All Souls
Rating: All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, by Michael Patrick MacDonald. Ballantine Books (1999), 265 pages. The six kids on the cover of this book (the photo wraps around to the back) are only the beginning of the story—the author and...
Digging to America
Rating: Digging to America, by Anne Tyler. Ballantine Books (2007), 288 pages. Two families arrive at the Baltimore airport, each to meet their newly adopted infants from Korea. One boisterous family has come with friends, balloons, video cameras,...
Listening to Whales
Rating: Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, by Alexandra Morton. Ballantine Books (2002), 314 pages. Listening to Whales is part memoir and part nonfiction. It’s about whale and dolphin communication, the environment of coastal British...
The Invisible Wall
Rating: The Invisible Wall, by Harry Bernstein. Ballantine Books (2007), 320 pages. Bernstein was 93 years old when he wrote this memoir (his first book) of his childhood in an English mill town. For those readers who require that their books be firmly...About Us
The Book Shark began as an independent book review website created by Cindy Pinto and Donna Long in 2002.
From the beginning our goal was not only to write great reviews, but also to recognize the most well-written books we read each year with an award...
Gustine Awards
The Gustine Awards were named in honor of the main character in one of our favorite books—The Dress Lodger, by Sheri Holman. Awards have been given out yearly since 2002 in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and memoir...
Cover Art
A book’s cover is as important as the writing within it. We are aware that this may offend some authors who have toiled for years on their books and believe their words are the only thing that matters...
Reader Reviews
What’s the best or worst book you’ve ever read? What’s the most recent book that you’ve had a strong reaction to? Send us your thoughts, and we’ll post them in this spot.