How Do I
Joanne's Picks
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Gabaldon, Diana The Outlander Fiction |
| It’s long but boy, is it worth it! Claire and her husband Frank accidently observe a ritual at an ancient rock formation while on vacation in Scotland. When she returns to explore the area, Claire somehow slips through the rocks and through time. She is transported to the 1740s and finds herself among rival clansmen and English soldiers. Claire is taken to Castle Leoch, where her “suspicious” manners are questioned and she is thought to be an English spy. Although the MacKenzie clan can’t figure out who she really is, they come to accept her, and her knowledge of medicinal plants temporarily secures her place with them. After the initial shock of her circumstances and concern for the husband she left behind, she begins to adapt to a new life in the Scottish Highlands while trying to figure out a way back to the rocks and the 20th century. But an arranged marriage to the somewhat mysterious Jamie soon changes all of that. The story of Claire and Jamie is both interesting as a historical novel and enticing as a love story. I didn’t want it to end. Luckily there’s a sequel, Dragonfly in Amber. Recommended October 2009 |
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Meyer, Philipp American Rust Fiction |
| Set in a small town in Fayette County, American Rust
follows the lives of Isaac English and Billy Poe, two young men opposite
in temperament, but friends none the less. Isaac and Poe both graduated
from high school and passed up their golden opportunities to get out
of the dying steel town where they live. As Isaac is about to leave
for good, to start life again in California, a violent encounter with
a group of men alters the course of both boys’ lives. Don’t be turned
off by what seems like a depressing premise in a depressed setting.
Meyer’s description of the land is beautiful, and in the end, the
characters maintain a glimmer of hope. Chapters of the book are narrated
alternately by Isaac, Poe, Poe’s mother, Isaac’s sister, Isaac’s father,
and the chief of police. I liked discovering them not only through
what they tell about themselves, but also by how other people see
them. It’s hard to believe that Meyer did not live in Western Pennsylvania,
his insights seem so true to form. I highly recommend this book. Recommended August 2009 |
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Powers, Richard The Time of Our Singing Fiction |
| This hefty book is not for the casual reader. The story
follows the Strom family -- mother Delia, an African American singer,
and father David, a German Jewish physics professor, and their three
children -- as they face issues of race, identity, and family dynamics
from the late 1930s through the Civil Rights movement. The oldest
brother Jonah is a gifted singer who transcends racial boundaries
through his music. Joseph, also a musician, struggles with his own
identity beyond serving as his brother’s accompanist and keeper, while
their sister Ruth embraces her African American heritage in a fight
for equality. Filled with detailed descriptions of both music and
physics, the novel contains as much history as fiction. The New York
Times reviewer Judith Shulevitz said of Powers’ work “ . . . if Powers’
novels are sometimes unfun to read, they are never uninteresting to
think about.” Recommended March 2009 |
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Orbach, Benjamin Live from Jordan: Letters Home from My Journey Through the Middle East Nonfiction |
| A fellow Pittsburgher, Benjamin Orbach was a graduate
student living in Jordan following 9/11 and prior to the Iraqi war.
In this book of letters and emails home to his family and friends,
we see real life in the Middle East through the friendships and conversations
he has with everyday people – barbers, college students, cooks, roommates,
drivers, and teachers. As he tries to serve as an unofficial ambassador
for the American people, shedding light on American culture and sometimes
policies, he learns to view the Middle East from new perspectives.
A Jewish American, he speaks Hebrew and has studied in Israel. Now
he finds himself learning Arabic and living among Palestinian people.
His insightful look at Jordan as well as Syria, Israel, and Egypt
goes a long way toward helping us understand life, culture, and thought
in the Middle East. Recommended November 2008 |
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Gruber, Michael The Book of Air and Shadows Fiction |
| Mystery meets literature in this thriller surrounding
the possible existence of an unknown Shakespeare manuscript. The story
begins with a wealthy intellectual property lawyer hiding out on a
lake in upstate New York while he awaits the arrival of the thugs
who are after him and the manuscript. Is the manuscript real? Where
is it? Who owns it? Who wants it? Who’s after it? Who’s on whose side?
