45 posts tagged “recommendations”
THE BEST:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time
It seems trite to tell you that this book is inspirational, but it truly is. It is the reminder we all need that one passionate, committed person can set in motion significant positive change for many. When Greg Mortenson set out to build a school for the remote village in Pakistan that had sheltered and cared for him after his failed attempt to climb K2, he was no billionaire philanthropist, he was an avid climber and sometime trauma nurse living in San Francisco. He returned to the US, sold his belongings, typed out hundreds of fund solicitation letters on a rented typewriter, and lived in his car. As of 2007, the Central Asia Institute co-founded by Mortenson has established more than 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing education and opportunities to thousands of children. It's an amazing story.
March
This well researched novel presents a poignant account of the Civil War travails of Mr. March, the absent father from the classic Little Women. The idealistic March volunteers to serve as a chaplain in the Union forces. His naivete and convictions are sorely tested by his experience of the horrors of war.
THE REST:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Klein makes a credible assertion that crisis and upheaval are often used (and sometimes orchestrated) to obscure or advance the imposition of radical free market economic policies, often with devastating long-term results.
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
The Nobel Peace Prize winner proposes the creation of 'social businesses', organizations specifically designed to address social and humanitarian needs.
The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
The natural world, its habitats and ecosystems, and the biodiversity of life on Earth are in peril. Wilson suggests that whatever your beliefs about the origins of life, it is time for all of us to work together to preserve and care for the 'Creation' before it's too late.
The View from Castle Rock: Stories
This fine collection of fictional short stories from Alice Munro is largely inspired by her ancestors and family history, and from personal experiences. "We are beguiled. It happens mostly in our old age, when our personal futures close down and we cannot imagine -- sometimes cannot believe in -- the future of our children's children. We can't resist this rifling around in the past, sifting the untrustworthy evidence, linking stray names and questionable dates and anecdotes together, hanging on to threads, insisting on being joined to dead people and therefore to life."
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West
From the pages of this book, Bhutto passionately speaks out for moderation, understanding, and reconciliation. She asserts that the peaceful, pluralistic message of Islam has been exploited by extremist factions, and denies that a clash between Islam and the West is inevitable. She offers hope and concrete suggestions for reconciliation and peace. She was a courageous, extraordinary woman and her death is a great loss.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Often cited as the greatest war novel ever written, this book recounts the inhumanity and bleak horror of WWI though the eyes of young Paul Baumer and his German classmates. They enlist and soon find themselves in an all-out struggle for survival in the hellish trenches of a brutal war they can't comprehend, forever altered and alienated from their pre-war life and dreams.
Armageddon in Retrospect
A posthumous collection of previously unpublished writings, both fiction and nonfiction, on war, peace, and the darker tendencies of humanity. "If television refuses to look at something, it is as though it never happened. It can erase anything, even whole continents, such as Africa, one big desert now, where millions upon millions of babies, with a brand-new thousand years of history looming before them, starve to death."
Singer from the Sea
A mystical sci-fi tale centered on a dark secret kept and fueled by greed. The book features complex characters and confident storytelling with environmental and feminist threads.
Black comedy.
Smart satire.
Not politically-or-otherwise correct.
Wickedly amusing.
You've been warned.
Go rent it, quick.
THE BEST:
The Monsters of Templeton
Willie Upton returns to her hometown of Templeton, NY in a state of upheaval and soon finds herself unexpectedly wrapped up in solving the mystery of her paternity and unearthing the long-buried secrets of several generations of her eccentric family. Clues are followed to surprising ends and a host of endearing characters are introduced along the way. The novel is witty and creative, and the writing is wonderful.
Made to Stick
What makes an idea or story unforgettable? That's the focus of this engaging book about getting your ideas through to people and making them 'stick'. The authors propose the cornerstones of simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. The research studies behind the principles are fascinating, and the authors put their storytelling techniques to work, creating a book that is as entertaining as it is informative.
The Best American Short Stories 2007
The 2007 anthology, edited by Stephen King, consists of a particularly strong collection of twenty selections culled from a year of published short stories. I loved every piece in this year's edition, and consider it the best of the series to date. (Coincidentally, one of the stories is by Lauren Groff, the author of The Monsters of Templeton.)
