Bookshub Reserve

2021-09-27 10:19:10 Less: A Novel
by Andrew Sean Greer

Genre: Contemporary, Fiction

Goodreads: (3.75/5)

Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India.
Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last. Open / Comment

2021-09-21 18:25:56 Death On The Nile: A Hercule Poirot Mystery
by Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Goodreads: (4.13/5)

The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything - until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: 'I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.' Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems... Open / Comment

2021-09-17 12:16:05 Harlem Shuffle
by Colson Whitehead

Genre: Thriller, Historical Fiction

Goodreads: (3.95/5)

Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child.

Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it.

Cash is tight, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either. 

Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. 

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. Open / Comment

2021-09-14 10:29:17 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain

Genre: Children, Classic, Fiction

Goodreads: (4/5)

Mark Twain’s epic masterpiece, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, brings out the inequities of adult reality from beneath the innocence of childhood.
In the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, along the Mississippi River, Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and half-brother Sid.
As the novel begins, we catch him stealing from the jam jar and narrowly escaping being hit. But his life is full of adventurous episodes. What happens as he moves from one escapade to another—accompanying Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night where they witness a trio of grave robbers; falling in love with Becky Thatcher and being shunned; enjoying the new found freedom and then being struck by the idea of appearing at his own funeral; hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house with Huck and so on..? Open / Comment

2021-09-10 09:09:21 The Notebook: A Novel
by Nicholas Sparks

Genre: Romance, Fiction

Goodreads: (4.12/5)

Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast begins the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner recently returned from the Second World War. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.

Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. It is a story of miracles and emotions that will stay with you forever. Open / Comment

2021-09-05 00:10:37 The Richest Man In Babylon
by George S. Clason

Genre: Self Help, Finance

Goodreads: (4.26/5)

The Success Secrets of the Ancients—
An Assured Road to Happiness and Prosperity

Countless readers have been helped by the famous “Babylonian parables,” hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth. In language as simple as that found in the Bible, these fascinating and informative stories set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys. Acclaimed as a modern-day classic, this celebrated bestseller offers an understanding of—and a solution to—your personal financial problems that will guide you through a lifetime. This is the book that holds the secrets to keeping your money—and making more. Open / Comment

2021-08-31 07:31:43 A Tale Of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens

Genre: Classic, Fiction

Goodreads: (3.89/5)

A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes—imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal. Open / Comment

2021-08-28 06:59:15 The Song Of Achilles
by Madeline Miller

Genre: Historical Fiction

Goodreads: (4.41/5)

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. Open / Comment

2021-08-24 07:14:12 The Adventures Of Tintin: Complete Collection (1-24)
by Hergé

Genre: Children, Mystery

Goodreads: (4.38/5)

Tintin, Hergé's classic comic book creation, is one of the most iconic characters in children's books. To celebrate Tintin's 90th anniversary, the original 24 adventures have been collected together for the first time. Now including Tintin and Alph-Art and Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, this unique collection will delight Tintin fans old and new. Perfect for lovers of graphic novels, mysteries, and historical adventures.

Join the most iconic character in comics as he embarks on extraordinary adventures and solves thrilling mysteries! From the Land of the Soviets to America, to outer space and the depths of the ocean, there are over 1,600 pages of delight. The ultimate gift for any Tintin fan. Open / Comment

2021-08-21 09:08:13 Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness
by Tim S. Grover and Shari Wenk

Genre: Self Help, Non Fiction

Goodreads: (4.58/5)

From the elite performance coach who authored the international bestseller Relentless and whose clients have included Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade, comes this brutally honest formula for winning in business, sports, or any arena where the battle is fiercely unforgiving.

In Winning, Tim Grover shows why he is one of the world’s most sought-after mindset experts. Drawing on three decades of work with elite competitors, Grover strips away the cliches and rah-rah mentality that create mediocrity and challenges you to embrace reality with single-minded intensity. The prize? Massive success. Open / Comment