What We're Reading...
Beth Says:
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan: "This little gem of a book tells the story of the last two shifts before the closing a of Red Lobster at a run-down mall in Connecticut, from the point of view of the manager. See how something so seemingly simple can become something simply sublime in the hands of this master of modern American fiction."
Dan Says:
Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones: "Not since Salisbury's 1960's work The 900 Days has the Siege of Leningrad been returned to in such depth and detail. Jones benefits from access to previously unavailable documents, proving that the horror stories of criminality, starvation and yes, even cannibalism not only took place, but that everyone including the government were well aware of them. But the real story is not the horror's that they endured, but the triumph of the human spirit that occurred in spite of those horrors. When it took more courage to simply stay alive than to let oneself die the people of Leningrad chose to live, and more, to maintain their humanity."
Kayleigh Says:
The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares: "A great story from the author of the bestselling "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series. Escape the cold and go to beach with Riley, Alice, and Paul as they take the scary plunge into adulthood when they
return to the place where they've all shared their innocence."
Steph Says:
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer: "With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past."
Memorable Voices
Songs for the Butcher's Daughter
by Peter Manseau
This debut novel enfolds the lives of 90-year-old Yiddish poet Itsik Malpesh and the story's narrator, the young translator of Itsik's memoirs, who is employed at a warehouse for Jewish books. Frustrated by a career that stalled before it began, a young American writer becomes an unlikely translator for a ninety-something Russian Yiddish poet who recorded his life story in a series of notebooks, a job that is complicated by the younger man's affair and entanglement in a cumbersome lie.
Delicate Edible Birds
by Lauren Groff
Presents a volume of stories that reflects the use of different styles and structures, including a recreation of the tale of Abelard and Heloise during the 1918 New York flu epidemic, and the experiences of a group of war correspondents in France. Nine wildly unique, exquisitely symphonic tales, full of beauty, tragedy, and the sudden horror of shocking images this is Groff's gift to readers. And what a gift it is.
Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor
by Brad Gooch
Evaluates the ways in which the mid-twentieth-century novelist reflected American culture and influenced literature, in a portrait that includes coverage of her relationships with such contemporaries as Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick, and James Dickey. From the man who re-created Frank O'Hara in City Poet.
The Housekeeper and the Professor
by Yoko Ogawa
Ogawa (The Diving Pool) weaves a poignant tale of beauty, heart and sorrow in her exquisite new novel. A relationship blossoms between a brilliant math professor suffering from short-term memory problems following a traumatic head injury and the young housekeeper, the mother of a ten-year-old son, hired to care for him.
