Friday

Evolution of the book -

Very interesting article about books, reading, and interactivity and the eBook. BTW, the library has just purchased 3 'New' Nooks that will be available for borrowing shortly. Watch this space.

Monday

Patron Book Reviews

Orangeburg patrons read these books for the Summer Reading Raffle, and had this to say . . .

Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld


Lame title but clever writing. Fun coming of age story.





Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest




A brilliant memoir by a young, talented woman who is self-destructive, attempts suicide and is saved by a wise psychiatrist. Accounts of their sessions are fascinating. An outstanding book!




Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas



Heartwarming and uplifting!





Oogy by Larry Levin



Sweet book -- can be finished in a hour.






I'll Walk Alone by Mary Higgins Clark



Lot's of characters and twists -- fun read!





Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
This is the final, satisfying volume in The Hunger Games trilogy. I was sorry to come to the end of the journey, the conclusion of this well-written dystopian series. Don't be put off by the YA (Young Adult) label.





Groundswell by Katie Lee


Entertaining, fast read, twist to the ending!






Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman


Another Alex Delaware mystery. Pretty similar to the others with convoluted plot and more false leads than real ones. The good part is that Kellerman writes very well and his characters are more itneresting than his plot lines. A pretty good summer read.



Elizabeth I by Margaret George



This is an excellent novel that brings vividly to life the court of Elizabeth I, filled with the great men of that age -- Shakespeare, Spenser, Drake, Marlowe, and many others. It does justice to history, but manages to tell a fascinating story as well.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery





Very good with much to think about. Well written. My only criticism is that for a book that criticizes pretension is is sometimes pretentious itself. Worth reading!


Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I missed the book blub session on Cutting for Stone but it was highly recommended so I read it anyway. This was a magnificent sweep of a novel, historically accurate and absorbing. The characters were sympathetic and real and the story never faltered. The first person narrative only missed the mark when the main character described events that happened when he was comatose and never told us how he got his information. A minor flaw in a gripping novel.


Hardball by Sara Paretsky



This book features V.I. Warshawski, the author's female private eye character. Racial tensions and police corruption in Chicago are portrayed realistically. The book is listed among NPR's 100 best thrillers, as voted by the readers.



The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage



Pithy, funny, laugh out loud, sardonic, acerbic, etc. -- so gloomy it's brilliant




Watch Me Die by Erica Spindler






Couldn't put it down -- sorry when I finished it!



Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis



This is the fifth in a series of mysteries set in the Vienna of 1903. Detective Inspector Oskar Reinhardt and Dr. Max Liebermann, a disciple of Sigmund Freud, tackle a series of murders while revealing aspects of Vienna's social, political, and musical profile. This book delves into psychosexual matters more deeply (and darkly) than the previous books.


Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made by Donna Grant and Virginia DeBerry


In this book, one of the characters makes a 10-year run of a career in the acting business, as assistant to a movie producer. Her childhood friend has a job working housekeeping in a hotel. In all, there are four main characters who are friends, but one gets shot, and the three remaining drift apart as they grow up. There is an interesting twist in this book, and as the title suggests, the characters have to deal with the outcomes of decisions they made early on.


High Profile by Robert Parker





Parker continues to amaze with this intriguing plot and characters and LOL humor.