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(originally posted on September 6, 2007)
I want to write like Oliver Sacks, but I know I can't. So instead I can only sink into the world of neurological wonders and failures, as applied here to the musical realm. Here are stories of joy and heartbreak, of confusion and of befuddlement, but most of all, of the singular power of music to transform people's lives - and what happens when that power disappears or is altered completely.
(originally posted on September 6, 2007)
So we come to the last of the Killer Year debut authors with a book out, and J.T. Ellison makes her mark right away. Taylor Jackson and John Baldwin have a believable relationship that she introduces right away without fanfare, and the serial killer hunt has some unexpected surprises. Most of all, Ellison introduces us to Nashville, its glories and warts on full display.
(originally posted on September 6, 2007)
It takes serious guts to open a series installment with the main character in serious enough jeopardy that her future is in doubt, but then Sharp turns that scenario on its ear in depicting Charlie's protection of a new British millionairess and how everything goes horribly wrong. The action is relentless and Charlie is a heroine of extreme toughness without sacrificing her humanity. This is, easily, the best installment of the series.
(originally posted on September 6, 2007)
Four words: Go Buy This Book. I mean, my friggin' blurb's on the Amazon page, which is trippy enough, but really, it's all about Dave White and Jackson Donne and how he's already a top-notch storyteller with so much more in store. Need I say more?
(originally posted on August 16, 2007)
Already, Nikitas has a stylish, assured voice that depicts his characters in every harsh, flattering, beautiful light and shows how a single, seemingly random event has the effect of converging the lives of disparate and damaged people. Perhaps PYRES owes a little too much to Joyce Carol Oates, but I'm looking forward to seeing full-blown Nikitas in future novels.
(originally posted on August 16, 2007)
This is just about my perfect travel read: full of adventure, history and a ton of music, Romano-Lax's debut novel jumps off of early 20th century Spanish history and casts it through the eyes of Feliu, the young would-be cellist whose ownership of a bow carries him across the country to fame and fortune and a rivalry/friendship with pianist Justo.
(originally posted on August 16, 2007)
I recommended this plenty when the UK edition was released last year but now that the hardcover image from the US edition - which isn't out till January - is up, I wanted to recommend this book again for its sheer and total awesomeness.
(originally posted on August 16, 2007)
At the time of this writing I'm in the midst of a serious Christensen binge (her previous novel, THE EPICURE'S LAMENT, is brilliant in staggering quantities.) This, her fourth novel, is a multi-viewpoint extravaganza of strong women in their 70s and 80s bound by complex love of Oscar Feldman, a notorious artist dead for several years and still the main character of the book. Sumptuous and tart - with lots of mouth-watering recipes and odes to living well in old age - THE GREAT MAN well deserves the many accolades heaped upon it of late.
(originally posted on August 16, 2007)
King won a major prize in her native New Zealand for this debut and it's understandable as to why: there's a frayed love story, a chilling mystery and a sense of epic adventure as amateur naturalist Thomas Edgar leaves England in search of elusive butterflies and gets caught up in island rhythms sensual and dangerous. If a book gets me completely lost in its world, of course I have to tell people to read it.
