reviews

Along Came a Spider Author: Andrew Neiderman When a mysterious and distinguished man appears in the run-down nowhere town of Centerville to live in the abandoned Queen Anne that has fallen into disarray, tongues start to wag. Neighbors watch behind shuttered windows as the enigmatic Mr. Lucy emerges and later becomes known as a very specialized tutor for trouble children. In the way of “horror” novels and B-list specials, desperate and incompetent parents have no problem slinging their unruly spawn into the lap of a stranger with no past and a creepy, serial-killer murder mansion of a house. The plot [...]

The Truth Hidden Behind Lucky Families Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Another book club special, this time inspired by the One Maryland yearly selection, Purple Hibiscus is a complicated coming of age tale that focuses on self-identification in an abusive household. Fifteen year-old Nigerian Kambilli, from outward appearances, is living the life. While the rest of her country lives in intense poverty, Kambilli lives in a house that is downright palatial compared to the rambling hut of her aunt. Her father, the innocuously titled Papa, is not only wealthy, but revered. A strong Christian presence, he is a church elder who commands respect and discipline, [...]

A murder of wits... Author:  John Marzluff Can you tell how smart somebody is by looking at their brain? Probably not, as most human brains look pretty much alike.  But scientists have long figured that the intelligence of other animals was reliably determined by what their brains looked like.  Since humans are smart (at least some of the time), comparative neuroanatomists went with the general idea that the more closely an animal brain resembled a human brain the smarter the animal must be.  Not surprisingly, this approach gave mammals a significant edge in the brainpower competition, as mammalian brains tend [...]