The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendell
Synopsis: After a supremely sheltered childhood, a young woman finds herself without her mother for the first time in her life, and tells her new lover the story of the crime that led to her emancipation.
Tag Archives: 20th Century
To Green Angel Tower (Part 1) by Tad Williams
Synopsis: War looms ever closer as the dreaded Storm King’s forces grow in power. Review: To Green Angel Tower (Part 1) is the continuation of Tad Williams’s Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. Parts 1 and 2 clock in at 800 pages apiece, but I don’t know why they’re one book split into two, unless it’s because trilogies are cool and four-book series aren’t.
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Synopsis: Schoolteacher Dunstan Ramsay looks back over his life, intertwined with that of a childhood friend and inextricably linked with a madwoman he desperately wants to believe is a saint. Review: I had no idea what I was in for when I began Fifth Business, the first book in Canadian novelist Robertson Davies’s Deptford trilogy. I have an older paperback and the copy on the back just says, “the story of a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the…
Beyond the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Synopsis: Trinity High and the Vigils struggle to pick up the pieces after the fallout from the chocolate sale stunt, but when Vigils secretary Obie discovers that new student and loner Ray has a working guillotine, he sets in motion a plan for revenge.
Hero! by Dave Duncan
Synopsis: A military hero struggles with his identity as a clone when he’s caught between in a war between humans and the Brotherhood who created him. Review: Science fiction is not really my thing, but I do like to give it a try every now and again when I’m given an author or book recommendation.
The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter 3) by Sigrid Undset
Synopsis: As her seven sons grow to manhood in 13th Century Norway, Kristin finds her marriage tested by long-simmering resentments, and struggles with her passage into senescence. Review: This might be my favorite of all three Kristin Lavransdatter books, because I think Undset is operating at the peak of her narrative powers. She really brings to life a time in Kristin’s life that isn’t as readily appealing as Kristin’s passage into womanhood, and the novelty of Kristin and Erlend’s life together has worn off. In…
Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams
Synopsis: Young Simon is in the middle of the biggest adventure his land has seen in years, but if he and is friends fail their mission, the wicked Storm King will prevail. Book Two of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Review: I know it sounds like Lord of the Rings, but it’s all in the details, people. (Though he does team up with a dwarf and spend some time with some Elf-like folk.) I found the first book in the series, The Dragonbone Chair, a bit…
After the First Death by Robert Cormier
Synopsis: The fates of two young men collide on a bridge when a group of terrorists take over a schoolbus filled with children.
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
Synopsis: When an author stubs her toe on a piece of metal buried on her property, she uncovers a force which begins to change her from within–and this force might be guided by a malevolent consciousness. Review: I have begun The Brothers Karamazov, but it’s not exactly a “before-bed” book. Enter The Tommyknockers, a lesser work by Stephen King that deals with a pretty big whatif: “What if there was a spaceship buried in my backyard?” Bobbi Anderson stubs her toe on some metal, and…
Who Stole Feminism? by Christina Hoff Sommers
Synopsis: Hoff Sommers debunks “gender feminism” and the scare tactics its proponents use to promote their radical agenda. Review: Susan Faludi’s Backlash came out when I was in college, and had a tremendous impact on me. Today, I consider myself a feminist with reservations. I’ll speak out wherever I can against injustice against women, but where feminism aligns itself with the culture of death in our society I stop being a supporter. My feminism has grown into a hatred of injustice against all who are…