Like most of Richard Russo's earlier novels, Empire Falls is a tale of blue-collar life, which itself increasingly resembles a kind of high-wire act performed without the benefit of any middle-class safety nets. This time, though, the author has widened his scope, producing a comic and compelling ensemble piece. There is, to be sure, a protagonist:...more
A small Kansas town has turned into a killing ground. Is it a serial killer, a man with the need to destroy? Or is it a darker force, a curse upon the land? Amid golden cornfields, FBI Special Agent Pendergast discovers evil in the blood of America's heartland.
J K Rowling's sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone carries on where the original left off. Harry is returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the summer holidays and, right from the start, things are not straightforward. Unable to board the Hogwarts express, Harry and his friends break all the rules and make their...more
There’s a keenness in the storytelling, and an excitement for pure adventure and magic, that will ensure fans of Paolini’s Eragon will find its much-anticipated sequel every bit as readable and captivating. This young author, who wrote that debut (very long) novel aged fifteen, has shed some his earlier less convincing turns of phrase and tenda...more
There's always room for another fantasy quest trilogy--as long as it has distinction, originality and a cracking plot. Eragon has. This is the first book in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Trilogy, which he began writing when aged only 15, is an amazing debut that demonstrates a written maturity beyond its creator's years. Any rough edges borne t...more
In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy’s mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn’t believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God’s instrument. What happens to O...more
In SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, Jane Austen writes about two ways of looking at the world in the personalities of two sisters, Elinor the determinedly practical and Marianne the madly romantic. Forced to live in reduced circumstances with their widowed mother and younger sister, the Dashwood girls must rely on marrying well if they are to survive in the ...more