Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 5, 2009

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Beautiful Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

The five stories of “Music and Nightfall” contained in Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro display Ishiguro’s virtuosity in creating fiction that is both illuminating and pleasurable. Reading his works is always an experience of multiple satisfactions — characters…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 25, 2009

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Graphic Power

Two recently released graphic novels, Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli andA.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld illustrate in very different ways the power and breadth of the Graphic Novel. Asterios Polyp also demonstrates the novelistic depth and rich beauty that the best of the genre…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 3, 2009

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Cancer Vanquished Graphically

Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto provides another stunning example of the power of the Graphic Novel. I loved this book. Right up there with Stitches by David Small (reviewed on this blog) and the Persepolis books by Marjane Satrapi, Cancer Vixen conveys through vivid…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 30, 2009

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No Bees in Her Bonnet

The only thing wrong with The Sting of Justice by Cora Harrison is its book cover proclaiming it to be a “mystery of Medieval Ireland”. It is in fact a mystery of Ireland in the Renaissance (the sixteenth century). Everything else about this book is just perfectly right and wonderful.

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 6, 2009

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Midlife Scouting

Peter Applebome’s book Scout’s Honor is a wonderful memoir of his years as the parent of a Boy Scout. Actively involved with his son’s scouting activities, Applebome is in turns funny, reflective, descriptive, and soul-searching as he struggles with everything from the first canoe trip (mastering…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 22, 2009

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Taking the Lid Off: Ruth Rendell’s Wexford

Ruth Rendell’s The Monster in the Box is her most psychologically twisted thriller yet, and that is saying quite a lot. Rendell always delves deeply into what makes a killer kill, a murderer murder, or a mutilator mutilate. What makes the killer in The…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 1, 2009

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Greedy For More Than Candy

To prepare for Halloween, every year I read Halloween books. When my kids were little, I stuck to children’s books and we read them over and over in the weeks preceding October 31st. On the first day of October, my kids still ask to get the Halloween books (and decorations) down…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 11, 2009

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Holding Strong

Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman is an extraordinary novel for its voice, its vision, and its promise. The voice is that of Abraham Singleton, born to a thirteen-year old girl and an absent twenty-year old father; the year is 1982 America and the place is the projects, Ever Park building in…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 2, 2009

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Food, Desire, and Murder in Minneapolis

I liked The Mirror and the Mask by Ellen Hart. Hart has constructed a solid mystery around fascinating recurring characters (this is her seventeenth Jane Lawless mystery) and variously miserable victims and/or perpetrators of planned, aborted, and executed…

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Nina Sankovitch in Nina Sankovitch

Nov 9, 2009

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Elkins and Francis: Two Great Formulas Falter

Two of my favorite perennial story-tellers have come out with their yearly books and although both satisfy, neither excite. I have been reading Dick Francis mysteries for years and have read all forty-three of his horse-centric tales of suspense and…

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These were the top 10 stories published by Nina Sankovitch in November of 2009. You can also dive into daily archives for November of 2009 by using the calendar at the top of this page.