Book reviews added in the week of 6/24-6/30

Hi all,

Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the US have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:

"America America" by Ethan Canin - "America America" is narrated by
Corey Sifter, looking back 30 years later on the events that began to
unfold when he was a teenager. He was the son of a working class
family in the upstate New York town of Saline when he began working on
the Metarey estate. They were a wealthy and powerful family who took
Corey in a like a son, paid for his private boarding school and let
him court one of their daughters. Liam Metarey, the family patriarch,
used his money and power to get Henry Bonwiller elected to the U.S.
Senate and in 1972, he decided he wanted him to be president. Corey
became a campaign aide for Bonwiller, seduced by the money and power
himself. When another campaign aide, a woman who was allegedly having
an affair with Bonwiller, turns up dead, events begin to spiral out of
control. Ethan Canin's novel has received mostly positive reviews
with the Rocky Mountain News saying, "'America America' is a timely,
engaging novel about power and influence in the land of opportunity.
In Canin's adept hands, the tale makes for a lively summer read
against a backdrop of true political meanderings that, we can only
hope, never escalates to the tragedy and intensity of Canin's Saline,
N.Y."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/america_america
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679456805/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20

"Wrack and Ruin" by Don Lee - In "Wrack and Ruin," Lyndon and Woody
Song are brothers who are lifelong enemies. Lyndon gave up a
successful and lucrative art career to come to Rosarita Bay,
California to grow Brussels sprouts, smoke some pot, and remain
isolated from society. Rosarita Bay is changing, though, and the
people want to turn it into a tourist destination are trying to force
Lyndon to sell his farm so they can build a golf resort. Woody is a
disgraced financier who has lost the family money and is reduced to
trying to make kung fu movie remakes. He comes to Lyndon's to
convince him to sell so he can use the proceeds to help finance his
film. The brothers work at cross purposes, enlisting oddball
characters to their sides as events turn increasingly absurd and
chaotic. Don Lee's novel has received mostly positive reviews with
the Washington Post saying, "As richly satisfying as his first two
books were (his other novel, 'Country of Origin,' won both an Edgar
and an American Book Award), Lee has outdone himself here. His prose
moves and sparkles. He gives his characters a depth and thoroughness
not commonly achieved by practitioners of the comic novel, a label
that seems almost a disservice to a book as thoughtful as this one."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/wrack_and_ruin
Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393062325/?tag=reviewsofbooks8-20


Happy reading!

Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com