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April - June 2010

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Auster, Paul.  Invisible.
A 20-year-old poetry student's acquaintance with a mysterious professor and the professor's seductive girlfriend changes the lives of all three.  

Aw, Tash.  Map of the Invisible World.
In this novel set in the political turmoil of the 1960's in Indonesia, a teenager searches for his adoptive father, who has been arrested by government soldiers.  

Blake, Sarah.  The Postmistress.
This novel, set in 1940, connects the stories of three very different women: a small town postmistress and a newlywed doctor's wife in Cape Cod; and a pioneering radio journalist, reporting from war-torn Europe.  

Coetzee, J.M.  Summertime: Fiction.
A young biographer interviews five former friends and relatives of a famous writer named John Coetzee, whom the interviewees describe as cold, withdrawn, dull, and over-rated as an author.  

Coupland, Douglas.  Generation A.
In this commentary on contemporary digital culture, five young people from around the world, who have all been stung by bees, are brought together on a remote island and forced to tell stories.  

Cumming, Charles.  Typhoon.
In this thoughtful thriller, a British secret agent investigates a dangerous plot to destabilize the Chinese government, being run by an American CIA agent who a few years earlier had stolen the British agent's girlfriend.  

Dee, Jonathan.  The Privileges.
This novel follows the lives of a married couple - handsome, wealthy, ambitious, and unconcerned with ethics or the welfare of anyone outside of their immediate family.  

Gaspar, Frank X.  Stealing Fatima.
A substance-abusing priest who ministers to the Portuguese-speaking community of a Massachusetts town finds his life disrupted when his childhood friend, dying of AIDS and running from the law, turns up unexpectedly.  

Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger.  36 Arguments for the Existence of God.
In this lively and sometimes slapstick novel, a professor of the psychology of religion writes a book refuting the existence of God. It becomes a bestseller, earning him a position at Harvard, a romance, and the enmity of his mentor.  

Grenville, Kate.  The Lieutenant.
This novel, set in the late 18th century, tells the story of a young astronomer who joins the British marines and sails as a navigator on the first ship bound for Australia to build a penal colony.  

Grodstein, Lauren.  A Friend of the Family. 
A successful doctor, with a beautiful home, a good marriage, and a son he loves, finds his life falling apart when he tries to break up his son's involvement with a possibly dangerous older woman. 

Hage, Rawi.  Cockroach. 
The narrator of this unusual book is an emotionally disturbed Arab immigrant to Montreal who survives by thievery and imagines himself to be an insect. 

Harrison, Jim.  The Farmer's Daughter. 
This is a collection of three novellas with strong and vivid protagonists: a teenager who plots revenge after being drugged and raped; a hard-drinking American Indian who takes care of his disabled daughter; and a man who has moon-connected seizures after being bitten by a wolf cub. 

Howard, Maureen.  The Rags of Time. 
In this book, the final novel in a quartet, an aging novelist describes her walks through Central Park, recounts her thoughts and memories, and tells stories about characters from the previous novels. 

Mantel, Hilary.  Wolf Hall. 
This novel covers eight years of King Henry VIII's reign, focusing on his counselor, Thomas Cromwell, and the momentous period when Henry broke off from the Roman Catholic Church to marry Anne Boleyn. 

Mengiste, Maaza.  Beneath the Lion's Gaze. 
In this novel set amid revolutionary violence in Ethiopia in 1974, a doctor tries to keep his neutrality, but his decision to help a torture victim endangers his family. 

Meyers, Kent.  Twisted Tree. 
A serial killer in South Dakota uses the Internet to target a young anorexic woman; the novel also shows how her family and other residents of the small town of Twisted Tree react to her murder. 

Millet, Lydia.  Love in Infant Monkeys: Stories. 
Human celebrities interact with animals in these ten satirical short stories, some of them based on historical incidents. 

Naqvi, H.M.  Home Boy. 
A young Pakistani moves to New York, graduates from college, and gets a job as an investment banker, but after 9/11, with his money and his job gone, his lifestyle becomes difficult to maintain. 

Powell, Padgett.  The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? 
Is this unusual short novel, without plot, characters or dialogue, written entirely as a series of questions? 

Puchner, Eric.  Model Home.  
In this novel set in the 1980's, a man who has moved his family to California in order to invest in a real estate development, tries to keep his bankruptcy a secret from his wife and children, leading to a series of disasters for everyone. 

Savage, Sam.  The Cry of the Sloth: The Mostly Tragic Story of Andrew Whittaker, Being His Collected, Final, and Absolutely Complete Writings. 
This dark comedy covers four months in the life of a self-important literary magazine editor and incompetent landlord, as he plans a literary festival designed to change his luck. 

Shepard, Sam.  Day out of Days: Stories.  
This is a collection of loosely connected stories, poems, and fragments by the prize-winning playwright and actor. 

Smith, Roger.  Wake Up Dead. 
This thriller is a dark and violent story of murder, drugs, corruption, and revenge, set in post-Apartheid South Africa.  

MORE FROM MADREADS: Book News and Reviews from Madison Public Library

Madison Public Library librarians review a new book every day on our blog, MADreads.  Get ideas on new books to read, and share your thoughts with us.

