LAVA Discussion Book Candidates for 2014
These candidate books come from several sources, including suggestions from LAVA members, lists of award-winning books, favorites of other book clubs, the Harvard Bookstore’s best-seller list, literary blogs, etc. Several were carried over from the previous voting list. There are 26 books on this list, but we will choose only 8 of them in this balloting, which unfortunately means that many worthwhile books will be excluded from next year’s reading schedule. As before, the most popular runners-up will be included in the next list of candidates.
Why do we need to choose only 8 books to cover 12 meetings? We don’t read a book for January because that month is occupied with choosing the next list of books. In March we read the book chosen by Writers and Books for the "If all of Rochester Read the Same Book" program. In July and September we see a film at The Little Theater instead of discussing a book. That leaves us eight books to choose for the year.
LAVA members are encouraged to research these book candidates in bookstores, libraries, on the web, etc. Bring this list and your thoughts to the special January meeting at Bill and Andi's house on Saturday, January 11, which will be devoted to sharing information and opinions on these books (and sharing good food).
After the January meeting and prior to the voting deadline of Sunday February 9, please "mark your ballots" and return them to Bill. First review the guidelines for choosing LAVA discussion books, which reflect some of the things we have learned about choosing books over the years. Then, using a system similar to the one used in the Olympics, rate each book individually on a scale of 1 to 10, using 10 to indicate books that you think would generate the best Lava discussions. The system works best if you provide a rating for every book on the list. If you wish, you can write your rating for each book in the margins of this document. Last year, several members rated each book as we discussed it during the January meeting and then handed in their marked list as they left, but you can use any method you prefer as long as you get your ratings to Bill by the voting deadline.
The candidates are divided into three groups: shorter fiction, shorter nonfiction, and longer works. This division doesn’t affect how you cast your vote, but it does affect how the final schedule is created. If no nonfiction book is among the top vote-getters, the most popular nonfiction book will go on the list anyway to assure that we get a little variety in our reading. Any of the longer books among the top vote-getters will be assigned to the August and October meetings because that will give us two months to read them.
Candidates for Regular Meetings (fiction)
Aloft by Chang-rae Lee, 364 pages, 2004. A tragicomic novel of suburban American life by an author of Korean ancestry who was raised in the U.S. since the age of three. Boston Globe: "An affecting portrait of a man trying to define his place as a father, son, and lover in America today." San Jose Mercury: "Filled with passages of revelation about who we are and what we are becoming." Atlanta Constitution: "Nearly every page of Aloft is full of surprises, of emotional land mines." The New York Times had fainter praise: "Lee has dreamed up an intricate, ingratiating character and brought him halfway to life. But there is enough life in Jerry — and around him, in the various generations of his messy, striving extended family — that half is almost enough, and certainly better than nothing. Jerry Battle is the kind of guy who can charm you into forgiving his small failings, and even his large ones, not only because he's fun to be around but because, deep down, you suspect he's a serious and decent man. Aloft is a lot like him." This is the author's third novel. His first, won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and his fourth was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/aloft/ Suggested by Joan S. 16 books plus one CD in the library system.
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout. 304 pages, 1998. Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kitteridge, which LAVA read in 2010. A single mother "temporarily" moves with her infant daughter to a small New England mill town in an attempt to give her life new direction. Socially isolated, she focuses her energy on her daughter, but their relationship becomes distant when the daughter becomes a teenager. When the daughter falls in love with her math teacher, who is caught taking advantage of her, the mother reacts with fury and even jealousy. They try to rebuild their relationship against the background of a gossip-ridden town with its own secrets. San Francisco Chronicle: "Every once in a while, a novel comes along that plunges deep into your psyche, leaving you breathless... This year that novel is Amy and Isabelle." New York Times: "One of those rare, invigorating books that take an apparently familiar world and peer into it with ruthless intimacy, revealing a strange and startling place." Review in the New York Times. 32 copies in the library system.
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. 303 pages, 1973. Monroe Library: "In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth." New York Times: "It's marvelous... he wheels out all the complaints about America and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful and lovable." Publishers Weekly: "Free-wheeling, wild and great... Uniquely Vonnegut." Suggested by Tom. 12 copies in the library system plus 2 ebooks.
