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Books: Subjects: Cruises
The Time Traveler's Wifeby Audrey Niffenegger List Price: $14.00 Available from Amazon $8.40 On 7-18-2006 
See Item's Page From Publishers Weekly This highly original first novel won the largest advance San Francisco-based MacAdam/Cage had ever paid, and it was money well spent. Niffenegger has written a soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes, and one that skates nimbly around a huge conundrum at the heart of the book: Henry De Tamble, a rather dashing librarian at the famous Newberry Library in Chicago, finds himself unavoidably whisked around in time. He disappears from a scene in, say, 1998 to find himself suddenly, usually without his clothes, which mysteriously disappear in transit, at an entirely different place 10 years earlier-or later. During one of these migrations, he drops in on beautiful teenage Clare Abshire, an heiress in a large house on the nearby Michigan peninsula, and a lifelong passion is born. The problem is that while Henry's age darts back and forth according to his location in time, Clare's moves forward in the normal manner, so the pair are often out of sync. But such is the author's tenderness with the characters, and the determinedly ungimmicky way in which she writes of their predicament (only once do they make use of Henry's foreknowledge of events to make money, and then it seems to Clare like cheating) that the book is much more love story than fantasy. It also has a splendidly drawn cast, from Henry's violinist father, ruined by the loss of his wife in an accident from which Henry time-traveled as a child, to Clare's odd family and a multitude of Chicago bohemian friends. The couple's daughter, Alba, inherits her father's strange abilities, but this is again handled with a light touch; there's no Disney cuteness here. Henry's foreordained end is agonizing, but Niffenegger has another card up her sleeve, and plays it with poignant grace. It is a fair tribute to her skill and sensibility to say that the book leaves a reader with an impression of life's riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills. Copyright 2003 Reed business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From AudioFile Although the title suggests that this is science fiction, Niffenegger's charming, emotionally charged novel is much more a love story. Told alternately from the viewpoints of time traveler Henry and his wife, Clare, it's highly enjoyable on audio. Readers Christopher Burns and Maggi-Meg Reed blend their respective chapters seamlessly. Each reader characterizes all roles within a chapter, and the depictions mesh beautifully. Both narrators characterize Korean friend Kimmy in a charmingly amusing voice and lend a light mood to the couple's daughter, Alba. Burns portrays the emotional chaos of Henry's life so genuinely as to cast the listener directly into his pain and joy. The abridged recording leaves one longing for more. J.J.B. 2004 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition. |
Beach Roadby James Patterson and Peter de Jonge List Price: $27.95 Available from Amazon $16.77 On 7-18-2006 
See Item's Page From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Patterson shows signs of having gone to the well too often in this slapdash collaboration with de Jonge, his coauthor on The Beach House (2002). Tom Dunleavy, a former professional basketball player and local East Hampton legend, is getting by as an underworked and unmotivated attorney. His sports glory days and his one true love are long in the past, but he gets second chances at personal and professional redemption when three locals are gunned down, apparently in the aftermath of racial tensions arising from a heated pickup game of hoops. The police seize on Dante Halleyville, the country's best high school star, as their suspect, and Dunleavy must dust off his old courtroom skills and enlist his lost love, Kate Costello, as his partner. Patterson readers know to expect a surprise ending, but he leaves too few possibilities for many to be genuinely fooled. Fans can only hope that Patterson soon returns to the level he achieved with his Alex Cross series. (May) Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The gripping Beach Road returns to the world of the Hamptons, where Patterson set The Beach House (2002). Tom Dunleavy is a small-time lawyer who lands a big case when three young men he plays basketball with are found shot to death execution-style at a billionaire's basketball court. The evidence points to a rising high-school basketball star, Dante Halleyville, who scuffled with one of the other young men earlier on the day of the murder and who apparently was seen disposing of the gun used to commit the murders. Tom reluctantly takes the case, convincing his ex-girlfriend, Kate Costello, a high-powered lawyer in Manhattan, to help him prove Dante innocent. The novel races toward a conclusion so shocking that even longtime Patterson devotees won't see it coming. Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved |
