2010
December -Under Fishbone Clouds
Sam Meeking’s big first novel is a love story based on the experiences of his wife’s grandparents. Myth and history are seamlessly interwoven by narrative voice of the Kitchen God, who has accepted a challenge made by the Jade Emperor to discover the nature of true love. He decides to study the relationship of Jingi, a poor peasant and his wife Yuying, the daughter of a wealthy restaurateur. In the early years of Mao’s regime, they live a life of privilege in the home of her parents. But once the Cultural Revolution begins, Yuying’s education and status means that they are subject to years of separation and re-education via hard labor back in the countryside that Jingi has recently escaped! This sweeping historical novel portrays with realism the struggles of the masses of Chinese as they struggle to support their leader’s drastic changes to centuries old society. The reader feels empathy for and an appreciation for this ancient, rich and complex civilization as it enters the 21st century. This is a good tale, well told – of enduring love and its ability to overcome huge obstacles.
November – The Widower’s Tale
Julia Glass has done it again – written about people you feel like you know or would like to meet. Also the setting, a charming New England town of Matlock, not far from Boston, is a place you might have chosen to live yourself. But naturally, even a seemingly idyllic community has its problems. Percy Darling, a widowed librarian, is happily retired in his historic farmhouse – reading books, enjoying his predictable if somewhat insular life, and swimming in his pond. Then his younger daughter, Clover, suddenly leaves her husband and children, returns home, accepts a job as a preschool teacher and prevails upon him to allow her school “Elves & Fairies” to renovate and occupy his barn. Of course one expects that Percy will try and ultimately fail to prevent the inevitable difference these events make – but the reader still identifies and sympathizes with him. Some of the changes seem beneficial – Percy meets an attractive artist, who enrolls her son at the school. But some are not – Percy’s favorite grandson Robert falls under the sinister influence of his charismatic Harvard roommate, and so the drama begins. So much like real life! Glass presents contemporary social issues in her deft and provocative manner – leaving the reader thoughtful, entertained and satisfied.
October – The Invisible Bridge
Paris and Budapest in the late 1930’s provides the suspenseful setting for this historical novel. The protagonist, Andras, is a young Jewish student who travels to Paris on an architectural scholarship, only to lose it as the Nazis gain power. He falls in love with the mysterious Klara, a Hungarian ballet teacher and together they escape from Nazi occupied Paris, only to face the horrors of the Holocaust back home in Hungary. This sweeping romantic novel is a worthy follow-up to Julie Orringer’s successful short story collection How to Breathe Underwater. The author was inspired to write this book when she visited her grandfather (a Hungarian Jewish immigrant) and learned that he had studied architecture in Paris. The beauty of the love story is all the more powerful because the reader anticipates the tragedy that awaits them. The foreshadowing threat of war lends a powerful poignancy to this carefully crafted, leisurely paced story.
September – The Cookbook Collector
Mix together all the richest ingredients that you can imagine, a great Berkeley California setting, quirky but appealing characters, a somewhat predictable but ultimately satisfying plot, and what an entertaining novel Allegra Goodman has prepared to whet our reading appetite. Jess Bach is a romantic graduate student who takes a part-time job at Yorick’s, a local bookstore owned by George Friedman, a 39 year old bachelor Microsoft millionaire. Their relationship grows slowly, in part because George is eccentric and anti-social and also because Jess believes herself in love with a fanatical tree-hugger. Emily Bach is Jess’ disapproving older sister, leading the frantic life of a successful entrepreneur who is preparing for her computer software company to go public. The lives of these two very different sisters and the men that they love are presented ala Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility – in the heady 1990’s milieu of dot.com start-ups and instant millionaires. But the narrative also urges the reader to consider the choices the characters make – especially that of George, the modern day book collector, and what they reflect about our own values.
August – Private Life : A Novel
Ever since reading Snow Falling on Cedars, I have been intrigued by the period right before the attack on Pearl Harbor – when suspicion, paranoia and prejudice plagued America’s Japanese citizens. This is the story of Margaret Mayfield, a woman who marries the eccentric, egotistical, domineering astronomer and Navy Captain, Andrew Early, and travels from her home in rural Missouri to Vallejo, California. The narrative begins with a prologue in 1942, and then returns to 1883 when Margaret is a little girl, meets Andrew, marries in 1905 and leaves the Midwest for life as a new bride in California. Gradually but steadily her hopes for her life are slowly refashioned into a narrow, carefully predictable existence ruled by Andrew’s own increasingly selfish and ultimately dangerous obsessions. This is Jane Smiley’s best book since A Thousand Acres!
