Reviews by Betsey V. (Austin, TX)

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Ten Thousand Saints
Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel
by Eleanor Henderson
More sinners than saints (5/10/2011)
There's a lot of late eighties teenage shenanigans starting off this novel, a charged up kind of punk erudition, the urbane in-your-face stride of an anarchist. The tone and mood fit the era well, and the particular crowd that the reader is thrust into is intransigent, …more
The Devotion of Suspect X
The Devotion of Suspect X
by Keigo Higashino
For fans of Nora Roberts (12/13/2010)
This was advertised as winning the Japanese equivalent to the Nat'l Book Award, so I was expecting something even better than Murakami. Well, this was just juvenile. Nora Roberts, tops. It was written on a 7th grade level, maybe 6th. It had some violence, so it wasn't for …more
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer
by Wesley Stace
Music and murder (11/18/2010)
Wesley Stace is no newcomer to music. He has composed 15 albums under the name John Wesley Harding, music of sardonic rock mixed with covers of British ballads. In his third novel, he turns to early the 20th century music scene of the pastoral music and the atonal avant- …more
Learning to Lose
Learning to Lose: A Novel
by David Trueba
A poignant, character-driven story (5/20/2010)
Three generations of one family in Madrid--grandfather, father, and daughter--and a rising-star soccer player from Buenos Aires, are struggling with inner demons as well as external chaos and change. The novel opens when Sylvia's father, Lorenzo, has murdered a man who is …more
Arcadia Falls
Arcadia Falls
by Carol Goodman
Not one of her best--formulaic and geared for YA readers (1/1/2010)
This is not up to Goodman's standard of The Lake of Dead Languages or The Drowning Tree. It read like a YA novel, with thin and obvious characterizations and vacuous emotions. The plot twists were so convenient and coincidental that it was utterly unbelievable. As an adult …more
The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel
The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel
by Maureen Lindley
An internal journey (8/10/2009)
This is very much a psychological exploration of a woman who is both formidable and vulnerable. Eastern Jewel's sense of loss and abandonment is acutely felt. There is much pathos in this Princess of moral ambiguity who is determined to do more than survive. In a world …more
The Secret Keeper
The Secret Keeper
by Paul Harris
Educational but inconsistently executed (3/6/2009)
The best thing about this book is the information revealed about the politics and dire social circumstances in Sierra Leone during the civil war (and the post-war deceptions of its leaders). The story had potential, but the characters were one-dimensional, obvious. Also, …more
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Gets better and better (7/27/2008)
Initially I had difficulty engaging in this, an epistolary novel that takes place in the years following WW II. I had difficulty giving it a context. It begins at a place that feels like the middle of things (as if I missed something), but then eventually gathers the far- …more
The Invention of Everything Else
The Invention of Everything Else
by Samantha Hunt
Lyrical, lovely, ethereal (12/20/2007)
Samantha Hunt's novel is a "what if" historical fiction on the last months of the life of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of alternating current electricity. His life was much obscured by the better known Thomas Edison; however, as this book well illuminates, Edison was more …more
Mozart's Sister
Mozart's Sister
by Rita Charbonnier
Poetic with lush, musical imagery but at times too melodramtaic (10/8/2007)
The story of Nannerl Mozart, Wolfgang's sister, is told in a combination of epistolary and narrative form. It is an historical fiction of a woman with an independent mind and spirit attempting to fit in with the 18th century expectations of womanhood--the story of an …more
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    The River Knows Your Name
    by Kelly Mustian
    A haunting Southern novel about memory and love, from the author of The Girls in the Stilt House.
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