Excellent summer read! Few pages, but it’s so intense, you have to pause, think and take it all in to begin to understand this tragedy. I’ll never understand the purpose of such evil, but I guess that’s the point really. So it took a little longer to complete the read than I anticipated. A dark story. Yet so relevant. It’a remarkable story of survival!
4 Out of 4 Stars
Reviewed By: Janice Hall, Compliance and Audit
Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian playwright and screenwriter who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature and was widely regarded as the Arab world’s foremost novelist, died on August 30, 2006 at age 94. The New York Times said, “Critics compared his richly detailed Cairo with the London of Charles Dickens, the Paris of Émile Zola and the St. Petersburg of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Out of his over 30 novels, his Cairo Triology is considered his masterwork, and a masterpiece of the Arabic language. CPCC library has all three books: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street.
By: Vicky Tsai, Library Services
My first recommendation is to read his previous work, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”…you’ll simply have a broader, more comprehensive global perspective after reading both texts. This book is fabulous; you learn where we as a nation stand as the world becomes increasingly interconnected and more complex (economically, socially and politically). For anyone who has ever wondered why we offshore so much work to India, this book will answer your questions. It’s a long book, but it’s also a quick read (not because the subject matter is light, but because it is presented in such a readable and understandable manner). Highly recommended as a “required” text for those who are business majors or who have a general interest in the global marketplace.
4 out of 4 Stars
Reviewed by: Lynne Kilgore, CCE Business and Industry Training
Fair warning: This is the book that scared the “bejabbers” out of Stephen King.
It’s been 13 years since Scott Smith’s first novel, A Simple Plan (you might remember the film version; his screenplay earned an Oscar nod) hit the shelves, and, for fans of suspense, The Ruins is well worth the wait. Smith’s tense, tightly-woven story features four college friends, Jeff and Amy, Stacy and Eric, who befriend Matthias, a German tourist, and young Greek vacationer known only as Pablo, during their post-college Cancun vacation.
The four Americans and Pablo join Matthias on a trip into the Mexican jungle to find his missing brother, who has run off to the site of some Mayan ruins after meeting a beautiful archaeologist. They find the ruins and the missing brother, but nothing at the site is how they had hoped, or what it first seems. Slowly, Smith begins to reveal the horrifying truth about the ruins and the seemingly innocuous vine that dominates the landscape. As the friends begin to realize the danger that they are in and the true nature of the menace that surrounds them, a terrifying reality begins to set in, and relationships begin to break down as mere adventure turns into a struggle to simply survive.
With no chapter breaks, The Ruins has been called “one long, screaming close-up of horror.” It also means that you just can’t put this book down.you’ll keep turning the pages to see how the vine evolves (seriously, this is one creepy, creepy plant) and if there’s any hope at all for the characters’ survival. King also wrote that “The Ruins is going to be America’s literary shock-show this summer, doing for vacations in Mexico what Jaws did for beach weekends on Long Island.” Consider yourself warned.
4 out of 4 Stars
Reviewed by: Jennifer Arnold, Library Services
I picked up “Not Buying It” because I was fascinated by the premise: author and her companion decide to give up spending for a year on all things but necessities. How would that affect your life? What could you live without? What happens to your social life? Would you take away any important “life lessons”? As a person who is fairly frugal and money conscious myself, I was fascinated by a person who lives in our decidedly consumer-friendly culture and simply opts out for a year. It’s hard to imagine. In many ways, this is appealing, especially around Christmastime when the pressure to buy is often overwhelming and we’re up to our ears in credit card debt. But in other ways…no DVDs? No movies? No coffee dates? NO DINNER OUT? Come on! I wanted to know how she did it.
Levine divides her book up into chapters where each chapter is a month, and she explains how she was affected by this newly restricted financial decision throughout the year. First off…what is a necessity? Q-tips? Wine? Expensive but fresh organic cheese? These were debates she had with her partner. Levine details her personal experience with a spending binge the week before the spending drought (which started on Jan. 1)–they bought tons of stuff, even things they didn’t need, just because they knew they’d be without for a year. Isn’t that how many of us diet? “Eat the huge piece of chocolate cake before you start the diet Monday!!” She talks about how mass-produced resources can cost less money, but of course that means we just buy more stuff, stuff we don’t need, often at the expense of cheap labor and poor working conditions of others. And what about when you are expected to give financially, like for graduations, weddings, and birthdays? Are you less of a person because you don’t fork over cash-bought gifts? Is your gift less worthy? And what DID happen to her social life? Well, she had a lot more time on her hands, but besides dinner with friends, it was nearly dead. Most social activities cost money!
I enjoyed Levine’s book but with a few small exceptions. She says right off the top she’s a liberal, atheist academic, and she stresses those points throughout the book as they color her perspective and affect her decisions. That’s fair, but as her opions often differed from mine, sometimes I was hoping she would zip it. She also waxed philosophical on issues about money and spending, as well as made (to me) numerous obscure literary and historial references. This often had the effect of making my eyes glaze over. But she’s a talented, personal writer, and the meat of her argument–that we should spend mindfully, appreciate what we have, and truly understand the basic reasons for why we put our money down on the counter–were fascinating to me and worth the price of the book. Which, because it came from the library, was free. I’m not buying it! 
3 Out of 4 Stars
Reviewed By: Erin Payton, Library Services
No army is on a mission of mercy. An army goes into the field to destroy. That’s what it does. But some Americans are surprised to learn that American soldiers can turn into cold-blooded, heartless killers. Authors Michael Salleh and Mitch Weiss show how adversity and poor leadership can turn good soldiers into savage murderers. It happened in Vietnam; it’s happening now in Iraq. I started reading Tiger Force at Chapter 20, where the criminal investigation begins. I recommend doing that. Chapter 20 is where Gustav Apsey, an Austrian-born U.S. Army officer, is assigned to investigate what the Army calls the “Coy Allegation.” Apsey doggedly pursues the case. The detective story is fascinating. When you’ve read to the end, then start on the Introduction and Chapter 1. This is one book that will never become a Major Motion Picture. It’s about the brutality and horror of war, about American soldiers murdering hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. It’s a very disturbing book that evokes shame and disgust. Still, you ought to read it.
3 Out of 4 Stars
Reviewed By: Bill Perkins, Marketing Services
I would like to recommend my friend Andrew Hartley’s (http://www.ajhartley.net) first book. Dr. Hartley is the UNCC Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare and his novel, “The Mask of Atreus,” is an historical thriller combining the mythic elements of ancient Greek and modern political/military history in an exciting story paralleling the ambitions and demons driving a terrific protagonist, museum curator Deborah Miller. Reviewers have compared the novel to both Dan Brown-inevitably– and Michael Crichton. It is a fast-paced, enjoyable read, and it’s fun to Google along as the sites and artifacts of ancient Greece are depicted in Miller’s travels as she investigates the death of her boss, mentor, and friend when long-lost artifacts are looted from a secret display room. This book appeared on the Queens University Annual Book Talk list this spring.
3 Out of 4 Stars
Reviewed By: Kimberley Balcos, Library Services
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