THE REST:
Slaughterhouse-Five
Vonnegut's classic "...fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority." (quote from Amazon.com) Throughout the novel, Billy Pilgrim randomly time travels through his life experiences, including a visit to an alien planet and the 1945 firebombing of Dresden, Germany.
Caspian Rain
This is the poignant story of loneliness and class struggle centered on
an Iranian Jewish family in Tehran during the years preceding the
Islamic revolution.
Daughter of York
A work of historical fiction featuring Margaret of York, sister to the
War of the Roses kings Edward IV and Richard III, and wife of Charles,
duke of Burgundy.
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
Near the end of WWII, a group of Japanese reform-school boys are
evacuated to a remote village where the villagers subject them to
cruelty and abandon them to plague. Reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.
Bad Monkeys
The twists and turns are fast and wild in this imaginative sci-fi
thriller. You never know what to expect as Jane relates the story of
her involvement with the Bad Monkeys, an organization devoted to
fighting evil.
Night Train to Lisbon
A brief encounter in Bern with a Portuguese woman sets Raimund
Gregorius on a journey to Lisbon and to self-discovery through the
study of the life and writings of a resistance-era poet and doctor.
Joy in the Morning
Satirical humor from P.G. Wodehouse, featuring Bertram Wooster and the incomparable Jeeves.
THE BEST:
The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story
This nonfiction account of heroism in Nazi-occupied Poland is my top
pick of the month. I am deeply moved and inspired by individuals who
match their wit and courage against tyranny in order to save their
fellow man from injustice, injury, and death. While the majority is
silently swept along with the tide, these few brave souls stand apart
and risk everything. Diane Ackerman has a unique gift for bringing a
story to life with robust and pictorial language.
The Hummingbird’s Daughter
My favorite Feb. fiction. This sweeping novel recounts the life of
Urrea's famous relative Teresita, the "Saint of Cabora", a girl
renowned for healing powers, unshakable faith, and revolutionary ideas
that attracted a following of thousands and the enmity of Mexico's Diaz
government in the late 1800s. Extensively researched, and written with
a buoyant, irresistible style.
THE REST:
On Chesil Beach
As the book jacket states, "...a story of lives transformed by a
gesture not made or a word not spoken." McEwan excels at portrayals of
complex relationships and consequence.
New Moon and Eclipse (books 2 & 3)
The Twilight series is accurately classified as YA fiction, but offers a light and fast-paced reading escape for all ages.
Running in the Family
Ondaatje's dream-like memoir of life in Ceylon provides a peek into an
exotic time and place far removed from the average reader's experience.
The Boleyn Inheritance
If you have an interest in stories of Tudor England, you'll likely find
this enjoyable, although, in my opinion, it doesn't quite measure up to
The Other Boleyn Girl. My, that Henry was a tyrant!
The Nature of Monsters
A bit slow at times, but it provides an intriguing look at social
structure, superstitions, and the state of science and medicine in the
early 1700s.
The Gathering
This unflinching story of an Irish clan in the aftermath of a death is
the 2007 winner of the Man Booker Prize. The writing is, of course,
top-notch, but I found it a rather depressing read.
The Cleft
My first taste of the work of prolific writer and Nobel Laureate, Doris
Lessing. The novel tells an alternate human origin story centered
around an ancient community of women, the advent of men, and the
resulting challenge of gender relations. Perhaps it wasn't the best
introduction to Lessing's work. I'll have to give her another try one
of these days.
While I enjoy the occasional blockbuster, I must admit to a fondness for offbeat, path-less-traveled films. This trio offers poignancy with a generous side of humor and a lot of heart. If you're in the mood for something different you may want to give them a spin.
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If "books are for squares" as Antic so loves to tell me, I guess my angularity is off the charts this month.
I've already posted separately about a few of these books. Some brief thoughts and comments:
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Oskar Schell is unforgettable and breaks my heart "...into more pieces than my heart was made of..." JSF is an original among writers.
Duma Key
I'm adding this one to my Stephen King favorites, right up there with The Stand and Lisey's Story.
Nineteen Minutes
Hands down the most unsettling. Thought-provoking, immensely sad from every angle.
The End of America
A compelling eye opener and call to action to safeguard our Constitution and civil rights.
(Not That You Asked)
Humorous and insightful. The Oprah piece (among others) is not to be missed.
Twilight
January's guilty pleasure. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I burned through it in a day.
People of the Book and Year of Wonders
Geraldine Brooks has a new fan.
