Akin is the story of an 80 year old widower’s travels through the past and into the future.
Noah Selvaggio has decided to celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday by taking a trip to his place of birth, Nice France. Noah’s wife, Joan, who had died nine years earlier, continues to talk to Noah. Noah and
“I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful…To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a haunting letter from a son to his illiterate mother written in a dark, poetic stream
“Go as far as you can—way out yonder where the Crawdads sing…in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”
Catherine Danielle Clark—“Kya”—the Marsh Girl—was 6 years old, when her mother walked out of the shack in the marsh, leaving her five children and abusive husband to fend for themselves. Slowly, each of
“Celestial Bodies” takes place in Oman and is a story of family life, love and change. The story revolves around three sisters, Mayya, Asma and Khawla, and their families past and future.
Mayya is a seamstress, quiet and secretly in love with Ali bin Khallaf, when Abdallah, the son of Merchant Sulayman asks for her
Inland is the alternating stories of Lurie Mattie and Nora Lark and the ultimate intersection of those stories. Nora’s story takes place in 1893 in Amargo, Arizona Territory and Lurie’s story takes place throughout his life in a variety of places in the 1800s.
Lurie has been on the run since he was six years old, initially with his father until his father’s death, at which point he is sold to a Mr. Saurelle as labor. Lurie ends up living with two other boys, Hobbs and Donovan while working for Mr. Saurelle. Hobbs has a tendency towards theft and the three together become thieves and murderers. After a particularly gruesome murder, Lurie, who speaks to and sees the dead, is on the run. Ultimately, he finds himself traveling with a military group that has a number of camels, making them a peculiarity everywhere they go.
While traveling he befriends Ali Mostafa (Jolly), who helps Lurie throughout his story. Lurie’s camel, Burke, becomes a significant part of his life and we learn Lurie’s life story through his conversations with Burke. Lurie is being hunted by Marshall John Berger and is unable to stay in any one place for long. He abandons his traveling group and takes Burke with him. Later, he reunites with Jolly and they engage in business together, with their camels.
Continue Reading Inland – by Tea Obreht
“The Ditch” is a complex story about life, family, different cultures, love, revenge, aging, illness and the intersection of it all.
The story revolves around “Robert”, the mayor of Amsterdam and his wife “Sylvia”. Robert is the narrator and the names are aliases, because the real names “would only confuse things. People make all kinds of assumptions when it comes to names.” Robert is from Holland and Sylvia is from a different unnamed country and her physical appearance makes it clear that she is not from Holland. They have a daughter “Diana”.
During a reception, Robert observes Sylvia talking and laughing with Alderman Martens Van Hoogstraten. Robert becomes obsessed, based solely on that one event, that Sylvia and the Alderman are having a romantic relationship. If Sylvia is acting normal, that is suspicious. “…it was precisely the absence of any visible sign or signal that should confirm my worst suspicions. The completely normal way my wife was acting…could be a deliberate tactic.” “They were acting like nothing was going on which meant something was going on.” Of course, when Sylvia is acting peculiar, that is suspicious.
Continue Reading The Ditch – by Herman Koch
“I suppose one of the reasons we’re all able to continue to exist for our allotted span in this green and blue veil of tears is that there is always, however remote it may seem, the possibility of change.”
Now I realize that this quote may not make you want to read this book (and maybe you shouldn’t), dreary as it seems. But the novel, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, is about a person’s ability to make even the most dreadful life better—through change.
Eleanor Oliphant is a peculiar, 31 year old office worker, with a university degree in classics and what we learn was a miserable upbringing. She describes herself as a woman with “Long, straight, light brown hair that runs all the way down to my waist, pale skin, my face a scarred palimpsest of fire.” Her face, specifically, has “ridged, white contours of scar tissue that slither across my right cheek, starting at my temple and running all the way down to my chin.”
Eleanor has no friends and the people at work, a graphics design company, make fun of her behind her back. Her weekends are spent at home alone, with vodka, pizza and books. She has a weekly telephone call with her “Mummy”, who appears to be institutionalized and is extraordinarily cruel to Eleanor.
Continue Reading Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine – by Gail Honeyman
It’s time for a change of pace. Let’s talk music. Some of you may not know this but during my junior and senior years in college I was part of a group that brought in and promoted concerts. We had Elton John and Jimmy Buffet and Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, just to name a few. I miss those days!
But this blog is not about me. It’s about this amazing new album released from Sheryl Crow called Threads. This album reminds me of those days of anticipation for the new release from a favorite artist, of impatience to hear the next track to learn if it is as good as the one before. This album is everything you expect but dare not hope for from your favorite musician.
First, there is the generosity of 17 tracks and more than 70 minutes of music. Second, each song includes one or more great musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Joe Walsh, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Sting, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and James Taylor. Third, there is a wide diversity of sound.
Continue Reading Threads – by Sheryl Crow
“Chances Are” is a mystery, a love story and a buddy story all wrapped together. It is engaging, captivating, well written and 100% pure Richard Russo.
Lincoln Moser, Teddy Novak and Mickey Girardi are 66 year old college buddies who get together for a reunion at Lincoln’s vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. Each come from very different backgrounds and met as college students at Minerva College in Connecticut, where they were scholarship students. They worked in the kitchen at the Theta House as “hashers”, where Lincoln met Anita, who became his wife and all three were close friends with and secretly in love with Jacy Rockafellow.
The novel tells the story of Lincoln, Teddy, Mickey and Jacy, and the details of their lives that the others do not know. The reunion in Martha’s Vineyard is difficult, because it was this exact house, forty plus years earlier, where they last saw Jacy. After college graduation, the four decided to have a last get together at the home previously owned by Lincoln’s mother. Jacy snuck out early on the last day and was never heard from or seen again.
Continue Reading Chances Are – by Richard Russo
Normal People is the story of two very damaged people who only feel whole when together but tragically keep finding ways to be apart.
The story takes place from January of 2011 until February of 2015. In 2011, Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron are in high school. Marianne lives in a mansion with her mother and brother and Connell’s mother, Lorraine, is their housekeeper. Marianne is awkward and bookish and has no friends. Connell is popular, athletic, good looking and well liked by the girls.
Connell and Marianne get to know each other as Connell picks up his mother from work. They develop an intimate relationship, which, although meaningful to both of them, they decide to keep a secret from their classmates. At the same time, they decide to go to Trinity College together, further strengthening their relationship. Then Connell invites someone else to the school dance and the thing falls apart.
They reconnect at Trinity and throughout the novel they are splitting up, engaging in new romances and then finding each other. Marianne grows into a beautiful woman and each of her relationships (other than Connell) involves physical abuse.
Continue Reading Normal People – by Sally Rooney