Book Bash Choices: September '10

The store was packed for our September '10 Book Club Bash programs. Fiction or nonfiction, adult or teen, there's something for everyone. 

Fiction

AGAAT Marlene van Niekerk, pb $19.95. White farmer Milla takes in black Agaat as a child.  Their complicated and changing relationship, told by Milla, may be the most expressive story ever told by someone who cannot speak. (Rosemary)

THE ANTHOLOGIST  Nicholson Baker, pb $15.  Paul Chowder's girlfriend has left him and he's locked in a death match with his book, whose introduction refuses to be written.  Extensive poetry knowledge not required, but you could learn some along the way. (Warren)

AWAIT YOUR REPLY Dan Chaon, pb $15. All the characters flee from who they were or toward who they might be in this elusive, but entrancing novel. Three story strands keep you interested and musing on the nature of identity.  Few will see who these folks really are before the final act. (Warren)

THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING Paulette Jiles, pb $14.99. Based on a real character--a black man who goes west at the end of the Civil War to start a new life with his wife and children.  While he's away on an errand, a Comanche and Kiowa raiding party captures  his family, and the dramatic story of his rescue mission is riveting in this multi-layered historical novel. (Nancy)

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, pb $13.95. Goethe applies the chemical phenomenon of elective affinities to explain and predict the ensuing chaos when happily married Eduard and Charlotte invite two close friends into their home. The resulting courageous masterpiece, condemned when it was published in 1809, is as philosophical as it is passionate. (Vicki)

EVERYTHING RAVAGED, EVERYTHING BURNED Wells Tower, pb $14.00 This stunning debut short story collection brims with rage, regret and hilarity.  No two tales are alike except for their vivid characterizations and the prose that will make you want to read them again. (Warren)

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN Colum McCann, pb $15. Winner of the 2009 National Book Award, a powerful and profound story of twelve New York City residents and how their lives are affected by the event that mesmerized the city in 1974--the high-wire walk between the Twin Towers by Philippe Petit.  Their lives are movingly intertwined, the language so brilliant it was hard to put down. (Nancy)

MOLOKA’I Alan Brennert, pb $14.99.  Epic in time but local in space, MOLOKA'I spans decades in the lives of the communities of lepers (and their caretakers) consigned there.  As a very young child, Rachel is ripped from her family and forcibly sent to the island, and we experience the ever-changing leper family, and Hawaiian history, through her eyes. (Rosemary)

THE SLAP Christos Tsiolkas , pb $15. This powerful novel gives readers a look at everyday life in modern day suburban Australia through diverse characters who all are present when a child is slapped by an adult who is not his parent.  The nature of happiness unfolds throughout this powerful story of love, sex and marriage, parenting, and family loyalty. (Sandra)

THE WET NURSE’S TALE Erica Eisdorfer, pb $15. Victorian England was not necessarily as straight-laced as history portrays it. The heroine of the story, a professional wet nurse, sees all the scandals and goings-on through her access to the upstairs world where she does her job. (Sandra)

Nonfiction

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS Rebecca Skloot, hc $26. The story of Henrietta’s cells, which were cultured as she was dying of cancer in the black ward of Johns Hopkins Medical Center in 1951 and destined to contribute to some of the greatest medical advances of the last 60 years. Intertwined is the story of her family members and their difficulties. (Sarah)

LIT Mary Karr,  pb $14.99. An exhilarating and painfully honest journey with the author of her life from high school to teaching college by way of getting drunk and then sober, and learning to write while learning to live productively.  Most important to the story, religion becomes a saving force.   (Sandra)

THE LONG EXILE :  A TALE OF INUIT BETRAYAL AND SURVIVAL IN THE HIGH ARCTIC Melanie McGrath, pb $13.95.  Canadian Inuits relocated to the harsh High Arctic, told in an understated way which emphasizes the enormity of the injustice.  Excellent counterpoint to "Nanook of the North" with, surprisingly, some of the same characters. (Warren)

LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER Ishmael Beah, pb $12. The true story of a child forced into an horrific life and his ultimate escape. While the subject is grim, Beah’s gift for language and storytelling imbues this with warmth and mythic qualities, showing humankind at it's best and worst. (Sarah)

PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL: THE HIDDEN FORCES THAT SHAPE OUR DECISIONS Dan Ariely, pb $15.99.  Duke professor Ariely not only spots many instances where we choose against our best interests, but also devises clever experiments to see why that might be the case. Delightful anecdotes, and examples from daily life make for entertaining as well as illuminating reading. (Warren)

WHERE MEN WIN GLORY Jon Krakauer, pb $15.95. The legend: spurred by patriotism, NFL player Pat Tillman leaves gridiron glory behind to enlist, and dies at enemy hands in Afghanistan.  And  then, the truth. Krakauer uses access to those who loved Pat, and Freedom of Information Act findings, to paint a fully realized picture of who Pat was and what really happened to him. (Rosemary)

ZEITOUN Dave Eggers, pb $15.99.While you’re reading this book, you’ll wonder how something like this could happen to a successful man in America.  This work of narrative nonfiction is one of the best books written by this contemporary author. (Sandra)

Young Adult

ZAZOO Richard Mosher, pb $6.99. Elegantly written story of a tiny  Vietnamese girl brought to France by a  man who raises her as a granddaughter. Many stages of love bloom as Zazoo grows up and begins to unravel the tangles of a heartbreaking past. (Carol)

WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED Judy Blundell, pb $8.99. This story of a veteran and his family told by the teenage daughter quickly becomes a riveting mystery, as Evie begins to realize that no one is telling the truth. When she falls for the older ex-GI involved with her father's past, she faces the same dilemma herself. Can she or should she tell the truth? (Carol)