Dave Egger’s 1999 memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius chronicled his life while taking care of his younger brother Christopher “Toph” Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents. Eggers has since gone far beyond the personal narrative and into the chaotic world outside himself. In his 2006 book What Is The What (reviewed here by Lisa), Eggers tells the painful true-life account of a Sudanese war refugee who was a member of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He then went on to use the book’s profits to organize a human rights organization named after the book’s main character. Now, in his most recent book, Zeitoun, Eggers tells the story of Hurricane Katrina through the intimate lens of the Zeitoun family who are long time residents. And as with his last book, all proceeds from the book go the Zeitoun Foundation, a human rights organization that aids in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
In Zeitoun, Eggers introduces Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a middle-aged Syrian-American and the owner of a successful painting and contracting firm in New Orleans. His wife and business partner, Kathy, comes from a Southern Baptist family who later coverted to Islam after her first failed marriage. The Zeitouns have four children and live in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. The story starts out two days before the storm click to read more…
November 20th, 2009
Kathleen - Monroe Street
This year’s National Book Award winners were announced Wednesday night at a dinner in New York City. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles, won the $10,000 National
Book Award for Nonfiction. The fiction prize went to Irish-born writer Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin, a novel about New York in the 1970s. Keith Waldrop’s Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy took the poetry award and the award for Young People’s Literature went to Phillip Hoose for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, the true story of an African American teenager who challenged segregation in 1950s Alabama.
The Finalists included:
Fiction
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Nonfiction
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press)
Poetry
Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Viking Penguin)
Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Young People’s Literature
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
David Small, Stitches (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)
All titles are available in LINKcat.
November 19th, 2009
Molly - Central
My new favorite novel is The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews.
Now, if I told you the story was about a woman named Hattie, who had just broken up with (been dumped by) her boyfriend in Paris and flown home to take care of the kids of her sister, Min, who needs to be institutionalized for something appearing to be bipolar disorder, and that Hattie decides– sort of on the spur of the moment– to take the kids on a cross country trip to try and find their long absent father, without really knowing where he was, you might think it was an uncomfortable read. It is at times. But it’s so much more than that too. And it really is a fun read, with the occasional side trips into fear and despair.
Road-tripping across country has always been a good device to examine characters up close, on an almost intimate level, and not always at their best. First there’s Hattie who click to read more…
November 18th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Judging from David Small’s award-winning children’s books illustrations, it’s hard to imagine that the same man is behind the dark tale recounted in the graphic novel memoir Stitches. Best known for his work with wife Sarah Stewart and his Caldecott Award-winning artwork in So You Want to be President?, Stitches reveals a painful past, yet one that Small somehow weaves a sense of hopefulness through with his art.
It’s no easy feat. Small grew up in postwar Detroit, the son of an oft-absent radiologist and an emotionally cold mother. A sickly boy with sinus problems, his father treated him with repeated doses of x-ray radiation. By the time he was in his early teens, Small had a lump on his throat that had developed into full-blown cancer, although his parents made a point of never telling him the true nature, or cause, of his condition. Waking up after an operation, Small discovers click to read more…
November 17th, 2009
Katie H.
Quirk Books’ mission is to “amuse, to bemuse, to entertain, and to inform (not necessarily in that order, but usually all at the same time).” Even though they are a small, relatively new publishing house, several of their books have become national bestsellers, including The Worst-Case Scenario books and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. More on P&P&Z later.
I am going to tell you about Quirk’s latest in the Jane Austen spoof genre, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I can barely type this without rolling my eyes. How absurd is that? Yet, how logical. Written by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (60 percent Austen and 40 percent Winters), the reader finds Regency England fraught with violent sea creatures ready to take over the world. The Dashwood sisters get booted from their Norland Park home by their sad sack brother after their father has been mortally wounded by a hammerhead shark. Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne and young Margaret take up residence by the sea at Barton Cottage, now located off the monster infested coast of Devonshire on Pestilent Isle. Cad Willoughby is now a treasure hunter, sweet Edward Ferrars dreams of keeping his very own lighthouse and the serious, lovesick Colonel Brandon has been plagued by a sea-witch curse click to read more…
November 16th, 2009
Molly - Central
When I first picked up The Art of Making Money I thought, “Great. Probably one of those Suze Orman books and I’ll be chastised for buying another latte.” (According to Suze Buzzkill, my coffee purchases may be impeding my retirement plans). But, reading further, I note the second part of the title–The Story of a Master Counterfeiter. Hmmm. Now they got my attention.
Part memoir, part true crime and written by Jason Kersten, it’s about Art Williams, a maverick counterfeiter from Chicago. The story begins with Art’s childhood in a dysfunctional (natch) family. Art’s father, a small-time crook, abandoned the family when Williams was 11. His mother, diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia, is unable to look after their three kids. The family ends up on welfare in Bridgeport, on Chicago’s south side, amidst guns, drugs and gangs. Williams begins breaking into parking meters and is soon supporting the family by stealing cars. He then graduates to robbing local drug dealers. At this point, the fun has really just begun and Williams is 13 and we’re only on chapter 3.
Art’s mother’s boyfriend (a.k.a. Da Vinci) takes Art under his wing, introducing him to a future in counterfeiting. After Da Vinci disappears click to read more…
November 13th, 2009
Terry - Central
It’s nearing the end of the year and I had a little vacation time to use (or lose) and naturally I did some reading. Not as much as I thought I would of course, all that nice sunshiny weather got in the way of that plan, but I did get a few books read.
