Book Reviews Contemporary Fiction

Contemporary Fiction

Warren Adler
	C	Random Hearts
Cecelia Ahern
	B	Rosie Dunne
Mitch Albom
	A	The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Lily Alex
	B	The Russians are Coming
Niccolo Ammaniti
	B	I'm Not Scared
Margaret Atwood
	B	Cat's Eye
David Baldacci
	B	The Christmas Train
	A	One Summer
Iain Banks
	B	The Business
Nick Bantock
	A	The Golden Mean
	A	Griffin & Sabine
	A	Sabine's Notebook
Julian Barnes
	A	The Sense of an Ending
Kim Barnes
	B	Finding Caruso
Max Barry
	F	Company
Peter S. Beagle
	A	A Dance for Emelia
Maeve Binchy
	B	Heart and Soul
	B	Nights of Rain and Stars
John Blumenthal
	C	What's Wrong with Dorfman?
Erma Bombeck
	A+	The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank
John Boyne
	B	The Thief of Time
Barbara Taylor Bradford
	C	Angel
	D	Dangerous to Know
	A	Everything to Gain
John Braswell
	A	The Other Side of the Mountain
Gene Brewer
	C	K-PAX
Carleen Brice
	B	Orange Mint and Honey
Elizabeth Buchan
	B	Revege of the Middle-Aged Woman
Christopher Buckley
	B	Little Green Men
Jimmy Buffett
	B	Swine Not?
Richard Buzzell
	A	ZombieStop Parade
Holly Chamberlin
	C	Tuscan Holiday
Mark Childress
	A	Crazy in Alabama
Daniel Clowes
	B	Mister Wonderful
Paulo Coelho
	D	The Witch of Portobello
James Collins
	B	Beginner's Greek
John Coriolan
	B	Dancing on the Barricades
Michael Crichton
	A	Airframe
	B	The Andromeda Strain
	B	The Lost World
Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
	A	Far From the Tree
Jude Deveraux
	B	Return to Summerhouse
	B	The Summerhouse
Anita Diamant
	C	Good Harbor
Robert Draper
	B	Hadrian's Walls
Clyde Edgerton
	B	Walking Across Egypt
María Amparo Escandón
	C	Gonzales & Daughter Trucking Company
Nicholas Evans
	B	The Horse Whisperer
Richard Paul Evans
	A	The Locket
	B	A Perfect Day
Jonathan Evison
	F	West of Here
Helen Fielding
	B	Bridget Jones' Diary
	D	Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason
Suzanne Finnamore
	A	The Zygote Chronicles
Jack Firestone and Robin Firestone
	A	Chasing Diana
Carrie Fisher
	D	Surrender the Pink
Allan Folsom
	A+	The Day After Tomorrow
Connie May Fowler
	C	The Problem with Murmur Lee
Karen Joy Fowler
	B	The Jane Austen Book Club
Erin Fox
	A	Beyond Innocence
Jonathan Franzen
	B	The Corrections
Roberta Gately
	B	The Bracelet
G.D. Gearino
	A	Counting Coup
William Gibson
	D	Spook Country
	B	Zero History
Olivia Goldsmith
	B	The First Wives Club
Carol Goodman
	B	The Night Villa
Connie Gotsch
	B	A Mouth Full of Shell
Andrew Sean Greer
	C	The Path of Minor Planets
Lauren Groff
	B	The Monsters of Templeton
Rene Gutteridge
	B	Listen
Shannon Hale
	B	Austenland
Kristin Hannah
	A	Night Road
Joanne Harris
	B	Chocolat
	D	Coastliners
Khaled Hosseini
	A+	The Kite Runner
Hannah Hurnard
	C	Hind's Feet on High Places
Catherine Ryan Hyde
	C	Pay It Forward
Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel
	B	The Recipe Club
Kazuo Ishiguro
	A	Never Let Me Go
Kate Jacobs
	D	Comfort Food
David Jerome
	B	Roastbeef's Promise
Lloyd Jones
	A	Mister Pip
Rachel Joyce
	B	The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Jan Karon
	B	At Home in Mitford
	C	A Light in the Window
Colleen Kelli
	B	Fire in the Hole
Daniel Keyes
	A+	Flowers for Algernon
Sue Monk Kidd
	B	The Mermaid Chair
Cassandra King
	B	Queen of Broken Hearts
Laurie R. King
	B	Folly
Sophie Kinsella
	C	Confessions of a Shopaholic
	B	Remember Me?
	B	Twenties Girl
	B	The Undomestic Goddess
Katrina Kittle
	A	The Kindness of Strangers
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
	A+	Left Behind
	B	Tribulation Force
	B	Nicolae
	A	Soul Harvest
	B	Apollyon
Wally Lamb
	A	She's Come Undone
B J Lambesis
	B	Brothers of a Band
Lorna Landvik
	A	Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
	B	'Tis the Season
Billie Letts
	B	Where the Heart Is
C.S. Lewis
	A	The Screwtape Letters
Sara Lewis
	B	The Answer is Yes
	C	The Best of Good
	B	Heart Conditions


