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The Checker Board Book 1

Name: The Checker Board Book 1
Author: Nedler Palaz
ISBN: 978-1460206522

THE LIFE GAME BEGINS

by Nedler Palaz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2013

An old-fashioned Western that doesn’t test its hero’s mettle.

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Palaz’s debut is a Western/coming-of-age story about a young greenhorn who learns to love the Texas ranching life.

In the 1880s, Dave Smith runs from his tyrannical father and ends up in the foreign world of West Texas ranchers. After getting thrown from a train, Dave falls in with ranch hands from the Checker Board Ranch, but only after he gets into a fistfight with the dangerous Red Talbot. Dave gets to know the owner of the ranch, Pinto Larson, and teams up with Sam Eagle Feather, who teaches Dave about ranch life. While Dave learns about the trials of ranching—from burnt coffee to Comanches—he also learns that everyone has a story to tell or hide. What is there between Sam and Addie, the widow of Red’s brother? Is the Mexican barman really a bandito as his niece suspects? Palaz writes a traditional Western, with an observant new cowboy and with clear divisions between the good and bad guys. While we get some conflict, such as the knife fight between Sam and Red, the narrative is somewhat oddly structured. In the second half, Dave and his posse seem to skate to victory too easily. Perhaps the conflict will build throughout the series, but that still leaves this first volume without much at stake. In addition, the writing has some quirks that disrupt the flow of the story. For instance, the point of view sometimes toggles from first person to omniscient. And while Dave’s speech reflects his high level of education, his narration occasionally tilts toward the melodramatic: “ ‘No...NO...certainly not!’ was my vehement objection, my mind reeling at the mere thought this man suspected me of such dire deeds.”

An old-fashioned Western that doesn’t test its hero’s mettle.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-1460206522

Page Count: 200

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: July 9, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.