Life and times of Harrison William Shepard

Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel in several years, The Lacuna, spans three decades in the life of Harrison Shepard, the son of a United States diplomat and a Mexican mother.  Told in the form of diary entries, newspaper articles, letters and a memoir, Harrison’s life unfolds from his teenage years in Mexico to his adulthood in North Carolina.

The novel begins in 1929 when Harrison is thirteen and living in Mexico with his mother who has abandoned America in hopes of finding a better husband.  Left on his own, Harrison begins reading adventure novels and books on Mexican history while developing a lifelong habit of journal writing.  In Mexico Harrison also discovers a small cave - a lacuna - while living on an island off the coast.

After moving to Mexico City, Harrison is put to work in the kitchen and running errands.  His life takes an unexpected turn when he’s hired to make plaster for the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and eventually joins his household.  Both Rivera and his wife, artist Frida Kahlo, are committed communists and during Harrison’s years with them open their home to the exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky.  Living in constant fear of assassination by Stalins’ death squads, Trotsky’s time in the household provides a different perspective on the early years of the Russian Revolution.

The second half of the novel shifts to North Carolina where Harrison lives after Trotsky’s death.  He finds himself in the surprising position of a heartthrob to million of female readers as the author of historical romances and is later investigated as a possible subversive by the House Un-American Activites Committee.  It is during his years back in the United States that the reader learns the identity of the person who’s saved his many journals over the years and makes this story possible.

I especially enjoyed the first part of this book with the descriptions of the Mexican countryside with its many vivid colors as well as the interesting background information on the early years of the Russian Revolution.  Harrison’s later years in North Carolina were somewhat disappointing in what was otherwise an entertaining novel from this popular author.  

Reviewed by Leslie at MADreads.

 

Achebe, Chinua.  The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays.
Alexander, June Granatir.  Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1870-1920: How the Second Great Wave of Immigrants Made their way in America.
Auletta, Ken.  Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.  

Ballard, Chris.  The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA.
Bang, Mary Jo.  The Bride of E: Poems.
Bardach, Ann Louise.  Without Fidel: A Death Foretold In Miami, Havana, and Washington.
Barrow, Mark V., Jr.  Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology.
Bayley, Stephen.  Cars: Freedom, Style, Sex, Power, Motion, Colour, Everything.
Ben-Barak, Idan.  The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes.
Biskind, Peter. Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America.
Brown, Frederick.  For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus.
Bruni, Frank.  Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater.
Bullock-Prado, Gesine.  Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker.   

Carr, Patrick J.  Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America.
Collier-Thomas, Bettye.  Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: The History of African American Women and Religion.
Collins, Gail.  When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present.  

Demick, Barbara.  Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. 
Denton, Sally.  The Pink Lady: The Many Lives of Helen Gahagan Douglas.
Duncan, Dayton.  The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

Ellis, Richard.  On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear.  

Feder, Chris Welles.  In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles.
Foer, Jonathan Safran.  Eating Animals.
Fraser, Caroline.  Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution.
Freeland, David.  Automats, Taxi Dances and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure. 
Friedman, Andrew.  Knives at Dawn: America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition.
Friedman, Barry.  The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Coiurt and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution.  

Giddins, Gary.  Jazz. 
Gordin, Michael D.  Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly.  

Hansen, James.  Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity.
Hayden, Tom.  The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama.
Haygood, Wil.  Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson.  

Ives, Eric.  Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery.

Jacques, Martin.  When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.
Johnson, Paul.  Churchill.
Jones, Alex S.  Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy.  

Karabell, Zachary.  Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends on It.
King, Sorrel.  Josie's Story: A Mother's Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe.
Kirby, David.  Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.
Koster, John.  Custer Survivor: The End of a Myth, The Beginning of a Legend.
Kostioukovitch, Elena.  Why Italians Love to Talk About Food: A Journey Through Italy's Great Regional Cuisines, From the Alps to Sicily.
Kuper, Simon.  Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey - and Even Iraq - Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport.  

LaNier, Carlotta.  A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School.
Lattin, Don.  The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age For America.
Levine, Philip.  News of the World: Poems.  

McCalman, Iain.  Darwin's Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution.
McManus, James.  Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker.
Maitland, Sara.  A Book of Silence.
Mallon, Thomas.  Yours Ever: People and Their Letters.
Marton, Kati.  Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America.
Masters, Jarvis Jay.  That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row.
Masur, Louis P.  Runaway Dream: Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen's American Vision.
Milgrom, Melissa.  Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy.  

Pleshakov, Constantine.  There is No Freedom Without Bread!: 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism.
Ponsot, Marie.  Easy: Poems. 

Rosenquist, James.  Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art.  

Sandel, Michael J.  Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
Scherman, Tony.  Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol.
Service, Robert.  Trotsky: A Biography.
Shawcross, William.  The Queen Mother: The Official Biography.
Simmons, Bill.  The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy.
Sklenicka, Carol.  Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life.
Skloot, Rebecca.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Soskice, Janet.  The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Lost Gospels.
Spector, Robert.  The Mom and Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving.  

Teachout, Terry.  Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.

Viesturs, Ed.  K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain.

Weber, Nicholas Fox.  The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism.
Wessel, David.  In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic.
White, Neil.  In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir.  (Prison/Leper Colony)
Wright, Thomas.  Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde.

Yagoda, Ben.  Memoir: A History.

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