Memphis Reads

Fiction

Beth reviews RUNNING HOT by Jayne Ann Krentz (Putnam, 2008)

I really enjoy books with a supernatural theme. This one had a bonus! The heroine is a librarian! Grace Renquist is a librarian who is able to see auras and dark flashes that show violence or evil. In this novel she is paired with ex-cop Luther Malone to do a psychic investigation for Jones & Jones. Luther, acting as Grace’s bodyguard, can use his psychic abilities to alter people’s moods through their auras.

Grace and Luther are sent to Hawaii, acting as honeymooners, to find a killer. Things quickly heat up between the two. Unfortunately, things also heat up as they contend with the bad guys. The deadly drug created by the Arcane Society’s founder has been recreated and is causing chaos within the supernatural community. Can Grace and Luther hold off the trouble until back-up arrives? Will they survive the lethal psychic La Sirene, who, like a siren of ancient myth, kills with her singing voice?

Things are a bit far-fetched at times but who doesn’t love a great mystery with romance and the supernatural thrown in?


Beth, Highland Branch Library

Labels: Fantasy, Reviews by Beth, Romance

Nonfiction/Memoir

Andrea King reviews CRAZY LOVE: A Memoir by Leslie Morgan Steiner (St. Martin’s Press, 2009)

This is a story about a successful, 22-year-old woman who seemed like she had everything going for her. Working at Seventeen magazine and living in downtown New York City after graduating from Harvard, Leslie had the world at her feet. Meeting the attractive and funny Conor was the proverbial “cherry on top.”

Unfortunately, Leslie had a secret. A secret that millions of others shared with her.

Conor, although he seemed to adore Leslie outwardly, was beating her regularly. Leslie always had excuses for his behavior and a simple reason for putting up with his violence: she loved him. Don’t scoff- in our society many battered women feel this way.

Fortunately, Leslie got to the point where she had enough. After Conor relocated them time and time again to keep her isolated from friends and family so he could keep her “all to himself,” Leslie realized she had to get away from him. She concluded that the strength and power to escape Conor was within her. Not to spoil the ending but I am pleased to report Leslie did escape Conor and is now living out the fairy tale with her second husband and children.

This is a harsh, unsettling memoir that tells the first person account of a relationship that went from a fairy tale to its most extreme opposite. It is also a story of hope and having a second chance in life. Most importantly, the author shows readers how to live after just surviving. This to me is the most important lesson of all.


Andrea King,
Poplar-White Station Branch Library

Labels: Memoir, Nonfiction, Reviews by Andrea King

Fiction

Andrea King reviews REMEMBER ME? by Sophie Kinsella (Dial Press, 2008)

People survive car accidents everyday. People wake up from comas every day, too. But, unfortunately, sometimes it takes a long time to recover mentally and physically from both of these traumatic circumstances.

Lexi Smart is having a hard time adjusting to life after her car accident. She has amnesia and even though the accident was less that a week ago, somehow she cannot remember the last three years of her life! Before the accident, she was a struggling 25 year-old working girl but she wakes up as a 28 year-old corporate hot shot. The last event she remembers about herself at 25 is getting drunk at a club and having to go to her father’s funeral the next day. She was barely making ends meet and was dating someone named “Loser Dave.” Her life at 25 was not something to be desired, to say the least.

Remarkably, over the last three years, Lexi has managed to grow up, get married to a multi-millionaire, and become boss at the company where she didn’t even receive a bonus before! Unfortunately, because of her amnesia, she remembers none of these events!

Lexi is, of course, floundering as Eric’s wife (she doesn’t even remember their wedding!) and as the director in her company. These troubles make it all the more difficult for her to get acclimated to her "new" life out of the coma! Who can she trust? Who are her friends? Who isn’t?
Writing with her usual humor, Sophie Kinsella (who is famous for the Shopaholic series) takes life-altering events that could be traumatic and makes them comedic.

Although the grass seemed so much greener when 28 year-old Lexi awoke from her coma, it’s just not for a variety of reasons! Kinsella teaches us as readers to always be careful what we wish for because we may just get it.