First up was Running from the Devil by Jamie Freveletti. This thriller starts off with a bang - or a crash - and doesn’t let up once. Chemist Emma Caldridge is on a flight to Bogota, Columbia that’s been hijacked and forced to land in the jungle. The too-small runway causes a crash and kills many of the passengers and crew, but enough remain to be taken hostage by a guerilla army. Since she was ejected a ways from the crash, only Emma manages to escape capture. When the possibility of rescue becomes increasingly remote, Emma decides to follow the rest of the passengers and their captors to somewhere where escape may be possible. Emma’s experience as a chemist and the fact that she’s an ultramarathoner (running races over 100 miles) help her to click to read more…
November 12th, 2009
Jane J. - Central Library
Michelle Huneven’s new book Blame is just as good as all the reviews say it is. As I read through them trying to come up with the right words to describe it I decided EW’s Leah Greenblatt said it best, “the novel combines the compulsive pleasures of a page turner with the deeper satisfaction of true, thoughtful literature.” The only reason Blame might not appeal to a reader would be if it hit too close to home in subject matter (drunk driving). Otherwise, I say READ IT, it’s an all cap demand. The book not only meets the “page turning thoughtful literature” standard, it also has that “full circle” feel when you finish it. The beginning scene makes even more sense as you finish the last few pages, just like one of my favorite books of all time A Prayer for Owen Meany (another READ IT selection).
Patsy’s life up to May 1981 hasn’t been bad. She lives in sunny California, grew up with two parents, has a loving brother, teaches history at the local college, but Patsy has an issue…blackout drinking. We meet Patsy in the first few pages of the book in the full throes of a binge trying click to read more…
November 11th, 2009
Katharine - Sequoya
Sometimes a book is a good read (or listen) just because it is fun and entertaining and has likable characters. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, author of the the very popular Shopaholic series, is exactly that. It doesn’t really matter that the story is a bit silly and unrealistic; it is easy to suspend belief and get caught up regardless.
Lara Lington has problems. She is working in a head hunting firm that has some serious financial concerns, her business partner has mysteriously disappeared, and she has yet to get over her previous relationship (after being dumped by someone she thought she was in love with).
After attending the funeral of her great aunt Sadie, who lived to be 105, Lara finds herself trailed by Sadie’s ghost. Sadie will not rest until click to read more…
November 10th, 2009
Mary K. - Central
Jennifer Hull’s Beyond One: Growing a Family and Getting a Life crossed the reference desk the other day and caught my eye. “Hey,” I thought, “I have one child and no life!” Plus, two sweet-looking children were pictured on the cover, snug as bugs in what appear to be crisp, clean sheets. Remember clean sheets?
Hull has been places and done things; she worked as a reporter in Nicaragua, the Middle East, and places in between. Her articles have appeared in an impressive (to little ol’ me, anyway, who’s only been published in MADreads) array of magazines. Once, she was the mother of one daughter and now she’s the mother of two. Right around the time her family expanded, Hull realized that almost all parenting books are written for parents of one, filled with click to read more…
November 7th, 2009
Robin - Pinney
Chill October night
A vampire writes in non-verse
A nip in the air?
How do you like my haiku?
I felt compelled to write it only because it seems appropriate to at least try to use the form when reviewing a book written in haiku. Vampire Haiku by Ryan Mecum, uses the form created in Japan (seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, then seven, then five syllables) to write a book. It’s not really poetry, it’s a narrative, using the short poems to convey the story. Call it poetic license. And it’s pretty fun.
The story starts with twenty-one year-old William Butten, on the deck of the Mayflower as it begins sailing to the New World. William makes a vow to document all his new world adventures into small poems. A young woman on deck a few nights later charms the young man. Once they begin necking, life as he knew it takes a whole new direction. Because he’s now, well, immortal. And the vampire woman he fell in love with? He kind of alienated her by killing her vampire husband. So she disappears from his life, reappearing from time to time as the story progresses. Not that she’s that necessary to keep the story moving forward. But every story needs a love interest, right? So there you go.
American history provides a pretty convenient backdrop on which our poet can sketch his vampiric ways. We move from feasting on Pilgrims click to read more…
November 5th, 2009
Dennis - Central
If you like big rambly family stories, Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos is just that. It takes place in Emlyn Springs, Nebraska, a town of people of Welsh descent, where the Jones family lives - a place smack dab in the middle of tornado country. As a matter of fact, the reader learns early in the story that Hope, mother of Larken, Gaelan and Bonnie, “went up” in a tornado and never came down. Bonnie herself was carried away by the tornado, but was deposited in the top of a tree. The storm was the defining moment in the lives of those children, each of them reacting in their unique way which we learn when we meet them 25 years later.
When their dad, Llewelyn, the town physician, is killed by a lightning strike, the family comes together to bury him. They are forced by the town’s Welsh tradition, to spend a week with their community, not speaking, but singing their dad into the next world. The funeral also reunites them with their dad’s mistress of many years, Viney, who had also been Hope’s best friend and the children’s de facto mother.
Larken is the oldest sister, a respected professor of art history in Lincoln, who is overweight and pretty much obsessed with food. She carries on an almost-inappropriate friendship with click to read more…
November 4th, 2009
Lisa - Central
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