We've Added New Book Reviews on GetBookReviews.com

We've Added New Book Reviews on GetBookReviews.com

Too Many Secrets
by Laura McClendon
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: Turnkey Press (April 30, 2005)
ISBN: 097649812X

Book Description
"You have to help me," the woman said desperately. Cassandra Masters’ life wasn’t turning out the way she had planned. There was a time when she had it all figured out-first med school, then setting up practice in sunny Florida, then settling down to raise her family. Instead, she’s a widow at twenty-nine, with one child, working as a private investigator in upstate New York. But none of that really matters to the people who seek out the best, and most elusive, detective in town. These are the people who want answers, better yet, miracles it they can get them. And, the woman standing before her is no exception.

With Eleanor Moorehouse’s plea for help, and an old yearbook, she entices Cassandra to investigate the death of her husband, a local doctor whose saintly image over-shadowed his personal demons. With help from her neighbor and confident David and a host of diverse characters ranging from a Catholic priest to a big, black dog, she eventually unravels the mystery of Dr. Moorehouse’s life and his death. Too Many Secrets challenges its reader to dissect this intricately woven story of deception and murder.

GetBookReviews.com This well-written debut novel by Laura McClendon will keep you wanting more. Get ready to read the book from start to finish in one sitting, because you won't be able to put it down. The colorful characters and suspense driven story about a single mom who investigates the death of her own husband will leave you on the edge of your seat. Once you think you've solved the case, another turn will leave you second guessing yourself. How will it end? Get your copy and sit down for a fabulous read. *****


Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
by Koren Zailckas
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult (February 7, 2005)
ISBN: 0670033766

From earliest experimentation to habitual excess to full-blown abuse, twenty-four-year-old Koren Zailckas leads us through her experience of a terrifying trend among young girls, exploring how binge drinking becomes routine, how it becomes "the usual." With the stylistic freshness of a poet and the dramatic gifts of a novelist, Zailckas describes her first sip at fourteen, alcohol poisoning at sixteen, a blacked-out sexual experience at nineteen, total disorientation after waking up in an unfamiliar New York City apartment at twenty-two, when she realized she had to stop, and all the depression, rage, troubled friendships, and sputtering romantic connections in between. Zailckas’s unflinching candor and exquisite analytical eye gets to the meaning beneath the seeming banality of girls’ getting drunk. She persuades us that her story is the story of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics—yet—but who use booze as a short cut to courage, a stand-in for good judgment, and a bludgeon for shyness, each of them failing to see how their emotional distress, unarticulated hostility, and depression are entangled with their socially condoned binging.

GetBookReviews.com The author, Koren Zailckas, has written a book that she could only wish was fiction. At an early age Zailckas began experimenting with alcohol. Throughout her teenage years in high school and college, the author experienced alcohol at its worse. Alcohol poisoning, hospitalizations, sexual encounters she can't remember, are just some of the things this author went through. She is honest about her experiences and blends in statistics with her life's prose. These experiences have left her emotionally drained and wondering how she can have normal relationships. This emotionally charged work will leave you feeling sad and helpless and hoping girls of all ages can learn from this story. *****


Sleuthing 101: Background Checks and the Law
by Barry Nadell
Paperback: 163 pages
Publisher: InfoLink Screening Service (October, 2004)
ISBN: 0975937200

Book Description

"Sleuthing 101, Background Checks and The Law" is the only book of its kind devoted solely to background screening. In today’s society, background screening has become one of the hottest topics and this is the book every employer in the U.S. must have in order to protect themselves from the pitfalls of making a bad hire.
Sleuthing 101, Background Checks and the Law…

• Answers the question "Why should we conduct employment background checks?"
• Explains the risks of negligent hiring liability
• Provides explanations of various background checks
• Recommends tips for creating the perfect employment application to protect your company

GetBookReviews.com Barry Nadell has done an excellent job at teaching ordinary people about the legal aspects of background checks and the hiring process. Get inside tips and knowledge from an industry expert in language and format that you can understand. A state by state explanation of the law is given, so every employer, human resource manager, business owner can benefit from this book no matter where you live and what business you are in. I will be keeping this book on my reference desk for future use. A Must Have!!! *****


Daughter of Heaven : A Memoir with Earthly Recipes
by Leslie Li
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Arcade Publishing (April 4, 2005)
ISBN: 1559707682

GetBookReviews.com Author, Leslie Li, guides us through her life as a Chinese-American. You will journey through her ancestry, her relationships with her family and growing up in New York with the strictness of the Chinese beliefs. Well written and easily read, this work gives you insight into the author's life and way of life. This work also includes stories from her grandmother, Nai-Nai and recipes from her heritage. Four stars for Li, a novelist writing her family story. ****

From Booklist
In the tradition of Amy Tan, novelist Li weaves stories of her family with the recipes of her ancestry. The book centers on her relationship with both her father and Nai-nai, her grandmother, who lands in New York City for an extended visit. It also concerns the push-pull bond with a heritage that demands obedience to specific high-held standards, whether involving the selection of a career or marriage. She celebrates a host of festivals, from the ubiquitous Chinese New Year with good-luck money gifts to the little-known April 4 Festival of Grave Sweeping. In stories and in the nearly 20 recipes (including Drunken Chicken and Cantonese Fried Rice), Li reveals the tale of an Asian woman caught between many different worlds and times and places. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Like an amuse bouche, each vignette in Li's memoir tantalizes with a taste of Li's life as a Chinese-American in suburban New York, leaving readers longing for more delicious tidbits. Li chronicles incidents in her life from her 1950s childhood to her grandmother Nai-Nai's centenary in Guilin, China, in the 1980s. The essays lyrically show the tension in Li's family between her father and mother, between herself and her father, and most of all, between Li's American ways and her Chinese history. Li uses the food of her family to tell her stories: "At a Chinese table," she writes, "it's the unspoken words that count. The meal is the message." A silent meal with her Chinese-born father speaks more of the disintegration of her parents' marriage than explication could. She writes, "I… didn't want him to have to eat alone, not when my parents' marriage was dissolving, like the pierced egg yolk seeping and disappearing into his noodles." The prose comes most alive when Li focuses on Nai-Nai, who lived with the author's family for 15 years when Li was young. Leaping decades ahead, Li returns to China to visit her senile grandmother, and she begins to try to reconstruct Nai-Nai's life. The focus shifts as Li begins writing her novel, Bittersweet, and she includes some of her conjecture about the years her grandmother spent in the U.S. While readers may wish for yet more stories of Nai-Nai and of Li herself, the book is more than satisfying, and the mythical ending (Li recounts a fable of her own) is haunting. Agent, Joanne Wang. (May)



Black Raspberries And Other Tales
by J. L. Campbell
Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: Authorhouse (March 22, 2004)
ISBN: 1414052405

Book Description
Black Raspberries and Other Tales by J.L. Campbell is a compilation of unrelated short stories that come at you from all different directions. The ever changing format of each tale will take you on a roller coaster ride full of different emotions. Start With a scary tale, next have a chuckle or two, share a nostalgic memory, then it's back to tense and scary again. Campbell expresses himself in a raw and refreshing manner that grips the reader by making them feel connected to the characters in his tales.

GetBookReviews.com This collection of short stories by J. L. Campbell is a great asset to any book collection. Full of high tales of fantasy and mystery, the stories are short and engrossing. The stories are deep and yet short, entertaining yet chilling. Could Campbell be our next big mystery writer? I can't wait for the next one. *****