In the Path of Falling Objects Review

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(More customer reviews)Brothers Jonah and Simon head out across the desert to find their father who is about to be released from prison in Arizona. Their mother has been gone for days, weeks even, perhaps, and their older brother is fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. It is 1970.
Enter Mitch and Lilly, a man and a girl, who pick the two hitchhikers up in a stylish and out-of-place convertible. Jonah is immediately drawn to the beautiful and flirtatious Lilly but feels wary of the unpredictable Mitch. Simon, on the other hand, is quick to please Mitch, enjoying his rakish intensity.
As Jonah struggles to put family first, he finds himself pitted against a man more dangerous than he could have ever imagined. The two boys soon find themselves hostage to the psychotic Mitch and they risk their lives to save Lilly and each other.
And then, of course, there is the gun.
Andrew Smith's In the Path of Falling Objects is an intense and nerve-wracking novel that intersperses Jonah's account of his and Simon's journey with letters from their older brother in Vietnam. The book begins with a shocking murder and the feeling of being trapped, of impending doom, of fear only increases the deeper you wade into this book. The tension is almost too much--I wish Andrew Smith had allowed for some space in the novel to breathe a sigh of relief and relax--but it all builds to a heart-stopping climax that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.
Be warned: there is much violence and death; Mitch is one of the most incredibly disturbing characters I have come across in YA fiction. Readers who like gritty, intense novels will want to give this a try. Everyone else should read this knowing it just might give you nightmares.


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The Aerialist: A Novel (Sewanee Writers' Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)THE AERIALIST begins ordinarily enough - with two hapless guys, one who dodges responsibility and the other dying of cancer, taking a joy ride in a car that's obviously a murder scene - but once this novel gets going, it takes an extraordinary leap. Gary joins a circus by whim and by accident, and later pulls his buddy Dave aboard. What they experience there (particularly what Gary, our narrator, does) becomes something both larger and more gritty than a circus show. Schmitt takes his readers through Gary's various jobs in the circus as well as describing a variety of others, giving me the impression, whether false or not, that Schmitt knows his material. From bull prodder to aerialist, Gary becomes the circus with all its quirks and desperate moments, its glitz and its manure, the odd comraderie behind the scenes as well as the machinations that make the audience ooh and aah. Gary and the supporting characters are well-drawn and compelling in their off-beat ways.
This debut is a literary gem. Its originality, well-written prose, and the deftness with which the characters are drawn will assure Richard Schmitt of a solid following.

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Isn't That Bigamy? Review

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You have just broken up with your girlfriend who leaves you in a busy restaurant with no way home, a tough waitress dumps a drink in your lap for no reason, and now you have to walk home with a wet crotch. If that is not enough, while walking across a bridge, you witness a mob hit quite by accident. This is what happens to womanizer Stan Smith in Mike Vogel's Isn't That Bigamy.
But wait, there is more. The waitress turns out to be Asian undercover agent and lesbian, Becky Li, who is charged with the ungrateful task of posing as Stan's wife in the witness protection program in Utah.
Through a series of events, witnessed from all points of view, Vogel takes us on an entertaining romp into fictional city, Tamarind, Utah, where Becky mistakenly takes Stan and where polygamy is not just practiced, it is the law. To attempt to blend in, Stan not only marries the mayor's daughter, whose twin has an unhealthy obsession with her, he marries the town lesbian, who has more than an eye for Becky.
And if things are not messy enough, Becky is recognized by the murderer's associate as she and Stan board the plane headed for Utah in the first place.
Vogel's writing engages the reader through multiple accounts of the same events. Isn't That Bigamy will also find a following in fans of Seinfeld, who enjoy a story that just snowballs into hell through a series of unfortunate coincidences.
The characters are brought to colorful life, with the exception of Stan, who remains nondescript throughout the novel. One would be hard pressed to remember Stan's hair color, let alone his physical appearance.
However, Stan's womanizing personality comes through loud and clear.
Isn't That Bigamy is a light, enjoyable, summer read.


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After witnessing the head of the Armenian crime syndicate murder a federal agent, an unabashed womanizer is placed in the witness protection program and accidentally sent to a polygamous town in rural Utah.ISN'T THAT BIGAMY? is a crime-comedy novel in the tradition of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen.Read the review by Pod Girl at the POD-dy Mouth blogNamed as: Lulu Storefront of the Day: June 13th, 2005

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Searching for Eternity Review

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(More customer reviews)Searching for Eternity
I have just finished reading this book. In it I learned a lot about the French Resistance movement of WW II. The characters are well fleshed out. The subjects of fear, grief, betrayal,faith struggle, and growing up are handled realistically -- no easy solutions.
I will buy more of Elizabeth Musser's work!

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A Feast of Snakes: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)This was the first novel by Harry Crews that I ever read. It may as well have been heroin because to this day I will read anything and everything he publishes. Crews writes almost tenderly about brutal, ugly people in a wasteland of frustrated desires. He grabs you by the back of the neck and holds your head down close enough to see the gorgeous, swirling iridescence of a fly's wing as it feasts on rotted meat. He propels you through the most chilling land of horrors you will ever see and yet, somehow leaves you feeling uplifted. Crews will baptize you in a lake of raw sewage laughing gleefully all the while as you struggle to understand why you feel redeemed.

