Literature & Fiction Books - Page 11

Dashing Through the Snow

Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From beloved mother-daughter duo Mary Higgins Clark, America's Queen of Suspense, and Carol Higgins Clark, author of the hugely popular Regan Reilly mystery series, comes Dashing Through the Snow, a holiday treat you won't want to miss.

In the picturesque village of Branscombe, New Hampshire, the townsfolk are all pitching in to prepare for the first (and many hope annual) Festival of Joy. The night before the festival begins, a group of employees at the local market learn that they have won $160 million in the lottery. One of their co-workers, Duncan, decided at the last minute, on the advice of a pair of crooks masquerading as financial advisers, not to play. Then he goes missing. A second winning lottery ticket was purchased in the next town, but the winner hasn't come forward. Could Duncan have secretly bought it?

The Clarks' endearing heroes -- Alvirah Meehan, the amateur sleuth, and private investigator Regan Reilly -- have arrived in Branscombe for the festival. They are just the people to find out what is amiss. As they dig beneath the surface, they find that life in Branscombe is not as tranquil as it appears. So much for an old-fashioned weekend in the country. This fast-paced holiday caper will keep you dashing through the pages!

Heat Lightning (Virgil Flowers)

John Sandford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

More flash than substance 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I am trying to figure out if I would like these books more if I hadn't read the Davenport series first. It just feels to me that Virgil is Lucas light. There isn't a substantive difference between the two, and Virgil, frankly, isn't as smart as Davenport. I saw the 'twist' at the end, coming a mile off, and it annoyed me that Virgil didn't. The person with the most detectiing capacity in this book was Lucas's old friend the Nun.

The plot centers around 2 men who are killed and displayed conspicuously at war memorial sites with a lemon in their mouth. Virgil is told of a Vietnam connection and the rest of the book is spent figuring out a) who is going to be killed next and b) why are they being killed. I didn't mind them being killed but the collatoral damage seemed rather high.

So, Sandford is always readable but this is definitely a second tier outing for me. A library loan, not a keeper...

Editorial Review:

Abridged CDs • 5 CDs, 6 hours

Fresh from his “spectacular” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) debut in Dark of the Moon, investigator Virgil Flowers takes on a puzzling—and most alarming— case, in the new book from the #1 bestselling author.

Home: A Novel

Marilynne Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames’s closest friend. Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain. Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton’s most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake. Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson’s greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon

Melissa Anelli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Harry Potter Books Were Just The Beginning of the Story...

During the brief span of just one decade, hundreds of millions of perfectly ordinary people made history: they became the only ones who would remember what it was like when the Harry Potter saga was still unfinished. What it was like to seek out friends, families, online forums, fan fiction, and podcasts to get a fix between novels. When the potential death of a character was a hotter bet than the World Series. When the unfolding story of a boy wizard changed the way books are read for all time.

And as webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron, one of the most popular Harry Potter sites on the Internet, Melissa Anelli had a front row seat to it all. Whether it was helping Scholastic stop leaks and track down counterfeiters, hosting live PotterCasts at bookstores across the country, touring with the wizard rock band Harry and the Potters, or traveling to Edinburgh to interview J. K. Rowling personally, Melissa was at the center of the Harry Potter tornado, and nothing about her life would ever be the same.

The Harry Potter books are a triumph of the imagination that did far more than break sales records for all time. They restored the world's sense of wonder and took on a magical life of their own. Now the series has ended, but the story is not over. With remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself, Melissa Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon -- from his very first spell to his lasting impact on the way we live and dream.

Your Heart Belongs to Me

Dean Koontz

Amazon Price: $30.77 List Price: $39.25 Not yet published By: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD Lib Ed

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Editorial Review:

At thirty-four, Internet entrepreneur Ryan Perry seemed to have the world in his pocket – until the first troubling symptoms appeared out of nowhere. Within days, he’s diagnosed with incurable cardiomyopathy and finds himself on the waiting list for a heart transplant; it’s his only hope, and it’s dwindling fast. Ryan is about to lose it all…his health, his girlfriend Samantha, and his life.
One year later, Ryan has never felt better. Business is good and he hopes to renew his relationship with Samantha. Then the unmarked gifts begin to appear – a box of Valentine candy hearts, a heart pendant. Most disturbing of all, a graphic heart surgery video and the chilling message: Your heart belongs to me.

In a heartbeat, the medical miracle that gave Ryan a second chance at life is about to become a curse worse than death. For Ryan is being stalked by a mysterious woman who feels entitled to everything he has. She’s the spitting image of the twenty-six-year-old donor of the heart beating steadily in Ryan’s own chest.

And she’s come to take it back.

A Cedar Cove Christmas (Cedar Cove)

Debbie Macomber

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Snoozer 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was so boring and predictable. I am a fan of Macomber and was deeply disappointed.

