The Secret of Chanel No. 5: the Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume

Tilar J Mazzeo
Can you remember the first time you smelled Chanel No. 5? My earliest memory is around the age of 15 when my best friend’s mother gave her a bottle because she never used it. I was immediately hooked. I wore the fragrance every time I visited her, and I was over there a lot. ...

Review by Brice B. »

Joan Rivers: a Piece of Work

Ricki Stern
I recently watched Joan Rivers celebrate her 79th birthday on E!'s Fashion Police, her latest TV hosting gig. I have to say, I'm a "Joan Ranger." Wanting to know more about this woman's journey and what continues to motivate her after all these years, I checked out Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. ...

Review by Kristen T. »

In One Person: a Novel

John Irving
I opened this book with total excitement because I love John Irving and even though I’m a librarian and I work surrounded by books, I had no idea he had a new novel coming out until it was in my hands at the library. What a wonderful surprise! On the first page of In One Person readers meet the main character, Billy, and a librarian he has a mad...

Review by Brice B. »

Remembering Che: My Life with Che Guevara

Aleida March de la Torre
Remembering Che shows the revolutionary man from an extremely intimate point of view as his wife, Aleida March, recounts their life committed to the cause first, and each other second. There has been much published about Che’s life and his politics. ...

Review by Brice B. »

Smoke Ring for My Halo

Kurt Vile
Kurt Vile’s music feels like it was hashed out over thousands of afternoons, spent in deep meditative song craftsmanship to distill its lo-fi essence. It has the effortless feel of a breezy day spent with close friends doing very little and enjoying every moment. ...

Review by Aaron O. »

The End of Everything: a Novel

Megan E Abbott
This is a quietly disturbing and mysterious story told through the eyes of 13 year old Lizzie, whose best friend Evie disappears one day. Lizzie starts to play detective and thinks she has it figured out as far as who in the neighborhood is responsible for Evie’s disappearance. She starts dropping clues and hints for the police and Evie's father....

Review by Kristen T. »

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

Blaine Harden
Escape from Camp 14 details the story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, who was born in a North Korean labor camp in 1982 and escaped to the South Korea at the age of 23. Written by the journalist, Blaine Harden, the facts of Shin’s life are grim. As one of 50,000 prisoners in the camp, Shin struggled daily to survive, subsisting of starvation level rations sup...

Review by Jill P. »

Rules of Civility

Amor Towles
In New York City circa late 1920s an independent young woman from Brighton Beach meets an independent young woman from the heart of the Midwest and together they create a social scene for themselves in Manhattan. Kathryn, or Katey, may as well be from as far away from Manhattan as possible for all she knows about the finer things in life. ...

Review by Brice B. »

Stalker

Andreĭ Arsenʹevich Tarkovskiĭ
Surely one of the most enigmatic films ever made, Stalker depicts the journey of three men into the Zone, a quarantined area ungoverned by the ordinary laws of physics. They are searching for the Room, a place said to fulfill the innermost desires of those who enter it. Along the way Tarkovsky blends sepia toned images of nuclear power stations, eerie...

Review by Will S. »

Love in a Nutshell

Janet Evanovich
It's driving me nuts.This new romantic mystery by Janet Evanovich, co-written with Dorien Kelly takes place in a small town on the Lake Michigan coast, an hour drive *south* of Traverse City and a half hour *north* of Frankfort. ...

Review by webster . »