Psychological & Suspense Books

Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1440 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good Read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book makes for a great read. 'Secret Life' provokes the reader to reflect on all of the positive changes that America has undergone since the 1960's. Additionally, any woman/little girl who has struggled to find her true identity can relate to Lily's plight. With that being said, however great the movie, I do not believe that the actresses chosen to portray the book's characters match each character's true essence. I am glad that I make it a point to read the book prior to watching the movie adaptation.

Editorial Review:

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Testimony: A Novel

Anita Shreve

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

As stimulating as it is sad 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

There's a reason we love police procedurals and courtroom dramas: they invite readers to plunge in, giving us a chance to look at the evidence, hear the witnesses and guess at what it all means. As the pieces accumulate, little by little a picture of the truth --- or of a truth --- emerges. For nail-biting tension, there's nothing to beat this sort of slow, tantalizing buildup.

Although TESTIMONY isn't exactly a mystery, its author, Anita Shreve --- a novelist so prolific that her consistency verges on the miraculous --- is a master of suspense. Her work is consistently fresh, intelligent and gripping, and she never fails to be in control of her material, which in this instance concerns a sexual assault case at the fictional Avery Academy, an upper-crust prep school in Vermont. One night after a dance, three boys, star basketball players, have sex with a 14-year-old girl. All four kids are very drunk. And there is a videotape.

TESTIMONY consists of just that: not transcripts from a court of law, but witness statements that dig into every nook and cranny of the crime (if it was a crime). Each chapter is from a different person's perspective, ranging from Mike, the school's headmaster, to the perpetrators themselves, the girl in question (it's uncertain whether she is seductress or victim, or both) and the beleaguered parents. Some pieces of evidence are in the form of letters, others are personal reminiscences; several are from interviews conducted a few years later by an academic researcher investigating "alcohol and the adolescent male." Together, jigsaw-puzzle-like, these voices tell us the story and its tragic denouement.

Although there are also accounts from more peripheral characters --- policemen, roommates, teammates, a worker in the Avery dining hall --- the students' relationships with their parents, as well as with quasi-parental figures like teachers or headmasters, are the most central. I think that any parent reading it (most likely a mother) will identify powerfully with the surprise and shock of these adults as they confront the sex, drugs and lies of their children's double lives.

Two of the three boys, you see, have always seemed like exemplary young men --- high morals, fine minds, all that --- so their behavior is completely out of character. They ruin themselves with one... what? Fit of anger and rebellion? Alcoholic frenzy? Stupid mistake? It's to Shreve's credit that she doesn't sew her ending into a neatly stitched explanation or indictment. Instead, efforts to contain the scandal vie with attempts to expose it, and clarity is lost in a swirl of rage, confusion and grief. Ambiguity is what TESTIMONY is all about.

Of the families, the one belonging to Silas, a local scholarship boy, is the most interesting. His father is a farmer, plain-spoken and radiating grim integrity (he never trusted Avery in the first place); his mother yearns for something more meaningful for herself and her son; and the boy himself is a thoughtful kid, ethical almost to a fault. In love with Noelle, a beautiful cellist, he is racked with self-loathing about what the incident will mean to their future, fearful that she will forgive him but never forget.

Some of the other characters are more clichéd --- the girl, Sienna, is portrayed as a sleazy little opportunist who lacks sensitivity or intelligence. But maybe Shreve is reminding us that it isn't just virtuous, reserved girls like Noelle who need protection.

And it isn't just jaded, amoral boys who take sexual advantage. In fact, there is nothing in the novel to suggest, reassuringly, that if teachers and parents paid attention and kids were raised properly, incidents like this would never happen. In that sense, Shreve's book ends rather bleakly, for how can institutions protect the innocent and nail the guilty when the line between the two is so murky?

But TESTIMONY is as stimulating as it is sad. A fascinating exercise in storytelling from multiple points of view --- with no editorializing from a third-person narrator --- it makes witnesses of its readers and challenges us to make up our own minds about what is true or false, good or bad. A vigorous and provocative book.

--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman

Editorial Review:

At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices--those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal--that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.

Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellinglyexplores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming innocents, the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.

Out Stealing Horses (Wheeler Large Print Book Series)

Per Petterson

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Total reviews: 101 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

In 1948, when he is fifteen, Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. The events — the accidental death of a child, his best friend’s feelings of guilt and eventual disappearance, his father’s decision to leave the family for another woman — will change his life forever. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon’s sudden breakdown. The tragedy that lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys’ families to gradually fall apart.

As a 67-year-old man, and following the death of his wife, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories of that year flooding back, and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone.
Per Petterson, defeated eight finalists, including Julian Barnes, J.M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie and Cormac McCarthy to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Out Stealing Horses.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lisa See

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 605 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (“women’s writing”). Some girls were paired with laotongs, “old sames,” in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become “old sames” at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 967 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fairy Tale 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ayn Rand created a real, modern fairy tale with The Fountainhead. It is hard to find a more honorable literary figure than Rand's creation of Howard Roark. The focus of the novel is mainly set on the true natures of people. You find those who manipulate, those who bully, those who parasite, and one who stands only for purity in how he sees the world. You will also surely be able to point out appropriate figures in your own life as the are archetyped here.

The relationships among the players are complicated and seem at times to be become completely contradictory. The result is that those who need to build a common concept of purity ultimately lose out to those who bravely and independently create their own.

You may come away from this book actually believing in the fairy tale that honesty and purity (in purpose) can truly lead to poverty, but happiness.

Editorial Review:

Howard Roark is an architect whose genius and integrity will not be comprised. He has ideas that work against conventional standards.