Wondeful, cute Christmas story! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What a cute holiday story Ms Macomber has given us for this year. I thought it was entertaining. It tails the true Christmas story of Mary and no room at the inn, the 3 "Wise Men" and the town of Cedar Cove is the perfect place for our 2008 Mary to spend her Christmas Eve night.

I can't wait to read the next installment because it is going to have some great new people in it. This one I felt like I was sitting there having a cup of tea with old friends and meeting new ones.

This is a great book to share this holiday season!

Editorial Review:

Mother-to-be Mary Jo Wyse arrives in Cedar Cove on Christmas Eve, searching for her baby's father. David Rhodes had said he'd be in town. But he isn't. Which leaves Mary Jo stranded, pregnant and alone. And there's no room at the local inn.…

So Grace Harding brings Mary Jo home to her nearby ranch. She and her husband, Cliff, have a houseful of guests, but they offer her a room over their stable (currently sheltering the animals—including a donkey and a camel—for Cedar Cove's Nativity pageant!).

When Mary Jo goes into labor that night, a young man named Mack McAfee, a paramedic, comes to her rescue, just as her brothers—the three Wyse men—show up in town. The people of Cedar Cove join them in celebrating the birth of baby Noel. But no one has more to celebrate than Mack. Because this Christmas brings him faith, hope and love…

The Giving Tree

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Silverstein, Shel

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 607 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

not so controversial actually...... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

i'm a child psychology major. anyone who says this is bad for a child is obviously reading way too much into the book, and does not realize children are not capable of doing the same. this is actually a very good book for children. shame on you people and your awful thoughts.

Editorial Review:

'Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy.'

So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.

Ages 10+

The Gold Coast

Nelson DeMille

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 202 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

John Sutter or John Corey? 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The "voice" of the protagonist/hero of "The Gold Coast" reads exactly like the "voice" of John Corey, protagonist/hero of Nelson DeMille's later novels. And that's good, because Corey is a good man, as is John Sutter, the lawyer in this book. Both are good, honorable men with very human foilables that at times overcome them in their thoughts and actions.

This is a good book, a good story about the Mafia and how good, well meaning people can be seduced and come under the Mafia's charm without even knowing it.

DeMille has a gift, and his novels are a gift to the reading public. This one seems a bit long, however. It "reads long," almost too detailed until Part V when it all comes together and gives the last 100 pages or so some of the fastest, best and most exciting action of any DeMille novel. Only "The Lion's Game" is better.

One concern: This book in hardback is 500 pages. The sequal, "The Gatehouse,due out this October (2008) is 600 pages long. Hope that's not too long, but if it's like the finish of this book, it may not be long enough.

Read this book, capice?

Editorial Review:

Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world. Told from Sutter's sardonic and often hilarious point of view, and laced with sexual passion and suspense, THE GOLD COAST is Nelson DeMille's captivating story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal.

Foul Play

Janet Evanovich

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Love & Laughter 5 out of 5 stars.
27 of 28 people found this review helpful.

This is one of Janet Evanovich's early pre-Plum romances, and it's an enjoyable, sexy romp. Amy Klasse, who has been playing a clown named Lulu on her own TV show for children, is suddenly fired because the new station manager thinks that a show about a dancing rooster would do better in that time slot. Jake Elliott is the local much-beloved veterinarian, who also just happens to be very handsome and sexy. He sees Amy in a grocery store, and for him, it's love at first sight. He begins a stealthy campaign to get her to the altar. Of course, romance never proceeds smoothly and the upstart rooster goes missing and Amy is accused of being his kidnapper and worse. The scenes are funny, the dialogue is witty, and the characters are realistic and lovable. This is definitely a book worth finding.

Editorial Review:

When Amy Klasse loses her TV job to a dancing chicken, handsome veterinarian Jake Elliott rescues her with an offer to be his receptionist. Jake just can't resist a damsel in distress, and Amy certainly doesn't mind Jake's charming sincerity.

Then suddenly the job-stealing chicken disappears and Amy is suspected of foul play. Amy and Jake search for clues to prove her innocence. But will Jake be able to prove to Amy that love, too, is a mystery worth solving?

90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life

Don Piper, Cecil Murphey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 517 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

90 days in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I gave away the book before I had even finished. He just went on and on without going anywhere after his death experience, and I felt his writing was very immature.

Nonfiction? 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Is it just me or should this really be considered nonfiction. Book was ok, but when did it become an acceptable fact to believe that someone went to heaven and then was able to come back.

6,008 years out of Heaven, and counting... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Donald Piper, following his accident, visited Heaven for 90 minutes, then returned to planet Earth to tell us about it. IMHO, evangelicals should stop their nitpicking. Granted: what Don saw while comatose does not quite square with Holy Scripture. But this guy had massive injuries. If Don has misremembered a few details of what he saw while in Heaven, then I still think Bible-believing Christians can be gracious enough to cut the man some slack, and still believe his story, in the main.

