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So far we have posted 250 reviews in 244 days, this year.
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January 1, 2010
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GENDARME by Mark T. Mustian
Book Quote:
âDid it really happen?â I ask. Her smile fades, her lips pressed and thin. âOh, it happened,â she says, her voice low and alive. âDonât let anyone tell you it didnât. It was, it remains, genocide.â The word spills from her mouth.
Book Review:
Review by Jill I. Shtulman (SEP 2, 2010)
With the one hundredth anniversary of the Armenian deportations only a few years away, author Mark Mustian has set himself a daunting task: to follow his characterâs footsteps and to serve as his own gendarme, a guide in the wilderness. For the most part, he succeeds admirably.
As Mr. Mustian writes in the epilogue, âGenocide perhaps represents the ugliest of human deeds, the mass killing of often defenseless fellow beingsâŠSaying it didnât happen is a mere recipe for recurrence.â
September 2, 2010
Tags: 1910s, Historical, War Story Posted in: Book Club Choice, Real Event Fiction, Turkey, War, World Literature No Comments
BITTER IN THE MOUTH by Monique Truong
Book Quote:
“The difference between a fact and a secret was the slithery phrase: ‘Donât tell anyone.’ ”
Book Review:
Review by Poornima Apte (SEP 1, 2010)
Early on in Monique Truongâs powerful new novel, Bitter in the Mouth, the narrator, Linda Hammerick, realizes her family is keeping secrets from her. âWhat I know about you, little girl, would break you in two. Those were the last words that my grandmother ever said to me,â Linda recalls. It will take many more years before Linda can discover what those secrets are but before then she must navigate a strained childhood in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina.
As Truong reveals slowly over the course of the novel, Linda is different from the residents of Boiling Springs in many ways but thereâs one specific condition that we find out about right away: Linda suffers from synesthesia. Read the rest of this post »
September 1, 2010
Tags: 2010 Favorites, Contemporary, Dysfunctional, Family Matters, Literary, synesthesia Posted in: 2010 Top Picks, Book Club Choice, Coming-of-Age, Contemporary, Family Matters, Identity, Literary No Comments
A NOVEL BOOKSTORE by Laurence Cossé
Book Quote:
âStill on the subject of greed,â he said, âa sort of degradation of literary morality is under way. It could well be that your project, in itself, simply by the light it will cast on the arena of literature, will show how pathetic this drift is. What Iâm referring to is the way that authors, nowadays, live for rivalry, going so far, I am told, as to write with the sole purpose of crushing their rivals. Literary prizes bear a large part of responsibility in this respect. Writing solely to outdo another writerâwhat a paltry ambition. Cultural creativity is beautiful and special because it offers a place to everyone. And to think there are people who would like to restrict it! Theyâve made a covered market of literature, where a few best sellers take up all the room. By âtheyâ I mean the major publishers, the journalists who act like sheep, the wholesale distributors of culture.â
Book Review:
Review by Guy Savage (AUG 31, 2010)
A few months ago, someone told me heâd just finished one of the most amazing books heâd ever read. He was visibly shaken by the idea that heâd found the book by accident and could so easily have missed the book altogether. âWhat if I went through life without reading this novel,â he mused, and this was followed by another thought, âhow many other novels as good as this am I missing?â From this point, the conversation moved on to the observation that readers are saturated by publicity for some books while others are quietly published and subsequently sink and disappear without a trace. This conversation came back to me when I read A Novel Bookstore, a book written by Laurence CossĂ© and translated by Alison Anderson. On the surface level, this is a mystery, but on a meta-level, A Novel Bookstore is an indictment of the cannibalizing publishing industry, the mass marketing of “taste,” and a subtle examination of fascism. All this in just around 400 pages. A Novel Bookstore plays out just like an excellent French film–great entertainment on a surface level, but yet some deep philosophical statements resonate in the background. Read the rest of this post »
August 31, 2010
Tags: 2010 Favorites, 2010 PB Release, Contemporary, Europa, murder mystery Posted in: 2010 Top Picks, Award Winning Author, France, Mystery/Suspense, World Literature, Writing Life No Comments
OUR TRAGIC UNIVERSE by Scarlett Thomas
Book Quote:
“How do you survive the end of time? It is quite simple. By the time the universe is old enough and frail enough to collapse, humans will be able to do whatever they like with it…By then it’ll just be a case of wheeling one decrepit planet to one side of the universe while another one pisses itself sadly in another galaxy. And all this while waiting for the final crunch, as everything becomes everything else as the universe begins its beautiful collapse, panting and sweating until all life arcs out of it and all matter in existence is crushed into a single point and then disappears.”