July –Nefertiti: The book of the dead & Tutankhamun: The book of shadows
Until I am able to cruise down the Nile myself, I am satisfying my wish to see Egypt’s ancient wonders through the eyes of Nick Drake’s clever detective, Rahotep. Both Nefertiti and Tutankhamun request his assistance in solving murders and threats to their dynasty. Life more than three thousand years ago was astonishingly sophisticated and at the same time deadly – this smoothly written, carefully detailed depiction of this civilization makes for terrific reading for those who enjoy either historical or mystery fiction, or both! Here’s hoping that the final installment of the trilogy will be as exciting and available soon.
June –The Lonely Polygamist
Fans of the television series “Big Love” will be intrigued by Golden Richards, the protagonist of this simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking tale. Golden’s life is complicated by four wives, twenty-eight children, and his struggle to support them either financially or emotionally. Forced to accept a construction job to build an addition to a brothel a long drive away in Nevada, Golden finds that he relishes the distance from his family and is tempted to have an affair with his client’s wife. The reader can easily predict that Golden will not be able to escape his myriad of problems forever – but this does not spoil the story. Brady Udall has created a world in remote southwestern Utah that somehow manages to reflect many of the problems faced in contemporary society, and his bizarre characters will remain alive in reader’s minds long after the book is finished.
May - Mudbound
Life is hard enough in the rural Mississippi Delta in 1946 without the bigotry and hatred that surrounds this cotton farming community. It threatens to destroy the lives of two families who are forced to form an unlikely and unwilling alliance when they are marooned during the frequent floods that leave their homes Mudbound. This winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction written by Hillary Jordan is narrated by several different characters. Laura is Henry's wife, who reluctantly moves from her comfortable hometown of Memphis to this remote farm and into a primitive shotgun shack. She is ill equipped to deal with the rigors of country life and finds living with her hateful, racist father-in-law nearly intolerable except for the love of her children and the support of her black neighbor, Florence. Henry has always dreamed of owning a farm, and he is determined to overcome all obstacles to succeed. When Florence's son Ronsel returns from fighting overseas and finds that he is still a second-class citizen in the Jim Crow South, all the necessary ingredients for tragedy are there. Jordan captures the nuances of the diverse characters by the skillful use of their voices in alternating chapters, and this look at life in the post-WWII South provides a welcome companion to The Help - our USM Book Club selection for May.
April - I See You Everywhere
This third novel by one of my favorite writers, Julia Glass, is a story of two sisters, told in their alternating voices over a period of twenty-five years. Louisa, an artist and art critic, is the older of the two, serious and pragmatic; she envies her charismatic younger sibling Clem's exciting life. Clem is a beautiful, athletic risk-taker, living a seemingly rootless existence, enchanting a series of men while she follows her career as a wildlife biologist to wilderness areas from Newfoundland to Wyoming. This tale of sisterly love and competition is beautifully rendered through the eyes of each woman - and the reader learns how difficult it is to really know another person, even for someone who is the closest relative. Glass is a master at presenting complicated relationships - and this book is almost as satisfying as Three Junes.
March - The Tin Roof Blowdown
Spending the winter in New Orleans has made me curious about the lingering and quite visible effects of Hurricane Katrina and I discover that the people I meet who have lived through it are not always eager to talk about their experiences. The low-lying areas that were literally destroyed are off limits to the curious visitor. Tour buses are considered violations of privacy by those who are trying to rebuild. But in the local newspaper, stories continue to examine police cover-ups, misuse of government funds, and a long list of criminal behavior that is still being investigated after five years! James Lee Burke's series of mystery novels featuring Dave Robicheaux are mostly set in New Iberia (a town to the southwest of NOLA), but the detective’s adventures feature many actual events and places as a backdrop to this violent and gripping story. Tin Roof Blowdown (c2007) is set in New Orleans during and immediately after Katrina and really captures the haunting power of this city and its people, during a catastrophic storm that brought out the best and worst in human nature. The HBO series "Treme" was being filmed while we were living in New Orleans, and it gives the viewer a good taste of the town post Katrina.
