The Secret Zoo Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a third grade teacher who is still reading this book to my class...and we are ADDICTED to it! It is one of the best books I have read to my class in a long time. The book is filled with descriptive language, suspense, and a lot of action and adventure. My students beg me to read more and more each day. We have had a lot of great discussions and have applied the story to many of our literacy lessons...especially with vocabulary. I can only imagine that with more exposure, this book is going to be a hit. I can even see it becoming a successful movie! We are looking forward to the next book in the series!

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Something strange is happening at the Clarksville City Zoo. Late at night, monkeys are scaling the walls and searching the neighborhood— but what are they looking for?

Noah, his sister Megan, and their best friends, Richie and Ella, live next door to the zoo. Megan is the first to notice the puzzling behavior of some of the animals. One day Megan disappears, and her brother and their friends realize it's up to them to find her. Their only choice is to follow a series of clues and sneak into the zoo. But once inside, will they discover there's much more to the Clarksville City Zoo than they could ever have guessed?

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Koontz: Three Complete Novels: Cold Fire; Hideaway; The Key to Midnight Review

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(More customer reviews)I have read many of Dean Koontz's books, my favorites being "Fear Nothing," "Sole Survivor," and "Strangers".I really enjoy how his hits are being published in sets of three now, and I recomend that more readers will start exploring these new sets.(except for those people who start reading and can't finish till its done, because they wouldn't be able to sleep for a while reading all three stories in a row) My favorite story out of this set would have to be "HideAway," for I, like many people, have a interest in death and the power of love. The other titles, "Cold Fire" and "Key to Midnight", are intense and extremely "well discriptive", as are all of his books. I would recomend this "set" to any reader who has read at least a book or two by Koontz, for the newly-reads will need to have some experiance in intense/mystery. Well, i hope that this advice served you all well, and i wish the best for all of you Koontz readers, new and experianced!

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"Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but a literary juggler." --The Times (London). In this compilation of chilling tales, he continues to captivate with complex characters and riveting suspense. A psychic and a reporter do battle with an unseen enemy in Cold Fire, while Hideaway explores the meaning of death and the transcendent power of love. In The Key to Midnight, published in hardcover for the first time, a woman awakes to find that her identity and memories have been manufactured for her.

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Songs of Three Islands: A Story of Mental Illness in an Iconic American Family Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the story, narrative, journey of Millicent Monks. Call it what you will it is a fascinating story of, as she calls it "a story mental illness in an iconic American family." She is the great granddaughter of the brother of Andrew Carnegie. The book chronicles the lives of her mother herself and her daughter. As a therapist I found the book to be extremely engaging. Millicent chronicles the guilt and shame she experienced in being disengaged from a mother who at the best suffered from major depressive disorder and at the worst schizophrenia. Her mother is not alive to attempt diagnosis.
Millicent recounts that she was born at the end of the dpression which would put her roughly in her 80's at this point. The book is written with an excellent grasp of the history of one's family. Specifics and details abound.
Millicent (I feel I am so familiar with her life that I can refer to her by her first name) moves from her own life to the life of her daughter. Millicent posits a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder for Sandra her daughter. She chronicles the stays in various mental institutions and the ensuing alcohol abuse. This book is a study in the genetic/environmental transmission of mental illness. This disorder passed through three generations from grandmother to grand daughter.
If you appreciate excellent writing you will thoroughly enjoy this book. The detail, the vividness, the ethos is brought out in every word. Millicent's journey through mental affliction herself is a journey of courage hope and strength. The use of words places one in the very spot she is portraying and helps the reader to appreciate that she knows of what she speaks. In my humble opinion a true wordsmith crafted this book. I understand editorial contribution but I don't think an editor could have suggested or even written in the vividness that encapsulates this book. If you have any compassion for those who struggle with mental illness you owe it to yourself to be come acquainted with Millicent's journey. I highly, highly recommend the book

