Hood, Ann. The Knitting Circle New York: Norton, 2007 ISBN 0-393-05901-4 Blackstone Audiobooks, narrated by Hillary Huber Highly recommended This novel is all about perspective, and about the healing power of telling our stories. When Mary Baxter’s five-year-old daughter dies suddenly of meningitis, Mary finds herself unable to read, write, go to work, or do […]
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Kallos, Stephanie. Broken for You New York: Grove Press, 2004 ISBN 0-8021-1779-1 Blackstone Audiobooks Narrated by Anna Fields Recommended Margaret Hughes, age 75, has just learned that she has a brain tumor. Margaret lives alone in a vast mansion in the most upscale part of Seattle. Her only companions are the
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Clarke, Brock. An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England: A Novel Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2007 ISBN 978-1-56512-551-3 Random House Audio, narrated by Daniel Passer This quirky novel is about stories–the stories we tell about our lives and about ourselves, and the stories we tell to others and to ourselves. The story’s narrator is
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Follett, Ken. The Pillars of the Earth New York: Morrow, 1989 Penguin Audiobooks, narrated by John Lee Highly recommended “It’s a truism of the book business that the best advertising is the kind you can’t buy: the personal recommendation of one reader to another,” says Ken Follett in the preface to the recently rereleased
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Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones (2002) Little, Brown, 328 pages, $21.95 hardcover ISBN 0-316-66634-3 “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973” (p. 5). So begins Susie’s story, her narrative of watching from heaven as her family and friends go
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Grafton, Sue. “Q” Is for Quarry (2002)Putnam, 385 pages, $26.95 hardcover ISBN 0-399-14915-5 After her worst outing yet (“P” is for poor), Kinsey is back, this time helping two aging police detectives take another crack at a cold case—a still unsolved murder from 18 years earlier. Found with her hands
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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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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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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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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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