Contemporary Books - Page 7

Change of Heart: A Novel

Jodi Picoult

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 197 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a spellbinding tale of a mother's tragic loss and one man's last chance at gaining salvation.

Can we save ourselves, or do we rely on others to do it? Is what we believe always the truth?

One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. In short, waiting for a miracle to happen.

For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises. The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world. In a heartbeat, though, something happens that changes everything for him. Now, he has one last chance for salvation, and it lies with June's eleven-year-old daughter, Claire. But between Shay and Claire stretches an ocean of bitter regrets, past crimes, and the rage of a mother who has lost her child.

Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy's dying wish?

Once again, Jodi Picoult mesmerizes and enthralls readers with this story of redemption, justice, and love.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1): Special Edition

J.K. Rowling

By: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $18.06

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What in the world was I waiting for? 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Most decidedly curmudgeonly! Yes, that's it. One of the few remaining people on the planet who hadn't read any of the Harry Potter novels and, like Vernon Dursley, my initial reaction to all this wizard and magic rubbish was a very mugglish "stuff and nonsense". I admit it. As I read the first few pages, my initial thoughts were that this was all quite silly. Where had this Harry Potter phenomenon come from and what did everybody see in it?

But then, very quickly actually, JK Rowling, undoubtedly a graduate of Hogwarts herself, began to weave a most hypnotic magical spell and I was hooked. Transported to that child-like garden of delights at Hogwarts - a land of fantasy, witches, warlocks, trolls, spells, potions, charms and, for the readers, total enjoyment and smiles - I fell in love with Harry, Hermione, all of their Gryffindor classmates, and with Dumbledore's paternal wisdom and I cheered wildly as Harry, the team seeker, dove and swooped in quest of the Snitch during their quidditch matches.

There is a benefit, of course, to having waited so long to read my first Harry Potter novel, you know. I've got six to go and now I can pick them up, one after another, just as quickly as I want to with no waiting for years at a time for the next book to be published. Eat your hearts out everyone! I claim membership in the legion of Rowling's happy fans.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

A Most Wanted Man

John le Carre

Amazon Price: $18.48 List Price: $28.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 90 new & used starting at $9.50

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Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Thrillers -> Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 122 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

New spies with new loyalties, old spies with old ones; terror as the new mantra; decent people wanting to do good but caught in the moral maze; all the sound, rational reasons for doing the inhuman thing; the recognition that we cannot safely love or pity and remain good "patriots" -- this is the fabric of John le Carré's fiercely compelling and current novel A Most Wanted Man.

A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.

Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client's survival becomes more important to her than her own career -- or safety. In pursuit of Issa's mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Frères, a failing British bank based in Hamburg.

Annabel, Issa and Brue form an unlikely alliance -- and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the "War on Terror," the rival spies of Germany, England and America converge upon the innocents.

Thrilling, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times.

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin

Amazon Price: $9.75 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $4.77

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 201 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Find financial freedom in the new millennium with a new edition of the life-changing national bestseller

More than three-quarters of a million people everywhere, from all walks of life, have found the keys to gaining control of their money--and their lives--in this comprehensive and revolutionary book on money management. Considered the bible of the voluntary simplicity movement, Your Money or Your Life is now updated with a new Preface, Index, and Resource list to help you put the program into practice. This simple, nine-step program shows you how to:

* get out of debt and develop savings
* slow down the work-and-spend treadmill
* make values-based decisions about your spending
* save the planet while saving money

* Over three years on the Business Week bestseller list
* Your Money or Your Life made all major bestseller lists in hardcover and paperback, including the New York Times, USA Today, Business Week, Publishers Weekly, and Washington Post

The Friday Night Knitting Club

Kate Jacobs

Amazon Price: $10.78 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Trade Amazon Marketplace: 213 new & used starting at $2.96

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 223 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

I'd rather just knit 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love knitting, which is what attracted me to this book. A group of women gathered to do the hobby I enjoy most was a concept I couldn't pass up. After reading this book, though, I wish I could have. The story was yet another "single mom struggles to raise her child without any help" story. As another reviewer put it, I could have just watched a lifetime movie and got the same story in less than half the time. The characters were flat and generally uninteresting. I was well into chapter 10 before any excitement happened and even that was merely a ripple in life. If I was the author I would have frogged this piece long ago.

