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BURDEN OF THE DESERT

Name: BURDEN OF THE DESERT
Author: Justin Huggler
ISBN: 978-1479352043

by Justin Huggler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 3, 2012

An exciting war novel, set in a part of the world that’s never far from the headlines.

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Veteran journalist and first-time novelist Huggler offers a fictional chronicle of the conflict in Iraq as seen through the eyes of its participants.

This epic novel tales place between August 2003 and July 2004, soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Chaos reigns throughout the country as various factions of Iraqis struggle for power. With the violence escalating, an undermanned and ill-equipped American military force strives to keep the peace, while journalists try to walk a precarious line of neutrality as they search for their next big story. Huggler creates a diverse cast of characters, including Zoe Temple, a British news correspondent grateful for an assignment to Iraq who finds more than she bargained for, and U.S. Army Lt. Rick Benes, on another extended tour in a place where death lurks around every corner. The author has an uncanny ability to stimulate readers’ senses with his vivid depictions of the landscape and atmosphere of Iraq; at times, readers may feel as if they are right there alongside the soldiers. For example, as Benes walks to a camp latrine, the author details the oppressive heat and stench of human waste carried in the swirling dust. Huggler’s characters, in a series of first-person accounts, express different perspectives on the same events, a narrative strategy that profoundly personalizes the characters and brings them to life. That said, the novel’s main characters largely don’t interact with each other directly, which can sometimes make it difficult for readers to follow the chronology. However, the continuity of this tale can best be seen afterward, when looking at the story as a whole; the thought-provoking truths found between the lines comprise the heart of this work.

An exciting war novel, set in a part of the world that’s never far from the headlines.

Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2012

ISBN: 978-1479352043

Page Count: 618

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.