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh. 390 pages, 2008. LAVA read Faith by the same author in October 2013. Monroe Library: "Unaware of the long-standing grievances harbored by their divorced parents, three adult siblings embark on a tumultuous summer when the oldest, a successful Manhattan doctor, investigates his sister's chromosomal disorder against his mother's wishes." New York Times: "Ms. Haigh has a great gift for telling interwoven family stories and doing justice to all the different perspectives they present... A remarkable accomplishment." Washington Post: "Haigh’s characters are layered and authentic.... Haigh is such a gifted chronicler of the human condition." Kirkus Reviews: "Filled with genuine insight and touching lyricism." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Her tendency to get bogged down with background details about each character, and to tell instead of show their behavior, keeps her from fully succeeding. Yet the central question of the story -- how a child whose genetic condition keeps her physically immature can finally be allowed to grow up -- is compelling." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/condition/ Suggested by Joyce H. 25 copies in the library system.
The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. 274 pages, 2012. In 1914, a woman is on trial for something that happened on a lifeboat after a passenger ship sank. This story is her version of that event, but she is an unreliable narrator. Washington Post: "As the days pass with no rescue on the horizon, Grace details the continuous power struggles and machinations among the cold, wet, starving passengers... As their desperation mounts, so do the number of pointed discussions about how they might 'lighten the load' ... Other novels have examined the conscience and guilt of a survivor among the dead, but few tales are as thoughtful and compelling as this." The Guardian: "It's an unflinching yet impressively nuanced examination of the will to survive, and its absence; of charisma and weakness, and moral choices in extremis... As storms threaten to submerge the tiny, overloaded craft, must the men sacrifice themselves for the women? Or should the strong jettison the weak, who are literally dragging them down? ... vividly exciting, beautifully paced and surprisingly funny; in Grace, Rogan has found a voice that is both fresh and mysterious." The Los Angeles Times says this novel, "explore[s] moral ambiguity, human nature and the psychology of manipulation. And there are enough symbolism and metaphor here to keep a literature class busy for half a semester... The lifeboat is the world." Listed on Book Page's "Best Books of 2012." This novel is being translated into 25 languages. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/lifeboat/ 40 copies in the library system.
Lysistrata, a play by Aristophanes. About 50 pages, 411 BCE. Monroe Library: "This classic comedy—from the 5th century BC—concerns the vow of Greek women to withhold sex from their husbands until the men agree to end the disastrous wars between Athens and Sparta. An exuberant battle of the sexes with underlying anti-war theme." Suggested by Tom. 18 copies in the library system in various editions.
Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger. 337 pages, 2012. Amazon: "In The Newlyweds, we follow the story of Amina Mazid, who at age twenty-four moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, New York, for love... [T]his is an arranged marriage for the twenty-first century: Amina is wooed by—and woos—George Stillman online... But each of them is hiding something: someone from the past they thought they could leave behind. It is only when they put an ocean between them—and Amina returns to Bangladesh—that she and George find out if their secrets will tear them apart, or if they can build a future together." (Incidentally, Amina gets a job at the Starbucks on Monroe Avenue.) Los Angeles Times: "For all its global sophistication, the most remarkable accomplishment of this hugely satisfying novel is Freudenberger’s subtle exploration of the stage of adulthood at the heart of The Newlyweds, and all the compromises with selfhood those early years of love and marriage entail." Seattle Times: "The Newlyweds is about all sorts of complex relationships: between parents and children; with first loves; with the places we depart and those we adopt, and 'the many selves' this fluidity creates. Freudenberger does an especially lovely job creating Amina’s worlds—her emotional terrain, her wonder and bewilderment adjusting to America, her life in Bangladesh." Freudenberger was recently named to the New Yorker's "20 Under 40" list of young writers with promising futures. This novel was given a favorable front-page review in the New York Times Sunday book review section. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/newlyweds/. 38 copies in the library system.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. 353 pages, 2011. Dr. Marina Singh goes deep into the Amazon to find her former mentor, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug and who turns out to be suppressing information about it. New York Times: "An engaging, consummately told tale." Washington Post: "This is surely the smartest, most exciting novel of the summer." The Telegraph: "Although the pace often feels as slow, muddy and dreamy as the Amazon in its lazier stretches, it pulls you on with a powerful undertow of profound questions, compelling characters and startling revelations. There are many strange and difficult twists and truths tangled like roots beneath the surface of this story." Amazon: "State of Wonder presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional resonance and moral complexity." Patchett wrote Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and which LAVA read in 2010. Listed as #1 on Book Page's "Best Books of 2011." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/state_of_wonder/. 80 copies in the library system.