Running with Scissors: A Memoirby Augusten Burroughs List Price: $14.00 Available from Amazon $8.40 On 7-18-2006 
See Item's Page Product Review There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, Running with Scissors, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe From Publishers Weekly "Bookman gave me attention. We would go for long walks and talk about all sorts of things. Like how awful the nuns were in his Catholic school when he was a kid and how you have to roll your lips over your teeth when you give a blowjob," writes Burroughs (Sellevision) about his affair, at age 13, with the 33-year-old son of his mother's psychiatrist. That his mother sent him to live with her shrink (who felt that the affair was good therapy for Burroughs) shows that this is not just another 1980s coming-of-age story. The son of a poet with a "wild mental imbalance" and a professor with a "pitch-black dark side," Burroughs is sent to live with Dr. Finch when his parents separate and his mother comes out as a lesbian. While life in the Finch household is often overwhelming (the doctor talks about masturbating to photos of Golda Meir while his wife rages about his adulterous behavior), Burroughs learns "your life [is] your own and no adult should be allowed to shape it for you." There are wonderful moments of paradoxical humor Burroughs, who accepts his homosexuality as a teen, rejects the squeaky-clean pop icon Anita Bryant because she was "tacky and classless" as well as some horrifying moments, as when one of Finch's daughters has a semi-breakdown and thinks that her cat has come back from the dead. Beautifully written with a finely tuned sense of style and wit the occasional clich‚ ("Life would be fabric-softener, tuna-salad-on-white, PTA-meeting normal") stands out anomalously this memoir of a nightmarish youth is both compulsively entertaining and tremendously provocative. Copyright 2002 Cahners business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. |
Walter the Farting Dog Goes on a Cruiseby William Kotzwinkle, Glenn Murray, Elizabeth Gundy, and Audrey Coleman List Price: $16.99 Available from Amazon $11.04 On 7-18-2006 
See Item's Page Book Description It’s a fabulous floating palace, and everybody on it is having the time of their life…until a mysterious and terrible odor begins to permeate the splendid ship.What can this awful odor be? All signs point to Walter, and so he is banished down below, with the stinky cheeses.Walter doesn’t mind—at least he has something to snack on. But not even the cheese room can contain Walter’s powerful farts. So they lower him onto a lifeboat, and he is forced to travel alone behind the ocean liner. Then catastrophe strikes! The liner loses its power. How long will the great cruise ship and its frightened passengers be marooned on the high seas? About as long as it takes Walter to digest that cheese…. About The Author William Kotzwinkle is the author of such enduring classics as The Fan Man, Fata Morgana, and The Bear Went Over the Mountain. His numerous children’s books include E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. He has twice won the National Magazine Award for Fiction, as well as many other honors here and abroad, including the World Fantasy Award. His most recent novel is The Amphora Project. Glenn Murray has worked in education for over twenty years, both in Canada and in the Middle East. He has written radio dramas for the CBC and devotes a lot of time to promoting literacy. He has been pleased and privileged to see firsthand that the Walter books can be used to turn kids on to reading. Elizabeth Gundy is best known for her novel Bliss. Among her other books are Cat on a Leash and the comic novel The Disappearance of Gregory Pluckrose. She is also co-creator of the first three Walter books. Audrey Colman illustrated the three previous Walter the Farting Dog books and also wrote and illustrated a picture book entitled Francine, Francine, the Beach Party Queen! Her digital "painting" has been featured in magazines, posters, and multimedia projects. She lives in Oakland, California.
