Powell's Books - View All of Madam Pince's Customer Comments

: Madam Pince, October 11, 2008
I love books about home renovation, New Orleans is one of my favorite settings for a story, and I'm a fan of Julia Reed's writing -- I adored Queen of the Turtle Derby -- so this book arrived on my reading list with a pre-approved stamp. Thankfully, it lived up to the label. Not only did I enjoy the warts-and-all renovation tale, but completely related to Julia's long journey to trade uncommitted single life for married domesticity. Add in the intrigue of Hurricane Katrina, along with Julia's irrepressible urge to entertain -- as a friend says, "A fool and her money throw great parties" -- and you've got one hell of a good read. Hilarious appearances by Vogue's Andre Leon Talley are icing on the cake.
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: Madam Pince, October 7, 2008
Liz Phoenix has always known she was different, but has no idea just how much separates her from the rest of mankind until she finds her foster mother, Ruthie, in a pool of blood in her kitchen, dying from wounds inflicted by an otherworldly beast. She’s quickly sucked into the battle between good and evil, populated by seers, demon killers, fairies, skinwalkers, dhampirs, berserkers and vampires, amongst many others. Along the way, she discovers the secrets lurking behind many otherwise normal faces, as well as unsavory aspects of her youthful love and fellow foster child, Jimmy Sanducci.

Having never read any paranormal romances, I wasn’t prepared for the energetic & graphic sex featured throughout. Especially disturbing was the bondage theme that emerged in the last quarter of the novel, when the story shifts to a Manhattan high-rise. However, Handeland’s descriptions never reach the explicit levels of Anne Rice’s vampire novels, and genre readers most likely expect a vivid mix of sex and mysticism.

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: Madam Pince, October 1, 2008
Fun, frivolous and feisty, Southern chick lit always focuses on scrappy women refusing to sit back and take s**t, getting on with their lives even when -- yes -- their hearts are breaking. That's what Texas hairdressers/sleuths Edwina and Debbie Sue help Paige accomplish in this tale of heiresses, horse-napping and hijinks. Dixie Cash doesn't write serious literature, but the sisters behind the pen name (Pamela Cumbie & Jeffery McClanahan) create fun reads that help feisty ladies, Southern or otherwise, get through the rough patches of life.
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: Madam Pince, September 28, 2008
Three strong-willed Southern women unite to keep an awful secret, without considering the young woman it accidentally damages. While I'm glad I read this novel, Ms. Shaffer would have done her tale more justice by creating a less abrupt ending. As it stands, an otherwise excellent story is amputated, rather than concluded.
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: Madam Pince, September 28, 2008
Combine a combative Congressman, a pissed-off president and a TV jurist for a constitutional crisis of ... well, supreme ... proportions. Add a (fictional) dash of the real Court, and you've got another knockout Buckley winner. Thoroughly funny and, in this era of TV judges and a divided Supreme Court, scarily prescient.
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