In the Woods (Thorndike Large Print Crime Scene)

Tana French

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 232 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Frustratingly disappointing 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I picked this book up on a whim, started reading, and couldn't put it down. I was absolutely enthralled for the first 99% of the book. I stayed up way past my normal bedtime to finish it and when I did, I thought maybe my book was missing a few pages.

This could have easily been the best book I've read all year, except there was no fulfillment at the end, just frustration,

I'm surprised how many people who reviewed this book are planning to purchase French's next book. I feel like she still owes me the remainder of the first one.

Too many unanswered questions - SPOILER 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Tana French's debut novel, 'In The Woods' left me with more questions than solved mysteries.

The book follows detective Adam Ryan as he works on a child murder case. The murder takes place in the childhood home town of detective Ryan. We also find out that Ryan's past is an unsolved mystery which seems to be connected to the current case.

As with some mysteries, the center portion of the book drags a bit. We get a lot of investigation and dead end leads. The way the suspect is found was abrupt. I liked the tie-in and motivation of the killer, but the ending left me longing for more closure.

We had a murderer who gets convicted, but the victim does not get full justice. Also, the long unsolved mystery that helps move the story along ends up a bust in the plot.

Editorial Review:

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

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Total reviews: 1610 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a wonderfully moving fable that addresses the meaning of life, and life after death, in the poignant way that made TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE such an astonishing book. The novel's protagonist is an elderly amusement park maintenance worker named Eddie who, while operating a ride called the 'Free Fall', dies while trying to save a young girl who gets in the way of a falling cart that hurtles to earth. Eddie goes to heaven, where he meets five people who were unexpectedly instrumental in some way in his life. While each guide takes him through heaven, Eddie learns a little bit more about what his time on earth meant, what he was supposed to have learned, and what his true purpose on earth was. Throughout there are dramatic flashbacks where we see scenes from his troubled childhood, his years in the army in the Philippines jungle, and with his first and only love, his wife Marguerite. THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is the perfect book to follow TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. Its compellingly affecting themes and lyrical writing will fascinate Mitch Albom's huge readership.

Fight Club: A Novel

Chuck Palahniuk

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Total reviews: 643 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With more than 300,000 copies sold, Chuck Palahniuk's brilliant first novel and cult classic is being reissued with a new Introduction by the author

An underground classic since its first publication in 1996, Fight Club is widely recognized as one of the most original and provocative novels of the last decade. Now the author adds his own voice to the critical debate he generated. In a new Introduction, he discusses the various interpretations in the popular media of Fight Club and the movie it inspired, as well as his personal reactions to the work's reception and the influence that the Fight Club phenomenon has already had on our culture.
Chuck Palahniuk's darkly funny first novel tells the story of a disenfranchised young man frustrated with his bureacratic job and superficial relationships and disillusioned with the consumer culture's prepackaged pleasures. Relief for him and his peers comes in the form of Tyler Durden, the intensely charismatic inventor of Fight Club. Waiters, clerks, and middlemen seek out the visceral satisfaction of secret after-hours boxing matches in the basements of bars, thinking they have found a way to live beyond their confining and stultifying lives. But in Tyler's world there are no rules, no limits, no brakes.

Asfixia / Choke (Literatura Mondadori / Mondadori Literature)

Chuck Palahniuk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 472 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An interesting book you'll never read again... 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I picked up Chuck Palahniuk's Choke after seeing the movie preview for the same title a few weeks ago. The movie preview made absolutely no sense, was hard to follow, and tough to summarize - as Palahniuk's novel would turn out to be. But the preview was intriguing enough for me to go out and buy the book, and I'm glad I did... sort of.

There really isn't much of a story line to Choke. The book centers on a drop-out med school student, Victor Mancini, who works at a colonial theme-park; fakes choking in restaurants to ultimately pay his mother's institutional bills; and is a raging sexaholic. In a strange twist, he also may be a direct descendant of Jesus Christ.

That pretty much sums up Choke.

The book doesn't so much present a linear story line, as it is a tale of self-discovery for Victor, who is trying to figure out his ancestry as well as why he is the way he is. Along this path, Palahniuk describes detailed sexual situations, gruesome medical conditions and creepy mental disorders that follow Victor from scene to scene. Palahniuk's descriptions are so vivid, in fact, that you'll start to wonder, "Could this ever happen to me...?" And you'll then quickly pray that it does not...

On the plus side, Choke is certainly interesting, moves quickly, and is very funny in some parts. You can knock this out in a long weekend or two, and it's an easy read, especially after trying to absorb The Unbearable Lightness of Being, as I did previously.

But along the same lines, there are better options out there if you're into books about 20- to 30-somethings looking for answers on the road through life.

Editorial Review:

Victor Mancini has devised a scam to pay for his mother's medical care: pretend to be choking on a piece of food in a restaurant and the person who "saves" you will feel responsible for the rest of their lives. Multiply that by a couple of hundred times and you generate a healthy income.

Life of Pi

Yann Martel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1842 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

So-so book 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I ventured out of my usual kind of reads for this book because of all the hype. It sounded kinda interesting. When I read the blurbs on it, I was expecting some kind of big epiphany from it. I'm disappointed in it, it was just a weird story that dragged on, and the back and forth in time thing was confusing. I've read other books with that technique that flowed well and were easy to follow. I am giving it three stars because Mr. Martel can obviously write, no shortage of talent there. There is also a decent amount of creativity in his book. The third star is me admitting that I bought this book because of the hype, so I won't punish it because it's not my usual taste. Honestly, the story is not that interesting, a lot of the scenes seemed pointless, and the big message of the book comes across weak and contrived. Like someone shoved it in hoping it would leave you in awe. It doesn't. I really don't get the big hoopla here. Wasn't time well-spent for me.

Editorial Review:

WINNER OF THE 2002 BOOKER PRIZE After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi -- a 16-year-old Indian boy. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.