Title: Resistance_ A Novel Author: Anita Shreve File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Historical Description:From Publishers WeeklyAs in her earlier novels, Shreve (Eden Close) affectingly explores themes of love and loss with piercing clarity, once again capturing the fragile emotions of those in pain. Here, however, she moves from her customary domestic, contemporary milieu to WWII Europe?to the Belgian village of Delahaut, where young Claire Daussois and her husband, Henri, are members of an underground resistance movement. When a British plane goes down outside the town in December 1943, the plucky 10-year-old Jean Benoit finds a survivor, Ted Brice, hides him in his fathers barn and then summons the aid of Mme. Daussois. As she has done with other refugees, Claire shelters the 22-year-old captain in her attic. When it becomes necessary for Henri to go into hiding, Claire and Ted embark on a brief affair, a passionate liaison made more poignant by its simultaneous inevitability and futility. With deceptive simplicity and superb control, Shreve evokes the impersonal horrors of wartime and its heartbreaking personal tragedies?often combining those elements to almost overwhelming effect, as when Jean witnesses the execution of several townspeople as reprisal for their resistance activities. br 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalYA?In December 1943, an American fighter plane is downed near a small village in Belgium. The pilot, Lt. Ted Brice, is rescued by a member of the local resistance movement. As he is hidden in the small attic at the home of Claire Daussois, he becomes acutely aware of the danger to himself as well as his hostess and her husband. A bond develops between Claire and Ted during his 20-day stay that changes both of their lives forever. Through this fast-paced novel, YAs will gain insight into the unthinkable horrors of World War II-German retribution, village collaborators, and local resistance workers. Shreve describes the landscape and the local residents in such detail that readers will quickly become involved in the lives of the characters.?Roberta Lisker, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VAbr 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Title: L.A. Requiem Author: Robert Crais File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Detective Description:Amazon.com ReviewMore than 10 years ago, I was shocked to learn that some puerile piece of fluff had won the Edgar for Best Paperback Original, when it was so obvious to me and virtually everyone else in the Western Hemisphere that the award should have gone to The terrific Elvis Cole series has grown through the years, each book better than the last, but nothing prepared me for the quantum leap (yes, its a cliché, but it belongs here) that Crais has made with L.A. Requiem. Its not as funny as the other books in the series, but its a beautifully plotted detective story, rich with police procedure, and it will keep even the most sophisticated reader at sea right until the end. And thats what elevates this book to the level of literature. This one is more about Joe Pike, Elviss silent sidekick, than it is about Elvis. We learn, through Pikes own eyes, how his childhood made him the way he is today. Its also about a friendship so strong that it threatens Elviss relationship with his beloved Lucy. It is a tender but dark book--a serial killer book--but it doesnt attempt to outgross the other serial killer books on the shelf. It is funny at times and chilling at other times, making it one of the rare books that cant help but linger in the memory long after its been read and put away. --Otto PenzlerFrom Publishers WeeklyIn his eighth book about wise-cracking Los Angeles private detective Elvis Cole, Crais has expanded his narrative reach and broadened his characters horizons to produce a mature work that deserves to move him up a notch or twoAinto Parker or Connelly country. Hes done this by focusing on Joe Pike, Coles tough and hitherto totally enigmatic partner. Its Pike who breaks in on Coles reunion with Lucy Chenier, his lawyerbroadcaster lover who has just moved from New Orleans, to ask for Elviss help in tracking down the missing daughter of a rich and powerful Hispanic businessman. When the girl turns up murdered in Griffith Park, its Pike who gives a nerdy medical examiner valuable assistance; and when it turns out that the girls death is linked to several other murders, its Pike who is charged with killing the chief suspect. Through flashbacks to Joes past life as an abused child, a highly motivated teenage soldier and an L.A. cop fighting to keep a corrupt partner from destroying his family, we learn more about Pike than we did in the seven previous Cole books. This new focus also allows Crais to keep Elviss often annoying throwaway lines to a minimumAalthough more pruning could have been done with no loss of flavor. The books scope is wide enough to include many other memorable characters, especially a rough-edged, vulnerable police officer named Samantha Dolan, plus a choice of plausible villains. There may be one too many metaphoric descriptions attempting to link aspects of the L.A. landscape with the moods and deeds of its inhabitants, but overall Crais seems to have successfully stretched himself the way another Southern California writerARoss MacdonaldAalways tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base. br 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.