A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 29 Jan 10

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the January 29th issue include:

Bloodroot, by Army Greene. Knopf. NOVEL. EW's slant: "Some novels are so powerful, so magical in their sweep and voice, that they leave you felling drugged...Bloodroot...is such a book.". Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (22 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies - of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss - that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today. The novel is told in a kaleidoscope of seamlessly woven voices and centers around an incendiary romance that consumes everyone in its path: Myra Lamb, a wild young girl with mysterious, haint blue eyes who grows up on remote Bloodroot Mountain; her grandmother Byrdie Lamb, who protects Myra fiercely and passes down 'the touch' that bewitches people and animals alike; the neighbor boy who longs for Myra yet is destined never to have her; the twin children Myra is forced to abandon but who never forget their mother’s deep love; and John Odom, the man who tries to tame Myra and meets with shocking, violent disaster. Against the backdrop of a beautiful but often unforgiving country, these lives come together - only to be torn apart - as a dark, riveting mystery unfolds." - from the hardcover edition.

Devotion, by Dani Shapiro. HarperCollins. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "Flashes of humor and insight...but they seldom touch a deeper truth." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In her mid-forties and settled into the responsibilities and routines of adulthood, Dani Shapiro found herself with more questions than answers... Having grown up in a deeply religious and traditional family, Shapiro had no personal sense of faith, despite repeated attempts to create a connection to something greater. Feeling as if she was plunging headlong into what Carl Jung termed 'the afternoon of life,' she wrestled with self-doubt and a searing disquietude that would awaken her in the middle of the night. Set adrift by loss-her father's early death; the life-threatening illness of her infant son; her troubled relationship with her mother-she had become edgy and uncertain. At the heart of this anxiety, she realized, was a challenge: What did she believe? Spurred on by the big questions her young son began to raise, Shapiro embarked upon a surprisingly joyful quest to find meaning in a constantly changing world... In this spiritual detective story, Shapiro explores the varieties of experience she has pursued - from the rituals of her black hat Orthodox Jewish relatives to yoga shalas and meditation retreats... Her journey is at once poignant and funny, intensely personal-and completely universal." - Amazon.


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