Along the way, we learn the story of the Bracegridle letters, ciphered
seventeenth-century letters which give the details of a conspiracy
involving Richard Bracegridle and William Shakespeare, a play about
Elizabeth I, and the whereabouts of this hidden manuscript. But details
are not always what they seem in this story that includes a cast of
characters including the daughter of a Nazi officer married to a Jewish
businessman, a criminal turned priest, an aspiring young filmmaker
and his family in Queens, a mysterious young woman with a sketchy
background, several Shakespeare scholars, Israel gangsters and Russian
mobsters, and our lawyer friend. Great fun for summer reading. Recommended by Joanne, June 2008 |
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Crowther, Yasmin The Saffron Kitchen Fiction |
| A young Iranian woman, Maryam Mazar, doesn’t want the
married life expected of someone from a wealthy family like her own.
Her head-strong ways eventually lead to trouble, and her father forces
her to leave her home following an incident with Ali, a close friend
and confidante of Maryam’s who works for the family. Once she is sent
away, Maryam becomes a nurse, moves to England, marries, and has her
own family. When her nephew comes to live with her, Maryam's long-forgotten
feelings about Iran and what happened to her so many years earlier
are shaken up. Maryam is compelled to return to her Iranian village
to face the unresolved issues of her past, leaving her family in England
in the dark as to why she left and when she would return. Maryam eventually
convinces her daughter, Sara, to join her in Iran where Sara learns
what her mother endured, what she sacrificed and what she gained along
the way. An interesting cast of main characters shows what life is
like for the women, servants and outsiders in different cultures and
settings who are virtually powerless. Recommended by Joanne, April 2008 |
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Darraj, Susan Muaddi The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly Short Stories |
| These intertwining stories follow the lives of four girlfriends
who are now women and their parents-- primarily their mothers. The
daughters are all Arab-Americans, while their parents are primarily
Palestinian immigrants living in Philadelphia. The stories highlight
the family relationships and experiences of growing up with or adapting
to two cultures. The conflicts in culture for these first generation
Americans at times find the young women in a limbo of sorts, not belonging
to the world of their parents but not being completely accepted by
their American peers. The stories also explore universal issues such
as finding one’s place in the world and understanding a time and place
that is not our own. Recommended by Joanne, November 2007 |
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Vreeland, Susan Luncheon of the Boating Party Fiction |
| A fascinating fictional account of the story behind Renoir’s
painting of the same name. Vreeland’s latest novel uses historic records
and biographies of the famous impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste
Renoir to compose the story of how and why this painting came to be.
A look at life in France during the late 1800s shows the importance
of Renoir’s depiction of “la vie moderne” to the time. Meet the models,
among them another French impressionist painter, an aspiring writer
and adventurer, an actress, an Italian journalist, and the woman who
eventually becomes Renoir’s wife. Vreeland has expertise in art and
art history, which also is apparent in her previous works – Girl
in Hyacinth Blue and The
Passion of Artemisia – both recommended as well. Recommended by Joanne, October 2007 |
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Lynch, Jim The Highest Tide Fiction |
| Thirteen-year-old Miles O’Malley loves the natural life
of the Washington bay where he lives. During this particularly incredible
summer in his life, he discovers things in the bay that are unusual,
drawing the media’s attention and quickly spiraling into a frenzy
of more discoveries and more attention. Complete with the college-age
girl next door, the old woman who’s his friend, a popular teenage
business partner, and his somewhat absent parents, the story finds
Miles growing in more ways than one. Lynch is right on the mark in
showing the way in which a young boy would understand and react to
the situations at hand, and the results are sometimes quite humorous.
Recommend. Recommended by Joanne, April 2007 |
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Laila Lalami Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits Fiction |
| The hope of a better life spawns two Moroccan men and
two women to attempt the dangerous trip across the Strait of Gibraltar
to illegally enter Spain. This story begins with that harrowing crossing
and both looks back on the characters’ lives leading up to their leaving
and forward to what becomes of their efforts. An apt title for a book
filled with despair and hope. Recommended by Joanne, June 2006 |
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Anne Perry Face of a Stranger Mystery |
| When Monk wakes up one day in a hospital, he's not sure
where he is or who he is. While quietly struggling to figure out the
details of his life, he returns to his job with the London police,
where he's assigned to the brutal murder of Joscelin Grey, the youngest
and favorite son of Lady Shelburne and a well-liked figure by many.
Could his murderer be a complete stranger as feared? A business associate?
