A Girl and Her Books

Nancy Balbirer reflects on her lackluster acting career in NYC and LA, crazed roommates, awful boyfriends, major & minor celebrities, outlawed diet drugs, and bad decisions. Her tales of the 80s and 90s are dated -- many of the celebrities she gossips about are virtually unknown today -- and never rise above a simmering bitterness. Gossip about SNL and Seinfeld is especially boring. She's aiming for "darkly funny" and "searingly honest," but doesn't come close. (And yes, I agree with everyone that "Jane" is Jennifer Aniston.)

The third Jackson Brodie novel is a fairly good read, but not nearly as gripping as its predecessors, Case Histories and One Good Turn . The multiple characters and their stories don't tie together with Ms. Atkinson's customary sharpness -- at least one seems pointless -- and Brodie's own dilemma takes such a ridiculous turn as to lose all credibility. As much as I loved and championed the two previous books, I was disappointed by this one. It felt more like the conclusion of a contract than the latest installment of Scotland's most brilliant mystery series since Rankin & Rebus.

While many novels have praised the pluck and resiliency of the British during World War II, this story not only addresses the unique situation of the small island of Guernsey, but touches on topics and situations not covered by most authors. My admiration for residents of the United Kingdom has soared even higher after reading this book.

Not as good as Case Histories or One Good Turn , but the attuned reader can see Atkinson evolving toward those masterpieces in this early novel about a college student in Scotland.

This is essentially the diary of a middle-aged man in the throes of a mid-life crisis: about to become a father for the fourth time, Robin Hemley copes by repeating difficult childhood and young-adult experiences, hoping for a better outcome the second time around. He attends kindergarten & sixth grade, performs in a Christmas play, re-enrolls in summer camp, renews his honorary membership in a fraternity, revisits the prom, and reconnects with his Japanese exchange-student friend. Although most of the tales are mawkish, the introduction of Emily Jean, a bright and talented orphan under the care of Hemley's former English teacher, provides a touching parallel to his own difficult youth. Unfortunately, her story is the only bright spot in 316 pages of solipsism.

The Spellman schtick is losing its luster. The dysfunctional family that was amusing in the first book and somewhat chucklesome in the second is tiresome in this third volume. The mystery Izzy must solve is overshadowed by Spellman family melodrama, and by story's end, the reader is more apt to slap some sense into every character rather than cheer the resolution of a mildly interesting case. Izzy -- whom I suspect is the alter ego of Lisa Lutz -- needs to grow up and move on.

Gus Simpson is TV's premier chef, but at 50, she's reached her sell-by date (at least in the view of her employer). Forced to shake things up by hosting a new program with a young Latina beauty pageant queen, she finds herself not only re-examining her life as a widow and single mother, but embracing change -- fiscal, emotional and career -- in ways she could have never anticipated. I read this shortly after the death of my boyfriend, and not only did the theme of a fellow widow ring true with me, but I was reminded of the abiding value of what some deride as "chick lit." It may not be Dostoyevsky, but light and sweet is sometimes just the ticket.

Brett and Layla Foster have been a couple since high school, so Brett’s decision to separate not only shocks everyone, but strains their family – because the Fosters are the only relations the parentless Layla has. What happens when a clan prefers an in-law to blood kin? And what happens to an extended family when its bedrock crumbles? Using alternating narrators, Caprice Crane deftly illustrates a tribe in crisis, and how they handle the hardest problems life dishes out.

Brad Gooch has taken the complicated, intense life of the woman who was one of the greatest Southern writers of the 20th century and rendered it accessible and compelling. He demonstrates how O'Connor devised her characters and their motives, as well how her deep Roman Catholic faith shaped her narrative. Most touchingly, Gooch takes readers into the hospital with O'Connor, where, while dying of lupus, she hid short stories she was still working on under her pillow so doctors wouldn't stop her creative flow. Considered at best a minor writer when she died, Gooch demonstrates just why O'Connor is now, rightfully, considered one of the best Southern authors to have walked the earth.

Dave Cullen has crafted a myth-busting exploration of the tragic April 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School. He covered the story from the beginning and has followed the case through prodigious research, exhaustive interviews and an inerrant eye for the truth. Rumors are dispelled, unsung heroes praised, cover-ups exposed and survivors chronicled, all with one clear goal: to strengthen the broken places that were shattered on that fateful April day.

Not only is Josh Bazell a doctor who can write, but he puts Michael Crichton & Robin Cook to shame with a fast, gripping tale that, in this post-Soprano age, seems all too realistic. Dr. Peter Brown works in the hospital from hell when he runs into an elderly man from his past, and suddenly Pietra Brwna's WITSEC protection is gone. What follows is one of the fastest-paced books ever written. Readers should prepare themselves for high levels of gore and mutilation -- Chuck Palahniuk's Rant is the best comparison -- but just as Pietra Brwna knows how to jerk out a man's throat with his bare hands, Josh Bazell grabs the reader with Peter Brown's tale and doesn't let go until the blood-splattered end.