Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Reviews by Margaret H. (Springfield, VA)

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.
Order Reviews by:
Gifts of War: A Novel
by Mackenzie Ford
Gifts of War (4/24/2009)
Starting with the Christmas Truce in 1914 and continuing through World War I until it's end in 1919, this book uses the life of Hal Montgomery to illustrate the effects of war on participants as well as those left behind. Hal meets a German soldier during the truce and, charged with giving his photograph to his fiancee in England, he instead falls in love with Sam and her son and hides his knowledge of her past. Hal and Sam and their families are examples of all the joys and sadness of war. The reader can come to his own conclusion about the ironic title, Gifts of War. This is a good addition to the recent books on World War, although the reader may become a bit bogged down in some of the information about intrigue.
How We Decide
by Jonah Lehrer
How We Decide (1/28/2009)
By using psychological and neuroscience studies as well as examples about and interviews with people who make decisions, Mr. Lehrer has produced a fascinating book about how we make our own decisions. The book opens with a pilot steering a plane (actually a simulator) to land after an engine catches fire (so timely with the landing in the Hudson). He also includes a study of the pilot of the plane which landed in Iowa a number of years ago. Although at times the science is a bit deep for the casual reader, all in all it is a very accessible and interesting study. Did you, as a reader, ever know what it takes to decide what strawberry jam to purchase or why a poker player folds or holds? The long bibliography and notes add to his study for the reader wanting more details.
Madapple
by Christina Meldrum
Madapple (4/29/2008)
I eagerly began this book looking forward to a mystery built around a mystical premise of birth as well as a trial. The author deftly moves from Asslang's life to her trial for murder and arson. However, as a reader, I soon became bogged down in the details of the medicinal plants, the history and uses of them. I doubt that would maintain the interest of many of our young readers.
  • Page
  • 1
  • 2

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Becoming Madam Secretary
    Becoming Madam Secretary
    by Stephanie Dray
    Our First Impressions reviewers enjoyed reading about Frances Perkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ...
  • Book Jacket: Everything We Never Had
    Everything We Never Had
    by Randy Ribay
    Francisco Maghabol has recently arrived in California from the Philippines, eager to earn money to ...
  • Book Jacket: There Are Rivers in the Sky
    There Are Rivers in the Sky
    by Elif Shafak
    Elif Shafak's novel There Are Rivers in the Sky follows three disparate individuals separated by ...
  • Book Jacket: The Missing Thread
    The Missing Thread
    by Daisy Dunn
    The fabric of ancient history is stitched heavily with stories of dramatic politics, conquest, and ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!
Book Jacket
The Rose Arbor
by Rhys Bowen
An investigation into a girl's disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II in a haunting novel of suspense.
Win This Book
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

D T the B O W the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.