I enjoyed this story of Lexi Smart as she grapples to piece her life together before and after her awakening. Readers will laugh out loud as well as feel true sympathy for her.

Andrea King, Poplar-White Station

Labels: Reviews by Andrea King

Fiction/Young Adult

Beth reviews LOVE AMONG THE WALNUTS by Jean Ferris (Harcourt, 1998).

I hadn’t planned on reviewing this book. It was simply a quick, pleasure read, but the more I read, the more I laughed. The more I laughed, the more I shared tidbits with friends. The next thing I know, my friends are insisting that I’ve “got to write it up!” So here is a teaser for this great young adult novel, Love Among the Walnuts.

Does money solve all your problems? Not according to self-made millionaire Horatio Alger Huntington-Ackerman. He is lonely and bored. His two brothers, Bart and Bernie, are mean and troublesome. His valet, Bentley, decides that a night at the theater is in order. Amazingly, Horatio attends and much to his delight falls in love with an actress. After a whirlwind courtship, Horatio and Mousey are married. With a child on the way, they decide to leave the city and settle into a luxurious life in the country.

The years pass and the family falls into a pattern of never leaving their country estate. Groceries are delivered and Bart and Bernie come each month for dinner. After one such evening, Horatio, Mousey and the housekeeper cannot be roused. The doctor checks them and determines that they are healthy but in a coma! Sandy, Horatio and Mousey’s son, hires a nurse to care for them. After being fed some of the leftovers, the pet chicken too becomes comatose. Bart and Bernie are furious that Sandy and Bentley are still awake and have the lawyers force Sandy to move the “sleepers” to a hospital or nursing home. Interestingly enough, there is such a place next door!

As time moves forward, Bentley tries to awaken the “sleepers” with different concoctions he creates. He uses the chicken as a guinea pig—she becomes blues, gets the hiccups and much more! Can Bentley truly cure them? Will Bart and Bernie finally win and get Horatio’s money? Can they all survive to see the end of the book?

Enjoy this great story and laugh at all the antics!


Beth, Highland Branch Library

Labels: Reviews by Beth, Young Adult

Nonfiction

Philip Williams reviews TRIED BY WAR: Abraham Lincoln As Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson (Penguin, 2008)

Leading Civil War Historian James McPherson offers this narrative of Abraham Lincoln’s role as Commander-In-Chief during America’s greatest time of crisis. With no real military background, Lincoln educated himself in military strategy and theory. He proved, during the course of the war, to have a better understanding than most of his generals of the military advantages the Union had over the South and the strategy needed to defeat it. Lincoln’s iron resolve to save the Union is known to all, but McPherson shows that by 1863 Lincoln had transformed the conflict into a War of Emancipation. Tried by War is certainly not a paean to Lincoln. McPherson does not gloss over the Lincoln’s controversial actions, namely Lincoln’s willingness to violate civil liberties during the war. But McPherson shows why Lincoln, despite facing monumental odds, was able to lead the United States to victory and establish himself as America’s greatest Commander-In-Chief.

Readers who enjoy Tried by War may also like McPherson’s one-volume history of the Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom.


Philip Williams, Cordova Branch Library

Labels: Nonfiction, Reviews by Philip Williams

Fiction/Suspense

Andrea King reviews STILL LIFE by Joy Fielding (Simon and Schuster, 2009)

I am a huge Joy Fielding fan. Ever since I checked out See Jane Run as a new, seven-day book many years ago and read it in a day, I have been hooked. I have read her entire collection and own a majority of her books. You can imagine my excitement when I got my hands on her latest novel, Still Life.

Interior designer Casey seems to have it all together--good looks, a loving husband, lifelong friends, and a small inheritance. But, as much work as it takes to "get it all together," it only takes a brief moment for everything to be shattered. And, in the one of most traumatic ways imaginable, Casey’s life is almost completely destroyed. There are no witnesses to the hit-and-run accident in which a SUV driver leaves her for dead in a parking garage. Casey has multiple broken bones and is in a coma.

