Book reviews added in the week of 7/22-7/28

Hi all,

Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the US have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:

"Rules of Deception" by Christopher Reich - In "Rules of Deception,"
Jonathan Ransom is a physician with Doctors Without Borders and an
avid mountaineer who goes skiing in the Alps with his wife, Emma. A
severe storm causes her death, and the next day, he receives an
envelope for her that has two railway baggage-claim tickets. When he
tries to claim the bags, he's attacked by men from the Swiss secret
police. Pursued by the police and an assassin, Ransom must unravel
Emma's secret life to save his own, and as it turn outs, the world
too. Christopher Reich's novel has received mostly positive reviews
with the New York Times saying, "'Rules of Deception' is the rare
version that begins in by-the-numbers fashion, promising not much, but
furiously picks up steam as it goes."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/rules_of_deception
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385524064/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20

"The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry - "The Lace Reader" is set in
Salem, Massachusetts, the hometown of Towner Whitney, yet the place
she has avoided since she was 17. Her mother runs a shelter for
abused women on an island off the coast, and her great-aunt Eva can
read futures in women's lace patterns. Towner also possesses this
ability, but she has suppressed it. When Eva goes missing, Towner
comes back to Salem to find her. Towner, though, has a past rife with
mental illness, and when she arrives in Salem, she finds Eva's ghost.
Is her disappearance linked to the Calvinists, a group of misogynists
still trying to drive all witches from town? Towner must confront her
family's past to sort out the present, but even she's not sure where
the truth lies. Brunonia Barry's debut novel has received mostly
positive reviews with the New York Daily News saying, "Indeed, while
'The Lace Reader' is rooted in the everyday of small-town life, it has
a hallucinatory quality throughout as Towner's vision clouds with
fear. In the end, reality shifts again as Barry delivers her final
strike. It's hefty enough to throw everything into question and a
great way to leave off a really good book."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/lace_reader
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061624764/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20

"How Fiction Works" by James Wood - James Wood is the literary world's
preeminent critic, and in "How Fiction Works," he deconstructs the
novel to illustrate how its different components come together to
merge into a successful novel, or not. Spaced across ten chapters,
Wood draws on examples from several novels to make his points about
narrative, detail, character and dialogue. His analysis and polemic
are designed to improve both the reading experience and the creative
process in writing a novel. "How Fiction Works" has received mixed
reviews with the Christian Science Monitor saying, "In 'How Fiction
Works,' Wood attempts to do for literature what Ruskin did for
drawing: distill the messy alchemy of art into a single, coherent
system. And for the most part - through 10 chapters, stacked loosely
atop one other, and spilling over at the margins with erudition - he
succeeds, spectacularly."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/how_fiction_works
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374173400/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20

"The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest
Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century" by Edward Dolnick - "The Forger's
Spell" tells the story of Dutch painter, Han van Meegeren, who created
forgeries of Johannes Vermeer paintings and profited handsomely from
it. When his own artwork was ignored by the public, he decided his
best approach was to paint in Vermeer's style and declare the painting
actually to be a newly discovered Vermeer. When the Nazis occupied
The Netherlands during World War II, they were looking to plunder the
country of its treasures. Han van Meegeren filled their longings for
masterpieces with more newly discovered Vermeers that he painted
himself, selling one to Hermann Goering. He became a folk hero, and a
wealthy man, for pulling off the hoax against the Nazis. Edward
Dolnick's book has received positive reviews with the Philadelphia
Inquirer saying, "Full of scoundrels, schemes, and artistic dreams,
'The Forger's Spell' is simply spellbinding."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/forgers_spell
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060825413/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20



Happy reading!

Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com