Good Reads Blog

by Marcia Muller

Rev. by L. Wright

For those of you who are waiting impatiently for the next Grafton or Paretsky, this series is a great find! Although you can start with the first of the Sharon McCone mysteries for back story, they stand alone fairly well too.

Sharon McCone is newly married and dealing with the shock of a shared life when she is hired to solve a twenty-two year-old mystery. Laurel Greenwood had disappeared without a trace, leaving her husband and two young daughters perplexed and grieving. Twenty-two years later, her elder daughter needs closure and looks to Sharon and her firm for help. As Sharon begins to dig into the family’s past, she finds that Laurel was anything but perfect, and suspects that what she discovers will bring an unexpected and unpleasant kind of closure.

Although a Michigan native, Muller has relocated to California. The coast setting of these mysteries is a prominent aspect and adds a nice dimension to her stories. Muller is also adept at running a parallel story developing McCone’s character – in this volume, the author delves into marriage, how it evolves over time, and how the partners’ personalities and history determine the flavor of the relationship.

by Carlos Ruiz Zafos

rev. by M. Meyer

In 1945 Barcelona, ten-year-old Daniel Sempere is taken by his widowed father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and told to adopt one book. Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. Daniel is captivated by the book’s story of a man seeking his true father and the fate of his true love and vows to find out more about Carax. What follows is the mystery of what happened to Julian Carax and his books, and Daniel’s search for the truth while growing from boy to man.

When a patron comes to the information desk and asks me for a book “like” another author's, I have an easy trick that I use. Even if I don’t read a particular author, I can still make a good guess about who's books might be similar, by Googling.

Reader’s advisory is a big part of what librarians do, and we love our favorite authors. Chances are, a librarian has scouted out the territory before you have and posted a list of similar titles on the web. Librarians have a “slang” term for this kind of readers advisory, or professional jargon if you prefer. It is called a “readalike”.

So this is what you do: You go to any search engine and type in your author’s name and the word “readalike.” You might want to put quotations around the name if parts of it are common. There aren’t many Grishams, but probably a lot of Kings in the world, and even in publishing. But the term readalikes is specialized enough that it will probably weed out false hits.

The Portage District Library’s own “readalikes” pages are called "If you Like..." and are organized by author or genre/subject.

by Steven Levitt and

rev. by R. Kapture

Steven Levitt is the youngest professor to be granted tenure at the University of Chicago. He’s been named the best American economist under the age of 40. And he’s co-authored a twisty little book called “Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”.

Stephen J. Dubner, a writer whose interest in Steven Levitt’s considerable talent for trend-watching engendered a feature for the New York Times Magazine, convinced the unassuming economist that his impulse toward explaining human behavior through the application of economic theory would make an appealing and fascinating book.

Mr. Dubner was right. Their teamwork has produced a hilarious and always quirky little book all about Steven Levitt, who applies his superb critical thinking skills to such odd and unrelated subjects as “What do high school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?”, “Is a swimming pool more dangerous than a loaded pistol?” and my personal favorite, “Does a prostitute have a larger income than an architect?” (The answer is “Arrrgh, Yes”).

Marrying his boundless talent for statistical thinking with sensitive behavioral observation, Steven Levitt brings brilliant, unnerving clarity to some Gordian-knottish behavioral misunderstandings.

Mr. Levitt’s findings have spawned raging debate and the book has a “Ripley’s” readability – and that works in favor of “Freakonomics”. The book is anything but the dry, dusty tome the word “economics” conjures. It holds charm, firm scholarship, amazing interest and an object lesson for everyone who is interested in challenging what society believes about how society works. In the end, “Freakonomics” reveals some stunningly complex and unexpected answers to questions concerning what we are willing to accept as the truth.

by John LeCarre

rev. by N. Andreadis

I have always been swept away by good spy novels. The intrigue, duplicity, the characters and, in particular, the settings in cities and countries engaged in wars-cold and otherwise- always lock me in my chair for hours on end. That is when the writing is good and with John LeCarre it is invariably great. Recently, I began re-reading the George Smiley series that starts with Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The best spy stories always have a mole that has penetrated deeply and quietly into the “enemy’s” most valuable assets. Assets, I’ve learned by the way, is always a good word to use in spy stories. Sure enough, in Tinker Tailor, a Soviet mole has penetrated the British intelligence service and no one can rest easy until this underground menace is discovered and punished. Well maybe not punished. But, when there is a mole who can be trusted? Though “retired”, Her Majesty’s government calls on George Smiley to identify the villain. Each suspect is given a code name, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, etc, and off we go, I mean George of course, into the complex web of intrigue and double agents that Le Carre spins with a most graceful and precise use of the English language. It’s not just LeCarre’s creativity and imagination that carry the story but his deep understanding of the world of spy versus spy. A former member of British intelligence, Le Carre, the pen name of David Cornwell, generously shares with his readers glimpses of a world we know exists but are only willing to confront in novels. This one is a jewel.

by Ted Kooser

review by J. Perry

The author takes the reader with him as he putters around his rural Nebraska home with his dog, Alice, or goes to his pond library to muse in his Uncle Tubby's recliner, or rambles about the countryside meeting friendly folks in person, in history, or in his past.

Each adventure has its own surprise, which keeps the book moving. There might be some humor, an apt Czech saying, a vivid description of a beetle sitting on the author's chair, or of the wild plum bushes that perfume the state's roadsides in spring. Each tale is full of rich detail. It's no wonder the book won multiple awards:its author is our nation's 13th Poet Laureate. It's a delightful metaphorical journey.

These memoirs are organized in a series of loosely connected vignettes, with the author's personal philosophy gradually revealed throughout. One cannot help but sense his appreciation for simple living and nature, his love of family and friends, and his quiet hopefulness. This book is a satisfying read.