Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West Simon & Schuster, 1996Hardcover, 496 pagesISBN 0-684-81107-3 Recommended In Undaunted Courage Ambrose has managed to do the nearly impossible: create a book that is accessible to both the academic community and the general public. For the scholarly reader, all the […]
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Cornwell, Patricia. Point of Origin (1998) G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 356 pages, $25.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14394 7 I’m getting really sick of Kay Scarpetta. At least in Patricia Cornwell’s earlier novels Scarpetta waited until the plot began to develop before beginning her self-centered, self-righteous lamentations. But in Point of Origin Scarpetta starts
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McBride, James. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother Riverhead Books, 1996Hardcover, 228 pagesISBN 1-57322-022-1 Recommended As a young boy James McBride recognized that his mother was different: “Gradually . . . I began to notice something about my mother, that she looked nothing like the other kids’ mothers. In fact,
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Woods, Stuart. Chiefs (1981) Avon Books, 427 pages, $5.99 paperback ISBN 0 380 70347 5 Recommended One benefit to discovering a prolific author with one of his later works is that you then have the pleasure of going back and reading all his earlier books as well. I first discovered Stuart Woods in
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McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir Scribner, 1996Paperback, 364 pagesISBN 0-684-87435-0 Highly Recommended Frank McCourt’s memoir about his childhood well deserves all the accolades that have been heaped upon it. When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly
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Cornwell, Patricia. Unnatural Exposure (1997) G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 338 pages, $25.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14285 1 After Cornwell’s two recent disasters, Cause of Death and Hornet’s Nest, I approached Unnatural Exposure with trepidation. Dr. Kay Scarpetta returns in a novel that doesn’t exhibit Hornet’s Nest’s lack of focus but that does, like
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Sandford, John. The Night Crew (1997) G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 371 pages, $23.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14237 1 The action has moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles and the protagonist is a woman, but otherwise fans of John Sandford’s “Prey” series won’t notice much difference between the earlier novels and this one. The
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Sandford, John. Sudden Prey (1996) G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 360 pages, $23.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14138 3 On the trail of bank robbers Candy LaChaise and her sister-in-law Georgie, police have staked out the Credit Union they think the duo will hit next. When Candy cold-bloodedly shoots a man inside the Credit Union
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Sandford, John. Mind Prey (1995)Berkley, 354 pages, $6.99 paperback ISBN 0 425 15289 8 Mind Prey opens with a memorable simile: “The storm blew up late in the afternoon, tight, gray clouds hustling over the lake like dirty, balled up sweat socks spilling from a basket” (p. 1). Soon Andi Manette, a psychiatrist, and her
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Sandford, John. Night Prey (1994) Berkley, 400 pages, $6.99 paperback ISBN 0 425 14641 3 Back in Minneapolis, Lucas Davenport’s new business producing police training simulation software is making a fortune when Rose Marie Roux, the new police chief, asks Davenport to come back to the force. Roux, who has her eye on an
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