I just have to put in a quick plug for this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it highly.
The Sarajevo Haggadah is a medieval illuminated Hebrew manuscript believed to have been created in Spain in the mid-1300s. It has survived, remarkably, the exile of the Jews from Spain, the Inquisition, book burnings, two world wars, and the war in Bosnia. Over the centuries it has been spared or rescued time and again: in 1942 it was spirited to safety when a feared Nazi general came to the Sarajevo museum to confiscate it; during the Bosnian war it was rescued by a librarian as shells exploded around the museum.
Using the known facts about the Haggadah as a framework, Brooks expertly weaves a fictional account of the book's creation, its journey from Spain to Venice, and eventually to Bosnia, and the people whose hands it passes through along the way. It's fascinating and very well done.
This anthology offers a particularly masterful sampling of stories. I thoroughly enjoyed almost every piece. As is often the case, this collection has introduced me to authors previously unknown to me, and I have followed up by reading some of their other work.
Here are a few short passages to whet your appetite.
from "Dominion" by Mark Slouka
He didn't know where the coyotes had come from, or how long they'd been there. A season, maybe two. The dairy farms were falling fast, replaced by things named after whatever had been destroyed to make room for them, but there were still enough open woods left to allow for a pack or two. Now, with the leaves almost down, you could hear them all the way out toward the state park. It always started the same way: a series of quick, laughing yips that pulled you out of your sleep, three, four, five voices, almost joyful, falling over one another like pups until one would suddenly catch and hold, as though impaled, in mid-laugh, and then the others would follow, stricken in turn, rising, barking, screaming, a braided chorus of hilarity and pain. These were not dogs.
He had never been particularly bothered by the ferocity of nature before, had always known, and accepted the fact, that the border between life and death was a porous thing, the two sides bleeding into each other everywhere and always. And yet, though he understood all this and more, having served in France at a time when the borders had been fixed and hard and the bleeding pretty much all one way, there was something else going on here.
from "Refresh, Refresh" by Benjamin Percy
In January, the battalion was activated, and in March they shipped off for Iraq. Our fathers--our coaches, our teachers, our barbers, our cooks, our gas station attendants and UPS deliverymen and deputies and firemen and mechanics--our fathers, so many of them, climbed onto the olive green school buses and pressed their palms to the windows and gave us the bravest, most hopeful smiles you can imagine and vanished. Just like that.
from "The View from Castle Rock" by Alice Munro
This is what Mary sees plainly in those moments of anguish: that the world, which has turned into a horror for her, is still the same ordinary world for all these other people and will remain so even if James has truly vanished, even if he has crawled through the ship's railings--she has noticed everywhere the places where this would be possible--and been swallowed by the ocean. The most brutal and unthinkable of all events, to her, would seem to most others like a sad but not extraordinary misadventure. It would not be unthinkable to them.
from "The Conductor" by Aleksandar Hemon
We stumbled up the porch, past a dwarf figure and a snow-covered rocking chair. Before Dedo could find his keys, Rachel opened the door. She was a burly woman, with austere hair and eventful earrings, her chin tucked into her underchin. She glared at us, and I have to say I was scared. As Dedo crossed the threshold, he professed his love to her in an accent so horrible that I thought for an instant he was kidding. The house smelled of chemical lavender; a drawing of a large-eyed mule hung on the wall. She kept saying nothing, her cheeks puckering with obvious fury. I was willing now to give my life for friendship--I might have abandoned him in Sarajevo, but here we would face Rachel together.
from "Today I'm Yours" by Mary Gaitskill
She was on her way home from her job as an editor of a small press distinguished mainly by its embroilment in several lawsuits. I was preparing for a dinner party my husband was giving for some pleasant, foolish people who had once been well regarded in bohemian literary circles. She knew I was married, but still, when I said the word husband she let contempt touch her eyes and lips. We clasped hands, and I kissed her cool, porous cheek. Dani used contempt like a clever accessory, worn lightly enough to beguile and unsettle the eye before blending into otherwise ordinary clothing. I've never seen her without it, though sometimes it fails to catch the light and flash.
Bolla Valpolicella is a red wine made from hand-picked grapes from the Veneto region of Northern Italy.
from the bottle:
"Our
Valpolicella has flavors of berries, almonds, raisins and spicy black
cherries. Pair this wine with your favorite spahetti, red-sauced pasta
or beef dish."