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Millicent Monks was born into one of the most famous families in America; her great-grandfather was the brother of Andrew Carnegie.Their fabled wealth enabled them to amass great houses and even private islands, but it was a dynasty torn apart by a succession of tragedies: suicide, alcoholism, and extremities of mental illness were passed on from generation to generation.For the women in the family, the consequences of this legacy have been painful. After a difficult childhood, the author's daughter was diagnosed at the age of eighteen with what is now known as borderline personality disorder, a debilitating mental illness that was for the parents-in the words of the novelist Sebastian Faulks-"a public shame as well as private devastation."Like all mothers of children afflicted with this condition, Monks suffered from guilt and self-recrimination as she struggled to heal a disease that had no cause but for which she was held responsible.In the end, through the intervention of a wise Jungian therapist, meditation, and-most important of all-acceptance, the author achieves a self-insight that enables her and her daughter to arrive at a delicate peace. Songs of Three Islands powerfully demonstrates that we are not defined by our inheritance alone.

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Lifeguarding: A Memoir of Secrets, Swimming, and the South Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow! I bought this book to read while I was traveling but got roped in and finished the book before my travels even really got under way -- each chapter leaving me curious to what came next. I read deep into the night (although I should have been packing and cleaning) and then finished it waiting for the first leg of my trip the next morning. I thought the book was a courageous, compelling telling of one family's story. While I didn't have the same experiences as the author, she did an excellent job of putting enough detail on different levels that I am sure many readers,like myself, will be able to connect with the story and the struggles. Silly superficial things like the gold shell/bear/lion belt buckles, oversized glasses, and three musketeers bars at the pool snack bar made me smile and transported me back to those days. Other things like her sister being the bossy big sis made me cringe --that was my role in life. Her various descriptions of living in her household brought tears to my eyes because to a certain degree, that was my life.
I read a lot of books about families and family dynamics (both fiction and non-fiction) and usually walk away with some new understanding or lesson. After finishing this book, I found it hard to get into the next two books (both fiction, and both very good books -- Memory Keeper's Daughter and Vanishing Acts). I guess life can be stranger (and much more powerful) than fiction! I thought Lifeguarding was terrific!


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Behind The Veil (International, Political, & Economic History) Review

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(More customer reviews)Written by Debra Johanyak, Behind the Veil: An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis is an outstanding personal testimony by a wife and mother with dual Iranian and American citizenship. Married to an Iranian man, she lived in Iran and taught English before and after the 1979 revolution, and watched the events of the American embassy hostage crisis with trepidation. Her husband's family embraced her warmly, yet the building pressure from Islamic fundamentalists placed heavy strain on her daily life and her hopes of staying. She also came to terms to her identity as a Christian in an Islamic country, and had to learn to balance acceptance of traditional customs with her own feminist values. Eventually, despite the support and good character of so many fellow individuals, she had to leave Iran due to threat of violence; Behind the Veil chronicles her physical and spiritual pilgrimage, her memories good and bad of the nation's people, and her insights into cultural and historical gulfs. Highly recommended for up-close and personal insight into Iran's dynamic character, as well as for the fascinating story of the author's search for her own path.

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Boneheads: My Search for T. Rex Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a fun read. Polsky has a knack of demystifying the worlds he exposes. First the art world and now the Paleontology world with BoneHeads. Although he doesn't find the elusive T. Rex (or does he?) he does find a crazy universe of denizens that rivals the motley crew most of us experienced in junior high!

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Richard Polsky's seriously hilarious new book Boneheads: My Search forT. Rex leads us deep into the South Dakota badlands where he discovers a losttribe -- the Boneheads -- and becomes one of them. This oddball group of dinosaur hunters is intent on bagging the Holy Grail of the profession -- a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Fewer than fifty skeletons have ever been found, but one of them brought $8.3 million at Sotheby's.Meet the Boneheads, a modern stone-age family: There's Stan and Steve Sacrisson, eccentric twins from South Dakota, with an uncanny sense for locating rexes. Though one is a gravedigger and the other sleeps in his car, the pair have discovered three of them. Then there's cowboy Bucky Derflinger who discovered two rexes and bought a cattle ranch with the million-dollar proceeds. And finally there's the tribe's monarch: Bob Detrich, a former male model and ball-bearing salesman who goes by the name Fossil King. Polsky goes into the field to follow a childhood obsession, only to learn that finding a dinosaur is a rocky journey. So come along with Richard Polsky as he gets out into the field in pursuit of a T. rex of his own. Or as the author puts it, "Let others hunt trilobites! I want the big one!"

