Kidd's debut novel, The Secret Life of Bees (2000), is a bona fide publishing success story: it was on the New York Times paperback best-seller list for 81 weeks. Her follow-up, while quite different in plot, shares some themes with its predecessor. Forty-three-year old Jessie Sullivan is pulled out of her staid life in Atlanta with her husband and daughter, back to her childhood home on Egret Island after her mother, Nelle, cuts off one of her own fingers. Jessie has been uneasy with the island since her beloved father died when she was nine in a boating accident, a tragedy Jessie has always felt partially responsible for.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 25 September 2011
5
The Man Who Smiled
First published in Sweden in 1994, Mankell's terrific fourth Kurt Wallender mystery opens with the kind of startling image typical of this internationally bestselling series (Firewall, etc.): a lawyer, driving home through the fog, stops after he sees "a human-sized effigy" propped on a chair in the middle of a deserted highway. Gustaf Torstensson gets out of the car to investigate, is hit from behind and was "dead before his body hit the damp asphalt."
Lescroart regulars Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky may have survived a deadly shootout in The First Law (2003), but their psyches are on life support. Hardy drinks too much and cuts deals instead of practicing law. Glitsky's still a hardworking "procedure freak," but his guts are killing him, and he struggles in his new hands-off role as San Francisco's deputy chief of investigations. Amy Wu, an up-and-comer in Hardy's law firm, isn't doing well, either; grieving her father's death, she's looking for love in singles bars and spinning out of control.
Lincoln Rhyme is back... This spine-chilling new thriller pits renowned criminalist Lincoln Rhyme against the ultimate opponent — Amelia Sachs, his own brilliant protégée.
Added by: paulrid | Karma: 127.84 | Fiction literature | 19 December 2010
16
Guess What Happened at School Today
A hilarious collection of poems from the creator of the best-selling DUCK IN THE TRUCK series. We learnt about acorns and planted a tree, Nigel fell over and bashed up his knee, Rosie Rawlings cried at play - Her pet rabbit's run away. In English, Miss Chadwick was in a bad mood. At lunchtime we all made a mess with our food. And you'll never guess what happened to Claire, She leaned back too far and fell off her chair! Jez Alborough's hilarious rhymes describe a typical day at school, as seen through the eyes of various pupils.
