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Text New Releases: May 29th
Al Gore - The Assault on
Reason
 The Assault on Reason, the new book from concert promoter Al Gore, adopts a sweeping focus of the Bush administration and American society in general, and reads with the same sober and forthright portrayal of
"the facts" that enabled Gore's documentary,
An Inconvenient Truth, to impart such an impact on audiences. Widening
his scope, or rather, lessening his scope on the contemporary American
sociopolitical situation, Gore "examines how the politics of fear, secrecy,
cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere
to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason." As is the case with his
environmental work, Gore's intrinsic focus is on the individual and how the
public can affect change on a personal level to elevate the social sphere. |
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Michael Ondaatje -
Divisadero
 As one of Canada's most widely read writers, Ondaatje has polarized critics into ardent camps of supporters and detractors
of his idiosyncratic, cinematic aesthetic and literary experimentalism. The fifth novel from the author of
The English Patient, Coming Through Slaughter and In the Skin of a Lion, again sees the author experimenting with structure in an effort to create his trademark exhaustive and mutely cathartic narratives. Again combining emotionally crushing prose and imagery, and intimate psychological characterization, Ondaatje's latest work alternates between past and present, examining the triangular relationship of three central characters, to convolute the polarities of the commonplace and the mythical. |
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Joyce Carol Oates -
The Gravedigger's Daughter
 Oates' 36th novel offers an intricate subject focus and, revisiting familiar terrain, the novel is set in rural, working-class upstate New York.
The Gravedigger's Daughter is a first-person narrative told by the daughter, Rebecca, of an immigrant family who came to America to escape Nazi Germany
during the Holocaust. A tale of denunciation and anguish, violent family tragedy ensues and Rebecca is left destitute. According to Donna Seaman for Booklist,
"Oates is supremely atmospheric, erotic, and suspenseful in this
virtuoso novel of identity, power, and moral reckoning." |
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Karen Traviss -
Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 5)
 Civil war rages as the Galactic Alliance combats the Jedi forces of Luke Skywalker. Suspected of involvement in an assassination plot, Han and Leia Solo are on the run, hunted by none other than their own son, Jacen, whose increasingly authoritarian tactics as head of GA security have led Luke and Mara Skywalker to fear that their nephew may be treading perilously close to the dark side.
Uh oh.
There is one final test that Jacen must pass before he can gain the awesome power of a true Sith Lord: He must bring about the death of someone he values dearly. What troubles Jacen isn't whether he has the strength to commit murder. He has steeled himself for that, and worse if necessary. No, the question that troubles Jacen is who the sacrifice should be.
To end the bloodshed and suffering, what sacrifice would be too great?
What sacrifice indeed?
As the strands of destiny draw ever more tightly together, the shocking answer will shatter two families...and cast a grim shadow over the future.
One fan on Amazon, unable to contain his elation had this to say: "Jacen Solo is officially Anointed (sic) as a Sith Lord by taking his Sith Name and The Sith
Lords are Reborn again (sic)!!!!! (sic)"
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Laurie Notaro - There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
 Humor essayist Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club) makes a first attempt at fiction and offers a mix of wry, acerbic
"chic lit" and plot-driven suspense. When Maye Roberts's husband, Charlie, gets a tenure-track job at prestigious Spaulding University, Maye joins him in the school's eponymous Washington State burg. While Charlie fits in easily, Maye feels lonely and bored. When she learns about the Sewer Pipe Queen pageant, a local tradition that guarantees the winner a town full of friends, she enters with her singing dog. Receiving generally mixed reviews from critics, the novel falters in terms of plot development, which becomes cumbersome and poorly executed. Fans of Notaro's acerbic quips, however, are treated to an abundance of chortling moments in her literary debut.
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