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9 reviews
Colin Harrison

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

A superlative thriller
For readers who are stout of heart and not afraid of a thriller with plenty of nasty surprises, The Finger is an excellent choice. Colin Harrison establishes a unique voice: gritty by eloquent, classical yet current. The Finder is an excellent example of pace, mood, and pure narrative force. Readers who enjoy this book (and there are sure to be many) will also want to check out Crimson Orgy by ...

The Story of a Marriage: A Novel

3 reviews
Andrew Sean Greer

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

Far From Heaven, But Change is Coming
Ever since The Stern Librarian read Andrew Sean Greer's last novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli (which appears on my Amazon list of 10 favorite novels), I have been haunted by the question of whether Greer exalts or despises love. The Story of a Marriage is the perfect coda to that earlier novel's proposition that everyone is the great love of someone's life--alas, that great love is rarely ...

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

371 reviews
Ishmael Beah

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

Should be required reading
This book was an eye opening dipiction of the life of a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Beah's novel shows the journey that this young man took from being forced to fight in a war that robbed him of his innocence to his ultimate rehabilitation. It is a must read and should be required reading for high school students.

Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

10 reviews
David Rothkopf

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

I saw Rothkopf on C-SPAN.
I saw Rothkopf talk about this book on C-SPAN. I didn't catch every moment, so can't speak to his feelings about "populists and anti-globalists." He is critical of the "Friedmanism" (of Milton and Thomas) that has created an economy that intensifies anti-democratic disparities in wealth. And the person who introduced Rothkopf opened with this comment from Thomas Jefferson, "I hope we shall ...

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella

63 reviews
Alan Bennett

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

"One had always read. Only these days one is reading more."
It's good to be Queen, but it does have its drawbacks -- long periods of tedium in slow-moving vehicles, a relentless round of ceremonial duties, and a bird's eye view of everyday life. What better solution to these drawbacks than the pages of a good book? The Uncommon Reader: A Novella is a quirky little book about Queen Elizabeth II and her discovery of the joys of reading. Pursuing her ...

Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager, ...

97 reviews
Anthony E. Wolf

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002

Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager, Revised and Updated
After having yet another argument with my 12-year old on why she needed to do her chores and homework instead of playing on the computer she threw at me the old "I hate living here and wish I could live with Dad!" So I went onto Amazon.com in search of a book that would solve the mysteries of why my lovable little girl was turning into a monster before my eyes. I ordered "Get Out of My Life, but ...

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

204 reviews
Anne Fadiman

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998

A sensitive look at the complexities arising from a medical culture clash...
During my senior year of college, I took a "Holistic Living" course and this was one of the books we were required to read. As I've mentioned in other reviews, I don't normally gravitate towards non-fiction, however, there are instances when I read a piece of non-fiction and find myself as captivated by the story as if it were a novel. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" was one of these ...

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

38 reviews
Alex Ross

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

The Rest is Noise is an erudite survey of 20th century music by an expert musicologist
Alex Ross is the music critic of the New Yorker magazine. This book has been ballyhooed far and wide being named as one of the ten best books of 2007 by the New York Times. The 600 page book takes a detailed look at the great figures of twentieth century music and the major works they produced. The book begins with a riveting account of the 1906 premiere of Richard Strauss' "Salome" which ...

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America

12 reviews
David Hajdu

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

The Censors Win One
In hindsight, censorship so often seems ridiculous. It seems silly now that anyone was trying to keep readers from reading _Tom Jones_ a couple of centuries ago, or that seventy years ago, movies could not show married people sharing a double bed. A less familiar arena for censorship was comic books of sixty years ago, an effort that was not only silly but was successful. Before it, a kid ...

Lush Life: A Novel

116 reviews
Richard Price

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

Masterful - I hated to leave.
I can't understand why reviewers here did not appreciate this book for the masterpiece it is. It never lets up. I hated to "leave" the scene - was actually sorrowful when the (audio, read by the great Bobby Carnevale) was finished. Perhaps it is better listened to - I don't know. But I was thrilled by it. And there are moments that made me laugh so hard, I had to run and write down the ...

