Novels Now

As long as he can create pictures from the words he reads—scenes filled with characters, conflict, good and evil—he can build a world that’s in many ways closer to the one other people inhabit. And this makes him feel less like an outsider. [pg 255]
First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader
Forge, 2008
Crime Fiction (S/T); 400 pgs
The […]

Popularity: 37% [?]

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In the year since I renounced my Mormon faith, and set out to tell the nation the truth about American polygamy, many people have wondered why I ever agreed to become a plural wife. [First Sentence]
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
Random House, 2008
Fiction; 514 pgs
Religion is a subject that fascinates me in general, in particular […]

Popularity: 27% [?]

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The Impostor by Damon Galgut
Pages: 249
Finished: Oct. 28, 2008
First Published: Aug. 5, 2008
Genre: literary fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
Reason for Reading: Received a Review Copy from Random House Canada.
First sentence:
The journey was almost over; they were nearly at their destination.
Comments: Adam Napier lives in South Africa just after the abolition of Apartheid. He has always been against Apartheid […]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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The Shadow of Malabron by Thomas Wharton
The Perilous Realm: Book 1
Pages: 385
Finished: Oct. 25, 2008
First Published: August 19, 2008 (Canada, Hardcover) Aug. 4, 2008 (UK & US, paperback)
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
In a chamber high in a tower a young woman sits at a loom, weaving threads of many colours into a tapestry so large […]

Popularity: 25% [?]

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Jars line my cellar shelves. Some are filled with fists of yellow-veined tomatoes. Others hold small onions and chopped leeks, white pearls floating in an opaque sea. Sometimes the light falls on a jar of boiled quail or the slick, dark meat of a rabbit. There are unexpected moments when I see the slit […]

Popularity: 25% [?]

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Bookweird by Paul Glennon
Pages: 250
First Published: Aug. 19, 2008
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
The weekend started out well for Norman Jespers-Wilnius.
Comments: Norman’s behaviour gets himself grounded from his computer for the weekend. Fortunately, he is also an avid reader so he starts the weekend off by picking up the umpteenth book in his favourite series (a […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

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Faces of Fear by John Saul
Pages: 324
First Published: Aug. 12, 2008
Genre: psychological suspense, thriller
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
He had to look.
Comments: A plastic surgeon’s wife, a famous model, kills herself because she was disfigured in an horrific accident. A year later plastic surgeon Conrad Dunn and divorced Risa Shaw are married. At the same time a serial […]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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Powerful!
The Gargoyle is a difficult book to review and summarize. The plot crosses many genre lines and deals with many issues. That said, here is my attempt.
The novel begins with the narrator getting in a car accident after bingeing on liquor and cocaine. He has a bottle of bourbon between his legs at the […]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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The Road Home
By Rose Tremain
Completed September 27, 2008
The Road Home was the Orange Prize winning novel by Rose Tremain – a story of Lev, a Russian immigrant living in London. Lev immigrated to Britain after the mill in his village closed, leaving him without a means to support his mother and daughter. The decision to […]

Popularity: 22% [?]

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I was first introduced to Clyde Edgerton when I read and enjoyed Walking Across Egypt (4 stars) last year, so I was really looking forward to reading this book.  Henry Dampier is a young man determined to make his fortune by door-to-door Bible selling; although, truth be told, he gets the Bibles for free.  Still, […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

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