Australian author Christos Tsiolkas received worldwide attention for his best-selling novel "The Slap" not only for its literary quality but also for what many took to be a misogynistic viewpoint. He follows "The Slap" (soon to be a TV miniseries on NBC) with another gripping story, albeit less controversial, the novel "Barracuda." Here's what it's about.
Category: Book Review
Anticipating September’s new novels
Fall is the time readers can expect to see big-name authors release new novels. Here's a handful to look forward to this coming month.
Rippling reflections in grief
"Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky" by David Connerley Nahm is a deeply involving story about a boy who disappears and the sister who never forgets him. It's also, for me, a book of special significance.
Which Man Booker nominee to read?
Thirteen novels on the 2014 Man Booker Prize Longlist present great reading selections. Here are brief descriptions, availability and what reviews have said about some of them.
Books about Nixon, Ulysses and Mexico City
Here are three non-fiction books, released this summer, that caught my attention. Briefly noted.
Reading the second novel before the first
This is a review of Bruce Holbert's new, second novel, "The Hour of Lead," and why I wish I'd read his debut, "Lonesome Animals," first.
Ordinary Germans and World War II
Audrey Magee's novel "The Undertaking" is about newlyweds caught up in Berlin society and the Eastern Front during World War II. Stark, moving and intelligent, this is Magee’s fictional debut.
Bootlegging in the Carolinas
Here's an involving story set during Prohibition in a working-class mill town, where the sheriff turns a blind eye to the underground liquor business going on right in front of him. "The Whiskey Baron" is atmospheric, suspenseful and well-written.
My picks from The Edgars® “Bests”
"Ordinary Grace" is one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year. Of note, it just won the the Edgar Award for best novel, announced last week. Two other winners appear here, as well as a link to the full list of nominees and winners in all the categories for the Mystery Writers of America 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Awards.
The morally bruising battlefield
"Redeployment" is a collection of 12 fictional stories written by a former U.S. Marine who served in the Iraq War. They are piercing in emotional honesty and unforgettable.
The hypnotic allure of Area X
Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation," his first book in the new Southern Reach Trilogy, became my obsession for a few days. I could've read it in one day -- it's just south of 200 pages -- but I didn't want this riveting, bizarre story to end.
A golden whistler, a burdened ornithologist
Alice Greenway's second novel focuses on a World War II veteran who's newly retired from his job at the Museum of Natural History in New York. As the title suggests, he's an ornithologist, and his story in "The Bird Skinner" is deeply affecting.
Have you seen me?
Three good novels that are "must reads." If they're not to your taste, they are at least worth noting because they are among the best.
The completely disguised Albanian kid
Derek B. Miller's "Norwegian by Night" is as intense as it is entertaining -- a crime story taking place in Oslo and the hinterlands of Norway, featuring an octogenarian Korean War vet who deserves a place in the Colorful Characters Hall of Fame,
In search of the last original penguin
Jeremy Page's third novel is an engaging voyage to the Arctic Circle to learn the truth about the extinct Great Auk. The story takes place in 1845. Its atmospheric, poetic prose and unusual characters (the sea captain is a sociopath who embroiders) make the story a distinctive reading experience.
The Longest Chapter 