OPRAH OR NOT (FEBRUARY 2015)

I commend Oprah for influencing people to read...a major accomplishment!  I don't always like her selections but hopefully this current choice will be a good one. I'm glad she's chosen a new author, that's a departure...although the focus of the novel is vaguely familiar. Anyway, I'm downloading Ruby and have high hopes. RUBY BY CYNTHIA BOND The epic, unforgettable story of a man determined to protect the woman he loves from the town desperate to destroy her—this beautiful and devastating debut heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.   Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city--the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village--all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby Bell finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy. Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage.  (Reviewed by www.bookmovement.com ) To order now click on the Amazon Search Box in the blog Sidebar.

NEW THIS WEEK (05/06/2014)

Here's some quickie reviews of new releases this week. It's a mix of a little "schmaltz" and some right-on Fiction...Take your pick.

Click on the  book title and you'll be linked to Bookreporter.com for a detailed review.

IN PARADISE by Peter Matthiessen (Fiction)


In the winter of 1996, more than a hundred individuals gather at the site of a former concentration camp for a weeklong retreat. They will offer prayer and witness at the crematoria, while eating and sleeping in the quarters of the Nazi officers who sent more than a million Jews to their deaths. Clements Olin, an American academic of Polish descent, is forced to abandon his observer's role and embrace a history his family has long suppressed. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.


THE GIRL WHO SAVED THE KING OF SWEDEN by Jonas Jonasson (Fiction)


Nombeko Mayeki was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township. But she finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes her way up to the position of chief advisor, at the helm of one of the world's most secret projects. South Africa developed six nuclear missiles in the 1980s, then voluntarily dismantled them in 1994. This is a story about the seventh missile, the one that was never supposed to have existed. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.


RUBY by Cynthia Bond (Historical Fiction)


Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, who has suffered beyond imagining, flees Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, 30-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy. Reviewed by Jennifer Romanello.


NATCHEZ BURNING by Greg Iles (Thriller)


#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Greg Iles returns with his most eagerly anticipated book yet, and his first in five years. NATCHEZ BURNING is the first installment in an epic trilogy that weaves crimes, lies and secrets past and present into a mesmerizing thriller featuring southern mayor and former prosecutor Penn Cage. Reviewed by Ray Palen.


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