought forth a novel of hope, faith, wit and insight.
As the story begins, it is the second decade of the second millennium. There is no longer a separation of church and state, and Christianity is the law of the land. Anything deemed to be vulgar or un-Christian-like is strictly prohibited, and in many cases is punishable by death.
Seasoned and jaded reporter, Johnny Greco, is subjected to a life of mundane ânews coverageâ that consists of covering the Academy Awards from Grauman's Christian Theater in Holywood, Calif., with Reverend James Sabbath, the spiritual adviser to the president of the United States, presiding over the ceremony. Greco yearns to be able to report a âreal story,â but the current government suppresses such information and punishes anyone who would do otherwise.
He has resigned himself to a meaningless life of fluff-pieces and pandering when he gets wind of a real news story: A young man in New Jersey has proclaimed himself to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. Greco is used to dealing with such crackpots who think they are the Lord, but something about this man makes Greco want to know more.
He begins an investigative piece that will lead him to discover the passion of faith, the joy of miracles and the inspiration a single man can bring to many. And in doing so, Hendra manages to instill these lasting emotions in his readers. âThe Messiah of Morris Avenueâ needs to be on the top of everyone's Must Read list.
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 1
Daniel Pecan Cambridge is a normal, attractive, 30-ish young man. Well, he's normal except for the fact that he has obsessive-compulsive disorder. In what would be an average person's 15-minute walk to the Rite-Aid, Daniel turns the process into an hour-long jaunt â filled with twists, turns and double-backs, all so that he won't have to step off of or onto a curb.
The total light wattage in Daniel's house must be at 1125 watts. If a 30-watt bulb burns out, he must hurry to replace it with another 30-watt bulb before the tightness in his chest, faintness, and shortness of breath threatens to render him unconscious.
Now, in the hands of a lesser novelist, all this obsessive redundancy would read like a psychiatric dissertation. However, since the author of The Pleasure of My Company is the brilliantly funny Steve Martin, you can bet that Martin's irony and cynical wit will shine through, creating a masterful portrait of a man who is fully aware that he is on the brink of insanity.
As an example of the aforementioned irony, Daniel enters and wins an essay contest as the most average American. Not only was he thought of as average, but as the leader of the average people. So Daniel justifies his title with the thought that he entered the contest as a lark â he merely wanted an excuse to hang out by the entry forms at the Rite-Aid so he could watch his favorite pharmacist, Zandy, in action.
The Pleasure of My Company, Steve Martin's second novella, equals and then surpasses his first, Shopgirl. As Martin fine-tunes his knack for discovering and detailing the nuances we've all experienced, Company becomes an obsession for its reader, compelling him/her to read it through to the end in one sitting.
The total light wattage in Daniel's house must be at 1125 watts. If a 30-watt bulb burns out, he must hurry to replace it with another 30-watt bulb before the tightness in his chest, faintness, and shortness of breath threatens to render him unconscious.
Now, in the hands of a lesser novelist, all this obsessive redundancy would read like a psychiatric dissertation. However, since the author of The Pleasure of My Company is the brilliantly funny Steve Martin, you can bet that Martin's irony and cynical wit will shine through, creating a masterful portrait of a man who is fully aware that he is on the brink of insanity.
As an example of the aforementioned irony, Daniel enters and wins an essay contest as the most average American. Not only was he thought of as average, but as the leader of the average people. So Daniel justifies his title with the thought that he entered the contest as a lark â he merely wanted an excuse to hang out by the entry forms at the Rite-Aid so he could watch his favorite pharmacist, Zandy, in action.
The Pleasure of My Company, Steve Martin's second novella, equals and then surpasses his first, Shopgirl. As Martin fine-tunes his knack for discovering and detailing the nuances we've all experienced, Company becomes an obsession for its reader, compelling him/her to read it through to the end in one sitting.
Review Date: 1/17/2007
Beautiful book. Must read.
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 9
Meredith Shale, 15, lives in a world that no child should ever have to live in. She was sexually abused by her father as a young girl, and the monster is about to be let out of prison early. As Meredith says, they promised her nine years of safety but gave her only three.
While it is nearly impossible to imagine one's life with a sexual predator back on the loose, it is disgusting to realize that your own mother won't even protect you. Meredith's mother, Sharon, has been with Charles since she was a young girl, and has lived in her world of tunnel-vision love and delusion. She calls what happened between her daughter and her husband âa mistake,â is angry that Meredith reported him, and feels that now that Charles is out of prison, they can be one, big happy family.