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Caldecott Honor Book)

10 reviews
Peter Sis

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2007

mommyreader
This wonderful book manages to be both creative and insightful, documenting life behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War in words and graphic design. Peter Sis's use of color in his intricate illustrations highlights and enhances the matter-of-fact language of his text. He has managed to create a journal, biography, and social/historical commentary that is fascinating reading for older ...

Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy (FSG Classics)

575 reviews
Jostein Gaarder

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

Fun, Fascinating, possibly even Educational (but who cares)
I forget where I found this book - not, I think, on Amazon. I took it on vacation, thinking a novel about philosophy should at least help me sleep at night. Not only did I race through it eagerly, but my better half, who has not been seen reading a book for pleasure in the 8 years we've been together, also picked it up and couldn't put it down. We've just ordered six more copies to give to ...

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

164 reviews
John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

USA and Israel relations
It saddens me that our government in the United States is so manipulated by a foreign government (Israel) - It doesn't take much research to find what Israel's true intentions are. We provide billions of dollars EVERY YEAR in aide and weapons to a country the size of New Jersey (multiple times more then entire Sub-Saharan Africa) Research topics "USS Liberty" or "Lavon Affair" to find Israel's ...

The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

1118 reviews
Thomas L. Friedman

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006

Despite of the weaknesses of this book, it still offers many point of view in enhancing our global perspective
Like it or not, this book has helped dilate our global perspective. I personally say "YES" to many of his thoughts in this book. Though it sounds too idealistic, demographically, I still agree that one day, the environmental health threats of "megacity" due to the demography shift will be reduced significantly. This is because people do not need to migrate for a better place to live. This very ...

Gomorrah

26 reviews
Roberto Saviano

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

I read it in four days. 5 Stars for courage: He broke the silence
If you have been to Italy, surely you have seen people who sell counterfeit goods on the street: Prada purses, Gucci belt, Armani wallet, pirated CD and DVD, etc. Surprisingly, most of them are not made in China, but in underground factories in Naples, the same type of factories that makes dresses for Hollywood stars. This is however, only the beginning of the story. This is a story of the ...

Tree of Smoke: A Novel

67 reviews
Denis Johnson

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

I loved it ... but ...
It's easy to understand why most of the reviews of "Tree of Smoke" are either 5-star or 1-star -- it's that kind of novel. If your tastes are toward a crisp, linear plot with well-fleshed-out characters whose motives are fairly clear, this isn't your kind of novel. That's OK. If you're looking for a fiction treatment of actual events, this isn't your kind of novel either. But if you have ...

Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath

7 reviews
Michael Paul Mason

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

Pass this book along to your friends and family
Mason opens our eyes to the realities of modern medicine, we learn that fixing the outside is often the simpler part of the equation. His insight & the passion he puts into each story makes for a captivating read. I walked away from this book realizing that unless we want to resign ourself to cities filed with "the walking dead" we must change the way society approaches Brain injury, this book ...

Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems, New and Selected
August Kleinzahler

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

The first broad retrospective of August Kleinzahler’s career, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City gathers poems from his major works along with a rich portion of new poems that visit different voice registers, experiment with form and length, and confirm Kleinzahler as among the most inventive and brilliant poets of our time. Travel—actual and imaginary—remains a passion and inspiration, and in these pages the poet also finds ...

The Brothers Karamazov

103 reviews
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002

Astonishing
There are a few moments in every serious reader's life where you simply have to sit back and accept the overwhelming magnitude and power of a great work of literature. For me, reading the latest translation of Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamozov' proved to be once such occasion. This novel is so wonderful and profound that it almost transcends the expectations of art itself. For this novel is ...

The Life of the Skies

7 reviews
Jonathan Rosen

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008

Where the Wild Things Are
This book spoke to me. I've been a birder for over 20 years now, and after reading "The Life of the Skies" I understand at last why I enjoy it so much. Author Rosen's central view is that humans need to affiliate with the natural world to be happy and fulfilled: "More and more I realize that to be bored with birds is to be bored with life. I say birds rather than some generic `nature,' because ...

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