Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

I can say one thing about Jodi Picoult - she's definitely not afraid to broach the "hot" topics of our time. This time around, Picoult covers gay marriage, embryo rights, alcoholism as well as infertility. Zoe and Max were married for several years, trying valiantly to conceive, spending thousands of dollars on IVF treatments. When they divorce, neither of them gives any thought to the 3 fertilized embryos that are frozen in storage. However, Zoe (a music therapist) eventually falls in love with Vanessa, a school guidance counselor and the two desparately want to start a family with those frozen embryos. The only problem is that also during this time, Max has become deeply religious and refuses to give away the embryos to a homosexual couple, preferring instead to give them to his older brother and sister-in-law. What follows is par-for-the-course Picoult (tense courtroom scenes and back and forth perspectives). All in all, a good read. The most interesting aspect of Sing...

A strange title for a bittersweet love story. Benny and Shrimp (real name Desiree) are both middle aged and lonely. Benny is a dairy farmer who never went to college while Shrimp is a librarian and an avid reader/philosophizer. They meet in a cemetery and fall in love, only to realize that perhaps the passion they feel towards each other may not necessarily carry their relationship into the future. The best relationships are founded on compromise, but are the two willing to sacrifice parts of their lives for each other? A quick read, but a thoughtful one at that.

Acting as the final novel in the Jessica Darling series, Perfect Fifths wraps up the 6 year relationship between sarcastic cynic Darling and mysterious bohemian Marcus Flutie and all their dysfunctional glory. The time is 2010 and Jessica is racing to catch a plane to a friend's wedding. By a major coincidence, Marcus happens to be at that same airport at that exact moment. Though the two haven't spoken to each other in years, you know how this book is going to end right from the get-go. At first I really enjoyed the Jessica Darling series, but this one felt like a stretch to me. There are virtually no other appearances by former major characters - in essence, this book is just one long conversation between Marcus and Jessica, which is nice, but gets old. McCafferty pulls some weird stuff as well - an entire part of the novel occurs in haiku form and another in pure dialogue. Sometimes it works, like how readers can actually get Marcus' perspective FOR ONCE, but mo...

Sometimes you don't really need to write a lot to write a really good book. Case in point - Lalami's debut novel Hope and other Dangerous Pursuits . The fact that Lalami manages to evoke such sadness and hope in such a petite book speaks volumes for her talent. The novel focuses on 4 individuals who are trying to illegally cross the international waters from Morocco to Spain. What's different about this novel is that there are essentially only 8 chapters, a "before" and "after" for each character. All of the characters are trying to reach Spain in an effort to create a better life - whether they actually achieve that goal remains to be seen. Whether it's Halima, a mother trying desparately to escape her abusive husband, or Murad, who doesn't want to be the disappointment in the family, in the end, they all must accept the consequences of that fateful voyage to Spain. A quick read, but in this case, quality trumps quantity.

Ah, good ole Chuck. You can always rely on him for a zany, "out there" kind of read. This one is no exception. Porn star Cassie Wright is seeking to set the world record for the most men to sleep with on camera - a whopping 600. The novel centers on three particular individuals who are waiting for...um...their turn with Cassie. There are twists and turns and lots of...weird...stuff happens. I don't want to ruin anything - lets just say that if you consider yourself to be prudish, you might want to avoid this one.

Swift won the Booker Prize for Last Orders back in 2004(?)...but I don't think he'll go 2 for 2 with Tomorrow , a quick read about a family with a dark secret. Paula Hook lies awake on the eve before her and her husband Mike divulge a long kept secret to their twin teenagers. The story centers around the history behind this secret and the rationale behind it. Truthfully, I was kind of annoyed for most of the book. The build up goes on and on for many pages with, like, no pay off whatsoever. The ideas in my mind were juicier than the real "truth" that was going to be told to her children. Though the prose is extremely well-written, I still kept saying to myself, "jesus, get to the point already"

Though I'm not a fan of short stories, I enjoyed Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake as well. There was a blurb on the back of this book saying that Lahiri has a gift of using simple language to create heartbreaking characters and quite honestly, that's the reason why I've really liked all of her works. Unaccustomed Earth is no different - a series of short stories/novellas about Indians living in America and their problems/experiences combining their Americanized culture with that of their ancestry. The second part of the book has a series of related stories linking two characters (Hema and Kaushik) and their lives together and apart. The only problem I had with this book was that I could predict the manipulative ending about 10 pages away. Usually I'm not good at that. This book is fabulous and awesome and amazing and depressing (but in a good way). Everyone should read everything by Lahiri. Case Closed.

Because I have an unnatural fascination with the psychology of murderers and nutcases, when I saw this book I had to read it. It's about narcissistic, psychopathic men who believe they can ( and all too often do ) murder their wife or girlfriend then make them literally disappear. Ms. Strong uses as her reference the Scott Peterson case, but includes many other cases to show how the minds of these men work. These murders show the increase in this type of crime, so much so that it is becoming known as " eraser killings " and their culprits as " eraser murderers". This is a good read if you are curious about how these minds work .

I'll be honest and say that the only reasons why I decided to read this were because: a) the movie just came out and if there's one thing I love, it's a good horror movie and b) Stephen King recommended it (not to me personally, but you knew that). However, even I was pleasantly surprised at how tense this book made me. Like, really tense. The novel centers on 4 American tourists (2 couples) plus their German friend as they make their way to visit a Mayan archeological ruin. What starts out as a fun day trip while on vacation in Cancun eventually turns into a psychological (and botannical) nightmare. I'm not one to give away plot or endings, so lets just say that the group is left stranded at the ruins with a surprising villian that is eager to destroy them. And because I'm a sucker for blood and gore, I went to see the movie. And as always, the book was far better.

I'm a pretty fast reader for the most part, but even I was surprised that I was able to get through Dictionary in 2 days. Honestly though, it was because it was that good. The book follows Z, a young Chinese woman who is granted the opportunity to learn English in the UK. Along the way, she meets a mysterious man and they become lovers. As can be expected, the relationship soon becomes turbulent with clashes over culture, the language barrier, and standard "love" issues. The interesting thing about this book is that Z's narrative starts off with horrible grammar, spelling and punctuation, but improves as she becomes acclimated to Western life. Overall, a funny yet bittersweet read.

Far and away, my favorite book for 2007 ( Entertainment Weekly also thought so as well). Shriver's novel delves deeply into the psychological realm of that nagging "what if" scenario. In chapter 1, Irina reaches a critical junction on the night of her friend Ramsey's birthday- should she continue to stay with her always-safe-but-boring husband Lawrence or run away with the sexy snooker (think billiards) player Ramsey. Shriver does what we all wish we could do and splits her novel into Irina's two scenarios. What's especially interesting is seeing how the consequences of each decision intermingle with each other as they play out. Is there ever just one "right" decision? Is predictability and comfort a proper substitute for passion? This book is so fabulous and if you can just get through the excessive snooker jargon, you will not be disappointed.

This debut from Ann Packer certainly packs an emotional punch with readers. The novel centers around Carrie, a young woman who is struggling to deal with the relationship with her fiance Mike after he suffers a tragic accident that leaves him a quadriplegic. Carrie has been with Mike for a major portion of her life and she's only in her early 20s! You can definitely sympathize with Carrie throughout the book as she tries to carve out a life of her own while always taking Mike into consideration. This novel heavily focuses on the notion of obligation, personal responsibility and what are the true definitions of love. Expect to shed a few tears while you're at it.