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Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries Review

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(More customer reviews)Kurt Wallander, the intuitive inspector, first came upon the scene as a 42-year-old detective with many years of experience in the first novel in the series. After four more novels, Henning Mankell realized that what was missing was Wallander's background. So he started to write several short stories to fill in the blanks. Three more novels in the series appeared before the five short stories in this volume were completed.
In the first short story, we find Wallander in Malmo as a uniformed patrolman who bumbles his way into the investigation into the murder of his next door neighbor, the beginning of his career as a homicide detective. It is during this period that he meets and weds Mona. The next story takes the couple to Ystad and the birth of Linda, their daughter. It is, of course, where he spends the rest of his career. The stories trace the development of Wallander's instincts as well as his divorce, relationship with his father and growing daughter.
All the characteristics of the novels in the series are present in these short stories. It is essential history and embellishes Wallander's personality. Also, the common thread in all the novels, the deterioration of society, runs through the stories. This book is Mankell in top form. For Mankell/Wallander fans, a must read, and highly recommended.


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Stealing Buddha's Dinner: A Memoir Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is non-commital yet oddly angry and unsympathetic toward the narrator's kin: an ill-fitting immigrant step-mother, her ill-suited marraige and their whole patchwork family hold much potential for warmth and growth...but achieve none. Through the book I hoped for some grace, beauty or forgiveness - that the young narrator might find a connection to her family, her community or her nation(s).
At times there are glimpes of a connection, but in the end all of her self-pitiful assessments remain: her sisters were mean, father was distant, step-mother was an overly ambitious, class-confused control freak.
I'd hoped to learn that these fabulous, interesting people- her father, sisters, step-mother, and so-called friends (nothing more to her than ineffective stepping-stones to social success) actually had valid motives and had made valiant efforts, but in the end it was simple: they had not understood her and she had not understood them.
Most importantly, I learned that through her young life she'd been miserable. She'd wanted a lot of foods and other things she couldn't have, which was startlingly familiar to me because I was a kid at this time and I was poor too! I wanted all of those fabulous things like potato chips and soda-pop and barbie dolls, and I didn't get any of it either.
So perhaps this book is most eloquent as a story about growing up poor in America. Perhaps the difference between being a second generation immigrant and a fourth generation immigrant isn't so great as the difference between being poor and not being poor.
Or perhaps I read too much into this book, which may in fact just be about an angry girl who didn't know or get what she wanted.
If you're looking for an introduction into this time period and into an overlooked American population, or if you want an overview/example of the history and experience of Vietnamese/American refugee/immigrants, this is a good start...very simple and skimming the surface.
But for some really excellent and available Vietnamese literature, try "Novel without a Name" or "Paradise of the Blind" and for the Vietnamese-American experience, consider Le Ly Hayslip's "When Heaven & Earth Changed Places", for starters...for those who want to start with a little depth.


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An Affair of Honor (Honor Series) (The Honor Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)An excellent book in an excellent series. The purchase process, timely delivery, and condition of the book was also rather ironically an affair of honor. Very Pleased!

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At the beginning of this fifth novel in Robert N. Macomber's award-winning Honor Series, it's December 1873 and Lieutenant Peter Wake is the executive officer of the USS Omaha on dreary patrol in the West Indies. Lonely for his family, he is looking forward to returning home to Pensacola in a few months and rekindling his troubled marriage with Linda.But fate has other plans for Wake. He runs afoul of the Royal Navy in Antigua and a beautiful French woman enters his life in Martinique. Then he's suddenly sent off on staff assignment to Europe, where he is soon immersed in the cynical swirl of Old World politics. Wake finds himself running for his life after getting embroiled in a Spanish civil war. Then he gets caught up in diplomatic intrigue among the French, Germans, and British. But his real test comes when he and his old friend Sean Rork are sent on a no-win mission in northern Africa. Not the least of his troubles is Madame Catherine Faber de Champlain, wife of a French diplomat. Her many charms involve Peter Wake in an affair of honor.