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PassPorter's Field Guide to the Disney Cruise Line and Its Ports of Call (Passporter's Field Guide to the Disney Cruise Line and Its Ports...by Jennifer Marx and Dave Marx List Price: $18.95 Available from Amazon $12.32 On 7-18-2006 
See Item's Page Book Description This in-depth guide provides complete coverage of Disney’s 2006 itineraries with maps, attractions, and Reviews for each port of call. The book includes detailed floor plans for each stateroom category, recommended staterooms (and rooms to avoid), and menus from all four restaurants. Also featured are valuable tips for first-time cruisers, money-saving ideas, activities for all ages, childcare options, and packing tips and lists. The in-depth information is accompanied by over 90 original photographs and more than 20 maps, charts, and worksheets. The guide has everything first-time and veteran cruisers need to know about booking and enjoying a cruise with Mickey . . . and maybe a little extra, too! |
Berlitz 2006 Complete Guide To Cruising and Cruise Ships (Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships)by Douglas Ward List Price: $24.95 Available from Amazon $15.72 On 7-18-2006
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Travel Egypt Nile Cruiseby Michael J. Wood, Janet Wood (Editor) List Price: $15.00 Available from Amazon $15.00 On 7-18-2006
See Item's Page Book Description Looking for a travel guide that dares to be honest? Unlike the cruise booklet that most Tour Operators send out with your booking, our Cruise Guide book tells you how it really is! Given from an experienced perspective that does not shy away from confronting the issues, it provides a valuable insight into what you can expect from a Nile Cruise by letting you know the scams, as well as the pleasures awaiting you on your Egyptian vacation. Our Travel Egypt books offer straight answers, with sound and practical holiday advice. This book is illustrated throughout with over 50 black and white photographs and contains, amongst other things: PRACTICAL ADVICE: Such as how to deal with hassle, unwanted attention, intimidation and illness. Plus, extra costs involved that you are rarely told about, local scams, bartering tips, things to avoid, etc. GENERAL INFORMATION: Such as, medical advice, visa requirements, facts and figures, prices, boat facilities and layout, money matters, cruise schedules, safety issues, etc. SUGGESTIONS: Such as, suitable clothing, useful Arabic phrases, local customs, local dishes and drinks etc. RECOMMENDATIONS: Such as ancient sites, Reviews, entertainment, extra excursions, useful links, free downloads etc. This book is a unique guide to the 'events' of a Nile Cruise and whilst we do discuss the ancient sites in some detail it is only our book that deals with the topics we cover - namely 'telling you how it is'. This guide has been specifically written to help people avoid the scams and hassle that could ruin their holiday. The book tells you how it is, without over romanticising the experience, and contains information you would be hard pressed to find in one place. A must read for anyone planning, or thinking of taking an Egyptian Nile Cruise.
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Cruise-O-Matic, Automobile Advertising of the 1950'sby Chronicle Books LLC Staff, Yasutoshi Ikuta List Price: $18.95 Available from Amazon $12.32 On 7-18-2006
See Item's Page Product Review FLAUNT Flushed with anticipation, I ripped open the envelope from Chronicle Books, my gaze immediately falling upon the jacket cover featuring Anne Fogarty, famed fashion designer (looking like a bus and truck Eve Arden in pageboy bangs), sitting behind the wheel of a pristine white-over-red 1955 De Soto. Little did I suspect that between those covers author Ikuta had painstakingly compiled a true gem, the best of that era's splashy, surreal, storytelling ads. In that world, it didn't matter that you weren't off to the opera; if you bought their car, you'd feel like you were off to the opera. Or the rodeo, a yacht, the country club even Paris. Starting with a 1950 Ford and ending with a 1959 Pontiac (whose make boasted that its new wide-track Bonneville would slice a few years off your age), Cruise-O-Matic offers examples from the Big Three as well as obscure Crosley and Kaiser-Nash lines. From the diamond-encrusted Cadillac hood ornament to the smart and sensible dual country/city horn featured on the Renault "Dauphine," Ikuta cruises through a decade of automotive splendor before those pesky oil embargoes forced American automakers to downsize their designs. A must for the car buff of nostalgia nut, Cruise-O-Matic does more than just peddle cars. Its ads make you want to learn to sail, or ski, or attend a tailgate party (even if you don't like football). No matter that taking legal possession of these dream machines will probably always be in your minds rather than you garage. You don't have to turn the key—just turn the page. Take, for example, the Willys-Jeep ad, whose type promises that "there are dreams under this hood." Cruise-O-Matic's test is precise, and the ads speak for themselves. The publisher can forget it—I ain't' givin' this back. It's a keeper.
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