Mary Daniels Brown

My mother always insisted that, as soon as I was old enough to sit up, she’d find me in my crib after my nap babbling away, with a Little Golden Book on my lap. I’ve had my nose in a book ever since. I grew up in a small town, with the tiny town library literally in my backyard. As an only child in an unhappy home, I found comfort and companionship in books. As an adult I wanted to be Harry Potter, although I admit I’m more Hermione. My life has been a series of research projects. Reading has taught me that human lives are deliciously messy and that “it’s complicated” isn’t a punchline.

book review

“In the Heart of the Sea” by Nathaniel Philbrick

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea Viking, 2000Hardcover, 289 pagesISBN 0-670-89157-6 Recommended At the beginning of the nineteenth century the American whaling industry centered around Nantucket Island. Young boys of Nantucket were taught to “idolize the form of a ship” and grew up anticipating the day when they, too, would join a whaling crew: […]

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“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees (2002)   Penguin, 302 pages, $14.00 trade paperback   ISBN 0-14-200174-0 Highly Recommended Everyone is buzzing over The Secret Life of Bees. Every time I ask people if they’ve read any good books lately, I get the same answer: The Secret Life of Bees. “This book is

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“No Second Chance” by Harlan Coben

Coben, Harlan. No Second Chance (2003)   Dutton, 338 pages, $24.95 hardcover ISBN 0-525-94729-9 “Can you ever do the wrong thing for the right reason?” That’s the question Harlan Coben addresses in his latest thriller, No Second Chance. As we’ve come to expect from Coben, the novel grabs us with its opening line: “When the

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The Best Books I Read in 2002

Listed alphabetically by author Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague Connelly, Michael. The Last Coyote Dallas, Sandra. Alice’s Tulips Diamant, Anita. The Red Tent Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. Sister of My Heart Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend Mason, Richard. The Drowning People McDermid, Val. A Place of Execution Pears, Iain. An

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“Mystic River” by Dennis Lehane

Lehane, Dennis. Mystic River (2001)   HarperCollins, 448 pages, $7.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0 380 73185 1      Highly Recommended Dennis Lehane takes a break from Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro of Dorchester to tell the story of three boys from the fictional East Buckingham, a working-class district just west of downtown.

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“The Dark Room” by Minette Walters

Walters, Minette. The Dark Room (1996)    Penguin Putnam, 339 pages, $7.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0-515-12045-6 Jinx Kingsley, a London photographer and daughter of a millionaire father with reputed underworld connections, wakes up in a private hospital. She has no recollection of how or why she got there. But she does have flashes

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“A Place of Execution” by Val McDermid

McDermid, Val. A Place of Execution (1999)St. Martin’s, 465 pages, $6.99 mass market paperback    ISBN 0-312-97953-3  Recommended     British writer Catherine Heathcote has nearly finished her book about a famous case, the disappearance of 13-year-old Alison Carter 25 years earlier. Although Heathcote has interviewed all the people still living who were involved in

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“A Drink Before the War” by Dennis Lehane

Lehane, Dennis. A Drink Before the War (1994)   HarperCollins, 277 pages, $6.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0 380 72623 8      Sometimes it pays to start reading a series at the beginning. And sometimes it doesn’t. After discovering Dennis Lehane in Gone, Baby, Gone, I decided to get to know Patrick Kenzie

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“Gone for Good” by Harlan Coben

Coben, Harlan. Gone for Good (2002)   Delacorte, 341 pages, $23.95 hardcover ISBN 0-385-33558-X While looking over his mother’s belongings just after her death from cancer, Will Klein discovers a photograph that indicates his brother, Ken, may still be alive. Eleven years earlier Will’s former girlfriend and neighbor, Julie Miller, was murdered in their suburban

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“Tell No One” by Harlan Coben

Coben, Harlan. Tell No One (2001)  Delacorte, 339 pages, $22.95 hardcover  ISBN 0-385-33555 Recommended Spoiler Alert! This review gives away plot details that may spoil the reading experience for you. Proceed at your own peril! You’ll get a second warning below. “Don’t start this book at bedtime,” several people told me. “I stayed up all

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