notanotherbookreview

The New York/Tri State Chapter of Sisters in Crime published this second Murder New York Style anthology, gathering 22 stories set in the five boroughs for FRESH SLICES. The flavor is delightfully unsavory--from Lina Zeldovich's tough action story, The Brighton Beach Mermaid, about a sex slave who uses her brains, Triss Stein's poignantly enigmatic The Greenmarket Violinist, Leigh Neely's shockingly satirical A Vampire in Brooklyn, to the gritty East Village saga The Understudy, where two lookalike good time girls, lost in addiction, trade places. My favorites were a study in contrasts, Tear Down by Anita Page and Susan Chalfin's Remember You Will Die. In Page's story, an octogenerian in a lower middle class neighborhood,relives the crisis of her youth and a horrific secret. I loved the cranky character and her irony-laced wisdom, a bit like Flannery O'Connor. In a similar way, I was surprised how the voice of Susan Chalfin's moneyed mogul had a touch of Roa...

THE PAKISTAN CAULDRON : Conspiracy, Assassination & Instability (Potomac Books, Inc., Oct. 2011) explains Pakistan in the post-bin Laden era by examining its Pakistan’s leaders: A.O. Kahn, the “rock star” popular engineer of Pakistan’s nuclear program; Pervez Musharraf, the general turned politician, who skillfully deflected criticism from the secretive military in regard to nuclear proliferation; and Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic politician, whose promise for a stable enlightened country was cut short by assassination. These leaders, despite their differences, put Pakistan first, a fact often misjudged by the American perception of Pakistan as a strategic ally. Farwell shows the dynamic of the U.S. Pakistani relationship, within the context of a political culture that breeds conspiracy theory, assassination, and a sense of betrayal. And he shows how that relationship has fared in fighting terrorism, al Qaeda and the Taliban. He also shows how our objectives would be ...

TRAVELLING LIGHT manages to combine a tense thriller with a serious shocking truth-the reality of slavery in our time. The story is told by Mackenize, an archaeologist with two kids and a diplomat husband. When he is recalled to his native island of Styxos in the Mediterranean, she leaves her old life and employment behind and gains her long-held romantic fantasy of life on a beautiful Mediterranean island. Problem is her husband Charon is increasingly withdrawn and emotionally removed from her. Thinking it's due to his father's recent death, she vows to bring back the warm earthy man she fell in love with-who bridged the west and his own ancient "collectivist" culture. But there are scary portents when they arrive. On a visit to the beach, she is suddenly surrounded by three threatening men, until they realize she is with Charon. Her uneasy feeling grows, as Charon installs his family in his run-down boyhood home with his mother, a supposed temporary situation that b...

Sometimes I dip into a YA book and synch with teen yearnings for a different better life--and realize I'm an adult, a fact I can easily forget in an imaginative treasure like The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky (Little Brown and Co.) I have collected vintage clothes for decades and given them on to owners they better suit, so this is a book for me. And for girls and moms who love adventure, the mysteries of time and timeless design. Louise is a skinny 7th grader with braces on her teeth, frizzy hair, and weird parents--a Brit mom who boils food in vinegar a "Stepford" lawyer dad. Her life in Connecticut is made okay by her best friend, Brook, with whom she carefully navigates the awful indignities of Middle School. These include the inept boy, who somehow can't figure out how to ask her to the dance. The last time, she scurried away, embarrassed, wishing he'd get some social skills. But she's more interested in shoping for the perfect dress and f...

In The King's Arms is published by McWitty Press and won't be out until October. It's a fun read. This book manages to be light and funny, serious and passionate and yet is wise, witty and deep. Class and identity, Oxford intellectuals and the Holocaust, theater, tradition and assimiliation are all probed here in a tale of love at first sight that actually has a satisfying happy ending. Here goes. Lily Taub is a marvel. She's academically gifted, the beautiful and articulate daughter of Holocaust survivors. She grows up in NY and is raised never to take safety or her status in life for granted. But Lily, who grew up with the devastating stories of her parents' life in the death camps, yearns for great romance, fun and frivolity, as well as respect in the world beyond the insular community of survivors. When Oxford offers her a scholarship to study, she happily escapes, savoring her new status, while fearing it will somehow be taken away, because she is a Jew. At fir...

Tales of the Mer Family Onyx: Mermaid stories on land and under the sea Susan I. Weinstein NEW EDITION completely updated with illustrations Whether male or female, virtuous or amoral, mythical Mer creatures often reflect humankind’s ambivalence about nature.  Tales of The Mer Family Onyx  explores their worlds through the magical household of Neptune and Glendora, stewards of the seas. Like L. Frank Baum’s  Oz  and E. Nesbit’s  Five Children and It , this is a “family book” for adults and mixed age groups of children. Among the Onyx clan are toddler Ruby, tween boy-girl twins, teen beauties and Pinky, a mini mermaid. When Neptune challenges his children, they discover their limits in forbidden caves, worlds out of time and at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, where an Earth boy’s dream comes true. Susan I. Weinstein is a writer, playwright, and painter.  She is the author of 3 books, THE ANARCHIST'S GIRLFRIEND, PARADISE GARDENS and TALES OF THE MER FAMILY O...