ZEITOUN by Dave Eggers

It’s been four years since one of the country’s deadliest natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina, hit New Orleans, yet the stories of those affected have been making their way out only slowly. Dave Eggers’ ZEITOUN is one such. Here too, as in his brilliant WHAT IS THE WHAT, Eggers does an expert job narrating non-fiction and making the story come alive.

September 19, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Class - Race - Gender, Humorous, Immigration / Diaspora, New Orleans, Non-fiction  One Comment

TROUBLE by Kate Christensen

Josie is in trouble, much more trouble than she’d ever imagined. She’s in the kind of trouble that eats you up from the inside out, not the kind where you worry about being harmed by outsiders. She is also feeling a sense of sexual freedom and wanting to explore these feelings. This book is best read in a cool place with the air conditioning on – no tight bodices and no long sleeves!

September 5, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Award Winning Author, Book Club Choice, Contemporary, Literary, Mental Health, Mexico, Mid-Life Crisis  No Comments

AWAIT YOUR REPLY by Dan Chaon

This book is a great read. You’ll not be wanting to put it down. However, this book is as much a philosophy book as it is a novel. It asks the epistomological question “How do we know?” It also asks very far-reaching metaphysical questions such as “Who are we?,” “Are we really who we think we are?,” “Can we change who we are?,” and “If we change, then who do we become?”

September 2, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Contemporary, Identity, Unique Narrative  No Comments

HEROIC MEASURES by Jill Ciment

There are a handful of adjectives and phrases that I will not hesitate to use in describing this book: gem-like, precise, beautiful and charming, for starters. Stewart, my local bookseller, knowing my tastes in literature, gave me this book to read. That’s right my bookseller GAVE me this book. He felt so strongly as to its merits that he wanted me to read it, regardless of the question of commerce. That is extraordinary, and speaks to the seriousness with which my book-selling friend takes reading, good books and friendship. He is not alone in his opinion of HEROIC MEASURES.

August 17, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: 2009 Favorites, Book Club Choice, Contemporary, End-of-Life, Family Matters, New York City  One Comment

THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC by Richard Russo

Fifty-five year old Jack Griffin has been in a funk for a very long time. The only child of dysfunctional and embittered college professors, he proudly asserts that he aggressively rejected his mother and father’s warped values, their snobbery, their refusal to compromise, and their chronic dissatisfaction. In Richard Russo’s bittersweet THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC, Griffin discovers, much to his chagrin, that he has inherited his parents’ negativity and selfishness.

August 5, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Award Winning Author, Contemporary, Family Matters, Life Choices, Literary, Mid-Life Crisis, NE & New York  No Comments

CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY by Shahriar Mandanipour

When I picked up this book, written by a popular Iranian author, my only expectation was that it would be an interesting view of life in Iran today, and, in particular, the life of a writer trying to avoid the “thought police.” What I never expected is that the book is so funny! Witty, cleverly constructed, satiric, and full of the absurdities that always underlie great satire, CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY is a unique metafiction that draws in the reader, sits him down in the company of an immensely talented and very charming author, and completely enthralls him.

June 18, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , ,   Posted in: 2009 Favorites, Book Club Choice, Humorous, Iran, Literary, Translated, Unique Narrative, World Literature  No Comments