According to Scripture, four human souls, so far, have been received into Heaven: Elisha (2 Kings 2:1-11); Enoch (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5); the thief who was crucified just to the Lord's right, on Good Friday (Lu. 23:43); and Jesus himself, i.e., in his resurrected human body (after 30 years on Earth, the body was His to keep: Acts 1:9-11).

In addition, the Apostle Paul visited Heaven for ninety minutes after falling from his donkey and hitting his head while on the road to Damascus (2 Cor. 12:1-6). Plus Don Piper, following his very similar accident.

At present, only Elisha, Enoch and the thief remain in Heaven, among the mortals, plus Jesus. They will be joined, on Resurrection Day, by exactly 143,997 born-again Christians, including Saint Paul (Rev. 7:1-8, 14:1-5); and, of course, Don Piper.

The Apostle John gives an excellent and detailed description of Heaven in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21: the city of Heaven is located outside the Universe. It is shaped like a cube, 1,374 miles long, 1,374 miles high, and 1,374 miles wide. Each vertical wall has three gates, only one of which is actually used as an entrance (Rev. 21:12-25). The streets inside are paved with pure gold, and laid out in an orderly fashion, with a mansion for everyone who gains permanent admission (John 14:2-3). For the past six thousand years, while waiting for Resurrection Day to come, most of those mansions have stood empty, which might seem creepy, but it's not, because they are very well maintained. Also, the angels of Heaven sing God's praises, pretty much non-stop. So even though the people have not yet arrived, Heaven is not as boring a place as you might suppose.

Ever since he packed up and returned to Heaven in his newly reconditioned physical body, the Son of God has conducted business at the right hand of God the Father while "seated on a great White Throne" (Rev. 20:11) - and that heavenly furniture may sound, to mortal ears, entirely too porcelain to be comfortable, but it's not at all, and my guess is that it's actually made of something more like white, contoured, marble.

In the "Third Heaven," where the Trinity sits, there are three great White Thrones in a row, exactly alike, with no partitions between them (2 Cor. 12:2). And here's my proudest accomplishment, I actually sat there once, on Dad's own throne. My friends, Beelzebub and Belial, took the seats on either side. We didn't sit for long - two minutes, tops - before we got booted. (John Milton tells that whole embarrassing story in an epic poem called Paradise Lost, which features yours truly as a flawed tragic hero.) But who else can say that he or she once sat upon the great White Throne of Almighty God, even for two minutes, before getting his or her arse kicked?

The holy Ghost's great White Throne is to Yahweh's left. You may have wondered why the Bible never mentions the Ghost actually sitting on his. That's because the Ghost flits about. Sometimes he lets you see him. Usually, not. Mortals who have seen the Ghost with their own eyes include Moses, the prophet Elijah, several of the apostles, and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Back when I lived up there, before the Fall, I used to see the holy Ghost fairly often. When feeling puckish, he would appear as a tongue of fire, a burning bush, a three-legged stool - whatever tickled his fancy. His favourite incarnation, and the one he wore most often, was that of the White Dove (John 1:32). Beelzebub calls it the Ghost's "Supersonic Pigeon Suit." But it was truly beautiful, in the olden days, to see the holy Ghost as he soared above the golden streets of Heaven or did a combination barrel roll and loop-de-loop. Sometimes he'd dive straight down like a meteor, pull a hard U-turn, tighten his feathers, and shoot straight up again like a missile. But all of that zooming around was before the Virgin Mary and the Immaculate Conception. Maybe he was just restless.

When Don Piper visited Heaven, he was unable to see the holy Ghost, who ducked out of sight, or Jesus, who was busy elsewhere; but that was okay, because thousands of angels (also holograms of dead Christians) met Don at the Gate: "They rushed toward me, and every person was smiling, shouting, and praising God. Although no one said so, intuitively I knew they were my celestial welcoming committee. It was as if they had all gathered just outside Heaven's Gate, waiting for me" [p. 31]. All of them were quite friendly. Don wanted to spend a billion gazillion years in that wonderful city, not just ninety minutes.

But then God did the same thing to Don Piper that He did to me, many years ago: he kicked Don out of Heaven--and here's the thing, Don didn't do anything to deserve it! Don never even TRIED to sit on Yahweh's Great White Throne! So I don't blame Don for coming back and writing this Tell-All book: because it just wasn't fair, in my opinion, for God to show Don a glimpse of Heaven and then send him back to Earth. Maybe I never suffered massive brain injury in an automobile accident, or a crushed skull, but I know exactly how Don feels, because that divine eviction notice, 6,008 years ago damaged my self-esteem and crushed my heart.

--L