Editorial Review:

The New York Times bestselling sensation that's "Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan" (USA Today)-now in paperback.

Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered.

Luckily, Georgia's friends are there, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club: it's a sisterhood.

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1556 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Atlas may have shrugged, but I really cringed 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

** Spoiler Warning ***

Oh, boy, where do I start? First, let me say this: that hero of hers may have stopped the motor of the world, he certainly could not slow down Ayn Rand's FURIOUS typewriter. This edition has 1,168 pages in tiny fonts. It should have been, and easily could have been, condensed to 300-400 pages. At most.

As a literary work it is flawed. There is not much I want to add to what other reviewers have already commented: it is long, the characters are two-dimensional, the dialogs long and repetitive, etc.

The only good thing I can say about this book is that it exposes the hypocrisy of those "benevolent social planners". Read in light of our current times of government bailouts and "wealth spreading", it is eerily familiar (for this I give it more than the minimum 1 star).

But it is not a novel in the traditional sense, it is a vehicle for Ayn Rand to expound her philosophy. And expound she did, with a vengeance.

Maybe one day I will write a full review of her philosophy, which I think is also flawed (though it has some good elements). Why is it called "objectivism" anyway? It sounds more like "subjectivism" or "absolutism" to me: she views everything as black-or-white, there is no middle ground, and those who do not agree with her are branded "irrational".

Since this is a review of the book, let me focus on it now. It being a vehicle for her philosophy which presumably she wants the user to apply in real life, then the fictional world she constructs must be at least somewhat realistic. But it is not. It is populated with three types of people only: 1. the industrialists whose only goal is to maximize his or her profit; 2. hypocrites who pay lip service to the abstract concepts of "social justice", "equalization of opportunity", but whose real purpose is to restrict the freedom of the industrialists and 3. the gullible "public", waiting to be rescued by their heroes. Aside from the fact that there are more types of people in the real world, even the ones in the book are not believable. The villains are singlemindedly against the heroes, to the point of absurdity (and Ayn Rand thinks herself as the champion of reason). For example, why is Jim Taggart so against his sister's success when he is the president of the same company? He stands to profit from it! Yet he persistently tries to run his own company to the ground. All the villains are absurd caricatures in her book.

Even the "good guys" are not believable, and their relationships are just bizarre. Consider the following conversation between Rearden and Dagny, after they had sex for the first time (Keep in mind these are two main characters and heroes of the book, they went on to have a long relationship, which is fraught with contempt, despisement and violence).

Rearden: I want to you know this. What I feel for you is contempt. But it's nothing, compared to the contempt I feel for myself. I don't love you. I never loved anyone... I wanted you as one wants a whore .. You're as vile an animal as I am. .. I held it as my honor that I would never need anyone. I need you. ...
Dagny: I want you, Hank. I'm much of an animal than you think. .. You'll have me any time you wish, anywhere, on any terms. .. If I'm asked to name my proudest achievement, I will say: I have slept with Hand Rearden. I had earned it.

Yet this is supposed to be a model relationship between the good guys. Now ask yourself if you would speak like this and have a relationship on such grounds. And Dagny is supposed to be a driven, shrewd and rational businesswoman. Give me a break. With heroes like these, who needs villains?

Editorial Review:

At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.

With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.

* Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

J. K. Rowling

By: Raincoast Books Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $0.42

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3596 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Riddled With Riddles About Riddle 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Ms. Rowling has created another well-crafted adventure/mystery to the Harry Potter series. The reader will come to understand why and how Lord Voldemort became the evil, obsessed antagonist of the wizardry world. The author did a fine job of depicting the main teenage characters in an age-appropriate manner. Just like many 16-year-olds of this difficult age, some of Harry's, Ron's, and Hermoine's decisions are completely self-serving, unethical and, dare I say, meanspirited. Also, their puerile mood swings are very convincing and believable. A few new colorful characters are introduced as well as the enmity between Potter/Snape grows deeper and darker. There are smatterings of happy and funny moments, but for the most this book is pretty gloomy. Ms. Rowling has crafted a cliffhanger that easily will propel me into reading the last installment.

