Hi all,
Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the US have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:
"Thursday Next: First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde - "Thursday
Next: First Among Sequels" brings back Thursday Next, who, as far as
her family knows, is now working in the carpet business. The carpet
company, though, is just a front for her continuing Jurisfiction work
in BookWorld. It's a world where time and history are elastic and
Thursday must prevent chaos within the literary world. Assassins are
trying to kill her, the Thursday Nexts from the previous novels are
trying to change places with her, The Goliath Cor****ation wants to
turn books into tourist traps and change literature into reality
shows, the government is running a high Stupidity Surplus, and her
teenage son's unwillingness to shower might have global implications.
It's classic Jasper Fforde and "Thursday Next: First Among Sequels"
has received positive reviews with the San Francisco Chronicle saying,
"It's an ingenious premise that makes for a thrill ride of a read. And
it's not entirely necessary - though perhaps more fun - to read the
books in the proper order. Fforde gives enough background in 'Thursday
Next' to inform readers of all they need to know to find both books
hilarious, exhilarating and just a bit exhausting."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/thursday_next_first_among_sequels
"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones - "Mister Pip" is set in the 1990s during
the blockade of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. The novel is
narrated by a girl named Matilda, whose father has left the island.
The blockade has also forced all the white people to leave, except for
one man, Mr. Watts, who stays behind to teach the children. The
village is surrounded by both government and rebel troops, but each
day Mr. Watts reads Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" to the
children. The children are enthralled by the story, especially with
the character Pip. When the only copy of the book disappears, the
children try to re-create the book from memory. Matilda so identifies
with Pip that she writes his name in the sand on the beach. This
convinces the government soldiers that Pip must be a rebel spy, and
they come into the village determined to find Mister Pip. Lloyd
Jones' novel has already won the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize and
has received a Man Booker Prize nomination. The Independent says,
"Rarely, though, can any novel have combined charm, horror and uplift
in quite such superabundance."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/mister_pip
Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the UK have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:
"Self Help" by Edward Docx - "Self Help" begins with Maria Glover
summoning her son to St. Petersburg, but she dies before he can
arrive. Gabriel, a journalist for a self-help magazine, and his twin
sister, Isabella, mourn their mother that had bound the family
together. They blame their abusive and philandering father, now
living in Paris with his male lover, for their mother's death. She
had been a Russian defector who came to London, married, had a family,
and then returned to St. Petersburg after the fall of the Soviet
Union. She had an illegitimate Russian son named Arkady, a pianist
who decides the family he's never known should provide for him.
Maria's death forces them all to confront their own lives. Edward
Docx's novel has received positive reviews and a Man Booker Prize
nomination with The Guardian saying, "Readers in search of gleamingly
polished novels should look elsewhere; but for those who want a
gripping read that will sometimes make them feel quarrelsome but far
more often engage, delight and engross them, 'Self Help' will do
nicely."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/self_help
"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones - see above
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/mister_pip
Happy reading!
Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
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