The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
I was introduced to Haruki Murakami by another bookstore staff member, Corey, who had this on his “staff picks” shelf. As it came down and he put up another book by this author I decided it was time to see what all the excitement was about. I read the first chapter and immediately was hooked. The thought process of Murakami is bizarre but so genuinely refreshing I couldn’t help but pick it up every chance I got. It is much like a surreal painting, some things are familiar, actions can be mundane but other things are fantastic and other worldly. In the middle of it all is the central plot told through the main character, Toru Okada. I hesitate to tell you what the story is “about” because the winding and twisting between the real and surreal are so seamlessly sewn together that to give one story line more emphasis than another would not do it justice. If you like great, yet completely quirky characterization, profound, yet elusive passages, engaging and original prose, this is a book for you. Nothing is fully explained in the end. No neat and tidy finished package but this book is not about that. It is about process and what we encounter within that process. Loved it!!!
What Is The What by Dave Eggers
This is the fourth book in a string of recent memoirs (Glass Castle, Eat, Pray, Love, and Three Cups of Tea) I have been reading and it is by far my favorite! . Though this really is a novel (because some of the stories are a mix of other boys’ stories), it is about one amazing character, Valentino Achak Deng, who is a refugee from the Sudanese civil war pre Darfur’s current atrocities. He is one of thousands of “Lost Boys” who fled their villages after they were burned to the ground. What makes Egger’s novel so enthralling is the character, who I could not keep out of my mind even after putting the book down. It’s an honest, direct book. If you enjoy learning history through a great story, this is the book for you.
I also enjoyed going on Valentino’s website which offers updates, information and ways to help: http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/.
Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
What a beautiful book! This book is for anyone who has watched a loved one live with dementia or Alzheimers. It is poignant and reassuring in the way we get to see through the main character’s (Marina Buriaku) eyes and feel that the world she slips in and out of isn’t one of fear but one to witness as a child would, embracing each experience with awe as if living it for the first time. Interspersed are memories from when she was a docent at an art museum in Leningrad during WWII. Woven together seamlessly are past and present. A really well written first novel.
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Critics hailed Mitchell’s previous work, including Ghostwritten (1999), Number9Dream (2001), and Cloud Atlas (**** Nov/Dec 2004), as inventive postmodern novels, brilliant stories-within-stories. Admittedly, the semiautobiographical Black Swan Green contains fewer literary tricks, a more straightforward narrative, and less flash — but the results are even more dazzling. More accessible and possessing greater emotional heft, Mitchell’s newest novel offers a portrait of a boy and an era in 13 chapters that, by turns, produce exhilaration, nostalgia, and heartbreak, vivid sensory images, pitch-perfect dialogue, and flawless characterizations.
Learning to Fly by Sebastian Meschenmoser
Not just a book for kids. Really. This is such a beautiful book in every way. The illustrations are gorgeous. The message is an inspirational one but not so heavy handed and the characters are completely lovable. If you know someone that needs or has been an inspiration, this is a perfect gift book. I gave all my friends this book last holiday season. Yes, I love it that much!
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
I found it incredibly surprising that I could not put this book down. I am still trying to figure out the strong pull to this main character, Old Filth (an acronym for Failed In London Try Hong Kong), a retired barrister who after a failed attempt to work in London spent many years in Hong Kong working as a lawyer. Now 80 and retired in Dorset, England, he is finally reflecting on his life which teaches us about the English history of British “Raj orphans,” something I knew little about. It is through this unpredictably charismatic character that we weave through history, psychology, wit and melancholy all at once. His seemingly unaffectedness of a past filled with hardship and strife is what draws me to Old Filth aka Sir Edward Feathers. At times heroic and others pathetic, this is a book about character and a bit of history beautifully written with dry wit.
Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi
Tania Aebi, at the age of eighteen, was the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe. That is amazing in and of itself. That she had little to no sailing experience when she started is nothing short of miraculous. Her adventure begins in 1988. When seeing her lack of direction in her future, her father offers to fund her solo trip hoping to give her a sense of self and a crash course in life lessons. Her narration exposes on the one hand her charming naiveté, and on the other, her sheer will and determination. She is resourceful, yet smart enough to know when and how to seek help from the people she meets along the way. With just a cat as her companion, she manages to accomplish her task and brings us along cheering for her at every turn. A great read for anyone with a sense of adventure.
Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
This is the best book I have read about the reality of being an artist. Written by artists, this book puts into words so many of my own experiences of what it is like to go to your studio, feel inspired or uninspired, make a great piece, make a flop, and what really matters in the end anyway. This is written in a matter-of-fact way, no flowery art speak here. This is nuts and bolts. I found myself nodding and repeating “yes, yes, that’s right” so often throughout this book. It’s nice to read a book that doesn’t romanticize about what it is to be an artist, but instead gives a true account of the process of creating.
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Atonement, by definition, is the reparation for a wrong. This seems such a simple definition for what weaves its way through this multi-dimensional novel by McEwan. Like his book Amsterdam, winner of the Booker prize, this is a story about people being responsible for their actions and how those actions can change not only their lives but those around them. Set in England in 1938, the young character whose decision is the pivotal turning point in this book is just thirteen. The book, set in three different time periods, allows us to view the characters’ lives and what they have become. It is then us, the reader, who fills in the how and why things are as they are based on what we know of their past. It forces the reader to examine what our own decisions mean and what the consequences have been.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I loved this book! The narrator is 17 year old Cassandra who lives with her father, a blocked writer who is mentally deteriorating while looking for inspiration in a crumbly old English castle that the family has moved into, her sister Rose, who is forever looking for a way out of the family’s poverty, and her step mom Topaz, an artist that struts around in her own world which is a partially clothed world of beauty and fantasy. The real draw to this story is the charismatic Cassandra. She gets her hands on a journal and begins to chronicle their romantic/pathetic (depending on which sister you side with) life in a style that is witty, heart felt, pensive and inspiring. When the wealthy Cotton brothers move in next door, we begin to really experience Cassandra’s observations at their best. She leads us through a world that is so real you feel you can touch it. It is a coming of age novel which though written in the 1930’s still has a very modern feel to it. I highly recommend this book for a great fun read.
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
In The Bone People Keri Hulme, a New Zealander of Maori, leads us through the lives of three very different individuals all dealing with their own sense of loss; a mute young boy, a brilliant female artist whom he befriends, and Joe, the burly man who is now father to the boy after rescuing him from a shipwreck. A gripping story, and at times not an easy story to love, there is no denying its long lasting impact. Through this unlikely relationship between characters, we are introduced to sides of their personality that are disturbing, yet we feel their deep need to “belong” to each other and despite ourselves, share with them in their hope for happiness and comfort with each other in and with their future.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
This is a book about characters. Nothing grandiose occurs from the time you start to the time you put down the book but what does happen is you become engrossed in the lives of a cast of characters living out their day to day lives in the small rural town of Holt, Colorado. What makes this book so enjoyable is the way their lives begin to intersect as would happen in any small town. I fell in love with this book as I began to fall in love with the characters. Haruf takes an interesting stylistic tack titling the chapters by character. This is a simple and beautiful book about real people in real time. If you like it as much as I did, you can then follow up with Haruf’s Eventide, which continues with some of the same characters while adding new ones along the way.