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From the acclaimed author of such novels as "Blood and Grits" and "Childhood" comes a wildly weird and breathtakingly original visit to the rural South that reveals the exotic subculture that erupts in all its glory at the Rattlesnake Roundup in Mystic, Georgia. "No number of adjectives in the thesaurus can do full justice to the dazzlingly bizarre nature of Crews' creations"-- "Washington Post Book World"

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A Miracle of Catfish Review

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(More customer reviews)'A Miracle Of Catfish' was unfinished when author Larry Brown died unexpectedly. Because the book was almost finished, publication of Brown's last offering to his fans was possible. The book uses ellipsis to show where editing was done, and though unfinished, includes the notes that Brown left behind as to how he planned to wrap up the novel.
In Brown's languid southern prose, he explores the lives of several people living in the quiet, countrified outskirts of a small town. Cortez Sharp, a 72 year old man who's wife is disabled, decides to dig out a large pond on his property and stock it with catfish. He lives a solitary life, preferring to be left alone with his vegetable patches and herds of cows. His daughter Lucinda lives in Atlanta with her boyfriend Albert, who suffers from Tourettes Syndrome. Cortez calls Albert 'The Retard', driving a wedge between him and his only surviving child. Cortez carries a dark secret with him, one of horrible proportions.
There's Jimmy, a ten year old boy with bad teeth, who lives near Cortez's farm in an old trailer. Jimmy struggles with his father's temper, his two half-sisters Evelyn and Velma, and his desire to fix the go-kart his daddy built for him. Jimmy's Daddy (known only in the book as 'Jimmy's Daddy') is a typical redneck loser. He drives around in his old '55 drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, fights with himself over trying to treat Jimmy better, and has an affair with a woman at the stove factory where he works that turns out bad (in pregnancy) which threatens his life and marriage to Jonette.
And then there's Cleve, an old black man who used to work for Cortez, mean as a polecat, and murderous to boot. He's been in prison twice and though he swore he'd never go back, he's not quite done committing crimes.
Typical of Brown's unhurried and languorous prose, there's lots of smoking, beer drinking, and driving around. There's surprises like DUI's, tractor accidents, unwanted pregnancies, affairs, fishing, hunting, and a young boy worried about having puppies.
These aren't exactly people you would want for neighbors, but Brown brings them out fully fleshed and alive, and you know there are people out there just like Brown's characters. Everyday folk struggling with everyday problems, inner monologues that both repulse and enchant, and scenes that will suck you into the story despite their slowly building climaxes.
While I highly recommend Brown's work, I would recommend 'Joe', 'Fay', and 'Father And Son' as a warm up to 'A Miracle Of Catfish', simply because this is an unfinished work and may leave the novice Brown reader feeling flat at the abrupt end. It's sad that this is the last time we will hear Brown's voice in the literature world. Enjoy!


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Mrs. Pollifax Pursued (Mrs. Pollifax Mysteries) Review

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(More customer reviews)I had read a Mrs. Pollifax novel before and not enjoyed it at all. This is the first time i've tried one after reading two other Gilman novels, and i expected to like it. I do. It is a funny thing, however, that i do not enjoy it as much as her other, non-series novels. Somehow it is a little forced, a bit as thought she feels she really needs to write this to satisfy the readers who love Mrs. Pollifax. It is far less believable a story than "Thale's Folly" was, for instance, though the characters are, perhaps, less exotic than "Thale's". There is something about the set-up, some fashion in which Gilman is saying, "I know none of this is at all true to life, but here you are ~ you wanted it ~ hope you like it." Several of the characters ~ Kadi, Willie, Boozy Tim, Mrs. Pollifax herself ~ are nice, believable, real even; it must be the situation they find themselves in which displeases me. The plot relies on coincidence too much for its resolution, and does not carry the ring of truth a perect novel makes echo in my mind. Looking back onto it, i feel that all it is is some real charactes interacting on a cardboard plot; i was never drawnn in the way i want to be by any book i read. Nevertheless, a fun read; i will try another Mrs. Pollifax, to be sure ~ along with any non-Pollifax Gilmans i can find.

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Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise Review

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(More customer reviews)This book starts out fast and holds your attention until the last page, Joyce Magnin is a new to me author, with a writing style that reminds me of Fannie Flagg, its a story of a lady really becoming the person she was meant to be, all it took was the death of her husband, and a move to a trailer park!

