Tag: Dennis Lehane

Four New Novels by Authors On The #BestsellerCode100 List

05/10/2017 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Are you looking for new novels to read for summer? Four of the authors on The Bestseller Code best 100 list (our ongoing reading challenge) have books coming out.

Let’ take a look at them in the order we have been reading, starting with Number 100.

We read Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island starting on November 7, 2016. In the novel, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels travels to the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane on Shutter Island to find out what has happened to a woman who mysteriously disappeared. As the investigation deepens, Daniels uncovers more questions than answers.

Lehane’s newest, Since We Fell*, was released May 9, 2017. It features Rachel, who suffers from agoraphobia and panic attacks. What happens when she spots her husband somewhere he isn’t supposed to be?

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Want to find out more? There’s an interview with Dennis Lehane and book excerpt at Here and Now.

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We read Number 93, which was Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer-Prize winning collection of short stories, Olive Kitterage, starting February 13, 2017.

Her newest, released April 25, 2017, is also a collection of short stories.

Anything Is Possible* by Elizabeth Strout

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

There’s an informative article about it in The New Yorker.

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We’ll be reading Number 86, John Sandford’s Easy Prey, in a few weeks.

His newest in the series, Golden Prey*, came out April 25, 2017

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

John Sandford discusses his most recent book at a book signing at Poisoned Pen Bookstore.

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Finally, we have Paula Hawkins, who wrote Number 45, The Girl on the Train.

Her new novel, Into the Water*, came out May 2, 2017.

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Paula Hawkins recently chatted live on FaceBook, sponsored by USA Today Life.

Looks like some great new novels to pick up for your summer reading.

Have you spotted any new books by authors on our list?

#Bestseller Code100: Number 100 Shutter Island Review

11/10/2016 / Karen Gibson / 3 Comments

This post contains spoilers about Shutter Island. Join the main discussion here.

Shutter Island: A Novel by Dennis Lehane

Shutter Island: A Novel, by Dennis Lehane, is #100 on the 100 Book List created by the computer model described in The Bestseller Code by Jodie Archer and Matthew L. Jockers (see Bestseller Code 100 post). Host Roberta will be reviewing this book later from the writer’s perspective, but today I will review it from a reader’s perspective.

I’ll admit up front that this is not a book I would have picked off the shelf to read. The cover graphics on the paperback are menacing and The New York Times review blurb begins with, “An eerie, startlingly original story…. A deft, suspenseful thriller….” In fact, I’m glad I read it first on the Kindle so I didn’t see all that before I began reading. I usually steer clear of psychological thrillers, having read far too many of them a few decades ago when I had young children. I decided at the time that any book with the words “psychological” or “thriller” as a description was ultimately not good for my peace of mind.

That said, I really liked Shutter Island. It sucked me in quickly and by the time I was halfway through, I couldn’t put it down. Duties were neglected!

Teddy Daniels was a great character – strong, flawed, human. I believed him. I believed in him. And that made the twist towards the end all the more upsetting. I didn’t want him to be an inmate! He was the hero, the one who would escape the island and expose to the world the horrors occurring there.

Then Roberta pointed out in her post, The Narrator in Shutter Island, that Teddy was not the narrator of this story. I had forgotten there was a Prologue! I quickly went back and reread it.

Does the knowledge that Dr. Lester Sheehan is the narrator change the ending? Probably not. Either way Teddy/Andrew undergoes the lobotomy. The only thing left unclear is if Teddy is really Andrew. Or is Teddy actually the Marshall and he failed to escape the island.

What do you think?