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Reviews by Diane S.

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Tell the Wolves I'm Home: A Novel
by Carol Rifka Brunt
Tell the Wolves I'm Home (5/25/2012)
June is such a wonderful character, a 14 yr. old trying to find her way and secure in the knowledge that she is loved by her Uncle Finn who dies of aids. This is a thought-provoking book about the complicated relationships in a family and how little we actually know abutmore
Beneath the Shadows
by Sara Foster
Beneath the shadows (5/24/2012)
Richly atmospheric, gothic undertones, the setting of the desolation of Yorkshire moors all set the tone for this mystery by Foster. When I first started reading it I didn't know if I was reading a ghost story or a regular mystery that needed solving. There are plenty ofmore
The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir
by Wenguang Huang
The Little Red Guard (5/22/2012)
Wen is a very likable and easy to relate to narrator. Living with a grandmother, who is from a time when they still bound woman's feet, he and is family try to navigate between the old customs and the new ways after Mao's cultural revolution. Burial is no longer an option,more
Drowned: A Novel
by Therese Bohman
Drowned (5/19/2012)
This was a very different and hard to process psychological novel. I actually read part of it and put it aside for a few days just to think about what I was reading. The writing is lush,the prose wonderful the descriptions are very visual and sensory, at times beautiful. Somore
The Lola Quartet
by Emily St. John Mandel
The Lola Quartet (5/16/2012)
Four friends, and a girl who is the girlfriend of one and the stepsister of the only female, start a jazz quartet in highschool. It is their last concert and their last year in high school and they all have bright plans for the future. I can relate to this because Imore
Dead Scared
by S. J. Bolton
Dead Scared (5/13/2012)
Young women students are committing suicide in horrible ways in Cambridge and in this second book of the series, Flint goes under cover as a college student, to observe and try to ferret out information. Bolton is a fantastic writer at setting up a creepy atmosphere withmore
True Sisters: A Novel
by Sandra Dallas
Sister Wives (5/6/2012)
It is 1856 and Mormons from all over converge on Iowa City to start their journey on foot to Salt Lake City and the "Promised Land.' Another emotional read for me, the hardships, deaths, these amazingly strong people, was just heartbreaking. I became so enmeshed in thesemore
The Song of Achilles: A Novel
by Madeline Miller
The Song of Achilles (5/6/2012)
Miller has managed with her easy way of storytelling to make the Trojan War, the mythology behind it as well as the friendship between Achilles and Petronus, accessible to all readers. Putting her own spin on how this friendship became so strong and how this strength led tomore
The Lifeboat: A Novel
by Charlotte Rogan
The Lifeboat (5/4/2012)
Thirty nine people in one lifeboat adrift for many weeks waiting for rescue, some strong some not. Rogan takes what is a relatively simple plot line and than fills it with moral ambiguities and decisions that keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. Not sure what Imore
A Land More Kind Than Home: A Novel
by Wiley Cash
A Land More Kind Than Home (5/1/2012)
My goodness but this book was fantastic! His use of local color and dialect, his descriptions, his use of the weather to ratchet up the tension, and all this from a first time author. The town midwife, Adelaide, who sees it as her job to protect the children, the sheriff,more
Blue Asylum: A Novel
by Kathy Hepinstall
Blue Asylum (4/28/2012)
Set during the civil war, the wife of a slave owning plantation, is sentenced to the lunatic asylum on Sibella Island. There she meets many different characters, some sane some not, and Ambrose who is scarred by his own actions in the war. This novel is a quiet novel,more
Perla
by Carolina De Robertis
Perla (4/22/2012)
This is a novel about Argentina, about the men and women who "disappeared"under their dictatorship and about the mothers and grandmothers who protested in the square demanding the return of their son, daughters and grandchildren. It is a novel about a young woman namedmore
The Truth of All Things: A Novel
by Kieran Shields
The Truth of All Things (4/21/2012)
Definitely held my interest, since I haven't stopped reading it since I picked it up. Set in 1892, in Portland, a prostitute is murdered and a newly appointed detective and a half Abenaki Indian profiler must team together to solve the case. New investigative techniques andmore
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
Quiet: (4/16/2012)
What a fascinating and well written study on the differences between introverts and extroverts and what goes in to making them that way. I believe anyone managing people in any capacity should read this book as well as parents who are raising children, wondering why theymore
The Cove: A Novel
by Ron Rash
The Cove (4/16/2012)
There is no doubt that the strength of Ron Rash's writing lies in his use of regional color, his descriptions of the Appalachians are lush and elegant, just beautiful. This books highlights the superstitions of the mountain people, the loneliness of being an outcast, andmore
Trapeze
by Simon Mawer
Trapeze (4/16/2012)
Hitler invades France and France becomes a place of tension and horror, food shortages although good wine can still be had. We know many of the names of the villains of World War II but few of the heroes, especially the regular people who stepped outside of their comfortmore
The Gods of Gotham: A Novel
by Lyndsay Faye
Gods of Gotham (4/9/2012)
This was a fantastic historical mystery taking place in 1852 New York City. The potato famine has caused hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants to flock to New York, causing untoward problems between the protestants and the newly arrived Catholics. The Five Point area, 6more
The Gilly Salt Sisters
by Tiffany Baker
The Gilly Salt Sisters (3/31/2012)
I really enjoyed this book. The Tuners and the Gillys, old family residents of Prospect, a village in Cape Cod. The Gillys belong to the salt, salt is the magical element in this book that ties everything together, and the Turners want to own the whole town. Loved themore
Running the Rift: A Novel
by Naomi Benaron
Running the Rift (3/15/2012)
I remember hearing on the news and reading in the papers about the genocide in Rawanda, the racial strife between the Hutus and the Tutsis, but I really didn't understand what was going on and I forgot a very important thing. Until this courageous book with the wonderfulmore
Cloudland: A Crime Novel
by Joseph Olshan
Cloudland by Joseph Olshan (3/10/2012)
I love books that are based on true events, which apparently this one was. This was more of a character based mystery than a plot based one, so I felt the story moved slowly. Loved the details in the setting, really got the feeling of how it was to be one of only threemore

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