Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

As a rule, I'm not a big fan of suspense and/or mysteries. However, once in awhile, it's nice to break out of a comfort zone and try something different. I had read Flynn's Sharp Objects awhile ago and enjoyed it, so it made sense to try her new book. Dark Places centers on the grim murders of the Day family back in 1985. Libby, our heroine and a young child at the time, managed to escape and her testimony was enough to convict her older brother Ben of the crime. The book shifts back and forth between the events that led up to that fateful day and the present day Libby. Everything is going along, until Libby gets involved with an underground crime group that wants to get to the truth of the murders. Did Ben really kill his entire family? Or was it someone else?? All in all, it was a very quick paced read and the tension held throughout the entire novel. As one could expect, adult Libby has some major psychological issues as a result of the murders. Despite being so flawed...

Portia Nathan is in an unenviable position - as an Admissions Officer at Princeton University, she has the job of deciding to either fulfill or destroy people's dreams on a daily basis. The problem is is that Portia doesn't really have much of a life outside of the admissions process; she's so immersed in studying the lives of the people applying to Princeton that she has virtually cut herself off from a life outside of that institution. Obviously, there are some major reasons for why Portia is the way she is. The rest of the novel delves into that. I enjoyed this book, though the prose was a bit wordy, though I guess when you're married to a well known and award winning poet (Paul Muldoon), you learn a thing or two about semantics. My one complaint is that I totally called the one "twist" near the end. I'm usually really bad at anticipating plot, so I'm not sure what that says about Korelitz's narrative. But overall, a solid read.

As the author of Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers and Spook : science tackles the afterlife , Roach is really good at delving into the details behind interesting (if not weird) subjects. Despite the racy subject, this book was no different - it was no more erotic than reading a biology textbook. Roach spends a lot of time discussing the physiological aspects of human sexuality, desire and anatomy, as well as the history behind leading sex researchers Masters & Johnson and Kinsey. What makes the book quite humorous is when she frequently volunteers herself (and her poor husband) for sex studies, all in the name of investigative journalism. Indeed, though the book is mostly focused on scientific minutiae (which I'll admit gets a little tedious after awhile - who knew reading about erections could get a tad boring), Roach manages to keep the tone light and funny.