Reviews Archives - Lakewood Memorial Library

Buried by Ellison Cooper

It’s fun to recommend books I’ve loved to patrons. But, it’s also been fantastic getting suggestions from patrons in return. One such suggestion came from a LML member whose tastes run very similar to my own. She’s recommended many books and authors that I’ve enjoyed in the past. But, her latest suggestion was one I just have to pass on to you.

Buried by Ellison Cooper is the perfect thriller. You’ve often read in a review that a book is “a real page- turner” or that you “can’t put it down”. Too often, it’s not true. But, Buried grabs you within the first six pages and then never lets go. It kept pulling me back, racing to find out what happens next, only to be sorry when the ride was over.

Buried is actually the second book by Ellison Cooper featuring Agent Sayer Altair. The first in the series is Caged. It didn’t hurt to have started with the second book, it still read just fine as a stand-alone novel. But, I’ve already put Caged on hold to enjoy the story that led up to Buried. Then, I just have to wait until July for the rest of Sayer’s adventures in “Cut to the Bone”!

Nancy – Library Staff

The Bookshop in Berlin by Françoise Frenkel

Here is another writer who makes history read like that novel you just couldn’t put down. If you have any interest in human rights (seemingly today’s hottest topic) you should investigate our past and here’s a book that does so beautifully. While I am always astonished at the cruelty that we humans can visit upon one another – this book also shares the bravery, kindness and generosity that was happening simultaneously at that time. Of all the books I’ve read on this time period this one is a my current favorite.

“[Frenkel] spins, almost out of nothingness, a crucial moment in time that ought to suspend itself over the consciences of her readers, her fellow men, vitally, critically and irrevocably. We are given only hints of a past, nothing of a future, a highly selective panorama of a present. Yet what we hold in our hands, as we hold this little volume, can be said to be pure gold.”—Bookanista

“The book is not only a moving memoir but also an intriguing historical document, thanks not least to Frenkel’s emphasis on the often unsolicited help she received from ordinary French people.” —Natasha Lehrer, The Times Literary Supplement (London)

Jodi – Library Staff