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. 361 pages, 1993. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Publisher's description: "In this miniaturist masterpiece, Carol Shields pieces together one woman’s story, from its dramatic beginning in a Manitoba kitchen at the turn of the last century to its closing chapter in a Florida hospital in the early nineties. Drifting through the stages of childhood, romance, motherhood, and old age — and frequently crowded out of her own history by more flamboyant forebears, friends, and relations — Daisy emerges as a twentieth-century Everywoman and her life as a diary of this 'mean old sentimental century.'" The New York Times says that in this novel Shields explores, "the mysteries of life with abandon, taking unusual risks along the way. The Stone Diaries reminds us again why literature matters." Washington Post: "An extraordinarily loving and cheerful book." San Francisco Chronicle: "deliciously unclassifiable, blatantly intelligent and subtly subversive." Suggested by Andi. Review in the New York Times. 35 copies in the library system.
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. 376 pages, 2012. The protagonist is a young woman in Britain in the 1970s who works with a British intelligence agency via a front organization that provides grants to unsuspecting authors who have a record of opposing communism. She falls in love with one of the writers while trying to maintain the fictional story of her "charitable" work. The reviewers had wildly different opinions of this novel. The Washington Post said, "Ian McEwan’s delicious new novel provides all the pleasures one has come to expect of him: pervasive intelligence, broad and deep knowledge, elegant prose, subtle wit and, by no means least, a singularly agreeable element of surprise." Michiko Kakutani, in the New York Times, disagreed, complaining about the novel's "self-conscious contrivance and foreseeable conclusion." Kurt Andersen in the same newspaper said Sweet Tooth is "about as entertaining as a very intelligent novel can be and vice versa." The Economist, however, described it as "curiously forgettable" and said its characters are "all notions and no depth." The Observer: "This is a great big beautiful Russian doll of a novel, and its construction -- deft, tight, exhilaratingly immaculate -- is a huge part of its pleasure. There are stories within stories, ideas within ideas, even images within images." Los Angeles Times: "The real subject of this novel is literature. Sweet Tooth is ultimately about the relationship between writers and readers: how frequently the writing of fiction is a form of infiltration and identity theft, how readers seek themselves in books, how much we know about an author from his creations." LAVA discussed McEwan's Atonement in 2007, which was one of our all-time favorites. Listed on Book Page's "Best Books of 2012." Reviews: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/mcewani/sweet.htm 48 copies in the library system.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. 272 pages, 2012. A shy, retired British brewery salesman, burdened by guilt, walks out of his house to post a letter to Queenie, a dying friend who lives 600 miles away. On a sudden impulse, he walks past the post office and decides to keep on walking in an attempt to deliver the letter in person. During the arduous journey he mulls over his past destructive actions and suffers a "dark night of the soul." He also inspires the people he meets, some of whom are quite strange. Times (London): "Harold’s journey is ordinary and extraordinary; it is a journey through the self, through modern society, through time and landscape. It is a funny book, a wise book, a charming book—but never cloying. It’s a book with a savage twist—and yet never seems manipulative." Publishers Weekly gave it a mixed review: "Early chapters of the book are beguiling, but a final revelation tests credulity, and the sentimental ending may be an overdose of what the Brits call 'pudding.'" This novel was one of a dozen on the longlist for the 2012 Booker Prize. Suggested by Vicki and seconded by Grace. Review in the Washington Post. 43 copies in the library system.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. 326 pages, 2013. Amazon: "Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears." New York Times: "Comedy heaven.... The tightly constructed Where'd You Go, Bernadette is written in many formats: e-mails, letters, F.B.I. documents, correspondence with a psychiatrist and even an emergency-room bill for a run-in between Bernadette and Audrey... You could stop and pay attention to how apt each new format is, how rarely she repeats herself and how imaginatively she unveils every bit of information. But you would have to stop laughing first." San Francisco Chronicle: "Semple's most ridiculous characters are convinced that they're the normal ones, and it's wonderful fun to watch as they behave abominably, believing themselves blameless.... It's the rare book that actually deserves the term 'laugh-out-loud funny,' but I found myself reading passages from almost every page to anyone who would listen, even as I could barely articulate the words through my own laughter." Listed on Book Page's "Best Books of 2012." 36 copies in the library system.
