http://www.thebookscore.net/ Latest book reviews and blog posts from The Bookscore. http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=372 In response to an increasing number of requests to score Ayn Rand's 1957 ode to capitalism Atlas Shrugged,—could it be the election?—set in a dystopian United States with increased Government control, we have searched high and low for any reviews, but have come up empty-handed. Thankfully, just this past August, the LA Times published an article investigating the initial critical response to the novel, citing several of the reviews from the time of its publication. Read an excerpt of the book here. Find it: IndieBound | Amazon http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=372 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=156 Every Love Story is a Ghost Story is the first biography of David Foster Wallace, the widely influential and beloved American author who killed himself in 2008. What began as a profile in the New Yorker, the book chronicles Wallace's battle with depression as he struggled to write Infinite Jest and the events that ultimately led to his tragic death. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=156 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=155 Set on a forward operating base in Iraq, Fobbit is a satirical story chronicling the strangely normal war-time lives and experiences of the workers at the base, who spend much of their time composing press releases to try and put a positive spin on the war. The book is based on Mr. Abrams' own experience as a former public affairs worker in Iraq. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=155 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=154 Comprising 14 distinctive books, booklets, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets, Building Stories is a nearly unclassifiable epic graphic novel, which tells a sprawling story about the residents of one Chicago apartment building. Packed together in a box-set, this unique "book" is a token to the power of the physical object in reading. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=154 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=153 Originally published in the author's native Norway in 1992, It's Fine by Me is the story of an adolescent misfit growing up in Oslo who seeks through literature and his own writing to make sense of both the world around him and his own place in it. At once melancholic and hopeful, the story is a tribute to the craft of the written word. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=153 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=152 Subtitled The Unmooring of Military Power, Drift, the first work from the MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, chronicles the 'drift' away from America's original ideas into a nation at ease with near perpetual war. Citing historical events, Maddow traces the ideas and reasoning that have led the US to become such a deeply militarized nation. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=152 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=151 81-year-old Tom Wolfe's fourth novel, and first since parting ways with former publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is a sprawling story set in Miami focusing on race relations and immigration and just about everything else. Little, Brown & Co. reportedly paid a $7 million advance for the book. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=151 http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=368 Published earlier this month by Atlantic Monthly Press, The Jewels of Paradise is a new novel from the Venetian crime guru Donna Leon, famous for her Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries set in the sinking city. While her new novel retains its Venetian setting, it is a stand-alone novel featuring a young Venetian woman living abroad who returns to her home city to accept an intriguing job offer which leads her to delve deep into the city's past, where plenty of surprises await her. The book has already been reviewed by the Washington Post, the Independent,  and the Guardian. Read an excerpt here. Find it: IndieBound | Amazon http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=368 http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=363 Out earlier this month from Pantheon, the reprint edition of The Fifty Year Sword gives Mark Z. Danielewski's famous work the mainstream release it has seemingly begged for since just a thousand copies of it were printed in the Netherlands in 2005. The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, and Financial Times have all marked the occasion. Find it: IndieBound | Amazon http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=363 http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=357 Published today by Doubleday, Iron Curtain is Anne Applebaum's much anticipated follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag. In this new work, Ms. Applebaum chronicles the birth and lives of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe following the end of the second World War. The book, shortlisted fort the 2012 National Book Award, has already been reviewed by the Washington Post, the Telegraph, the Guardian, and the Independent. Find it: IndieBound| Amazon http://www.thebookscore.net/blog/?p=357 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=150 In his debut novel, Charles Yu the author tells the story of Charles Yu the time machine repairman, a recluse who exists mostly atemporally in his phone booth-sized time machine. Charles mostly drifts aimlessly through his own memories until one day he encounters his future self, shoots him in the belly and hurriedly hops in his time machine. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=150 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=149 Master biographer Stacy Schiff tackles the Queen of the Nile in her newest work, Cleopatra: A Life. Attempting to dispel the biased myths and constructs surrounding the most renowned female ruler of all time, Schiff paints both a more human and in many ways more impressive portrait of the oft-vilified Egyptian ruler. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=149 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=148 When a museum conservator learns of the death of her colleague and secret lover, she is forced to struggle to bury and conceal her grief from the world. In an attempt to shift her focus elsewhere, she begins work restoring a mysterious automaton, the task of which, combined with the secretive history of the object and its builder, lead her to find solace. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=148 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=147 In Waging Heavy Peace, the iconic singer, songwriter and guitarist Neil Young tells the story of his own rise to the top of the music world, beginning with his childhood in Canada and his moving to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams as a musician. Mr. Young also tells of his colloborations with other artists, as well as his own creative process. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=147 http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=146 The debut novel from Ariel S. Winter, The Twenty-Year Death is three crime novels in one, interconnected to tell a single story. Each section is written in the style of three of the greats of the crime genre: Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson, with the stories sweeping across a time period of twenty years. http://www.thebookscore.net/review.php?id=146