Rating: 
Summary: Fun Read! Great first mystery!
Review: Jane Isenberg treats us to the world of the community college in THE M WORD - and it's all true...except for the murder, of course! Bel Barrett and her colleagues have to solve the murder of the college's president - even while battling the confusion of hot flashes and mid-life memory crises. A delightful tale well-told!
Rating:
Summary: An academic mystery w/ a fresh slant and a down to earth wit
Review: Jane Isenberg's debut mystery THE "M" WORD is a fresh look at crime in academia. Bel Barrett is an English professor whose views were shaped in the sixties, but now that she's turning fifty those beliefs are becoming more difficult to maintain. She works at a struggling community college that garners little respect from either its students or staff until a new president takes over. When the president is murdered and one of Bel's students is falsely accused of the crime, she feels compelled to find the real killer. In the process Bel exposes the high stakes of patronage in urban education, the differences in both the dreams and the demands of students who attend this type school versus those attending the ivy halls of a four year university, and the seamy side of people she thought she knew. Making Bel's investigation more difficult for her, but more amusing for the reader are Bel's struggle with mid-life changes.Bel Barrett is a fresh idea for an amateur sleuth. Her down to earth wit keeps the reader turning the page for more. This is the beginning of a original new series. I can't wait to read the next one.
Rating:
Summary: A great and funny read, with characters to revisit!
Review: On every page, I laughed or nodded wryly with recognition of people in my everyday life--only wittier and smarter than the ones I know! Jane Isenberg has created characters whose feelings, motivations and actions strike both a familiar chord and the funny bone. And she has placed them in a fast-paced, intelligent plot that combines individual ambitions and societal realities in a situation mirrored in today's headlines. The fact that her main character is a 50-something woman in the throes of menopausal symptoms is the icing on the cake--would that we all could put our hot flashes and memory lapses to such good use as Bel Barrett does. Set in a multicultural urban and academic milieu, "The M Word" also features savvy, intuitive Latina and African American women who are both real and realistic about the challenges they and their families face. I highly recommend "The M Word" to all mystery lovers, all academics (especially those in community colleges--you might learn something about your own administration politics!) and all mid-life women with a sense of humor about their situation. I hope Bel and comrades will be back soon and often in other cleverly involved plots that mix inescapable truths with ironic fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring! I fought sleep to get to the last page
Review: This book focuses on one event in the first chapter and has nothing but boring dialogue until the end. The book is filled with sterotypes about young people and foreigners. This book had the potential to be interesting but with all of the useless gargon it was hard to remember why I picked up the book in the first place. If there are other books by Jane Isenberg, I hope they are better than this one.
Rating:
Summary: hot mama sleuth will make you laugh out loud!
Review: Ugh. Is there anything more painful than reading this book? I doubt it. Isenberg is determined to traipse a long parade of characters before us in the first 50 pages -- all of whom have been given only superficial descriptions, and only some of whom play any real role in the so-called story. All we really find out about any of them is that they "look great" or were dressed better than the novel's heroine. Do yourself a favor and avoid this trainwreck.
Rating:
Summary: Stunningly Bad First Novel
Review: Ugh. Is there anything more painful than reading this book? I doubt it. Isenberg is determined to traipse a long parade of characters before us in the first 50 pages -- all of whom have been given only superficial descriptions, and only some of whom play any real role in the so-called story. All we really find out about any of them is that they "look great" or were dressed better than the novel's heroine. Do yourself a favor and avoid this trainwreck.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, I hope there are more on the way!!
Review: Women over 50 are alive and solving murders while having hot flashes! The book is fun and held my interest until the very end. I hope more are on the way!
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