A jealous brother or even Monk himself? As Monk's memory returns,
he begins to piece together the story of Joscelin Grey. A fine Victorian
mystery by a master in the craft as well as an examination of human
nature and relationships. Recommended by Joanne, February 2006 |
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Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 Fiction |
| Imagine a world in which owning a book is illegal. It's
a world in which few people care to have books anyway- they just cause
people to think and have unpleasant feelings. But for those who do
have books, their discovery means having your house along with the
offending items burnt to the ground. Guy Montag is a fireman whose
job it is to set such fires. His feelings of dissatisfaction and emptiness
lead him to want to read the books he is destroying, and this decision
to pursue knowledge changes his life forever. Recommended by Joanne, January 2006 |
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Robert Whitaker The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon Nonfiction |
| An extraordinary true story that has all the makings
of a good adventure novel. A group of mapmakers from France travel
to Peru in the 1700s to study latitude and longitude in an attempt
to determine the shape of the Earth, the hot scientific topic of the
day. The extent of the work to be done and the dedication of the scientists
results in a ten-year stay. Jean Godin, one of the assistants, marries
a Peruvian woman, Isabel Grameson. Their plans to move to France go
awry, and the couple is separated for 20 years. Isabel makes a daring
and horrifying trip through the Andes and along the Amazon to reunite
with her husband in French Guiana. Recommended by Joanne, January 2006 |
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Frank, Mitch Understanding the Holy Land: Answering Questions about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Nonfiction |
| Note: I decided to use the teen nonfiction genre
as an opportunity to learn about a subject that I should know more
about than I do. I knew there was a lot more to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict than I understood and saw this book as a great way to get
the facts. Mitch Frank does an outstanding job of presenting both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and remaining impartial. He presents the issues in an easy-to-follow format-short sections with titles such as What Is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?, Why is there a conflict?, and Why is the Rest of the World Involved? The details are not as fleshed out as they would be in a more extensive book (as would be expected). For instance, when I read the paragraph about the Holocaust, I realized the author was intentionally giving basic facts without too much of the horrifying details. This holds true for the rest of the book although he does make the reality of the situation clear. I found it to be an interesting read and very informative book. Highly recommended. Recommended by Joanne, October 2005 |
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Chandler, Raymond (adapted by Michael Lark) The Little Sister Graphic Novel |
| This is the graphic novel version of the mystery by a
master in the field. When Orfamay Quest shows up in private investigator
Philip Marlowe's office asking for help in finding her brother Orrin,
Marlowe knows she's not telling him the whole story. Orrin has suddenly
stopped writing home, quit his job, and moved. But what she doesn't
mention is that he might be hiding and that it might have something
to do with their sister, a Cleveland gangster, and several ice pick
murders. Classic 1940s-style who-done-it. Recommended by Joanne, August 2005 |
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Gross, Terry All I Did Was Ask NonFiction |
| Terry Gross is the host of NPR's Fresh Air and
as such has interviewed thousands of people over the course of 29
years. In this book, she highlights 39 interviews with writers, actors,
musicians, and artists. I found the interviews with Nicholas Cage,
Mickey Spillane, Paul Schrader, Joyce Johnson, Chuck Close, Dustin
Hoffman, Isabella Rossellini, and Carol Shields to be the most interesting,
with revealing details about their lives, their work, and their inner
thoughts. A few interviews are confrontational like that with Gene
Simmons, which leaves you wondering whether he's truly an ignoramus
or if it's all just part of his stage persona. Recommended by Joanne, August 2005 |
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| Byatt, A.S. Possession Fiction |
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| Possession is subtitled A Romance, but
this is not your typical romance novel. Two current day scholars -
Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey - are driven to discover the truth
behind an affair between two nineteenth century writers - Randolph
Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. The search to unravel the mystery
begins when Roland find letters written by Ash to an unnamed woman.
As he and Maud piece together the facts of the unknown liaison between
Ash and LaMotte, Mitchell and Bailey begin a romance of their own.
The hidden life of Ash and LaMotte is intriguing and its implications
far reaching for the scholars. The theme of possession is touched
on in the relationships between numerous people. Byatt writes a highly
intellectual romance filled with literary references mixing myths,
poetry, and letters. At times not an easy read, but worth it in the
end. Recommended by Joanne, March 2005 |
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