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Looking for a
few good books to read? Try these.
For more information on these books
or others, please visit our
library
catalog. Send in your own book
reviews along with the title and
author of the book to
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Book Reviews
for September 11, 2007
The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks
Vidalia General: PS3569.P363 N68
2004
Joycelyn Robinson: A love
story, written in both first and
third person narrative, in two
different time periods, that tells
the story of Noah and Allie; how
they fell in love in the 1940s, and
how they fall in love again in the
1990s, when Allie is suffering from
Alzheimer's and no longer remembers
him. Even if you have seen the movie
or have not seen the movie; the book
goes into to more detail. Once you
start you will not be able to put it
down.
The
Wedding by Nicolas Sparks
(Sequel to the Notebook)
Vidalia General: PS3569.P363 W43
2004
Joycelyn Robinson: A love
story, one in which Wilson decides
to court Jane, his wife of thirty
years, all over again in the hopes
of winning her love once more. The
story is centered around the
planning of a wedding after Anna,
their oldest daughter, announces
that she’s engaged. This book
carries on the same great
storytelling of Nicholas Sparks. You
will be hooked from the first page.
Book Reviews
for September 5, 2007
Infidel by
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Vidalia
General: DJ292.H45 A3 2007
Publishers Weekly:
Readers with an eye on European
politics will recognize Ali as the
Somali-born member of the Dutch
parliament who faced death threats
after collaborating on a film about
domestic violence against Muslim
women with controversial director
Theo van Gogh (who was himself
assassinated). Even before then, her
attacks on Islamic culture as
"brutal, bigoted, [and] fixated on
controlling women" had generated
much controversy. In this
suspenseful account of her life and
her internal struggle with her
Muslim faith, she discusses how
these views were shaped by her
experiences amid the political chaos
of Somalia and other African
nations, where she was subjected to
genital mutilation and later forced
into an unwanted marriage. While in
transit to her husband in Canada,
she decided to seek asylum in the
Netherlands, where she marveled at
the polite policemen and government
bureaucrats. Ali is up-front about
having lied about her background in
order to obtain her citizenship,
which led to further controversy in
early 2006, when an immigration
official sought to deport her and
triggered the collapse of the Dutch
coalition government. Apart from
feelings of guilt over van Gogh's
death, her voice is forceful and
unbowed—like Irshad Manji, she
delivers a powerful feminist
critique of Islam informed by a
genuine understanding of the
religion.
Book
Reviews for August 13, 2007
The Red
Tent by Anita Diamant
Vidalia General: PS3554.I227 R43
1997
Booklist Review: The story of
Dinah is one of the most shocking in
the Bible. The only daughter of
Jacob is raped by a Canaanite
prince, and in revenge, Jacob's sons
trick the Canaanites and murder
them. Here Diamant gives the
ever-silent Dinah her own voice, and
the story she tells is a much
different one, one in which she is
not raped but loved by the
Canaanite--and then cruelly betrayed
by her brothers. This is also a saga
of women, of Dinah and her four
mothers, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and
Bilhah, the wives of Jacob, who all
raised her. The women of Jacob's
family live the most important parts
of their lives in the red tent,
where women go once a month, where
they have their babies, and where
they tell their stories. In the
Bible, emphasis is placed, above
all, on the importance of bearing
sons, but as Diamant tells it,
"Women wanted daughters to keep
their memories alive," and this
novel is rich with memory. Diamant
is a wonderful storyteller, not only
bringing to life these women about
whom the Bible tells us so little
but also stirringly evoking a place
and time. As with the best writers
of historical fiction, Diamant makes
readers see there's not so very much
difference between people across the
eons, at least when it comes to
trial and tragedy, happiness and
love. ((Reviewed October 1, 1997))
-- Ilene Cooper
Snow
Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Vidalia General: PS3557.U846 S65
1995
Booklist Review: A 1954
murder trial in an island community
off the coast of Washington state
broadens into an exploration of war,
race, and the mysteries of human
motivation. The dead man, Carl
Heine, his accused murderer, Kabuo
Miyomoto, and the one-man staff of
the local newspaper, Ishmael
Chambers, were all scarred by their
experiences in World War II but
resumed normal-seeming lives upon
their return to the fishing and
strawberry-farming community of San
Piedro in Puget Sound. While
fishermen Heine and Miyomoto set
about raising families, the
newspaperman remains alone and
apart, alienated by the loss of an
arm and a childhood love, who
married Miyomoto. Chambers comes
upon information that could alter
the verdict of the trial if
presented or change his own life if
suppressed, creating a private trial
as momentous as the public one, with
the outcome as much in doubt.
Guterson's first novel is
compellingly suspenseful on each of
its several levels. ((Reviewed
August 1994)) -- Dennis Dodge
Memoirs
of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Vidalia General: PS3557.O35926
M45 1999
Booklist Review: Presented as
the memoirs of a celebrated Japanese
geisha, Golden's first novel follows
a poor youngster from her humble
origins in a rural fishing village
to her later years spent in
luxurious surroundings in New York
City's Waldorf-Astoria. In 1929,
nine-year-old Sayuri is sold to an "okiya"
in Kyoto by her desperate father,
where she is slated to be trained as
a geisha. The intensive courses
require her to learn how to dance,
play a musical instrument,
gracefully wear the heavy, layered
costumes, apply elaborate makeup,
and, most especially, beguile
powerful men. Initially stymied by
the jealous, vindictive Hatsumomo,
the okiya's top earner, Sayuri is
eventually taken under the wing of
one of Hatsumomo's chief rivals,
Mameha. She proves to be such an
astute businesswoman that her
campaign to make Sayuri a success
results in Sayuri's setting a new
record when two wealthy men get into
a bidding war over who will be the
one to claim her virginity. Expertly
operating within the tight
constraints of her profession,
Sayuri eventually wins a small
measure of freedom when she
deliberately thwarts the attentions
of an older man and makes an open
play for the man she has always
loved. Revealing both the aesthetic
delights and the unending cruelty
that underlie the exotic world of
the geisha, Golden melds sparkling
historical fiction with a compelling
coming-of-age story. Popular fiction
at its best. ((Reviewed Sept. 1,
1997)) -- Joanne Wilkinson
The Firm
by John Grisham
Vidalia General: PS3557.R5355 F57
1991f
Publishers Weekly Review:
Grisham's gripping fiction debut
describes the inner workings of a
law firm set up by the Mafia to
launder money and concoct tax
evasions. Mitchell McDeere, third in
his class at Harvard Law, is wooed
relentlessly by the prestigious
Memphis tax firm of Bendini, Lambert
and Locke. Succumbing to the firm's
high-powered salesmanship, he
rejects some of the country's
best-known firms to join the group,
where he is awed by the opulent
lifestyle pressed upon him. But the
company has ruthless, underhanded
methods of gathering information
(they wire the homes of all
associates) and ensuring loyalty
(social situations are severely
monitored). The firm's mania for
security and secrecy, combined with
the fact that the only lawyers who
have ever left did so in
coffins--five in 15 years--arouse
Mitch and wife Abby's curiosity, and
they rapidly find themselves in a
labyrinth of intrigue and danger.
Grisham, a criminal defense
attorney, lucidly describes law
office procedures at the highest
levels, smoothly meshing them with
the criminal events of the
narrative. Mitch and Abby are
appealing characters, though a
suspension of disbelief may be
required to accept their super-cool
behavior while they are on the run
from both the FBI and the Mafia.
Nonetheless, readers will be totally
hooked by this unusual and absorbing
story.
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