Amazon.com Review

Book Description With his career at a standstill and his golf game a shadow of its former mediocrity, TV writer and ESPN.com contributor Bob Smiley decided the time had come to turn to the one person who might be able to help: Tiger Woods. So, in January of 2008, Smiley set out to follow the game’s greatest player from the gallery for every hole of an entire season and to absorb all that he could. Smiley traveled from the seaside cliffs of San Diego to the deserts of Dubai, through the hallowed gates of Augusta National, and on to arguably the greatest U.S. Open of all time back at Torrey Pines, where, in a legendary duel with charismatic journeyman Rocco Mediate, Woods won his fourteenth major—on one l (more…)

Amazon.com Review

Book Description The macabre, witty New York Times bestselling series (and inspiration for the #1 Showtime series, Dexter) continues as our darkly lovable killer matches wits with a sadistic artiste–who is creating bizarre murder tableaux of his own all over Miami.After his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, life is almost normal for Dexter Morgan. Married life seems to agree with him: he’s devoted to his bride, his stomach is full, and his homicidal hobbies are nicely under control. But old habits die hard–and Dexter’s work as a blood spatter analyst never fails to offer new temptations that appeal to his offbeat sense of justice…and his Dark Passenger still waits to hunt with him in the moonlight. The discovery of a corpse (artfully displayed as a sunbather relaxing on a Miami beach chair) naturally piques Dexter’s curiosity and Miami’s finest realize they’ve got a terrifying new serial killer on the loose. And Dexter, of course, is back in business. An Essay by Jeff Lindsay: “Dexter and Me” My mother called me one night two years ago. “Well,” she said. “Now I know you’ve really made it.” “Oh, really?” I said. “What do you mean?” “I’m watching Jeopardy,” she said. “The answer to the last question was, ‘Who is Dexter?’” A few nights later, my sister called. “You were just on Nancy Grace,” she said. “I was?” I said, very surprised. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing I would forget. “You mean me?” “No, not you,” she snorted, as if I should have known better that someone like me would never be on Nancy Grace. “Dexter. Somebody’s foot washed up on a beach, and she called it a real-life Dexter moment.” And then a few weeks later my agent called. “Did you hear what they named the new robot arm for the space shuttle?” he said. “Let me guess,” I said. “It’s iconic,” my agent said. “That’s a good thing.” And it is. Dexter is iconic. But as my sister was smart enough to pick up on, I am n (more…)

From Publishers Weekly

Dexter hated his new school already,” opens Haddix’s (the Shadow Children series) poignant if plodding novel about a fourth-grader who, on his first day at school, gets laughed at by other kids when he slips and falls on the newly polished floor. In class, his “sparkly, enthusiastic” teacher (”He hated that kind of teacher”) tells her students that she wants them to write a story that lets her know more about who they are. Dexter writes, “I’m the new kid. I am tuf. This morning I beat up a kid.” The author gradually reveals the details behind the incident (mortified by his peers’ laughter, Dexter impulsively punches Robin, a boy he encounters in the bathroom) as well as the true source of his anger. While his father receives cancer treatments in Seattle, Dexter must live with his grandmother in Kentucky. In several rather repetitious meetings, his patient teacher encourages him to flesh out his story, asking Dexter questions that help him acknowledge his feelings, including his resentment at being left behind by his parents, his concern about his father and his guilt about hitting Robin. As he comes to terms with his emotions, Dexter accepts the friendship that kind Robin offers, which (along with the news that a bone marrow donor for his father has finally been found) brings the tale to an upbeat close. Though Haddix creates some realistic scenes and shapes a sympathetic protagonist, readers may find the narrative’s pace frustratingly poky. Ages 7-10. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2–5—When Dexter presents his perky teacher with his first assignment, it reads, “This morning I beat up a kid. I am tuf.” Ms. Abbott pushes him to add details and much more to his story. With each revision readers learn more about why Dexter is angry, confused, worried, lonely, sorry, and why he hit Robin in the bathroom, and (more…)

From Publishers Weekly

Dexter the Demon, Dexter the Avenger—whatever he chooses to call himself, the hero of this intelligent, darkly humorous series knows he’s a monster who loves slicing people into little pieces. That Dexter limits his killing to “acceptable” victims—usually other serial killers—is designed to keep the reader from having to worry too much about the morality of his avocation. Dexter’s just added his 40th victim, a homicidal pedophile, and is eagerly looking ahead to number 41 when he becomes involved in a case through his job as a blood spatter analyst at the Miami-Dade police forensics lab. A man is found with “everything on [his] body cut off, absolutely everything”—a piece of work that makes Dexter’s own tidy killings look like child’s play. This madman, nicknamed Danco, spends weeks surgically removing his victims’ ears, lips, nose, arms, legs, etc., while keeping them alive to watch their own mutilation. Despite a certain professional admiration for Danco’s dexterity, Dexter decides to take on the case. It’s the contradictions in Dexter’s character that make it all work—he’s smart, he’s funny, he cares for children, and yet he has no normal human responses or emotions. The first book in the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, was very well received; this one should be as well, and deservedly so. (July 19) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Dexter, your friendly neighborhood serial killer, is a police department blood-spatter expert who, in his spare time, kills people. Not just anyone, you understand–he only kills other killers, people whom he believes deserve it. Is this because Dexter really has a heart of gold? No, he’s a monster (he is the first to admit it), but at least he tries to steer his evil into productive channels. In the second of Lindsay’s alliteratively titled thrillers (following last year’s Darkly (more…)

