Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:19:45 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/ http://www.compulsivereader.com en-us http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/images/books.gif http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/ maggieball@compulsivereader.com http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3050.html Through careful layering of mystery and character development, Rosanne Dingli has created another deeply engaging and powerful novel in Camera Obscura. As is always the case with Dingli's work, the research is impeccable, enlivened by art, by a deep love of travel and exploration, and above all, by the conjunction of personal and global, art related, history. Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:19:45 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3039.html Hays pulls no punches in telling this tender love story with intense emotion. The characters can be frustrating and you’ll find yourself wanting to shake them. Master is in just as torn and confused a state as Millie and you want to slap him at times. It is a very well written book and although it ended absolutely perfectly, I hated to see it end. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:48:49 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3038.html Regardless of topic, from war, oyster bars, junk yards, to fluency, the reader never finds a word out of place, over frilly phrases or rigid format. Instead, the poet offers clear language, with specificity of detail and style that meets the needs of the poem. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:36:26 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3037.html Throughout Real Writing Michael Lydon creates a solid thesis for the power of realism. Though each of these writers are products of their own times, with settings and themes determined by the key concerns of the day, there is a timelessness to their themes and characters. Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:23:06 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3035.html To me this wasn't like reading a novel—it was like going back and re-reading my own journal from my early 20's, or eavesdropping on a conversation of recent college graduates at a bar. Hailey and her friends are facing an uneasy future in an uneasy world; a reality many of us in the same age bracket can relate to. Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:12:35 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3034.html Lockwood's writing is just the right mix of snark, sarcasm, and cynical observational humor to make it universally relatable to readers. He's the type of writer that points out the common everyday occurrences that happen to all of us, and as you read you find yourself slowly realizing, “Hey...that happened to me, too!” Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:05:05 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3033.html One Moment, One Morning gives readers the chance to do something few novels do—take a step back and really think of how delicate life is, and how quickly it can change from moment to moment. Rayner writes realistic, relatable characters who are simply trying to deal with the overwhelming feelings sudden change can bring, and she writes them well. Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:10:38 -0400 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3032.html Each line that makes up The Last Storyteller is tight, poetic, and so delicately dense that I suspect I could go through the short chapters with the same careful attention that Delaney is showing James Joyce in his Re:Joyce unpacking of Ulysses, and continually find new references and rhythms. Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:43:27 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3018.html The biography is drawn around Dickens' novels, which become the timeline for his life. This makes for fascinating reading, coupling literary criticism with a deep analysis of the relationship between life and art. In particular, the book explores the maturation of Dickens' vision and maps the development of his work to the events in his life, attempting to find answers to the question of who Dickens was, through the material he left us. Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:09:15 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3015.html Set in 1958 Australia, Ben’s Challenge is at its heart an historical coming-of-age story with a fair dose of mystery and intrigue thrown in. The story begins with news of thirteen-year-old Ben Kellerman’s father’s death in a hit and run. It’s an accident that remains unsolved until the end of the book and is the catalyst for Ben’s transition from childhood. Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:12:04 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3011.html Hughes’ best known novel, In a Lonely Place, was made into a terrific film noir by Nicholas Ray; but this one is, if anything, superior to it. As a mystery, it satisfies; and it also gives the reader a compelling portrait of a particular time and place: Middle America during the era of the civil rights struggle. Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:35:13 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3009.html There are many striking passages in Glorious Nemesis and not a few obtuse reflections on the human condition. If a comparison is needed, I’d say that Klima, in Marek Tomin’s smooth translation, reminds me of Poe most of all. Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:01:25 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3008.html Somehow the Steampunk aesthetic, whether it be a fondness for clockwork devices or an interest in dressing up in cravats and corsets, has extended to other areas of culture too - and the authors cover these also. They even compare Steampunk to Surrealism at one point, which strikes me as absurd: Surrealism was much more radical, an hard-edged beast. Sun, 26 Feb 2012 04:38:46 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article3006.html Leslie Brody has a big story to tell, and she tells it well, deftly manoeuvring through an extraordinary life filled with multiple significant figures, historical episodes, social action, tragedies, world war, children and writing. Her style is easy and fluent, lively and engaging, enhancing what is a captivating life story. Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:44:14 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2997.html A Boy Called Dickens is a great primer to get children interested in what did happen to this little boy, and to read the works of the famed Charles Dickens, who proved that anything is possible through hard work and never giving up on your dream. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:14:38 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2996.html Although fictional, The Mistakes experience many of the same pitfalls that have cost real-life musicians their careers, if not their lives. Each character is a reflection of the punk rock scene they represent—a group of talented individuals who allow their fans into their world of anger, and frustration while showing them the human being behind the performer onstage. McMahon pulls no punches. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:05:05 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2995.html The story Patrick M. Garry tells is a story of how curiosity on the part of a group of young teens leads them to meddle in someone’s life with tragic results. This premise is well-rooted in life especially in political campaigns. The staging for the story has a small hometown appeal well-suited for the action. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:08:22 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2994.html Several supporting characters are painted with skill; they grow into people that the heroine and her husband care about enough that the reader joins into their admiration. Other characters help to place the story into social and historical context. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:03:53 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2993.html Memory is critical in each of the stories, recycled into new experiences, and reworked into new memories, twisting, in and out of view, but never lost—nothing is ever lost. The setting brings history into the present day as modern characters uncover clues about the past that lead to self-awareness. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:33:24 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2992.html Full of interesting anecdotes, the memoir is well written and offers an exciting and colorful glimpse into the world of fashion during the hippie revolution. Moller has a light and lively writing style that makes the reading experience engaging. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:22:53 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2990.html She interviewed volunteers and experts, and got to it. It pays to be a food writer, with chef friends in restaurants all over Seattle. Lessons opened with a taste test to demonstrate how the variety within one category of food. Every taste test was a revelation. The most expensive canned tomatoes were not the Best in Show. Salt substitute really is a subsitute, and a poor one. The real lesson: Trust your tastes. Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:42:07 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2989.html Life in a war zone is fine for the noble savages, but not for developers from Shaker heights with Harvard-bound sons. It's easy to dismiss Mr. American Tourist as a hypocrite, but Leegant isn't choosing sides. Aaron's partners in crime are equally American (one is from Skokie), sentimental and easily manipulated. Mr. American Tourist may be a hypocrite, but he knows how he wants to live, and he doesn't need anyone's approval to do it. Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:27:29 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2986.html It's an odd sort of progression from surgeon to sandwich maker and from confectioner to showman. It's hard, at times, to believe that this is a book about one person, though there is a kind of entrepreneurial, inventor thread that links everything Kerby does. Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:17:05 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2975.html This notion of self-awareness is one that is handled delicately and with it, Paolini creates a book that is far more powerful than simply a fast-paced plot driven fantasy about a war between good and evil. Eragon's growth is one that takes him beyond the moment of his conflict to a connectiveness with the world he lives in and beyond, through the older dragons he encounters. Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:10:26 -0500 http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/Article2974.html What’s so endearing about Falling For Me is that David does not try to portray herself as perfect. She’s just like any other single woman out there, putting her best foot forward trying to fall in love—the only difference is, she’s working on falling in love with herself first. Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:43:30 -0500