If I were smart I would stop reading books that feature demons and fairies, but I persevered despite the clear warning on the very first page. OF the three Story Sisters, one is disturbed following a childhood molestation incident her parents know nothing about and the other two suffer her increasing troubles mostly by covering [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘New York’
August 26, 2009
Netherland by Joseh O’Neill
Netherland is the story of a Dutch stock analyst, married to a British lawyer and temporarily, and apparently happily working in New York. After 9/11 his wife decides that New York is too dangerous of a place for their son to live and moves back to London (where, as we know, no terrorist threats exists!) [...]
June 9, 2009
The Associate by John Grisham
The Associate tells the story of a fresh graduate of Yale Law School who is blackmailed into taking a job at a New York business law firm (he had wanted to work for a non-profit organization in Pennsylvania) against the threat of revelations from a college accessory to rape charge. The author paints an oppressive [...]
May 23, 2009
Where are you now? by Mary Higgins Clark
Where Are You Now? is a creepy tale of a young man who abruptly disappeared years ago but calls faithfully each Mother’s Day. When his sister decides to investigate his disappearance young women turn up dead or missing and her brother appears to be the culprit, causing her mother to bemoan this new twist, but [...]
March 6, 2009
Home Girl by Judith Matloff
Home Girl opens as an unexpectedly clueless New York native, hardened by years of a career as a worldwide journalist in the toughest locales, buys a house in need of prodigious TLC (think new electrical and plumbing systems and new walls and ceilings) without realizing, she says, that it’s located at the then-epicenter of cocaine trade [...]
January 9, 2009
The Lost Art of Walking by Geoff Nicholson
The Lost Art of Walking is an odd book. The author sets out to describe all aspects of what he calls, a bit pedantically, pedestrianism, and he covers a lot of ground (ha ha) including walking references in music and literature, walking through various cities he knows (London, New York, and, funnily enough, Los Angeles) , [...]
October 23, 2008
I was told there’d be cake by Sloane Crosley
I was told there’s be cake is a collection of essays about a young woman’s life in Manhattan. The tone is reminiscent of David Sedaris (see here) but the book is much less successful. I think the reason is that the humor is often directed outward — at terribly bad bosses, loser boyfriends, rude guests – rather [...]
July 31, 2008
Personal Days by Ed Park
Personal Days is a clever satire of office politics in the New York office of a company that’s shrinking under the influence of “The Californians” that bought the company and now run the show. The erratic and sometimes cruel path of the layoffs will sound familiar to anyone who’s lived through them. There’s a twist, [...]
