Upcoming Discussions

In March we traditionally open our discussion to the public for the book chosen by Writers & Books for their "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book..." program.  This year's book is described as "A wonderfully spare and elegant novel in which the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II is echoed by the destructive siege against the mind and memory of an elderly Russian woman suffering from Alzheimer's... The Madonnas of Leningrad is first and foremost an eloquent tribute to the beauty and resilience of memory."  The setting is the Hermitage, a Tsarist palace in Leningrad that had been converted into one of the world's foremost art museums.  This novel was a New York Times Editors' Choice and has been published in 17 languages.  Writers and Books provides more information about this novel. LAVA's reading resources.

The book's first sentence is, "We think we know the ones we love." Set in San Francisco in 1953, a housewife struggles to fully understand her husband after a stranger appears at their door. Los Angeles Times: "A book whose linguistic prowess and raw storytelling power is almost disruptive to the reader. It's too good to put down and yet each passage is also too good to leave behind....Every twenty pages or so, the plot implodes and the characters reveal themselves." This was a Washington Post Book of the Year. Reviews

The true story of the search for and the rediscovery of a painting of Caravaggio that had been lost for almost two centuries. It provides insights into art history, the techniques of art restoration and the petty jealousies of art scholarship.  The Boston Globe: "His book is about the pursuit of lost art and also the life of the pursuit. He writes with a novelist's gift for character and a dramatist's for character in action."  The New York Times: "the book reads better than a thriller."  Economist: "As perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read."  Designated one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times. Review in the Washington Post

A Mexican couple slips across the border and lives precariously in a camp near Los Angeles. In a nearby gated community lives a liberal couple who moved there to be close to nature but who find that nature is sometimes a bit too much for them, especially the coyotes who threaten their pets. They also develop a strong fear of the nearby camp of homeless Mexicans. The lives of the two couples intertwine in unhappy ways. Boston Globe: "Succeeds in stealing the front page news and bringing it home to the great American tradition of the social novel." Review in the New York Times.

Friedman urges the U.S. to embrace green technology to alleviate global warming and restore our economic and political stature. New York Times: "If Friedman's profile and verve take his message where it needs to be heard, into the boardrooms of America and beyond, that can only be good--for all our sakes." Financial Times: "He has a gift for weaving anecdotes and examples from around the world into his broader tapestry." Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times. Reviews

Collins was the first woman to be Editorial Page Editor for the New York Times and is currently a columnist for its Op-Ed page. Washington Post: "Gail Collins's rich, readable account of the last 50 years of the women's movement. . . reminds us of the triumphs, mortifications and hilarity of the early decades, as well as the personalities." Dallas Morning News: "Millions lived through the material Collins covers in her new book. To those who did not, it might read a little like science fiction." Review in the New York Times.

One of the two main characters in this novel is an elderly man who escaped from the Nazis long ago, and the other is a fourteen-year-old girl. (Another "character" in this book is a book called The History of Love.) The New York Times says it "keeps its reader off balance until a stunning finale" and spoke of the "deep, surprising wisdom that gives this novel its ultimate heft." The Times (UK): "For all the complexity of this book, it has the simplicity of pure emotion, and is a delight because of it." Nicole Krauss was recently named to the New Yorker's "20 Under 40" list of young writers with promising futures. This book has been translated into 27 languages. Reviews

Roseanne Clear, a 100-year-old inmate of an Irish mental institution who was placed there during Ireland's civil war because she had a child out of wedlock, secretly writes her story. Because the institution is closing, the chief psychiatrist must also piece her story together to determine what will happen to her next. Publishers Weekly: "Written in captivating, lyrical prose, Barry's novel is both a sparkling literary puzzle and a stark cautionary tale of corrupted power." The Guardian: "[Barry] makes enthrallingly beautiful prose out of the wreckage of these lives by allowing them to have the complication of actual history in all its messy elusiveness." This novel won the Costa (Whitbread) Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Reviews

This is the story of a woman growing up in a small Illinois town in difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances. It won the Pen/Ernest Hemingway award for best first novel. Boston Globe: "A sly and wistful, if harrowing, human comedy."  Los Angeles Times: "Jane Hamilton's novel is authentically Dickensian. . . The real achievement of this first novel is not so much the blackness as the suggestion of resilience. At the end, Ruth begins to put together her shattered body, spirit and life." Amazon: "Hamilton has perfect pitch. So perfect that you wince with pain for confused but fundamentally good Ruth as she walks a dead-end path. The book ends with the prospect of redemption, thank goodness."