February - Half Broke Horses : A True-Life Novel
Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle told the heartbreaking but unforgettable story of her childhood. This new novel is a beautiful tribute to her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, told in the first-person. Her adventures in the wild west of the early 20th century; as a cowgirl, schoolteacher, rancher, wife and mother are told in a matter of fact, breezy and entirely authentic voice. Born in 1901, she lived with her family in a one-room dugout in West Texas with "scorpions, lizards, snakes, gophers, centipedes and moles" until a flash flood washed it away. After a tornado destroyed their next house, her family moved to a ranch in New Mexico. When she was hired at age 15, to teach in a one room schoolhouse in Arizona, she rode there alone on her horse. The trip took 28 days! And this is just the beginning of her experiences. Walls's grandmother is a heroine with enormous appeal - and this novel based on her life offers an inspirational reading experience.
January - The House on First Street
Our tiny Cotton Mill Warehouse loft apartment in New Orleans is charming and offers a great location. In the bedroom bookcase, I found this book by Julia Reed, a journalist who bought a historic home in the Garden District of New Orleans and embarked on a massive restoration project which was nearing completion when Hurricane Katrina struck. Her narrative is lively and provided a perfect introduction to my three month winter home. Reed grew up in Greenville, in the Mississippi Delta, about 400 miles north. Throughout her life she returned to NOLA for vacations and eventually rented a small apartment in the French Quarter. When she married a local attorney, the couple decided to buy a home. Their house at Chestnut and First Street is in the lower Garden district, a desirable residential area and home to many well known local artists and personalities. Anne Rice (of the Vampire Chronicles) lived right across the street: her former home is currently for sale for more than 3 million dollars. Archie Manning (football great and father of Eli and Peyton) also lives nearby. Although I haven't visited her street yet - it's certainly on my list! Reed admits to making many mistakes as a novice homeowner - from her poor choice of a contractor to her unrealistic plan to move into her house in less than a year. Only the demolition went as planned - everything else was a nightmare (and that's before Katrina). If you are planning a trip to the Big Easy, this book will get you in the proper frame of mind. If not, it will convince you to exercise extreme caution when contemplating a major remodeling project!
2009
December -Last Night in Twisted River
I really dread the short dark days of December. Right after dinner I feel like curling up under a big quilt with a book. So John Irving's novels with their melancholy characters and fatalistic plots make ideal winter companions for me. His latest story starts out in a logging camp in the wilds of northern New Hampshire (this state's slogan "Live Free or Die" seems totally apt) where it always seems like winter. His protagonist, Danny Angel, is the son of the camp cook. In one of many tragic accidents, Danny kills his father's lover when he mistakes her for a bear! Father and son become fugitives and literally spend the rest of their lives evading capture. This unlikely and improbable way of life awakens young Danny's obsession to write and to tell the many versions of his search for redemption (or the road to perdition - depending on your ability to accept Irving's quirky plot lines and tedious explorations into the relationship of writer and narrator). Contrived? Yes! Entertaining? Always! Incredible and terrible accidents keep happening to Danny and to those he loves. But he (Danny/Irving) keeps writing and we keep reading. As I get ready to leave for New Orleans - a place where the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina resulted in the deaths of more than 1,800 people and destroyed so many homes and dreams - I wonder how John Irving would write about those who have returned there to rebuild their lives. At least in NOLA it should be warmer...
November -A Gate at the Stairs
Autumn in Wisconsin is a lovely time but far too short! College was also like that for me - and that is why I'm happy that my son is taking his time (he is a 5th year senior) and savoring his college experience in Madison. Lorrie Moore has really captured the flavor of this special place in her latest novel through the eyes of a 20 year old student, Tassie Keltjin. When Tassie answers an ad for a part-time nanny, she never imagines how complicated her job will become. The couple who hires her are adopting and they include their new caregiver in each step of the process. When they finally bring home a racially-mixed little girl, Tassie seems to spend more time with the baby than her busy professional parents do. The father is a professor and mother owns a gourmet restaurant (think L'Etoile). This is Lorrie Moore at her most ascerbic; she makes you laugh and then feel guilty about it! But while some of the events in the novel may seem unlikely, just as many are uncomfortably possible, as the reader experiences them right along with Tassie. But of course (and thank goodness!), this is just a story..