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud. 307 pages, 2013. Publisher's description: "Relegated to the status of schoolteacher and friendly neighbor after abandoning her dreams of becoming an artist, Nora advocates on behalf of a charismatic Lebanese student and is drawn into the child's family until his artist mother's careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal." New York Times: "Messud’s previous novels, extraordinarily intelligent and well-crafted, are characterized by rationed or distant emotion. The Woman Upstairs is utterly different—its language urgent, its conflicts outsize and unmooring, its mood incendiary.... In this ingenious, disquieting novel, Messud has assembled an intricate puzzle of self-belief and self-doubt, showing the peril of seeking your own image in someone else’s distorted mirror—or even, sometimes, in your own." Boston Globe: "This is not just a novel of real psychological insight. It is also a supremely well-crafted page-turner with a shocker of an ending." Booklist: "Messud’s scorching social anatomy, red-hot psychology, galvanizing story, and incandescent language make for an all-circuits-firing novel about enthrallment, ambition, envy, and betrayal." Messud spoke at Rochester Arts and Lectures in 2008. 38 copies in the library system.
Candidates for Regular Meetings (non-fiction)
Alcott, Louisa May. For this proposed discussion, LAVA members would have the choice of reading any biography of Louisa May Alcott. When you vote, you will be rating this proposal, not each individual book in it. The author of Little Women, Alcott had an idealistic father who was part of the brilliant Transcendentalist circle in Massachusetts but who found it difficult to get his own life organized enough to support himself and his family. In 2008 LAVA read March by Geraldine Brooks, a novel whose main character is loosely based on Alcott's father. Suggested by Tess. These recent biographies are recommended:
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. 244 pages, 2012. Amazon: "Katherine Boo spent three years among the residents of the Annawadi slum, a sprawling, cockeyed settlement of more than 300 tin-roof huts and shacks in the shadow of Mumbai’s International Airport... Boo unearths stories both tragic and poignant--about residents’ efforts to raise families, earn a living, or simply survive... A New Yorker writer and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur 'Genius' grant, Boo’s writing is superb and the depth and courage of her reporting from this hidden world is astonishing. At times, it’s hard to believe this is nonfiction." New York Times: "Novelists dream of defining characters this swiftly and beautifully, but Ms. Boo is not a novelist. She is one of those rare, deep-digging journalists who can make truth surpass fiction." Boston Globe: "[A] humane, powerful and insightful book... A book of nonfiction so stellar it puts most novels to shame." Christian Science Monitor: "An unforgettable true story, meticulously researched with unblinking honesty... Pure, astonishing reportage with as unbiased a lens as possible." This book won the National Book Award for non-fiction. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/behind_the_beautiful_forevers/. 39 copies in the library system.
Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick. 358 pages, 2007. Library Journal: "Mayflower is a jaw-dropping epic of heroes and villains, bravery and bigotry, folly and forgiveness. Philbrick delivers a masterly told story that will appeal to lay readers and history buffs alike. Clearly one of the year's best books; highly recommended." New York Times: "Mayflower is a surprise-filled account of what are supposed to be some of the best-known events in the American past but are instead an occasion for collective amnesia." A pivotal event in this history is the rarely discussed King Phillips War, which began in 1675 and resulted in the death of about 8% of the population of the Plymouth Colony and more than half of the native population of the surrounding area. Philbrick won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2000 for another book. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/mayflower/ 50 copies in the library system.
The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. 353 pages, 2005. This is the story of an actual trip that Theodore Roosevelt took in 1912 down an unexplored tributary of Amazon known as the River of Doubt. From the publisher: "Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died." In addition to a suspenseful story, the author, a former staff writer for National Geographic, provides interesting details about the people and wildlife of the Amazon. San Francisco Chronicle: "[The author] writes with precision and perfect pacing, and she enriches her narrative by just the right amount of historic backstory and scientific context." New York Times: "A rich, dramatic tale that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking." Washington Post: "There are far too many books in which a travel writer follows in the footsteps of his or her hero—and there are far too few books like this, in which an author who has spent time and energy ferreting out material from archival sources weaves it into a gripping tale." Suggested by Paula and Stan. 22 copies in the library system.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed. 311 pages, 2013. Amazon: "At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life... Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. Others may find her unsympathetic--just one victim of her own questionable choices. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir." Boston Globe: "An addictive, gorgeous book that not only entertains, but leaves us the better for having read it... Strayed is a formidable talent." The Los Angeles Times said the author writes "with a raw emotional power that makes the book difficult to put down... In walking, and finally, years later, in writing, Strayed finds her way again. And her path is as dazzlingly beautiful as it is tragic." Minneapolis Star Tribune: "A fearless story, told in honest prose that is wildly lyrical as often as it is dirtily physical." Suggested by Diane. Listed on Book Page's "Best Books of 2012." 56 copies in the library system.
