Staff Comments:I wasn’t sure if I would like reading Robert B. Parker books now that he is dead. But I did. Ace Atkins has captured the Character of Spenser seamlessly and it was as if I was reading Parker himself! I was not disappointed! This book is the usual Spenser/Hawk/Vinnie Morris collaboration that starts out with Spenser being “hired” by a 14 year-old girl for some doughnuts to investigate the murder of her mother four years earlier. They are poor and her mother was a junkie, so no one paid much attention. Now Spenser is on the case, and he gets in far deeper than it first appears, with multiple mob connections and deadly people around the corner and it seems like everyone, even the feds, are trying to stop him. With the help of his love Susan, they help Mattie, the 14 year-old girl, with both trying to solve the mystery and trying to heal herself. Great read for all of my Parker fans out there, and I have even requested other Ace Atkins books now too!
Rating: 4 - Great read.
Book Description:Spenser takes up a seemingly open and closed cold case at the behest of a street-wise 14 year old girl, who believes her mother's murderers went free. As Spenser digs deeper into the mystery, he finds a much more dangerous and complex mystery than he bargained for!
Staff Comments: In the past I have enjoyed reading or listening to the Benny Rosato series by this author. This book was not bad, but I feel the suspense in the storyline was overshadowed by the emotions the author felt from her personal experience. At the end of the book,Scottoline shares those feelings with the reader.
Rating: 2 - Okay.
Book Description:Jill Farrow is a typical suburban mom who has finally gotten her and her daughter's lives back on track after a divorce. She is about to remarry, her job as a pediatrician fulfills her---though it is stressful---and her daughter, Megan, is a happily over-scheduled thirteen-year-old juggling homework and the swim team. But Jill's life is turned upside down when her ex-stepdaughter, Abby, shows up on her doorstep late one night and delivers shocking news: Jill's ex-husband is dead. Abby insists that he was murdered and pleads with Jill to help find his killer… as she digs deeper, her actions threaten to rip apart her new family, destroy their hard-earned happiness, and even endanger her own life.
Staff Comments:This was a very well written book designed to help women explore and overcome unhealthy eating habits. Overall it was a very positive, empowering read that's relatable for anyone who has ever struggled with weight or overeating. There are a couple points where the author gets a little hippy-dippy for me, but, overall, her message was very positive and tactics beneficial. A good book to explore the emotional aspects of food.
Rating: 3 - I enjoyed it.
Book Description:Presents an argument that likens overeating to an addiction intended to numb painful emotions, and counsels readers to eat in accordance with seven key guidelines and with a greater awareness of actual needs.
Staff Comments: If you like quirky books, this one’s for you. Sunny, born congenitally hairless, has carefully crafted the perfect suburban life married to her brilliant astronaut husband. With a wig for everyoccasion, she has become the alpha housewife of their upper-middle-class neighborhood. Trouble is Sunny and her family are hardly average – while her husband is in space, cracks begin to appear in her veneer and watch out. Sunny has to hit crisis point before she realizes that perhaps she can just accept her husband, her son, and most of all, herself. This is a lovely book that examines themes of acceptance, tolerance, and not selling one’s friends short. The same people Sunny thinks she has to hide everything from are the people who come through for her. Netzer is a bright new talent--look forward to new titles from her.
Rating: 4 - Great read.
Book Description:When fabricated aspects of their picture-perfect world are embarrassingly exposed by an accident, Sunny Mann, a woman longing for an ideal life, and Maxon, her savant astronaut husband, struggle through blame and fear before confronting realities about their deep bond.
Staff Comments:Not since “A Confederacy of Dunces” by Kennedy have I been so disappointed by a book that garnered so much national buzz. Read the first page - it's the best writing in the book. Then throw it back in the pond, the library is brimming with better titles…number three on the 2012 Lukewarm Fiction list.
Rating: 1 - Forget it.
Book Description:After his parents are arrested and imprisoned for robbing a bank, fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons is taken in by Arthur Remlinger who, unbeknownst to Dell, is hiding a dark and violent nature that interferes with Dell's quest to find grace and peace on the prairie of Saskatchewan.