Amazon.com Review

In the 1953 of Pete Dexter’s Train, Miller Packard is a sergeant in the San Diego police department who has little time for hypocrisy or racism. He lives life as a dare, fearless and bemused, his wife observing that he “was drawn to movement and friction, to chance; he had to have something in play.” He is also a golfer, though not a great one. Over a game with a fat cheater named Pinky, Packard’s world collides with the troubled life of Lionel “Train” Walk, a young African-American caddy at Brookline Country Club. Train is a virtuoso golfer but is doomed to tote old men’s clubs in a sport that can’t find a place for a young black athlete. Train also holds a secret, a murder that has never been reported but haunts his every step. In the volatile world of 1950s racial politics, bonds of friendship that cross the color line are doomed, and Packard and Train cruise towards inevitable conflagration. Dexter explores racism with a cold eye in Train–rarely politically correct and always unafraid to find pettiness in the lives of liberal whites, beatniks, philanthropists, and powerful African-Americans. Outside of the purity of Train’s golf swing, Dexter finds little to celebrate in the troubled times, and every page offers the possibility of new catastrophe. Occasionally, with this abundance of disaster, Dexter seems to lose track, and a few of his subplots (like the story of a hideously burned reporter who tries to uncover the truth behind the killings on a sailboat) never quite get resolved. Yet, Train is not a bleak novel, and Packard’s detachment lends the book an air of dark comedy. When Dexter writes, “Packard was amused with the world at large” he could just as well be writing about himself: curious, entertained, fascinated, but never unsettled by the grotesquery of human existence. –Patrick O’Kellley

From Publishers Weekly

National Book Award winner Dexter’s new book is about pain: the men and women who deli (more…)

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month, October 2008: Having already written (and twice revised) the greatest bathroom book of all time, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson has refreshed his encyclopedic and idiosyncratic understanding of movie history to confect another giant slab of candy for anyone who loves movies or just likes to watch a great mind at work. “Have You Seen…?”: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films is no cobbled collection of old reviews: written fresh from start to finish, Thomson’s page-long profiles often ignore plot to focus instead on the people behind the film or the slippery, personal question of what the movie is actually like to watch. And writing about a thousand films pushes him beyond his favorites into more interesting territory: flaws and failures are often his best subjects. You’ll want to discover movies you’ve never heard of before, and rediscover others you thought you knew well. –Tom Nissley

From Publishers Weekly

Film critic Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film) gives cinephiles and film novices alike a comprehensive yet personal list of 1,000 must-see films. Arranged alphabetically—a chronological index is included—Thomson’s tome opens with a slapstick American comedy (1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) and closes with a social critique from talented Italian director, Antonioni (Zabriskie Point from 1970). For Thomson, films are products of both their time and our own, and the act of watching (and re-watching) reminds us that film is a medium where the past perpetually enhances the present. It can’t be a coincidence that the oldest entry (1895’s L’Arrosseur Arrossé) and the newest (2007’s No Country for Old Men) are both twists on the revenge epic helmed by innovative brothers (the Lumières and the Coens, respectively). As Thomson points out, Story is as long and twisty as a hose. It goes on forever. (Oct. 15) Copyright © Reed Business I (more…)

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From Publishers Weekly

Collins serves up some little-known holiday history in this interesting book that teems with Christmas facts and legends, arranged alphabetically by topic. Readers will be fascinated to learn, for example, that the holiday shopping season used to be only a couple of weeks long, but was extended during WWII so families could get care packages off to soldiers in a timely fashion. Or that St. Francis of Assisi was one of the first people to use a live nativity scene to teach others about Christ’s birth. Collins tackles customs such as Christmas gifts and cards, and the popularity of cultural events like the Nutcracker and the Messiah (which, intriguingly, fell entirely out of fashion in the decades after Handel’s death). There are chapters on the history of holly, mistletoe, Christmas trees, candy canes, poinsettias, yule logs, stockings and-of course – Santa Claus. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The fascinating stories and origins behind Christmas traditions such as the colors of red and green, the Christmas tree, caroling, nativity scenes, the Yule log, gift-giving, stockings, advent wreaths, mistletoe, and holly.

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From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2—This contribution to the celebrity canon is by no means the worst, and Foxworthy’s collection of light verse courts both fans of the comedian and their children. The brief poems are perfect for rote memorization assignments and cover familiar, kid-friendly topics like lost baseball hats and bubble baths. Björkman’s artwork peppers every page with tykes and friendly suburban wildlife in perpetual states of pop-eyed delight. Alert readers may spot a note on the verso of the title that suggests an “I Spy”-esque hunt for images in the illustrations for the poem “What Do You See?” The suggestion looks and feels like an afterthought, buried as it is in fine print amid the bibliographic data. But never mind; this is still a respectable choice. Kudos to Foxworthy for his role in the production of an appealing, easy read.—Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC Copyright © Reed Business Information, a divi (more…)

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