October -That Old Cape Magic
What do our memories tell us about ourselves? How powerful are they in shaping our present and future actions? Sometimes we want and need to recapture moments from our past - but how accurate are these recollections? In Richard Russo's latest novel, Jake Griffin takes a trip back to the scene of many summer vacations with his unhappily married parents to the Cape, intending to scatter his father's ashes there. As an only child (like myself) Jake doesn't really have anyone else to help him sort out what really happened from his version of past events. But the reader knows that he must reconcile his memories and feelings about the past before he can begin to confront his present dilemmas. I always find Russo's novels give me something to think about and this one does not disappoint. It probably helps if you are an only child and also middle-aged! There are also some interesting parallels between this story and our USM book club selection for November - In the Woods by Tana French. In this mystery an Irish detective struggles to remember a horrific event in his past - and also finds that he is unable to deal with his present problems without confronting his blocked memories.
September -Cutting for Stone & A Long Way Gone : Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
In Abraham Verghese's epic Cutting for Stone, co-joined twins Marion and Shiva grow up at Missing (Mission) Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - the children of an American surgeon Thomas Stone and a Catholic nun from India. After their mother dies following their birth and their father disappears, the boys are adopted by Ghosh and Hema - two Indian doctors also working at the clinic. Both children thrive under the loving care of their foster parents, until the political unrest and intrigue in Ethiopia nearly destroys the lives of even these dedicated immigrant doctors. Marion (in a parallel to my second book selection) escapes for a time to New York City and studies medicine. One wonders why these doctors chose to live, work, and possibly die in exile in such a dangerous place, when they could so easily have gone elsewhere. But Africa holds a powerful attraction for those idealists and adventure seekers who fall under its spell; although war, famine, disease, and political chaos are ever-present, the ideals of love and hope for humanity overcome the painful reality of loss and sacrifice in this inspiring and exciting story. A Long Way Gone offers a very different look at Africa, in this non-fiction, first-person account of survival by a 12 year old boy. Author Ishmael Beah fled attacking rebels in his small village in Sierra Leone and after months of wandering, orphaned and near starvation in the war-torn countryside, was captured and forced to serve as a 13 year old soldier in the government army and become a brutal killer. Both books have satisfying if not unrealistically happy endings and give the reader some understanding of the complex problems of the African continent and perhaps a desire to learn more. I am planning to read two follow-up titles to Cutting for Stone . They are : Chameleon Days : An American Boyhood in Ethiopia by Tim Bascom & Notes from the Hyena's Belly : An Ethiopian Boyhood by Nega Maziekia. I am also eagerly anticipating another book by Ishmael Beah, who graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 and is currently living (in exile) in New York City.
August -The Story Sisters, The Girl With No Shadow & Fast Track to Fine Dining
"It was summer, and hot, and everything was just beginning." The final line of Alice Hoffman's bewitching novel, The Story Sisters, sums up the reason why I have chosen this book for an August recommendation. This is my favorite month in Wisconsin and like a good book, it always seems too short. When the weather is warm and changeable, I feel closer to the natural world and sense its magic. Summer is also a time that our family gets together to enjoy good food, fine wine and each other. So it seems right to read stories where the key ingredients to happiness and love are food and cooking. The second book is a sequel to Chocolat by Joanne Harris and also features a lovely Parisian setting as well as the belief that not everything that happens in life can or should be rationally explained. In The Girl With No Shadow, food (chocolate in particular) transforms people. In The Story Sisters it's magic tomatoes. Recently I joined a group of friends for a cooking demonstration by Linda Mutschler, the author of Fast Track to Fine Dining, and I am recommending it because the recipes are magically quick, easy, and delicious!
July - Before the Frost and the earlier books in the Kurt Wallander mystery series
Masterpiece Theatre recently featured three programs based on the Swedish mysteries by Henning Mankell and I became thoroughly enchanted by this lonely and complicated detective (initially because his character was so superbly portrayed by Kenneth Branagh). I suggest that these stories are best read chronologically - although I did read the last one first. Before the Frost actually features Wallander's daughter Linda - who is just about to become a policewoman. The crimes really are secondary to the detective's own fascinating and messy life - the reader becomes caught up in Wallander's struggle to control his weight, his unsuccessful search for love, his denial of the onset of diabetes, and most of all - his struggle to understand himself while he is so driven by the need to discover the motivations of others. Readers should start with The Pyramid and continue in the following order: Faceless Killers, Dogs of Riga, White Lioness, The Man Who Smiled, Side Tracked, The Fifth Woman, One Step Behind, Firewall, Return of the Dancing Master, & Before the Frost. At least one more book in the series is scheduled to follow - sometime in 2010. After (or during) a visit to Sweden, I want to meet the author, who is married to Ingmar Bergman's daughter Eva, and divides his time between Sweden and Mozambique. I am currently reading his novels that are set in Africa.