Laura Wiess has created a story and characters that are raw and real, sometimes almost too real to bear, but you dare not put the book down. Meredith's anger, pain and fright are on full display, although she might not outwardly share her fears with the people in her life. They know she is concerned, but she lets only the reader past her tough-exterior shell and see the scared little girl that very much lives inside her.
Meredith gains her strength through the support of her boyfriend and a few neighbors in the condo neighborhood in which she lives. But the most strength comes from herself.
This no-holds-barred novel, told in present day and flashbacks, suspends the reader in Meredith's state of unrest. With trepidation, fear and resolve, both reader and protagonist gear up for the final confrontation between abuser and victim.
While it is nearly impossible to imagine one's life with a sexual predator back on the loose, it is disgusting to realize that your own mother won't even protect you. Meredith's mother, Sharon, has been with Charles since she was a young girl, and has lived in her world of tunnel-vision love and delusion. She calls what happened between her daughter and her husband âa mistake,â is angry that Meredith reported him, and feels that now that Charles is out of prison, they can be one, big happy family.
Laura Wiess has created a story and characters that are raw and real, sometimes almost too real to bear, but you dare not put the book down. Meredith's anger, pain and fright are on full display, although she might not outwardly share her fears with the people in her life. They know she is concerned, but she lets only the reader past her tough-exterior shell and see the scared little girl that very much lives inside her.
Meredith gains her strength through the support of her boyfriend and a few neighbors in the condo neighborhood in which she lives. But the most strength comes from herself.
This no-holds-barred novel, told in present day and flashbacks, suspends the reader in Meredith's state of unrest. With trepidation, fear and resolve, both reader and protagonist gear up for the final confrontation between abuser and victim.
Review Date: 3/23/2007
Helpful Score: 12
âThen We Came to the Endâ by Joshua Ferris is part the movie âOffice Space,â part the sitcom âThe Officeâ and all a little too close to home for many office workers, including myself. Ferris is dead-on with his retelling of office life, from the gossips, to the style maven; from the strange older man, to the arm's-length boss.
This book could be taken as a fly-on-the-wall writing exercise, as Ferris places his readers right in the middle of the action for the entire book. Told in the omnipresent âweâ voice, the reader feels as if he could be the narrator, or one of the office workers mentioned or perhaps an office worker who hovers in the background all the time who escapes the other workers' scathing judgments.
As witnessed in many offices, afternoons are spent trying not to fall asleep from the lunch the workers just ate. Also, you don't want to get too much work done and make your fellow co-workers look lazy, but you also don't want to appear to be a slacker.
Ferris' office gets turned on its head when the downsizing begins. No one wants to make the dreaded escorted walk to the elevator with only a file-size cardboard box filled with your personal belongings as evidence that you did indeed work there. No one wants to be the one to make uncomfortable banter with the just-laid-off co-worker at the bar after work where everyone gathers to say goodbye to the latest downsizing victim.
And no one wants to see what will happen when the wrong person gets laid off on the wrong day.
âThen We Came to the Endâ is an engaging page-turner of a book that is sure to entertain anyone who has ever held, not just an office job, but ANY job. Its biting wit and sarcastic observation might just make you grateful for the office you currently work in.
This book could be taken as a fly-on-the-wall writing exercise, as Ferris places his readers right in the middle of the action for the entire book. Told in the omnipresent âweâ voice, the reader feels as if he could be the narrator, or one of the office workers mentioned or perhaps an office worker who hovers in the background all the time who escapes the other workers' scathing judgments.
As witnessed in many offices, afternoons are spent trying not to fall asleep from the lunch the workers just ate. Also, you don't want to get too much work done and make your fellow co-workers look lazy, but you also don't want to appear to be a slacker.
Ferris' office gets turned on its head when the downsizing begins. No one wants to make the dreaded escorted walk to the elevator with only a file-size cardboard box filled with your personal belongings as evidence that you did indeed work there. No one wants to be the one to make uncomfortable banter with the just-laid-off co-worker at the bar after work where everyone gathers to say goodbye to the latest downsizing victim.
And no one wants to see what will happen when the wrong person gets laid off on the wrong day.
âThen We Came to the Endâ is an engaging page-turner of a book that is sure to entertain anyone who has ever held, not just an office job, but ANY job. Its biting wit and sarcastic observation might just make you grateful for the office you currently work in.
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