Longer Books (suitable for August and October)
We read no more than two books in this category per year, and we reserve these for our August and October discussions, which gives us two months to read them. This does not imply that our August and October books must come from this section. If all of the top choices are shorter books, that is what we read all year. Note that this year some of our "shorter" books are a bit on the long side, with several having more than 350 pages.
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist. 470 pages (excluding notes, etc.), 2010. This "biography" of cancer begins with the first documented cases in ancient times and brings the story up to modern times, with its discoveries and failures, and with its battles among researchers about how to approach the disease. The book includes Mukherjee's own experiences with his patients. This book won the Pulitzer Prize. The Boston Globe described it as a "meticulously researched panoramic history and deeply moving personal memoir... What makes Mukherjee’s narrative so remarkable is that he imbues decades of painstaking laboratory investigation with the suspense of a mystery novel and urgency of a thriller." The Washington Post described it as a "fat, enthralling, juicy, scholarly, wonderfully written history of cancer." Boston Globe: "This volume should earn Mukherjee a rightful place in the pantheon of our epoch's great explicators." New Yorker: "It’s hard to think of many books for a general audience that have rendered any area of modern science and technology with such intelligence, accessibility, and compassion." This book won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 2012. Suggested by Beth M. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/emperor_of_all_maladies/ 31 copies in the library system.
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. 433 pages, 2012. A young mother on Tennessee farm stumbles across a high valley covered with millions of butterflies that are supposed to be wintering in Mexico. Amazon: "[H]er discovery energizes various competing factions—religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians—trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world." Washington Post: "Kingsolver has written one of the more thoughtful novels about the scientific, financial and psychological intricacies of climate change. And her ability to put these silent, breathtakingly beautiful butterflies at the center of this calamitous and noisy debate is nothing short of brilliant." New York Times: "One of the gifts of a Kingsolver novel is the resplendence of her prose. She takes palpable pleasure in the craft of writing, creating images that stay with the reader long after her story is done." New Yorker: "[Kingsolver’s] keen grasp of delicate ecosystems–both social and natural–keeps the story convincing and compelling." LAVA read Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible in 2001. Suggested by Beth. Listed by the Washington Post, USA Today and Book Page as one of the best books of 2012. More than 60 copies in the library system.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 419 pages, 2012. A wife vanishes mysteriously, and her husband is suspected of murder. Publisher's Weekly: "Superficially, this privileged Gotham golden girl, inspiration for her psychologist-parents' bestselling series of children's books, couldn't be further from the disturbingly damaged women of Edgar-finalist Flynn's first two books, Sharp Objects and Dark Places. [Edgar prizes are awarded by Mystery Writers of America.] But as Amy's husband, Nick Dunne, starts to realize after she disappears from their rented mansion in his Missouri hometown on their fifth anniversary—and he becomes the prime suspect in her presumed murder—underestimating Amy's sick genius and twisted gamesmanship could prove fatal. Then again, charmer Nick may not be quite the corn-fed innocent he initially appears." Boston Globe: "Gillian Flynn’s third novel is both breakneck-paced thriller and masterful dissection of marital breakdown… Wickedly plotted and surprisingly thoughtful, this is a terrifically good read." San Francisco Chronicle: " Gillian Flynn's new novel, Gone Girl, is that rare thing: a book that thrills and delights while holding up a mirror to how we live… Timely, poignant and emotionally rich, Gone Girl will peel away your comfort levels even as you root for its protagonists—despite your best intuition." St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A great story gives a reader a problem and leads you along a path, then dumps you off a cliff and into a jungle of plot twists, character revelations and back stories that you could not have imagined. Gone Girl does just that." The author has been published in 28 countries. Review in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/books/gone-girl-by-gillian-flynn.html Suggested by Paula and Stan. More than 100 copies in the library system.