June - Dream House & The Little Stranger
Since we have retired, Dominic and I have rented four different houses for the winter months and I have relished the variety of architectural styles, locations, furnishings and atmosphere of each place. It has also made me thankful to return after several months to my own comfortable home. Though I have lived in twelve places in my lifetime, I have only owned four houses - two were new constructions, so I was the first person to live in them. But the two most recent are my favorites, one a real fixer-upper; a 1950's Frank Lloyd Wright style multi-level in Elm Grove; and my present 1970's somewhat contemporary colonial on the Lake Michigan shore. Part of what makes each of these places special to me are their histories. Both were sold to me as a result of the previous owners' divorces and financial reversals - but this did not make them unhappy houses. In fact, the opposite seems to be true. Nevertheless I do believe that some houses, for whatever reason, are not welcoming places. I've often wondered whether other people sense the powerful effect of their homes, or is it just my own quirky imagination? In Dream House, high school math teacher Kate falls in love with a dilapidated old house in Ann Arbor, Michigan (my alma mater), and starts renovating it during her summer vacation. Her husband Stuart is opposed to the project and bad things begin to happen. Can you blame the house? Perhaps - especially since it was the scene of a murder 18 years before. Are some places evil? Haunted? The author, Valerie Laken, has written a fine first novel - she is currently teaching creative writing at UW Milwaukee. My second book is by the seasoned writer Sarah Waters; and like her earlier novels The Little Stranger is set in the past - this time in post WWII England. The story also involves the attraction of a house but this one is quite different from the little dream house in Ann Arbor. Hundreds Hall is a decaying (haunted?) country mansion that has fascinated and attracted Doctor Faraday since he was a small boy. He befriends the upper class family who are struggling to hang onto their estate, and finds that his scientific approach to their problems achieves limited success. Much more than simple ghost stories, both novels use the wonderful and sometimes terrible attraction of a house to explore the complex divisions of class and race, leaving the reader with much to ponder.
May - Loving Frank & The Women
Two very different fictional explorations of the women in Frank Lloyd Wright's life - the first is by Nancy Horan and focuses on the love affair of the architect and Mamah (may-muh) Borthwick Cheney, and the second (written by one of my absolute favorite writers, T.C. Boyle) presents all four of the women who loved him in reverse order of chronology. Everyone who has read about the life of Wright already knows the general outline of events, but questions and speculation continue to remain concerning what really happened between this charismatic artist and his amours. Pair these two novels with Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow for a richly entertaining look at early 20th century society.
April -Still Life, A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, & A Rule Against Murder
Four mysteries featuring the French-Canadian detective Armand Gamache that are all set in or near the fictional village of Three Pines on the border southeast of Montreal. The first story introduces our protagonist and the fall splendor of a picturesque place whose surface beauty hides a dreadful secret. The second mystery takes the reader into the depth of winter in Quebec, the third features April and Easter festivities, and the latest and fourth adventure occurs when Gamache and his wife return to a favorite auberge to celebrate their anniversary. The writing is often lyrical, and the plots keep one in suspense. Read them in order and enjoy! The author, Louise Penny, is a former journalist and radio host with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
March -Shadow Country
After spending the winter here on the Florida Gulf coast, Peter Matthiessen's masterful trilogy seems like required reading. It is a three part revision of the earlier Watson saga - an epic story of the notorious sugar cane planter and outlaw E.J. Watson that tells of an historic time in the frontier days of the Everglades and really made me appreciate this strange and somewhat sinister (to a Midwesterner) part of the country. Beautiful descriptive passages evoke a reverence for the wild flora and fauna that is present in the author's nonfiction works like The Snow Leopard, while the powerful themes of man's cruelty to man and senseless destruction of the natural environment resonate.
February -The Post -Birthday World
A clever story of adultery - told in alternating chapters. Tempted to kiss a professional snooker player, who happens to be celebrating his birthday, Irina discovers that whether or not she strays from the safe path she has chosen (with her predictable lover of seven years or with the sexually attractive Ramsey) her life will change. Lionel Shriver manages to present the question of choice in a contemporary and compelling way.
January -Case Histories, One Good Turn and When Will There Be Good News?
