Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Harriet Leitch Soho Crime Oct. 1, 2013 $26.95 345 pp. Magdalen Nabb was an expatriate Englishwoman who settled in Italy in 1975 and enjoyed success as an author of crime novels and children’s books. She published a series of 14 books featuring Marshal Guarnaccia
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Cathryn Lang Simon and Schuster 8/06/13 $26 432 pp. Good historical fiction is difficult to write. The author must retell history and immerse the reader so completely in the character’s viewpoint that (already) known facts are forgotten. The reader becomes caught up in the
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Julie Goodrich Picador USA 6/4/13 $15 288 pp. An out-of-work web developer stumbles upon an odd bookstore and begins the adventure of a lifetime. What follows is an artful, sparkling tale that twists together the past, present and future. Big ideas about tradition, passion,
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Shirley Shiffler 9/10/13 $26 336 pp. “Burial Rites” is a beautifully written, if sometimes necessarily gory, account of the last case of capital punishment carried out in Iceland. In 1828, Agnes Magnusdottir is convicted of the horrific murder of two young men. She is
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Sally Wisdom Gotham Books May 2, 2013 $26 291 pp. Would a book with the title “The World’s Strongest Librarian” appeal to anyone other than a librarian? It would be a shame if not, because Josh Hanagarne has written a warm, funny, heartbreaking yet
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Fay Jones Pantheon Books 4/23/2013 $24.95 210 pp. Brian Kimberling’s funny, graceful debut novel is narrated by Nathan Lochmueller, a recent college graduate who finds himself living hand to mouth in southern Indiana where he grew up. Nathan exists on a meager salary, tracking
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Harriet Leitch Knopf Publishing Group June 4, 2013 $26.95 219 pp. Pulizer Prize-winning American historian Joseph Ellis conducts an intensive study of the summer of 1776 in this great addition to the plentiful writings on the American Revolution, “Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Cathryn Lang Scribner 6/01/13 $26 267 pp. Jeannette Walls wrote about her own childhood in her best-selling memoir, “The Glass Castle.” She became a successful and accomplished writer despite a father who veered between brilliance and drunken destruction and a mother who hated being
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Julie Goodrich Mulholland Books 6/4/13 $26 375 pp. Lauren Beukes’ first two books, “Moxyland” and “Zoo City,” were tragically overlooked. For those of us who caught on early, the enormous success of this gritty suspense novel is no surprise. Damaged characters slink into your
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Shirley Shiffler Harper 4/23/13 $26.99 496 pp. As often happens at Beaverdale Books, a customer recently asked me what I’ve enjoyed reading lately. I immediately handed her “The Golem and the Jinni.” She took one look, shook her head and said she did not
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