Archive for the ‘2010 Favorites’ Category

HOW TO READ THE AIR by Dinaw Mengestu

If there’s one useful outcome that has come out of Jonas Woldermariam’s trying childhood, it is this: Jonas has become an expert at varnishing the truth. This ability to embellish facts comes in especially handy at Jonas’s first job. He works at a law firm that helps newly arrived immigrants with the asylum process. Jonas’s job is to help the immigrants with their essays and edit them for structure and grammar. But Jonas can’t help adding some spice to their stories…

October 28, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Family Matters, Literary, Reading Guide, World Lit, y Award Winning Author

WOODCUTTERS by Thomas Bernhard

WOODCUTTERS, originally written as part of a trilogy, is Bernhard’s diatribe about his disgust, revulsion, loathing, hatred and vilification of the hypocrites and losers that make up the art circle in Vienna from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. In his unique style, with not one paragraph in nearly 200 pages, this novel is told primarily in stream of consciousness from the viewpoint of a writer, one not unlike Bernhard himself. The novel is in three identifiable parts – the writer sitting in a wing chair observing a dinner party, the writer discussing his relationship with a recently deceased friend, and the conversations of an actor during dinner.

October 12, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Austria, Classic, Literary, Translated, World Lit

THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN by Carolina de Robertis

THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN is a gem of a novel, grounded in actual history, with a dollop of magical realism, a splash of Dickensian coincidence, with some forbidden romance and political intrigue added to the mix.

The novel opens at the turn of the 20th century in a remote Uruguayan village, when a baby is spirited away and then reappears, a year later, unharmed in the branches of a tree. The young one is named Pajarita – translated to little bird – and the narrative, divided into three sections, sequentially focuses on her, her daughter Eva, and her granddaughter Salome.

October 9, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Debut Novel, Facing History, Latin American/Caribbean, Reading Guide, South America

THE REVERSAL by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly brings together criminal defense attorney Michael (Mickey) Haller and his half-brother, the cynical and battle-scarred LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, in Connelly’s latest legal thriller, THE REVERSAL. Mickey calls himself “the defender of the damned,” a job he has had for over twenty years. “During that time,” he states, “I’d grown a suspicion and distrust of prosecutors and police….” Still, the Los Angeles District Attorney convinces Mickey to become an independent special prosecutor in the second trial of forty-eight year old Jason Jessup. The defendant has spent twenty-four years in San Quentin for abducting and strangling twelve-old Melissa Landy. Over the last two decades, Jessup has vociferously proclaimed his innocence while filing numerous motions and appeals in an attempt to have his conviction overturned.

October 5, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, California, Mystery/Suspense, Sleuths Series, y Award Winning Author

ROOM by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue is not afraid of making bold choices. Her first is the narrative voice she adapts in ROOM: that of five-year-old Jack, a young boy who was born and has lived his entire life in an 11-foot by 11-foot room. One might think the voice would eventually become cloying or overly precious or manipulative or downright tiring. But it never does.

September 18, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Commonwealth Prize, Contemporary, Unique Narrative, y Award Winning Author

MAN IN THE WOODS by Scott Spencer

Scott Spencer’s MAN IN THE WOODS is a novel that chronicles the life of Paul Phillips, a man who has been on his own since he was sixteen years old. Paul is both a simple and a complex man – simple because he has relied on good luck and good looks to open many doors, and complicated because he is an artisan of deep convictions that he is unwilling to compromise. He is not a man to say very much but a lot goes on in his mind that does not come out in words. He creates beautiful furniture, crafts, and remodels with wood. Each type of wood speaks to him in its own way. He has never given a lot of thought to his life. Where he is and what he’s doing have a way of simply falling into place. He has traveled around a lot, living in Alaska, South Dakota, Colorado and currently in rural New York State.

September 14, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Contemporary, NE & New York