Charlotte Figg's husband Herman was the top Fuller brush salesman in his area, basically a unhappy man, Charlotte seemed oppressed by him, but a few pages in he drops dead in the kitchen floor, and even though Charlotte doesn't realize it yet her life is about to change for the better.
When Charlotte finds a life insurance policy in the bottom of Herman's salesman's bag, she knows at least she wont have to worry about money for a while. One of the first changes Charlotte makes is allowing a stray dog, whom she calls Lucky into her life. When Lucky steals the neighbors mail, Charlotte starts looking thru one of their magazines called Road Tripper, a RV magazine. When she comes across an ad that says nice looking double wide for sale with the contact person being Fergus Wrinkel at Paradise Trailer Park, she gets a bit of wanderlust, the picture included in the ad shows an eye catching trailer with wide window and awnings hanging with pots of pink and purple verbena. So she calls and purchases the trailer site unseen. So after selling her home, she heads for Paradise, where she is shocked at what she finds, instead of the pretty trailer in the ad she has purchased a run down mobile home that has racoons living inside it, when she complains to Mr. Wrinkel he informs her she is stuck with the trailer. Charlotte feels like such a fool, but soon she meets some people from the trailer park and they assure her that they will help her get her trailer fixed up.
She meets a quirky bunch of people at the trailer park from Rose Tattoo, to Ginger Rodgers, the trailer park residents each have their own issues. When Rose realizes that Charlotte used to play softball, she convinces Charlotte that they should get a team going in the trailer park. While everyone at the park suspicions that Mr Wrinkel his hiding something, Charlotte believes he is abusing his wife Suzie. When Charlotte encourages Suzie to leave Fergus, she realizes it wont be an easy thing to do, and when Fergus threatens Charlotte will she back off or will she continue to try and help Suzie?
Taking a trip to Paradise with Charlotte was a real adventure. The trailer park was filled with such a cast of characters, and Charlotte fit in perfectly. After the death of her husband, whom she was married to for 26 years, she was able to start living her life the way she wanted, and even though she sometimes made mistakes it seemed as if she had friends that were there to help her, and friends was something she never really had while Herman was alive. This story had some very humorous moments, but also some very serious ones as well, the one thing that Charlotte tended to do when she was upset or worried was bake pies. I really enjoyed the way the author allowed Charlotte to grow from a frumpy oppressed housewife into a lady with courage strength and a sense of who God wants her to be.
The author does an amazing job weaving this story in a way that allows the characters to capture your heart, I felt like I was visiting old friends while reading this book.
If you enjoy a story with a quirky cast of characters, that deals with a few tough topics then pick up this book, you wont regret it.
Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for providing me a review copy of this book.

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Newly widowed Charlotte Figg purchases a double-wide trailer sight unseen and moves to the Paradise Trailer Park with her dog Lucky. Unfortunately, neither the trailer nor Paradise are what Charlotte expected. Her trailer is a ramshackle old place in need of major repair, and the people of Paradise are harboring more secrets than Bayer has aspirin. Charlotte s new friend Rose Tattoo learns that Charlotte played softball and convinces her to rally the women of Paradise into a team. Reluctant at first, Charlotte warms to the notion and is soon coaching the Paradise Angels. Meanwhile, Charlotte discovers that the manager of Paradise, Fergus Wrinkel, abuses his wife Suzy. Charlotte sets out to find a way to save Suzy from Fergus and in the process comes to a difficult realization about her own painful marriage.

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The Sporting Road: Travels Across America in an Airstream Trailer--with Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer Review

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(More customer reviews)If you've ever thought about a fisherman's life on the banks of a trout stream or knee-deep in the Bahamian surf, or just contemplated why the seasons change colors, you might want to hitch a ride with Jim Fergus.
The self-described "hook-and-bullet hack" -- in fact, one of the most thoughtful hunting and fishing writers in America, a field editor for Sports Afield magazine -- travels "The Sporting Road" like Kerouac with a fly rod and a 12-gauge, where every stream is a stream of consciousness. As you cruise the blue highways from Washington to Florida, Fergus muses about hunters' patient wives, sharptail grouse, bamboo fly-rods, the coming of snow, bonefishing, Native American culture, lives worth living, the perils facing small towns, good dogs and good friends. There's a certain poetry that emanates from somewhere deep down, an echo of a primitive time, brought up-to-date by Airstream trailers, Coleman grills and, for better or worse, Eddie Bauer.
This is a good book for non-hunters and non-anglers, the most militant of whom assume avid sportsmen have little conscience or intellect. Fergus proves otherwise. He is an eloquent spokesman for the sporting life, not defensive and clearly thoughtful. If you've ever wanted to understand the allure of frigid mornings in high-plains cornfields, or soggy nights on the banks of an unknown river, or why a hunter would drive for two days for a fleeting glimpse of a bird too small for dinner on its own, read "The Sporting Road."

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Trailer Park Noir Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll always read a new novel by Ray Garton as soon as it comes out and I eagerly await the next by this prolific but also very polished novelist. Trailer Park Noir is full of all the ingredients that make Garton such a pleasure to read--elegant but rich prose, great characterization, scenes so real you can feel the heat and smell the dust on the countertops, plenty of action and a knowledge of the dark side of humanity to compare with Thomas Harris. I found myself immediately involved in this novel, caring what happened to the heroine, rooting against the evil that tries to drown her, feeling like I was right there every step of the way. I tried to read it slowly, but with a Ray Garton novel, that's just impossible. If you're already a fan of Garton, I predict you'll put this novel with his best, and if you've never tried him, "Trailer Park Noir" is a great place to start!

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