Articles tagged "Starred Review"

Book clubs, take note! Reviewers are giving Gail Godwin's latest, FLORA, high praise. Here's a quick summary to get you familiar:

Ten-year-old Helen and her summer guardian, Flora, are isolated together in Helen's decaying family house while her father is doing secret war work during the final months of World War II. At three, Helen lost her mother, and the beloved grandmother who raised her has just died. Flora, who cries at the drop of a hat, is ardently determined to do her best for Helen. Their relationship and its fallout will haunt Helen for the rest of her life.

"Unsparing yet compassioante; a fine addition to Godwin's long list of first-rate faction bringing 19th-century richness of detail and characterization to the ambiguities of modern life." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[A] stirring and wondrous novel from Godwin…. [her] thoughtful portrayal of their boredom, desires, and the eventual heartbreak of their summer underscores the impossible position of children, who are powerless against the world and yet inherit responsibility for its agonies." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Godwin’s under-your-skin characters are perfectly realized, and the held-breath plot is consummately choreographed. But the wonder of this incisive novel of the endless repercussions of loss and remorse at the dawn of the atomic age is how subtly Godwin laces it with exquisite insights into secret family traumas, unspoken sexuality, class and racial divides, and the fallout of war while unveiling the incubating mind of a future writer." —Booklist (starred review)

FLORA was also on the May 2013 Indie Next List!

FLORA by Gail Godwin.Poignant story of loss of innocence in 1940s North Carolina mountains. #ewgc

— Janet Lockhart (@HartGami) May 7, 2013

Award winning journalist Christopher Cox has delivered a nail-biting debut mystery that will take your patrons through the side streets of Bangkok and across violent Lao hill county and the reviews are spectacular.

Damon is a sharp-witted and likeable though down-on-his-luck Boston PI who catches an intriguing case. Linda Watts is a beautiful, talented Lao immigrant with a promising career—or she was, until she turns up dead in a cheap Bangkok guest house. Her death seems like a straightforward overdose to the Thai authorities, but her insurance company isn’t buying it. They hire Sebastian to travel halfway around the world to investigate.

"Cox’s action-packed debut is perfect for armchair travelers who will be amazed by the author’s ability to make gaudy Bangkok and the remote hill country of Laos come alive." -Library Journal (starred review)

"A GOOD DEATH is another example of the only positive to emerge from the Vietnam War—fine writing." -Booklist (starred review)

White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony.

Let's talk about SNOW WHITE MUST DIE by German mystery writer Nele Neuhaus. It's the beginning of a spell-binding new contemporary mystery series, it's already huge international bestseller, and it has the most wicked title!

On a rainy November day police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: A woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation quickly turns into a small town witch hunt and Pia and Oliver will have to work fast to solve the case before anyone else dies.

"Again and again, Neuhaus inserts the old Grimm fairy tale refrain—'White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony'—that describes Snow White [...] to underscore the grimmest of human emotions: white for icily plotted revenge, red for raging jealousy, black for homicidal madness." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With more than three million copies already in print worldwide(!), your patrons will happily be the next victims of this exciting new series!