Debbie Macomber
	B	Thursdays at Eight
	C	Twenty Wishes
Ruth Marlenee
	C	Isabela's Island
Charles Martin
	B	The Dead Don't Dance
	B	Maggie
	A	When Crickets Cry
	B	Where the River Ends
	A	Wrapped in Rain
Sharyn McCrumb
	B	She Walks These Hills
	D	The Songcatcher
Lurlene McDaniel
	C	Until Angels Close My Eyes
Ian McEwan
	B	Saturday
	C	Solar
Kaya McLaren
	C	Church of the Dog
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
	B	The Nanny Diaries
Larry McMurtry
	B	The Evening Star
	B	Terms of Endearment
Jane Mendelsohn
	B	American Music
Judith Michael
	A	Acts of Love
Fern Michaels
	C	Serendipity
Marlys Millhiser
	A+	The Mirror
Mil Millington
	C	Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
David Mitchell
	D	Cloud Atlas
Toni Morrison
	A	Tar Baby
Haruki Murakami
	C	After Dark
	B	Kafka on the Shore
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o
	B	Wizard of the Crow
Joyce Carol Oates
	C	Middle Age: a Romance
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Ann Patchett
	B	The Magician's Assistant
	B	State of Wonder
James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
	B	Sundays at Tiffany's
Lyda Phillips
	B	Mr. Touchdown
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Mark B. Pickering
	B	Story of Sand
Menna van Praag
	A	The House at the End of Hope Street
E. Annie Proulx
	B	The Shipping News
Anna Quindlen
	A	Black and Blue
Ayn Rand
	B	Anthem
	A+	Atlas Shrugged
Jeanne Ray
	B	Eat Cake
Nancy Rechtman
	A	My Little One
Carl Reiner
	B	NNNNN
Pamela Ribon
	B+	You Take It From Here
Sherri Rifkin
	B	LoveHampton
David Allen Rigsby
	C	Revelations: Alpha and Omega
Shirley A. Roe
	B	A Call to Faith and Freedom
Richard Russo
	B	Bridge of Sighs
Jordana Ryan
	D	No Matter What
Steve Samuel
	A	Rock, Paper, Scissors
Andrea Savitch
	A	Envy of the Gods: If the Reward Were Right
Alice Sebold
	C	The Lovely Bones
Erich Segal
	A	The Class
Jonathan Selwood
	D	The Pinball Theory of the Apocalypse
Suzanne Strempek Shea
	B	Becoming Finola
	B	Selling the Lite of Heaven
Sidney Sheldon
	F	A Stranger in the Mirror
Anita Shreve
	C	Light on Snow
Lloyd Shue
	A	Mable and the Thursday Afternoon Discussion Group
Carl Shuker
	B	The Method Actors
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Richard M Siddoway
	B	An Honest Heart
Helen Simonson
	C	Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Robin Sloan
	B	Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Jane Smiley
	B	A Thousand Acres
Alexander McCall Smith
	B	The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Zadie Smith
	C	White Teeth
Jill Smolinski
	B	Flip-Flopped
	B	The Next Thing On My List
	B	Objects of My Affection
Adam Sommers
	A	Cells Divide
Nicholas Sparks
	C	A Bend in the Road
	B	Message in a Bottle
William Browning Spencer
	B	Zod Wallop
Garth Stein
	B	The Art of Racing in the Rain
Neal Stephenson
	B	Cryptnomicon
Amanda Stone
	B	Raging Silence
Erica Stux
	B	Who, Me? Paranoid?
Amy Tan
	C	The Kitchen God's Wife
	B	The Joy Luck Club
	D	Saving Fish from Drowning
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o
	B	Wizard of the Crow
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Sandi Toksvig
	B	Flying Under Bridges
Susan Townsend
	B	The Queen and I
Anne Tyler
	B	The Accidental Tourist
	A	The Amateur Marriage
	A	The Clock Winder
	B	Digging to America
	C	Saint Maybe
Anne Ursu
	B	Spilling Clarence
Antoinette van Heugten
	B	Saving Max
Kurt Vonnegut
	C	Bluebeard
	B	Cat's Cradle
	B	Slaughterhouse Five
Mitch Waldman
	A	A Face in the Moon
Robert James Waller
	B	Border Music
Amanda Eyre Ward
	C	Forgive Me
Rebecca Wells
	A+	Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
	B	Ya-Yas in Bloom
Meg Wolitzer
	C	The Ten-Year Nap
Patricia Wood
	A	Lottery
Robin Wood
	A	The Theory of Cat Gravity
Stuart Woods
	C	Deep Lie
Jason F. Wright
	B	The Wednesday Letters
Steve Yarbrough
	B	The Oxygen Man
Banana Yoshimoto
	B	Hardboiled and Hard Luck
	A	Kitchen
William P. Young
	B	The Shack
Danielle Younge-Ullman
	B	Falling Under
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These reviews are personal opinions only and in no way reflect other readers' opinions of the books discussed.

Book Rating System

Explicit sexual content - very explicit sex or erotica
Graphic violence - explicit scenes of gore or violent acts
Non-graphic violence
Strong language
Strong sexual content - somewhat explicit sex
Suggestive dialogue or situations

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