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The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves & Other Little People Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was originally published in 1880 and is an excellent history of the shaping of Faerie. It starts with the origin of the term and then documents the development of the ideas and tales of Fairies in many cultures. This book is full of summaries of stories, portions of text in their original language (some of which also appear translated), footnotes to naming conventions, pronunciations, criticisms, etc. I agree with the other reviewer that this book is not for everyone and in many cases is a tough read, but it is well worth it. In short, this would be a great textbook for a class on the history of Faerie.

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A fascinating compendium of folklore, superstitions, and mythology surrounding the 'little people', including discussions of fairy tradition as it appears in great works of English literature.

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Selected Stories by Fritz Leiber Review

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(More customer reviews)None of the earliest reviews of this book are about "Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories". Two are apparently of the 1970's "Best of Fritz Leiber". The third claims to be a review of "Selected Stories", but the contents are wrong. The contents of this book are:
Smoke Ghost
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes
Coming Attraction
A Pail of Air
A Deskful of Girls
Space Time for Springers
Ill Met in Lankhmar
Four Ghosts in Hamlet
Gonna Roll the Bones
The Inner Circles (aka The Winter Flies)
America the Beautiful
Bazaar of the Bizarre
Midnight by the Morphy Watch
Belsen Express
Catch That Zeppelin!
Horrible Imaginings
The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars
These are all good stories and well representative of Leiber's short fiction output. I've read and enjoyed at least 13 of the 17 stories included. They range from SF to fantasy to horror and virtually all are among the best the field has to offer. Night Shade is a relatively small press and there were probably not a lot of copies printed. Get this book while you can.

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We Brake for Joy Review

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(More customer reviews)This devotional book really brings joy to the heart. It truly is the best that I have ever read. The authors write from the heart and deal with everyday real life situations. Thanks ladies for your inspiration.

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90 devotions from some of America's best loved authors to help women bring back the joy.

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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)It is always cause for celebration when a debut author bursts on the scene with an original and whimsical novel that is bound to capture attention. And this novel -- Major Pettigrew's Last Stand -- has much to recommend it.
Major Pettigrew is a very proper and delightfully droll widower of 68 who resides in the quaint village of Edgecombe St. Mary in Sussex, England. He is the father of Roger, a posturing and preening young man who has incorporated none of the values of his dad. And he is also the accidental suitor of the proprietress of the village mini-mart, Jasmina Ali, a 50-something Pakistani widow who shares his love of Kipling and his wry look at the world in which they both reside. The two of them -- the quintessential local and the attractive outsider -- must navigate the gossip and outright prejudice of their stilted society. Helen Simonson writes, "He (the Major) had always assumed gossip to be the malicious whispering of uncomfortable truths, not the fabrication of absurdities. Was a life of careful, impeccable behavior not enough in a world where inventions were passed around as facts?"
This is by no means "chick lit", nor is it hard-hitting politically correct narrative, couched in fiction. It is a charming English comedy of manners -- in places, a laugh-out-loud comedy. A scene, for example, where the atrocities of Pakistani Partition are reduced to a bad-taste dinner show or where the favored ducks of schoolchildren are chosen as prey for a duck hunt are satirical and spot-on.
Yet despite its gentle humor, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand touches on many of the big issues: the clash of culture and religions, the greed of unbridaled globalization, the tension between fathers and sons...and families in general. At its heart, though, it is an old-fashioned love story. I couldn't help but stand by the sidelines rooting for the Major and his lady and keep my fingers crossed for their eventual coupling. The book is an ode for anyone who refuses to give up on life or love at any stage of life. For those who love the charm of the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", you're in for yet another treat.

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Deadly Indian Summer: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)"Deadly Indian Summer" is a well-crafted novel that combines the author's knowledge of the American Southwest, Indian culture, medicine and the ways of Washington DC. This is a compelling story that only gets better as you read on. The characters are vivid - particularly the main character - a doctor who is haunted by his past and struggles to combine his skills with ancient Indian ways. Schonberg shows great respect for Native American culture and beliefs. He also has the necessary ingredients for a thoroughly modern thriller.

