Book Buzz

LAURIE SANDELL

This graphic memoir deals with a completely dysfunctional family and one daughter’s search for truth, understanding and meaning.  Laurie grew up worshiping her father. The dad was a great storyteller. They were all about what a great warrior and savior he was. Saving General Westmoreland in Vietnam and befriending the Pope were among his anecdotes.  But as she grew older she realized that these great narratives could not all be true. Then she found out that he had photocopied her diary. When she applied for a credit card she was refused by because other cards in her name had been in arrears.

Heal was a long and painful process. An interesting theme to find in graphic format.

I enjoy graphic books for their brief and concise story telling.

JOHN IRVING

TWISTED RIVER could have been called the Fugitives, or John Irving on Writing.

Twisted River is about the relationships among three men: Dominic Baciagalupo, an Italian-American cook with a warm heart and a bad limp; his son, Danny, who resembles his father, save for the limp; and the outdoorsy, hard-drinking Ketchum, their friend and protector. In 1954, after an inadvertent tragedy, Dominic and Danny flee the rural New Hampshire logging camp where they lived in order to escape the wrath of a vengeful cop.bad cop named Constable Carl.

It is yet another excellent book that could have used serious editing. It did not need over 550 page to convey these themes.

ANTHONY E. ZUIKER

Brilliant concept. Cybernovel. (They have copywrited the term Digi-Novel.) Every twenty pages or so the book refers you to the web page level26.com with a code to see a video of what is happening. The videos are generally well produced. Zuiker was the creater of CSI series so he has access to top quality production. But not all of the videos add to the story and the story is not gentle. Level 26 refers to the fact that law enforcement personnel have a code that categorizes evil on a scale of twenty five levels. Level 25 refers to the sickest murderer-torturers. For this new serial killer they had to create a new level : 26. It is definately adult reading and not for people with queasy stomachs.

Not particulary well written but it is a bit of a page turner. If you can stand the gore. Again set up for the sequel.

Daniel Browning Smith is creepy as all hell as evil incarnate in the video. He is also know as rubber boy the contortionist. Google his name.

GEORGE D SHUMAN

Blind psychic Sherry Moore   can “visualize the last memories of dead people,” is exposed to radioactive cesium 137 while trying to discern what caused an outbreak of possible hantavirus in New Mexico. Back in Philadelphia for tests and treatment, with trusted Dr. Salix, she touches the body of mental patient Thomas J. Monahan, an army private during the Korean War who was used in a government mind-control experiment in 1950. Thomas’s residual memories concern Area 17, a secret base in Mount Tamathy, N.Y., where a weapon was developed by Nobel Prize–winner Edward Case. Puzzelled, Sherry is helped in her investigations by her neighbour and good friend retired admiral Brigham. Of course not having had sight since she was five, Sherry can neither read nor drive. To be honest she would likely have had more problems adjusting to sight than the book suggests. Case’s handsome sociopath stepson, Troy Weir, sets out to dispose of Sherry and anyone else who might know anything about Area 17. While Sherry investigates Thomas’s past, she becomes attracted to Troy, much to the dismay of her Navy SEAL fiancé, Brian.

An alright thriller. After I finished reading it I found out that it is the fourth book about Sherry. The series started with Lost Girls. I won’t read any more.

STEIG LARSSON

A rousing read. Quite a page turner. GIRL is a continuation of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Set in Sweden, Michael Blomkvist ,the journalist, writer and publisher, is trying to help his friend and one time lover Lisbeth Salander.  Salander is wanted for three counts of murder. No one beside Blomkvist is looking for other leads. The murdered couple had researched and written an expose of human trafficking and prostitution. Some powerful people will be named when the book is published by Blomkvist. Salander was severly abused as a child. She trusts no one. Not even a friend.

Again a horrible cover in Canada. I borrowed this pic from Culture Witch.