Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Magical realism, Melissa's Picks, Romance on June 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I enjoyed Sarah Addison Allen’s first book, Garden Spells, so I picked up her second title, The Sugar Queen, to see if it continued to delight with quirky characters and interesting plot lines. It does!
Josey Cirrini is trapped by guilt and fear in the house she has grown up in – torn between her sense [...]
Posted in Amy's Picks, Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Characters, Literary fiction, Multicultural, Short Stories on June 19, 2008 | No Comments »
Short story collections generally don’t circulate well. I’m not sure exactly why, but I can certainly theorize. Personally, I enjoy immersing myself in a detailed, involved story, with well-thought out characters and vivid settings, but the very nature of short stories (They’re short!) seems counterintuitive to achieving those lofty goals. Honestly, [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Connie's Picks, Memoir, Nonfiction, Sense of place on June 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Connie from our Bluesocks reading group brings us this entry:
Anyone who is a Rick Bragg fan will want to read this third installment of his family history. Simply put, his first book, “All over But the Shoutin’,” was a tribute to his mother. His second book, “Ava’s Man,” was about his mother’s father’s life. This [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Food, Nonfiction, Subculture, True Crime on June 17, 2008 | No Comments »
The following entry is by Cheryl, our fearless Bluesocks reading group leader.
In 1985 at Christie’s auction house in London, Kip Forbes, son of Malcolm Forbes, paid $156,000 dollars for a bottle of Chateau Lafitte. This is the highest price ever paid for a single bottle of wine, but this was not just some lowly flagon [...]
Posted in Adventure, Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Characters, Coming of Age, Literary fiction, Neil's Picks, Quick read, Sense of place, Sports, Subculture on June 16, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s a sign of a good book when an author can take subject matter that is completely alien and render it in a way that immerses you, fascinates you, moves you. The Australian Tim Winton did that for me with Breath, a coming-of-age tale about surfing and other extreme adventures.
In Breath, two boys in their early teens [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Mysteries, Quick read, Quirky characters on March 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Cheryl writes:
I prefer True Crime to fiction, but since our staff book group decided to read an international mystery I was forced to dive into the genre. Surprisingly, I found a “cozy” book that I enjoyed.
Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot is by British author Michael Bond. Bond is best known as a writer of children’s [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Melissa's Picks, Mysteries on March 20, 2008 | No Comments »
Anne Holt is a former minister of justice, lawyer, and journalist, and one of Scandinavia’s successful crime writers. What is Mine is her American debut.
In this story former FBI profiler Johanne Vik is working on a paper about the media coverage of serious crimes. She is asked to look into an old case where [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Connie's Picks, Historical fiction, Mysteries, Sense of place on March 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Connie shares her review of The Tenderness of Wolves which takes place in Ontario, Canada, 1876:
Let me start by saying I am not much of a mystery reader, although I do enjoy character-driven stories in different settings and time periods. That is probably why this book appealed to me so much. There is a [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Crime fiction, Fast-paced, Mysteries, Neil's Picks, Sense of place, Setting on March 18, 2008 | No Comments »
I’m probably not ever going to make it to Thailand. The majority of you who read this will never get there either. That’s what makes a book like Bangkok 8 so exciting to find.
Yes, it’s an exciting mystery with a good puzzle: Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep must solve the murder of an American marine by drug-crazed [...]
Posted in Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Mysteries, Sense of place on March 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Cela shares her comments about Jar City, a mystery from Iceland:
Jar City is a complex mix of mystery, dysfunctional family interactions, and travelogue. Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is introduced in the first chapter investigating the scene of a murder. As he surveys the crime scene, he finds a cryptic note with the message, “I [...]
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