Adult Book Reviews
Featured Adult Book Review
Freddie and Me by Tripp Bowden
You don't have to like golf, understand golf or play golf to enjoy this book. All you need is a brain and a heart and the memory of being young and unfocused, then finally achieving the sudden and defining clarity that comes at the end of the blurry years. Reading this book is like putting on a good pair of glasses.
Rating: 5
Reviewed by: jth
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Monster by Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman is a clinical psychologist and is one of the world's most popular authors. His wife, Faye Kellerman is also a novelist and they have co-authored best sellers.
The setting for this novel is Los Angeles, California and the main characters are Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective St. Milo Sturgis of the Los Angeles P.D. homicide division. Dr. Delaware's expertise is often used by the police to help solve murders.
They are investigating several grisly, unbelievably gruesome murders that have obviously been committed by the same person who is a monster. They are working hard to solve the murders and catch the monster who is doing these things, but they are not making any headway. Then the badly mutilated corpse of a woman is found and she turns out to be a psychologist at the Starkweather State Hospital for the Criminally Insane named Claire Argent.Their investigation takes them there where they found a large maximum security hospital where all the patients are monsters. The people on the hospital staff themselves are "different". The hospital is really more prison than hospital, the patients are given drugs to keep them calm, but they are destined to leave Starkweather alive. They have not have contact with the outside world other than being allowed to watch television if they wish. So how can a patient there who has no contact with the outside world and seldom and speaks predict the horrible murders before they happen?
This is a gripping and suspenseful novel and as usual with all of Kellerman's stories, it has several surprising twists before it is through.
Rating: 4
Reviewed by: Bill Rathburn
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Trixie Stone is what you think a normal 14 year old acts like - until she goes to a friend's party and tries to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. As a result you find that the party is hosting teenagers involved in sexual games and Trixie cries rape. People are confused as who to believe. Then someone dies. You go along with Trixie and her parents as they each try to find themselves.
Rating: 4
Reviewed by: AH
The Baby Farm by Karen Harper
Emma is a midwife in a backwoods community and when her best friend calls for help she takes off towards her house. But when she gets there her friend is missing. Things start going terribly wrong when Emma's clients go elsewhere for birth. Babies supposedly die, mothers disappear. This book reveals a horrible side of birth, black market adopt rings.
Rating: 4
Reviewed by: AH
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Eddie is 83 years old when this book opens. It's his birthday. He goes to work like he has all his adult life to his job as head of maintenance at an amusement park. When one of the rides breaks, he jumps to push a young girl out of the path of the falling car. He gets killed not knowing if he was able to rescue her or if they both died. Now, in Heaven, a blue man approaches him. Eddie doesn't remember the man at first. This man had been in the freak show at the amusement park when Eddie was a kid. The Blue Man then starts talking about an incident that happened when Eddie was around eight. Eddie learns that before he is done he will speak with four more people. After that he will see his own life differently than he had while alive. Do you ever wonder if your own life is important? Do you think that you haven't really made a difference in the world? The author uses The Five People You Meet in Heaven to show that everyone is important and has an impact on the people around him or her. Things that mean nothing to me (or you) may affect other people's lives without being aware of what has really happened.
For such a small book this one packs a lot into it. Albom's picture of heaven in this novel doesn't fit my perception. But, I can identify with the need to know what my life was all about. Eddie gets to review his life, find forgiveness, find redemption, and find what type of hero he really was.
Rating: 4
Reviewed by: Nyala
Christmas on Conrad Street by Marcia Evanick
After Sydney catches her boyfriend tangled with another woman, she leaves the city and moves to Misty Harbor where her sister lives. Being the only doctor in a town with more men than women, she is bombarded with callers. But only a Viking will do. When Erik's grandfather is found in the middle of the road by Sydney the two of them are thrown together in a pretend relationship that ends in happily ever after. I enjoy this book very much.
Rating: 5
Reviewed by: AH
Sweet Nothings by Catherine Anderson
Molly suspects that her ex-husband killed her father and brutally whipped their horse, Sonora Sunset. Believing this is true, she loads up the horse and drives him across Oregon to the Lazy J Ranch. Jake Coulter, owner of the ranch, tries to calm the horse and make sense of what is going on with his spooked owner. Things take a surprising twist when Molly's exhusband shows up wanting her to sign some documents. This book has a sweet and endearing character line.
Rating: 5
Reviewed by: AH
Salem Falls by Jodi Piccoult
Jodi Picoult's Salem Falls is an interesting modern twist on the Salem Witch Trials. Accused of indecently assaulting a female pupil at the school he taught at, Jack McBride's reputation is destroyed overnight. Despite his continual protestations of innocence, Jack spends eight months in jail. When he finishes serving his time, he decides to try and pick up the pieces, and start over somewhere new. When he arrives in Salem Falls, he begins to believe that he has another chance to be happy and find love. Unfortunately newcomers to Salem are automatically subject to suspicion. As a recent sex offender, he is required by law to register with the local law enforcement and in such a small town, predictably news spreads like wildfire. Jack is rapidly outcast and shunned by most of the town. He meets four girls who are involved in taking drugs and practicing a misguided version of Wicca. When they target him with spiteful accusations, Jack begins to wonder if he is doomed to relive the past over and over again. Once more he must fight to prove his innocence, and risk losing the woman he loves. The trial, both in the court of small-town opinion and the court of law, is at the heart of this story. This book is an exciting legal thriller that focuses on whether an accused person with a previous conviction for the same crime can receive a fair trial. Secrets, slowly revealed, are what makes this novel compelling. Every character has a secret, and all those secrets lead to the book's final page.
Rating: 4.5
Reviewed by: Nyala