In Evening Class by Maeve Binchy. 432 pages, 1996. Amazon: "In Evening Class, Binchy zooms in on the working-class of Dublin. Schoolteacher Aidan Dunne organizes an evening class in Italian with the help of Nora O'Donoghue, an Irishwoman returning home after 26 years in Sicily. When the somewhat squashed-by-life denizens of the surrounding neighborhood take the unexpected step of enrolling in the class, they find their lives transformed. Binchy tells her story from the viewpoints of eight different characters and rewards both them and her readers with happy endings after the requisite rocky road. Reading a novel by Maeve Binchy is like catching up with old friends--you know everything will turn out fine in the end, but you're still interested in how things get that way." Chicago Tribune: "Good storytelling... Binchy deftly focuses on each character in turn, probing the hidden dramas of their lives." Publishers Weekly: "... the lives of these and many other Dubliners are touched by Signora, née Nora O'Donoghue, whose adult education class, 'Introduction to Italian,' becomes a lesson in what it means to be alive, in Binchy's richly satisfying new novel." Review in the Chicago Tribune: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-03-04/features/9703040101_1_happy-endings-signora-wealth-and-betrayal Suggested by Tom. 30 copies in the library system.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. 529 pages, 2002. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize. Library Journal: "Thus starts the epic tale of how Calliope Stephanides is transformed into Cal. Spanning three generations and two continents, the story winds from the small Greek village of Smyrna to the smoggy, crime-riddled streets of Detroit, past historical events, and through family secrets. The author's eloquent writing captures the essence of Cal, a hermaphrodite, who sets out to discover himself by tracing the story of his family back to his grandparents." New York Times: "A deeply affecting portrait of one family's tumultuous engagement with the American twentieth century." San Francisco Chronicle: "The most reliably American story there is: A son of immigrants finally finds love after growing up feeling like a freak." Montreal Gazette: "Eugenides has taken all the trials and joys of the traditional coming-of-age novel and made them twice (three times?) as rich." New York Times: "...an uproarious epic, at once funny and sad, about misplaced identities and family secrets.... But it's his emotional wisdom, his nuanced insight into his characters' inner lives, that lends this book its cumulative power." The Telegraph (Britain): "With so much to enjoy and admire, it seems churlish to carp.... Eugenides has some difficulty in holding together this sprawling, three-generational narrative." Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/middlesex/ Suggested by Joyce H. 40 copies in the library system.
Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov. 419 pages, 1983. Publisher's summary: "A millennium into the future two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Detective Elijah Baley is called to the Spacer world Aurora to solve a bizarre case of roboticide.... For in a case of political intrigue and love between woman and robot gone tragically wrong, there's more at stake than simple justice. This time Baley's career, his life, and Earth's right to pioneer the Galaxy lie in the delicate balance." Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, was a prolific writer who won many awards for science fiction and popular science. Suggested by Tom. 15 copies in the library system.
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. 448 pages, written in 1942, published in 2007. This best-seller is a book club favorite. Washington Post: "This extraordinary work of fiction about the German occupation of France is embedded in a real story as gripping and complex as the invented one. Composed in 1941-42 by an accomplished writer who had published several well-received novels, Suite Française, her last work, was written under the tremendous pressure of a constant danger that was to catch up with her and kill her before she had finished. Irene Nemirovsky was a Jewish, Russian immigrant from a wealthy family who had fled the Bolsheviks as a teenager. She spent her adult life in France, wrote in French but preserved the detachment and cool distance of the outsider. She and her husband were deported to Auschwitz in 1942." This book contains two of what was intended to be a suite of five novellas. The first follows families from different social classes during the chaotic flight from Paris during World War II, and the second observes life in a French village occupied by the Germans. Puzzlingly, there is little mention of the plight of Jews. The Telegraph: "outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth." The Times (London): "a marvelous tragic-comedy of manners... No other work of fiction as forcefully conveys the fate of France under the Nazis." Independent (Britain): "this is no gloomy elegy but a scintillating panorama of a people in crisis -- witty, satirical, romantic, waspish and gorgeously lyrical by turns." Suggested by Ginny. Reviews: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/suite_francaise/ and more reviews: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/nemirovi/suitef.htm 46 copies in the library system plus 3 CDs.
Walden (1845, about 360 pages) and Civil Disobedience (1849, about 30 pages) by Henry David Thoreau. Monroe library summary of Walden: "Perhaps the best known non-fiction book ever written by an American, Walden chronicles Thoreau's stay in a cabin by Walden Pond, on land owned by his friend and compatriot, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau stayed here for two years and two months and hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society by isolating himself from it." Amazon summary of Civil Disobedience: "Sparked by Thoreau's outrage at American slavery and the American-Mexican war, Civil Disobedience is a call for every citizen to value his conscience above his government... More than an essay, Civil Disobedience is a call to action for all citizens to refuse to participate in, or encourage in any way, an unjust institution." Suggested by Tom, who says, "Michael Meyer's introduction points out that Walden is not so much an autobiographical study as a 'shining example' of Transcendental individualism. So, too, Civil Disobedience is less a call to political activism than a statement of Thoreau's insistence on living a life of principle." There are many copies in the library system.