Novels Now

“We turn now to the issue of what constitutes an appropriate punishment for your various infractions,” said the judge in the middle, the gray-haired one whose name Jaywalker always had trouble remembering. [First Sentence]
The Tenth Case by Joseph Teller
Mira, 2008 (ARE)
Crime Fiction; 388 pgs
From the Publisher:
Criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker, […]

Popularity: 40% [?]

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221 pages
A couple of years ago(before I had a blog) I read Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. While I learned a lot from that book and I enjoyed Ehrenreich’s sense of humor quite a bit, I was left feeling sad and a little irritated at the premise that […]

Popularity: 27% [?]

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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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When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson , 348 pages
Jackson Brodie, previous detective from Case Histories and One Good Turn, is back for Kate Atkinson’s newest novel. The title hints at the bad news following some characters that permeates this page turner. There are some desperately sad people in this book, and […]

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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: 26% [?]

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Mike got up off the floor and sat on the sofa while he loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, as if increasing the blog flow to the brain might help solve his problem. And it was then that the word containment entered his mind. And with that word, moral, […]

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: 27% [?]

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It’s the last summer before college for 18 year-old Kim Larsen. She and her friends spend their time at the lake and working at their various summer jobs. Being from a small town in Ohio makes them all ready to get on with the big adventure into adulthood but at the same time they are […]

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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: 28% [?]

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The Secret Scripture
by Sebastian Barry
2008, 300 pp.
Booker Prize Shortlist
I’d be happy if this book won the Booker Prize. Yeah, I would, and I haven’t read any of the other contenders yet! Sebastian Barry is a magnificent writer, and I will definitely be reading more of his work.
Roseanne McNulty is almost 100 years old, […]

Popularity: 27% [?]

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