Jackson Brodie is back and this is the best mystery yet in Kate Atkinson's remarkable series that began with Case Histories, continued in One Good Turn, and is now continued in When Will There Be Good News? Jackson is still a magnet for murder and mayhem, and this time a spunky orphan's life intersects his in a chain of fascinating coincidences that is the unique Atkinson trademark. The action starts on page one; the reader is entertained and stretched by Atkinsons's rich vocabulary - the Edinburgh setting is also a plus. Read them in chronological order to best enjoy this quirky character.
2008
December -The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Christmas season always makes me want to believe in miracles. But in order to believe in these two terrific stories - you have to love dogs! David Wroblewski has created a character who cannot speak out loud, but who has learned how to communicate with the special dogs (Sawtelle dogs) bred as companions by his father and grandfather before him. If you love dogs, you will want to believe in Edgar and his special dogs. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is even more unique; this story is told by Enzo, a mixed breed dog (he likes to think his father was an Airedale terrier) whose beloved master Denny Swift is an aspiring race car driver. Enzo believes in reincarnation and that he will become human when he dies - and you will want to believe it, too.
November - Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History by Kati Marton & America America by Ethan Canin & American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
These three books, the first non-fiction and the following two fiction, feature U.S. politics and the presidency as themes. Well-researched, Hidden Power describes and speculates on the influence that several recent first ladies had on the presidencies of their husbands. America America tells the story of a rich and powerful family's attempt to promote their candidate for President (set in the 1970's)from the point of view of a neighboring youth whose life is changed and shaped when he is hired to help at their estate. American Wife uses the life of Laura Bush as the inspiration for a novel set in Wisconsin and offers a intriguing and imaginative peek thru the keyhole at the conflicted and complex relationship of the First Lady and the President. Why do we find the private lives of powerful people so fascinating? America America was my favorite - I plan to read more Ethan Canin novels soon.
October -Raven Black and White Nights
For Halloween reading I recommend Ann Cleves' mystery series with its eerie setting on Scotland's remote, beautiful, and forbidding Shetland Islands. Detective Jimmy Perez has his own set of complex problems - and the way that he patiently threads his way towards unraveling the motives of his taciturn and confusing group of suspects rivals that of P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh. Read Raven Black first!
September -When We Were Romans
This bittersweet story by Matthew Kneale is told by 10-year-old Lawrence, whose voice is as authentic as that of the character in Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. What starts as an exciting vacation trip to Rome soon becomes a nightmare as the boy's mother, convinced that her estranged husband is stalking them, becomes dangerously delusional and depressed.
August -Finding Nouf
Saudi Arabia's oppressive gender segregated society makes private detective Nayir's job even more difficult. When his wealthy friend asks him to investigate his sister's suspicious death, the detective is attracted to a woman who seems determined to help him with the case. This book by Zoe Ferraris may be paired with Andre Dubus III's The Garden of Last Days which is set in Sarasota, Florida and features the attraction of a Muslim terrorist for a young American strip club entertainer.
July -Unaccustomed Earth
This lyrical collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri (author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies) reveals the secrets that these Indian immigrants keep from their loved ones while living complex lives in Cambridge, MA, Seattle, WA, India, Italy and Thailand. The beautiful trio of linked narratives - "Hema & Kaushik" are my favorites. This is her best book so far!
June -A Voyage Long and Strange
What happened in America between 1492 and 1620? This long overlooked time in our country's history is examined by the author of Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horowitz, and offers the reader many interesting new facts while correcting some commonly held misconceptions.
May - Careless in Red
Our disappointingly cold and damp weather this month made Thomas Lynley's trek along the Cornish coast seem just like hiking along the shores of Lake Michigan! But even though I am trying to get lots of exercise, I didn't find a body in my walks. Elizabeth George's latest mystery follows my favorite detective and his assistant, Barbara Havers, as he struggles to discover a murderer and recover from the loss of his beloved wife, Helen.
April - The Pillars of the Earth
This is an ambitious novel that tells the inspiring story of the building of a medieval English cathedral. Ken Follett has recently written the sequel in World Without End, but I wanted to read both books in their proper order. Settle in for an entertaining 973 page journey back in time - just the thing for a rainy April weekend.
March - The God of Animals
"...the places we come from don't leave us as easily as we leave them. Desert is land that cannot be owned, cannot be controlled, cannot be forgotten..." - p.304. These are the words of Alice Winston, the narrator of this compelling story of adolescence on a struggling horse ranch. Aryn Kyle's characters live a life that is harsh and beautiful and her debut novel demonstrates her appreciation for the unique landscape and character of the American West.
