Book Review: Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women, By Alexa Albert

This is a biographical look at the legally owned and operated brothels of Nevada. The author, Alexa Albert, becomes interested in Mustang Ranch while in medical school. She wants to find out about the brothels methods for irradicating HIV and STD transmission. She contacts the owner in hopes of an interview and is declined, she gives up hope on her research project until three years later when she is contacted to visit the “ranch.” Albert remains undecided about her views on legalized prostitution throughout the entire book, allowing the reader to make up their minds, or not, about the business. She interviews every employed woman at the ranch and finds that they are highly varied individuals, and that many (not all) are not sterotypical prostitutes. At times its clear that Albert is a medical students and strays into an empirical writing style, but the book is progressive in its research and has a clear and meaningful purpose. Bottom line: if you can get over the fact that the book has BROTHEL: MUSTANG RANCH written on the cover, you might actually enjoy it!

2 Out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Julie Chandler, Library Services

Book Review: Gentlemen and Players, By Joanne Harris

Mystery fans who devoured John Mortimer’s “Rumpole of the Bailey” series will undoubtedly enjoy Joanne Harris’ Gentlemen and Players–though the novel isn’t set in a British courtroom. Just as Rumpole has haunted the Old Bailey for generations, Roy Straitley has haunted the Classics department of St. Oswald’s, an exclusive English public school, for thirty years. To the dismay of his colleagues and Headmaster, he smuggles cigarettes into his smoke-free office, often retorts in Latin phrases (Roy knows his Head “doubtless thinks carpe diem means ‘fish of the day.’”) and wears his traditional gown only because, “it provides good camouflage and saves on suits.” Roy is St. Oswald’s lovable curmudgeon–but someone from the school’s distant past views St. Oswald’s as a cruel institution built on wealth, class, and privilege. And–oddly enough–this villain sees anti-establishment Roy as the embodiment of this system. Through alternating chapters (cleverly titled after chess terms: pawn, en passant, etc), the reader is introduced to a frighteningly real and conscienceless criminal–an evil character possessing the computer expertise to forge the necessary documents to be hired as a teacher at St. Oswald’s. Can the technologically challenged Roy (who “doesn’t do email”) prevent his own demise as well as the destruction of his beloved school? Readers should be prepared for a not-so-formulaic resolution of a mystery novel that serves equal dollops of hilarity and horror.

4 out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Mike Shinn, Writing Lab

Book Review: Academy X, By Andrew Trees

John Spencer teaches English in a New York private prep school (Just as the novel’s author). This first-person narrative reveals a young educator already grown weary of the daily tribulations he must endure: unprepared students, power-hungry administrators, and bullying parents. Though he receives more lucrative job offers, he always stays put. He falls in love–or maybe it’s lust–with a manipulative librarian who thinks he’s line for a promotion–but that’s not his major problem. A bewitchingly beautiful student–whom John has accused of plagiarism–presents the Head with persuasive proof of John’s sexual advances. The subsequent hearings that decide his fate are riveting and realistic stuff. Despite the seriousness of the plot, Academy X is a humorous novel: Each chapter is titled after a work of literature (Romeo and Juliet, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lolita, etc.) and contains characters and story lines reflective of those works. John’s observations as well as characters’ dialogue are often laugh-out-loud funny: “I felt a slight flutter in my digestive organs that afternoon, which was either the result of an ill-advised go at the lunchtime pudding or unease at the upcoming department meeting.” What teacher familiar with school cafeterias and department meetings can’t relate to his plight? Just beneath the humor, Andrew Trees’ first novel hints at current educational issues: the politics of grading, the negative impact of departmental politics, and the view of students as “customers.” While educators may often chuckle while reading Academy X, much of the laughter may be a nervous laughter–as they recognize themselves in the story line.

3 out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Mike Shinn, Writing Lab

Book Review: Nighttime is My Time, By Mary Higgins Clark

“Nighttime Is My Time” revolves around the present and pasts of ten old classmates and friends. Each have a claim to fame; successful business people, Hollywood starlets gone wrong, and some were curiously wealthy. All are quirky and unpredictable except the main character who acts like Tabitha Stevens in ‘Murder She Wrote,” lurking around and suspecting this and that. However, several people are being very suspicious, and with several murders and no assailant, everyone is beginning to look like the antagonist “The Owl.” “The Owl” is with out a doubt someone from the reunion class, but no one knows who or why he/she keeps murdering former classmates. All the murders happen at night, because as “The Owl” says, “Nighttime Is My Time.”

3 out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Julie Chandler, Library Services

Book Review: Strange Piece of Paradise, By Terri Jentz

This book is true – 542 pages of sheer captivation. Jentz, a Yale college student, and her roommate are cyling out west in the summer of 1977. Their trip is cut short when a truck runs over their tent as they lie sleeping. The driver begins attacking them with an axe. The girls survive but the attacker is never found. Fifteen years later, Jentz sets out to find who did this. The book chronicles eight years of her trips to Oregon and countless interviews. Called a “memoir, detective story, travelogue, time capsule and horror movie come to life” by author James Wolcott, this book is highly recommended.

4 out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Carolyn Pence, Human Resources

Book Review: Angels Fall, By Nora Roberts

According to the book jacket, Nora Roberts has written over 150 novels. I think this is one of her best in recent times.

Reece Gilmore, the only survivor of a mass murder in Boston, ventures cross-country to try to come to terms with her past, and stops temporarily in Angel’s Fist, Wyoming. She finds a job and a place to stay, and begins to settle into the small town life of the Fist. If you’re from a small town, you’ll recognize the people in this book. Everyone knows everybody else’s business, but they are a caring community and take Reece in as one of them. Life is beginning to be easier. Her nightmares are fewer, her paranoia lessened, and her life is becoming more normal until one day, when she decides to hike one of the near-by mountain trails. While resting on a promontory overlooking the Snake River, she sees a man and woman arguing down below her, on the other side of the river. Then the man is on top of the woman and strangling her until she stops moving. However, no body is found. The only person who seems unequivocally to believe she has witnessed a murder is a surly loner named Brody, who is a novelist and somewhat of an odd-ball himself, as far as the natives are concerned.

There is romance, intrigue, and mystery throughout the 439 pages of this book. Don’t let the length daunt you; I couldn’t put it down, and finished in three days. You’ll like all the characters, and will be cheering for Reece and Brody as they realize, even if no one else does, that someone wants Reece gone from Angel’s Fist. I did guess the murderer, but only at the very end, just before it was revealed. That didn’t take away from the satisfaction of a really good read.

3 out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Sallie Jenkins, Library Services

Book Review: Sight Hound, by Pam Houston

This novel is filled with quirky characters trying to figure out life and how to make the most of it a long the way. In the course of doing so they go through events that are funny, sad, maddening–the whole range of human and non-human experience. The non-human ones would be Dante, the Buddha quoting dog, Rose, the less enlightened dog, and Stanley, the snooty cat. Chapters alternate voices and the animals get their say. This is especially effective on the audio version because different actors read the various parts. The story is set in Colorado, and having just been to Colorado and visited with people who had some of the same experiences in the book (being close to a forest fire), it felt very authentic. I highly recommend it as a fun and thought provoking book. Don’t let the three stars fool you–I’m a hard grader.

3 out of 4 Stars

Reviewed By: Elaine Kushmaul, Library Services