Novels Now

I must have passed out because I don’t remember who put me on this gurney without a blanket. [First Sentence]
Belly of the Whale by Linda Merlino
Kunati, 2008
Fiction; 199 pgs
I almost decided against reading Linda Merlino’s book, Belly of the Whale. It hits too close to home. Breast cancer has affected not only my […]

Popularity: 35% [?]

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These were adults with too much time on their hands. And didn’t they know that the projector, sound system, and speakers were all Japanese? Their dancing shoes were probably from Mexico or China. America’s jobs were going elsewhere and Americans were just dressing up and playing like kids. Gas prices were high. General Motors […]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
2008 Booker Prize winner
2008, 276 pp.

Hmmm, well, I happened to get this book from the library on the Saturday before the Booker Prize was announced “just in case.” When The White Tiger was revealed as the winner, I was really surprised. Not only did it have the longest […]

Popularity: 28% [?]

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The Story of a Marriage
by Andrew Sean Greer
2008, 195 pp.
Rating: 1/5
It seems this story has polarized readers. Some love it, while others intensely dislike the book. I fall into the latter camp. I thought I was really going to like it initially, but then the story went way over the top into unbelievability for me. […]

Popularity: 29% [?]

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Fun Cat Memoir for Cat Lovers
This is Chloe Anne’s memoir, written for her by her mother Valerie Oblath.
Poor Chloe Anne, her family is moving and gave her to the Humane Society. She lives in a little cage until her new mom and author, Valerie Oblath adopts her. Chloe Anne loves her new home and cat […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

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I stared at my attorney as he began his defense that I did not share the blame in the murder of my son. [first sentence]
Janeology by Karen Harrington
Künati, 2008
Fiction; 246 pgs
It is difficult to know where to start in describing a book like Janeology. It is thriller-like on one level but also a bio-psychosocial […]

Popularity: 22% [?]

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The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
I would guess that the Man Booker judges committee this year all like the same kind of book: wry commentary on society, first person narrative, confessional story, with lots of dark humor. The White Tiger had the same tone and feel to me as A Fraction of the Whole […]

Popularity: 21% [?]

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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
Pages: 304
Finished: July 26, 2008
First Published: Apr. 2008
Genre: true crime, nonfiction, history
Awards: Samuel Johnson Award for Nonfiction 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
This is the story of a murder committed in an English country house in 1860, perhaps the most […]

Popularity: 14% [?]

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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
Summerscale has written a very interesting book about the history of detectives, real and fictional, as well as investigating a true murder that scandalized Victorian England in 1860. The subtitle is “A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victoria Detective.”
The murder was of three year old […]

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Although I haven’t yet read Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize winning Interpreter of Maladies, after reading Unaccustomed Earth, I can understand why the committee was so impressed with her writing. Her stories of the Bengali immigrant experience were very well developed, and they had closure to them, something I’ve noticed is often times lacking in […]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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