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A Season of Night: New Orleans Life after Katrina Review

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(More customer reviews)I thoroughly enjoyed "A Season of Night: New Orleans After Katrina". It is one of those rare books that compel the reader to finish it in one sitting. It's descriptions of the surreal, tragic, and sometimes humorous events make it hard to believe this is non-fiction.
McNulty has a true gift. His recounting of his journey back to Mid-City grabs the emotions of his readers and has everyone "feeling" his book. He has done a remarkable job relating the tragedy of Katrina to those
who only watched it on TV or read about it in the newspaper. He has done a great service to his City and his fellow survivors. As one of millions of people who only experienced Katrina through the media McNulty's book gives a true human perspective.
"A Season of Night" will be high on my recommendation list for "must reads" this summer.

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For many months after Hurricane Katrina, life in New Orleans meant negotiating streets strewn with debris and patrolled by the United States Army. Most of the city was without power. Emptied and ruined houses, businesses, schools, and churches stretched for miles through once thriving neighborhoods.
Almost immediately, however, die-hard New Orleanians began a homeward journey. A travelogue through this surreal landscape, A Season of Night: New Orleans Life after Katrina offers a deeply intimate, firsthand account of that homecoming. After the floodwaters drained, author Ian McNulty returned to live on the second floor of his wrecked house without electricity or neighbors. For months his sanity was writing this book on a laptop by candlelight.
By turns haunting, inspiring, and darkly comic, this memoir offers a behind-the-headlines story of resilience and renewal. From bittersweet camaraderie in the wreckage to depression and violent rampages in the lawless night to the first flickers of cultural revival and the explosive joy of a post-Katrina Mardi Gras, A Season of Night delivers an unprecedented tale from the wounded but always enthralling Crescent City. Learn more about the book and its author at http://www.seasonofnight.com/
Ian McNulty is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Gambit Weekly and New Orleans Magazine. He is the author of Hungry? Thirsty? New Orleans, a guidebook to restaurants and bars.

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Baby Is Three (The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Book 6) Review

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(More customer reviews)Baby Is Three is the wonderful sixth volume in the Sturgeon collection. The collection is organized chronologically by story creation date. Having read and enjoyed the first five volumes, it was hard for me to imagine that I could possibly like Baby Is Three even better. But I did! Sturgeon's writing shows an impressive maturity of idea and flow in this volume, and Paul Williams' story notes kept me flipping to the back of the book to read about what was happening in Sturgeon's life at the time he penned each story. As a psychologist who is also a science-fiction fan, I enjoyed the intra- and interpersonal dynamics within each story, as well as the opportunity to understand and deconstruct the context in which Sturgeon wrote the stories, as offered by Williams' story notes. A bonus: two of Sturgeon's own short, autobiographical pieces are included at the end. For those who love science fiction that is thoughtful, playful, and psychologically based, Baby Is Three is a must-read. And for those who have read Sturgeon's well-known More Than Human, Baby Is Three will add to your understanding and appreciation of that tale, as well.

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Baby Is Three is the sixth volume in the series devoted to the complete works of one of science fiction's titans. Like others in the series, this one includes extensive notes and background information on each story by editor Paul Williams. The early 1950s, during which this material was written, was the beginning of Sturgeon's greatest creative period. The title story for this collection was later expanded into the International Fantasy Award winning novel More Than Human. Sturgeon's whimsical, sardonic sense of humor lifts his work out of the mundane realm of genre science fiction. This wide-ranging collection shows precisely why he has been cited as a primary influence by authors as varied as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and Carl Sagan.

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The Dragons of Springplace Review

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(More customer reviews)I understand those who say they don't write SF like they used to. Reed shows they do it better. The style of the New Wave with the substance of the old. An important author who will be huge in the next decade. I assure you. His stories are like action packed explosions that manage to make you think at the same time. SF has a future & he's a big part of it. Only Nancy Kress, & Baxter will be as big or bigger.

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