An incredible novel 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

With every Harry Potter installment, I find myself saying the new installment is my favorite of the series so far. Book 6 is no exception, and I think it is a credit to the author. The hopelessness and despair have increased in order for the readers to feel the plight of the characters. Starting with this book and continuing into the next, the reader feels the despair that afflicts the good wizard community. It has some similarities to World War II Germany. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, even if it was a bit gloomy.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

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Total reviews: 1695 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

if i could time travel, i'd go back and not read this book 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

First, I'll echo another reviewer and say it had useless scenes that didn't add to the story. Also, it seemed like everything was so extreme. I was fine buying into the time-travel deal. That's obvious. But, what was supposed to be realism was so fantastical. There were nothing slightly mundane, nothing NOT melodramatic. All emotions were heightened. I kind of felt like I was reading a romance novel that was dressed up as legitimate literature. It was pretty crass without it being about--I don't know--circus sleazebags. I guess...I didn't feel like the characters grew up enough. Last thing that bugged me. There's a servant/maid/cook in the Abshire home (Clare's parents) who is so ridiculously a black mammy stock character, it's kind of embarrassing to read. It's like the author hasn't much experience with non-whites. And the portrayal of the Korean nanny/friend isn't too much better.

Okay, one more thing. The friendships portrayed in this novel are so substandard. Those who are "best" friends are really...lacking in depth and trust. The friendships are shallow, empty, backstabbing, heartless, and selfish. All while being portrayed as genuine and good (enough?). Strange, really. Made wonder if the author has experienced any truly good relationships.

Now the good stuff. I loved the format. Reading both perspectives, jumping around in time, etc...that was well-done. I'm not a writer, so I don't know how difficult this was, but it was rather consistent. The rules for time travel, and the personal rules that the characters set for themselves are adhered to as far as I could tell. There were enough well-written sentences that helped me process my own thoughts and feelings, which actually made the title of this review not entirely true. I'm kind of glad I read it. But, I wouldn't recommend it highly to anyone.

Editorial Review:

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

Sea of Poppies: A Novel

Amitav Ghosh

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $16.99

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Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.  In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a freespirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races, and generations.  The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, the exotic backstreets of Canton. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, that makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive—a masterpiece from one of the world’s finest novelists.

The 13 Clocks

James Thurber

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Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

My favorite book, apparently in revival 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was the first book I ever remember, and the first book I could read to myself. I have read it out loud to many children, and hope to read it to future grandchildren. My copy, from 1950, sits with Darwin's Origin of Species, Ulysses, and the complete full size edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and I consider The 13 Clocks to hold its own against these masterpieces. I must have been about 6 when my father first read it to me, and it inspired me to learn to read myself. I named my doll Saralinda, but I have not had the courage to name a pet The Golux because it would be too important, almost a sacrilege.
In this new era, when I see small children using iPhones and plugged into video games, I hope that this new issue of Thurber's masterpiece and the publicity it has garnered will help at least a few parents to unplug the electronics, and just sit down to read out loud to their children. This book can be read to toddlers - the poetry and rhymes are like Seuss. It can be read to older, wiser 8-10 year olds because it is scary and melodious. And I have read parts of it out loud to 50 year olds, especially those with compassion fatigue, as there is no more clear literary example of burnout than Hagga, who went from crying diamonds to crying costume jewelry and rhinestones.
I am glad that others remember Thurber, and that a new generation can now appreciate what I consider to be the best children's book ever written.

Editorial Review:

How can anyone describe this book? It isn't a parable, a fairy story or a poem, but rather a mixture of all three. It is beautiful and it is comic. It is philosophical and it is cheery. What we suppose we are trying fumblingly to say is, in a word, that it is Thurber.



There are only a few reasons why everybody has always wanted to read this kind of story, but they are basic:



Everybody has always wanted to love a Princess.



Everybody has always wanted to be a Prince.



Everybody has always wanted the wicked Duke to be punished.



Everybody has always wanted to live happily ever after.



Too little of this kind of thing is going on in the world today. But all of it is going on valorously in The 13 Clocks.