a collection of tried and true
The story of Lotto and Mathilde, two beautiful 22 years olds who get married two weeks after meeting each other. The story of their decades long marriage told from their two vastly different perspectives. A finalist for this years National Book Award it has received rave reviews. An interesting story and charachters, well written, but a little difficult to read at times I thought.
PJH Rating: ****
Recently fired from his NYC reporting job, Gavin returns to his town where he grew up in Florida becoming embroiled in an investigation involving his friends he grew up. Well written, interesting story embedded with the numbing dangers of suburbia and the pythons living under all of us.
PJH rating: ****1/2
Down on her luck London woman becomes involved in a murder mystery involving her ex husband and invented couple she views from the window of her commuter train. Chick-lit-mystery-thriller… yet readable,
PJH rating: ****
1959 classic set in East coast boarding school in the early 1940’s. Phinneas and his fourth year pals deal with entering adulthood, WW2 and all that come along with them.
PJH Rating: ****
A manned space craft on Mars runs into trouble and needs to evacuate the planet. The crew leaves behind one of the astronauts that they believe was killed and were unable to reach him. The astronaut ends up being alive and stranded on Mars. Told mostly from the point of view of the astronaut it chronicles the years long efforts to rescue him. Very techy novel filled with many geeky details… but it is tough to put down. An unexpected fun page turner. Highly reccomend.
I just read the novelist first published the story on the internet, one of his hobbies but it eventually got published. It’s now a huge best seller and the movie is coming out in two weeks. It just premiered this weekend in Canada and got excellent reviews. I’m excited to see it. Read the book first!!
PJH Rating: ****1/2
A huge loch ness type monster washes up on shore of a small upstate New York town as a woman returns to the town from living in California. The woman investigates her past history going back many generations and the novel goes back and forth between present and the past during her ancestors. Interesting story, but it took me forever to read bouncing back and forth between other books I’ve been reading. Unfortuantely not as good as Groff’s Arcadia that I really liked.
PJH Rating: ***1/2
An unlikely love story centered around mental illness and Philadelphia Eagles football. Great book – read it in 24 hours. I saw the movie several years ago and liked it – but as is usually the case the book is much better. Actually – we watched the movie again this week as we both read the novel and loved it and was quite suprised how different the movie is from the book in several important ways. In any case… great book.
PJH Rating: ****1/2
A young Pakistani fresh out of Princeton joins a cut throat NYC firm. 9/11 happens into his first year which makes him question his motives. Told from flash back as he is being questioned by an American in Pakistani – never quite certain what his current state is. Interesting quick read. I just read that they recently made this into a movie – doesn’t make any sense how that can be given the nature of the novel.
PJH rating: ****
Set in small town of Words, WI an ordinary tale of small time America in the 21st century. Nice read.
PJH rating: ****
A collection of short stories by the author of the novel Shotgun Lovesongs that I read a bit ago and really liked. I’m not usually one for short stories but every story is very good, well written and some quite moving. Highly recommend.
PJH Rating: ****1/2
Eat On Edgecliff 