11 Books in 15 Minutes

1)  Joy School – Elizabeth Berg – Yes, she writes chick lit, but she captures the innermost thoughts of people that they’d never want anyone else to know about and she does it in incredible detail. This book in particular, about a 13 year old girl trying to find her way, is particularly beautiful and heartbreaking.

 

2)  Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Very Gothic in style, which is not my thing – but this book kept me reading breathlessly all the way through. What a storyteller! I’ve recommended this to everyone who will listen, and they have all LOVED it.

 

3)  Neither Here nor There – Bill Bryson – this guy is absolutely hilarious as he takes you on his travels through Europe. He is probably better known for his book about the Appalachian Trail (A Walk in the Woods), but this one is my favorite.

 

 

4)  Stiff – Mary Roach – About all the different things that can happen to dead bodies. Sounds absolutely horrific, but she makes it fascinating – and hilarious! I would like to be friends with this person as she would at turns inform me and make me laugh.

 

5)  Julie and Julia – Julie Powell – Yes, this is coming to a multiplex near you this summer, but this book had me laughing out loud the whole time I was reading. This woman who is unsatisfied with her work-life decides to spend a year cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Particularly great read for foodies, but I found Julie to be a very worthwhile companion when discussing what happened around the recipes too.

6)  Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert – some found this to be self-satisfied rambling, but I loved it. Did not care so much for the India section, but Italy and Indonesia were wonderful. This is another woman that I’d like to have dinner with sometime -she writes about her personal struggles in a very endearing and at times hilarious way.

 

7)  Wallflower at the Orgy – Nora Ephron – Wonderful essays from the 1970s. You get a little history and a lot of hilarity.

8)  The Soloist – Mark Salzman – novel about a failed violin prodigy and a court case in which he serves on jury duty. Beautifully written.

9)  The Music Teacher – Barbara Hall – an incredibly finely wrought main character. This book drew me right in from the first page. A somewhat quiet, personal novel about the human condition.

 

10)  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg – One of my favorite novels from childhood. This adult woman writes about the lives of children SO evocatively. All her books contain characters you’re not likely to forget. The first book that made me realize I loved reading.

 

11)  The Hours – Michael Cunningham – Depressing as all get out, but SO beautifully written. I just love how he connected 3 seemingly disparate stories – all equally gorgeous, evocative and sad… yet with a sense of grace when all is said and done.

All books reviewed by:  MFB

A Master’s Parting Gift

The world lost one of its greatest literary minds in January with the death of John Updike. But as fate would have it, Updike left a collection of short fiction unpublished at the time of his death. My Father’s Tears and Other Stories will be Updike’s last contribution to a remarkable body of work. In this collection of 18 stories, to be published June 2, Updike takes us from his native Pennsylvania to Spain to India and back again, offering a multi-faceted portrait of the American experience. The stories and their subjects may vary, but the constant is Updike’s graceful, poignant, keenly observed prose.

The Music Teacher, by Barbara Hall

A richly entertaining look into the heart and mind of a woman who has failed as an artist and as a wife. It tells the story of a violinist who has struggled with the limitations of her talent and starts working with a young girl named Hallie who is the real thing.

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by: KMD

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The Cradle, by Patrick Somerville

A beautiful first novel about family,  connection, and more things than you would think could fit in a novel this short. Pregnant Marissa asks her husband Matt to find an old family cradle, and Matt’s search turns into a road trip of another kind entirely. Along the way the story goes back in time with Matt’s memories, and forward in time to the story of Renee, a children’s book author who has just seen her son off to Iraq. The stories of Matt and Renee connect at the end, not unexpectedly. And Matt does find the cradle, but that’s not really the important thing he finds.

RATING: **** Very, very good
Reviewed by: stc

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The Great Man: A Novel, by Kate Christensen

The “great man” of the title is fictional painter Oscar Feldman, who painted only female nudes and overshadowed the important women in his life.  After his death, however (which occurs several years before the novel begins), these women who loved him–his wife, long-time mistress, twin daughters, and sister–take center stage, telling their stories (and secrets) to two admiring biographers, and coming into their own as they do so.  An entertaining, quick read, with a lot of interesting things to say about art, love, and how we are never ultimately in charge of our own biography.  Winner of the 2008 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: stc

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The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry

I most enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the local settings in this novel set in late 20th century Salem, Mass. Much of the story takes place around downtown Salem, its harbor and the harbor islands. The information that the author works into the plot about Ipswich lace and the women who produced it in the 1820’s was also fascinating.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: kh

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Mama’s Bank Account, by Kathryn Forbes

Forget your worries and spend a few hours in San Francisco of the early 1900’s with Katrin and her family. Warm,wonderful stories, these would be great to read aloud to children or just enjoy yourself. Also the basis of the movie, “I Remember Mama.”

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by: kh

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The Ten-Year Nap, by Meg Wolitzer

Lately I’ve been reading historical fiction with a darker twist, books with Holocaust themes, and depressing memoirs of family dysfunction for my book group.  So I found it tough to care about or like the main characters in this book–a group of well-off but dissatisfied women lost on the mommy track in Manhattan.  “Stop whining!,” I wanted to yell at them. 

Nonetheless, if you’re in the mood for some smartly-written domestic fiction and a quick read, Wolitzer’s humor is dead-on, and she has a lot of insightful things to say about the day-to-day life of being a parent, and how having more choices doesn’t necessarily make our lives clearer or happier.

An excerpt and an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air” can be found here.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: stc

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The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway

During the seige of Sarajevo in 1992, 22 people were killed in a bread line; afterward, cellist Vedran Smailovic played at the spot for 22 days.  Inspired by this event, and told from alternating points of view, Galloway’s novel tells the story of four Sarajevo residents who hear the music, and, in different ways, facing various challenges, try to retain their decency and normalcy in a city that is anything but normal.  A powerful story focusing not on the politics of war but on its randomness, and illustrating how ordinary choices are never ordinary in wartime.

RATING: **** Very, very good
Reviewed by: stc

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The German Bride, by Joanna Hershon

To quote Mary Doria Russell on the book jacket, this is “an immigrant tale and a Western, without the Lower East side or cowboys.”  Living in 1860’s Berlin and haunted by unhappiness, Eva Frank tries to escape to a new life by marrying a Jewish merchant and returning back with him to Santa Fe.  But the harsh newness of the West only deepens her sadness, children don’t come, and her husband–unlike his hardworking brother–loves liquor and gambling more than family life.  The characters and Western landscape are beautifully described, and the dust, heat, and sense of isolation Eva feels are palpable.

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by:stc

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