February - Stormy Weather
After our travels across Oklahoma and Texas on route to California, this novel set in Texas in the 1930's seems like a natural choice. The feisty heroine, Jeanine Stoddard, struggles to keep her family together against enormous odds - this entertaining story is written by Paulette Jiles.
January - The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
January’s wintry weather provides an ideal time to curl up with a big book! The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama is much more than the unlikely story of two Japanese brothers and their interesting choices of professions (one becomes a sumo wrestler and the other a mask maker for the Noh theatre). Beautiful writing abounds in this thirty year saga of love and tragedy, tradition and change – from 1939 to 1966.
December -Grounds for Murder by Sandra Balzo
When Maggy Thorsen discovers a rival coffee shop owner dead under the trophy table at a Milwaukee trade show, our feisty heroine becomes both a sleuth and a suspect. This freshlybrewed mystery by the talented local writer is a fine follow-up to her first book, Uncommon Grounds and "lattes" of fun for your holiday reading.
November - Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
A 60 year-old man reexamines powerful and conflicted memories of his youth in Thomaston, a small upstate New York town whose single industry is a tannery that both supports and poisons its workers. Lucy's recollections are vivid, especially those of his two friends - one who becomes his wife and the other who escapes to Italy and becomes an artist. But are they true? Moody and introspective, this novel provides an ideal framework for autumn reminiscence.
October - HeartSick by Chelsea Cain
This serial killer thriller is set in dark and gloomy Portland, Oregon and features a tortured detective and a young pink-haired journalist whose assignment is to write a feature story about the policeman and his current search for the murderer of several high school girls. Horrific Halloween reading.
Michael David Lukas has spent time in Turkey, Israel and Tunisia and his novel takes the reader on a carpet ride to a magical place and a long ago time. The story opens in late summer of 1877 when a flock of exotic birds herald the birth of Eleonora Cohen in Constanta. Her mother dies soon after her birth and she is raised by her father and his new wife, her mother’s older sister. When Eleonora shows signs of extraordinary intelligence, her stepmother convinces her father that they should keep her gifts a secret – and limits her reading to one book per month. Her father plans to travel to Stamboul on a long business trip and Eleonora, who can’t imagine life alone with her stern, unloving stepmother, stows away on the boat. At the end of the voyage, her father is forced to take her along with him to his Muslim partner’s sumptuous home and the true adventure begins. The exotic historical setting enriches the narrative and makes the reader better able to accept the extraordinary happenings. The ending seems a bit abrupt and unsatisfying, but I’m hoping for a sequel!
This atmospheric novel by Tom Franklin is set in the rural Mississippi hamlet of Chabot, where the locals continue to suspect sad and lonely “Scary Larry” Ott of murdering and hiding the body of a teenage girl – an unsolved crime that has made the weird but gentle man an outcast for more than twenty years. When the college bound daughter of the town’s lumber baron never arrives at Ole Miss, Constable Silas “32” Jones is probably the only person who believes in Larry’s innocence. The policeman has returned to his hometown after a long absence to make a success of his new position and is determined to avoid all controversy. But when he first finds the badly decomposed body of a local drug dealer, and then discovers Larry, victim of a gunshot to the chest, Silas is forced to confront his own secret boyhood friendship with Larry and reveal his guilty knowledge of what happened on the night long ago, when the first young woman disappeared. The crooked letter “s” in Mississippi is a fitting symbol for the deformed lives of these characters - rich and poor, black and white, good and evil – a tale told in a deceptively simple voice that reminds the reader of Faulkner.
More than twenty years after John Casey won the National Book Award (1989) for Spartina, he has rewarded the reader with a wonderful sequel in Compass Rose. In the first novel, Casey introduces us to Dick Pearce, a commercial fisherman who struggles to make a living off Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. His dream to build his boat, Spartina, is ultimately realized, but not without great struggles against the sea and within his heart. In Compass Rose, we continue his story – but now the focus moves to Rose,
Dick’s love child conceived with Elsie Buttrick. Elsie’s refusal to leave their small community, and whose presence is a constant reminder of his affair (which is still a secret to his two sons), causes anguish for Dick and his wife. When will the secret be revealed and how will their tangled relationships resolve themselves? The complicated lives of these very real characters are rendered with skill and sympathy. Please read (or reread) Spartina first – you will be eager to revisit these people in the second book.