Medical authorities are conflicted about whether Casey can hear what is going on around her while comatose. But the more Casey heals and hears, the more she realizes this hit-and-run was no accident. Most upsetting is her realization of who set up the crime.

Joy Fielding will have readers sitting on the edge of their seats with this story of suspense and intrigue. This reviewer stayed up until 2:00 a.m. to finish the book because it’s just that good!


Andrea King, Poplar-White Station Branch Library

Labels: Reviews by Andrea King, Suspense

Fiction/Suspense

Beth reviews CROSS COUNTRY: A Novel by James Patterson (Little, Brown & Company, 2008)

I admit it; I’m a huge James Patterson fan. I’ve read almost all of his novels, young adult titles included! Cross Country is a little different than his usual Alex Cross novels.

Alex Cross is usually a slow-to-act detective who relies on his intellect. He's worked with the best and has become the best. But in this novel he’s thrown off course by the grisly murder of his first real love, Ellie Cox, and her family. It appears to be a senseless act of violence until other families are murdered in a similar fashion. Alex comes to learn that “the Tiger” is responsible for these murders. Alex takes these murders to heart and decides to follow the Tiger to Africa in search of justice for Ellie and all those that the Tiger has murdered.

What Alex doesn’t realize is that many people in Africa resent his presence. In Nigeria he encounters many corrupt government officials and confronts the horror that they bring—to him and to their people. Will Alex be able to find the Tiger and bring him to justice or will the Tiger and his gang of murderous lost boys best our favorite detective?

This novel depicts the dire situation in places like Darfur and the diamond mines of Sierra Leone. It is very graphic.


Beth, Highland Branch

Labels: Reviews by Beth, Suspense

Since the movie recently came out on DVD and with many fans having finished the series, Beth from Highland Branch Library recommends the following titles for readers who enjoyed Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT.

Anderson, M.T. THIRSTY
From the moment he knows that he is destined to be a vampire, Chris thirsts for the blood of people around him while also struggling to remain human.

Bray, Libba. A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England after many years in India to attend a finishing school. There she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

Cole, Stephen. WOUNDED
Sixteen-year-old Tom Anderson and seventeen-year-old Kate Folan try to escape Kate's werewolf family--and fight becoming werewolves themselves--by making a cross-country journey in search of a mysterious man who might have a cure.

Cruz, Melissa De La. BLUE BLOODS
A group of teenagers from some of New York City’s wealthiest and most socially prominent families learn a startling secret about their bloodlines.

Hahn, Mary Downing. LOOK FOR ME BY MOONLIGHT
While staying at the remote and reputedly haunted Maine inn run by her father and pregnant stepmother, sixteen-year-old Cynda feels increasingly isolated from her father's new family and finds solace in the attentions of a charming but mysterious guest.

Jones, Frewin. THE FAERIE PATH
Anita, an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl, is transported from modern-day London to the realm of Faerie where she discovers that she is Princess Tania, the long-lost daughter of King Oberon and Queen Titania.

Klause, Annette Curtis. THE SILVER KISS
A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoe come to terms with her mother’s terminal illness.

Pierce, Meredith Ann. THE DARKANGEL
The servant girl Aeriel must choose between destroying her vampire master for his evil deeds or saving him for the sake of his beauty and the spark of goodness she has seen in him.

Schreiber, Ellen. VAMPIRE KISSES
Sixteen-year-old Raven, an outcast who always wears black and hopes to become a vampire some day, falls in love with the mysterious new boy in town, eager to find out if he can make her dreams come true.

Smith, Cynthia Leitich. TANTALIZE
When multiple murders in Austin, Texas threaten the grand re-opening of her adopted family's vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love-interest, Keiren, a werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect.

Smith, L.J. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SERIES
The tale of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.

Vande Velde, Vivian. COMPANIONS OF THE NIGHT
When sixteen-year-old Kerry Nowicki helps a young man escape from a group of men who claim he is a vampire, she finds herself faced with some bizarre and dangerous choices.

Westerfeld, Scott. PEEPS
Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected.

Labels: Reviews by Beth, Young Adult