Book Review:
Review by Betsey Van Horn (AUG 30, 2010)
What makes Scarlett Thomas’ writing stand out is her gift of largesse–the narrator’s generosity combined with a brainy appeal that tunneled fluidly into my psyche. She is plainspoken and warm and yet finely cultivated. Thomas introduces esoteric principles as if it were the natural state of things. She can talk about Derrida and Darwin in a way that is effortless, intuitive. Her protagonist’s voice is addictive and honest; indeed, Meg’s thoughts mirror the everyday banter inside my head. Like an overlapping image in pictures, her voice became my voice.
Meg is stuck. She is stuck in a dead-end relationship with Christopher, while her lips sting from a memorable kiss with unavailable Rowan. She lives in a damp, asthma-inducing flat in Totnes, bogged down in a job writing reviews of science books, as well as ghost-writing plot-o-matic, genre sci-fi. The novel she began long ago is headed toward entropy. Every time she adds 800 words, she deletes 780 more. At present, Meg has 43 words, and just about that many ÂŁ left to her name. Read the rest of this post »
August 30, 2010
Tags: Contemporary, Literary, Sciences Posted in: 2010 Top Picks, Award Winning Author, Contemporary, Life Choices, Life's Moments, Literary, Unique Narrative, Writing Life No Comments
THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Book Quote:
“Her son had been killed, that was all she would say. Â Killed. Nothing about how his laughter started somehow above his head, high and tinkly. Â How he called sweets ‘breadie-breadie.’ Â How he grasped her neck tight when she held him. How her husband said that he would be an artist because he didn’t try to build with his LEGO blocks but instead he arranged them, side by side, alternating colors. They did not deserve to know.”
Book Review:
Review by Bonnie Brody (AUG 29, 2010)
A collection of short stories is one of my favorite genres for reading. It is rare to find a book of short stories that is consistent in quality. When I do, it is a rare gift. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck is just such a gift. It consists of stories about Nigeria and the United States, focusing on the clash of cultures and the cultural misunderstandings and prejudices that the protagonists face. This book also includes the short story that I consider my all-time favorite – “The Headstrong Historian.” I read it for the third time in this collection. I first read it in The New Yorker, then in the Pen/O’Henry Prize Stories of 2010. It gets better each time I read it.
August 29, 2010
Tags: 2010 PB Release, Adichie, Around-the-World, Knopf, Nigeria, Short Stories Posted in: Africa, Award Winning Author, Class - Race - Gender, Immigration / Diaspora, Short Stories, World Literature No Comments
PURPLE HIBISCUS by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
Book Quote:
âI sat at my bedroom window after I changed; the cashew tree was so close I could reach out and pluck a leaf if it were not for the silver-coloured crisscross of mosquito netting. The bell-shaped yellow fruits hung lazily, drawing buzzing bees that bumped against my windowâs netting.â
Book Review:
Review by Vesna McMaster (AUG 29, 2010)
From the first few pages this novel leaves no room for doubt as to how the narrative will unfold: the struggle of the “outside” and more natural world against that of domestic oppression and enforced sterility. As the book opens with a domestic crisis which overwhelms the narrator in its almost silent enormity, she retreats to her room.
The netting in the above quote is the perfect simile for the walls and boundaries, real and invisible, which surround the narrator. Whom do they keep out, and whom do they keep in? In an instant, we know from this passage alone that although they may keep the mosquitoes out, they also enforce a separation between the narrator and the leaves and bees: a separation decidedly unwelcome.
August 29, 2010
Tags: Adichie, Around-the-World, Domestic Violence, Nigeria Posted in: Africa, Award Winning Author, Class - Race - Gender, World Literature No Comments
