cook_memorial_public_library's reviews
3678 reviews

Wow. This book has changed my perspective on shopping -- not just for clothes, but for so many everyday items that are cheaply made in China and other parts of the Far East. Time for fewer, but better crafted, items.

--Recommended by Andrea

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Atmospheric, evocative, amazing sense of place. Characters just burrowed into my heart and stayed there! The opening can be off-putting ... don't worry, just stick with it!

--Recommended by Andrea

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--Recommended by Nate.

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We first meet Olivier and Parrot in turbulent 19th-Century France. Olivier, whose aristocratic grandfather was beheaded during the French Revolution, is a pampered, pompous mama’s boy. Parrot, whose father is taken from him at a young age, is a poor Englishman who ends up in France thanks to a one-armed French marquis. Olivier’s parents worry that their son may be in danger from another revolution, so they ship him off to the fledgling American colonies. The marquis, who happens to be friends with Olivier’s mother, convinces Parrot to accompany Olivier as his secretary and servant. The two men disdain each other at first. Parrot refers to Olivier as “Lord Migraine’’ behind his back, and Olivier thinks of Parrot as nothing more than a lowly servant who doesn’t always know his place. The two men take turns narrating the story from their unique perspectives. Their accounts, often sprinkled with humor, provide a fascinating look at life in the young democracy. Surrounded by a colorful cast of characters, the men develop an unexpected friendship that is uniquely American.

--Recommended by Jo

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I really enjoyed the behind the scenes look at cancer research. In a literary style, Goodman relates the risks, the competition and the personalities involved in looking for cures. The work is tedious and secretive, and the scientific research is tainted by politics and money. The characters are believable and human, all revealing degrees of jealousy, ambition and integrity.

--Recommended by Connie

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Although I knew the two characters of the title were real people, I was not familiar with the 1906 Edalji case which was the catalyst for establishing the English Court of Appeals. Told from their own points of view in alternating chapters, the two men couldn’t be more different. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, is married to an invalid wife, the father of two children, and hopelessly in love with another woman. George Edalji is a shy, near-sighted, country lawyer of Indian descent whose family has been viciously harassed for years by unknown locals. Their two lives intersect when Arthur decides to clear the name of George Edalji who was unjustly imprisoned for mutilating animals. The novel integrates detective story, literary thriller, psychological study and historical narrative and I was thoroughly entertained.

--Recommended by Connie

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This is a chilling psychological thriller featuring a character, Camille Preaker, who is not only flawed but seriously troubled. At times it was more intense than I expected, but the author hooked me early on and I’ll definitely be reserving the next book.

--Recommended by Connie

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The most amazing thing about this book is that it was written in 1942, just months before the Jewish Russian-born author, a convert to Catholicism, was shipped off to Auschwitz.

Planned as five novels, these two stories describing the German occupation of France didn’t surface until six decades after the author’s death in the concentration camp. The author’s eye-witness account, written under constant danger, is unlike a diary, a memoir or historical fiction of that time.

She describes the pettiness and snobbery of the rich who were reduced to refugees just as the middle and lower classes were. She witnesses collaboration as well as resistance, fraternization of young girls with German soldiers, resentment and humiliation as the German soldiers take over the towns.

--Recommended by Connie

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This is one of those books that describes the corporate work place—in this case—a failing Chicago advertising agency, in such a familiar way that I felt not only like I knew the characters but that I was one of them.

Every work place is like a family of sorts…with all the good and bad qualities and behavior that entails. This “family” of coworkers that you spend most of your waking hours with often reveals more to you than your own family members and at the same time you really don’t know each other very well at all. It was filled with humorous and insightful anecdotes that simultaneously made me laugh and squirm.

--Recommended by Connie

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There is nothing more suspenseful to me than a story featuring man against the elements. The setting is a harsh Canadian winter set in the 19th century frontier. In a small settlement of European immigrants, a lone trapper is brutally murdered, discovered by a neighbor, whose seventeen-year-old son disappeared the same day.

A search team, including his mother, sets off to find the young man, now the prime suspect, who may have a valuable artifact belonging to the victim. The inhabited areas are far between, and tracks lead them into a forest filled with deadly animals, fugitives and characters motivated by complex human desires.

--Recommended by Connie

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