2011-12 Book Club Nominees

Greetings everyone~
The nominations are in and here are the descriptions! We will be voting for six books at Claudia's on , so please review the list and compile your list of favorites:

Cutting for Stone-Abraham Verhese
Review from Publisher's Weekly:
Lauded for his sensitive memoir (My Own Country) about his time as a doctor in eastern Tennessee at the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, Verghese turns his formidable talents to fiction, mining his own life and experiences in a magnificent, sweeping novel that moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York City over decades and generations. Sister Mary Joseph Praise, a devout young nun, leaves the south Indian state of Kerala in 1947 for a missionary post in Yemen. During the arduous sea voyage, she saves the life of an English doctor bound for Ethiopia, Thomas Stone, who becomes a key player in her destiny when they meet up again at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa. Seven years later, Sister Praise dies birthing twin boys: Shiva and Marion, the latter narrating his own and his brothers long, dramatic, biblical story set against the backdrop of political turmoil in Ethiopia, the life of the hospital compound in which they grow up and the love story of their adopted parents, both doctors at Missing. The boys become doctors as well and Vergheses weaving of the practice of medicine into the narrative is fascinating even as the story bobs and weaves with the power and coincidences of the best 19th-century novel.
http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375714367/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304520570&sr=1-1

In Cold Blood-Truman Capote
Amazon review:
"Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans--in fact, few Kansans--had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there." If all Truman Capote did was invent a new genre--journalism written with the language and structure of literature--this "nonfiction novel" about the brutal slaying of the Clutter family by two would-be robbers would be remembered as a trail-blazing experiment that has influenced countless writers. But Capote achieved more than that. He wrote a true masterpiece of creative nonfiction. The images of this tale continue to resonate in our minds: 16-year-old Nancy Clutter teaching a friend how to bake a cherry pie, Dick Hickock's black '49 Chevrolet sedan, Perry Smith's Gibson guitar and his dreams of gold in a tropical paradise--the blood on the walls and the final "thud-snap" of the rope-broken necks.
http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Blood-Truman-Capote/dp/0375507906/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304520489&sr=1-1

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Publisher's Weekly:
The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385341008/ref=s9_simh_bw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0MY0V3DYJKX8CCFF4H7C&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1287771322&pf_rd_i=283155

Room: A Novel-Emma Donaghue
Amazon:
Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room--an 11×11-foot space that is their prison--captives of the terrifying man Jack calls Old Nick. But as Jack grows older and more curious, it becomes clear that the room will not be able to hold him and Ma forever. Michal Friedman shines as Jack; her narration is haunting and compelling in its every inflection and tone. The voice she creates for Jack is so convincing, listeners may even mistake her for an actual child. Her powerful performance is complemented by Robert Petcoff's sinister Old Nick, and Ellen Archer's portrayal of resourceful Ma, whose gentle voice is infused with patience, terror, and hope. The chemistry between the players creates a gem of an audiobook that will haunt listeners long after the story's end.
http://www.amazon.com/Room-Novel-Emma-Donoghue/dp/0316098329/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304517582&sr=1-1

This is Where I Leave You-Jonathan Tropper
Amazon:
Tropper returns with a snappy and heartfelt family drama/belated coming-of-age story. Judd Foxman's wife, Jen, has left him for his boss, a Howard Stern–like radio personality, but it is the death of his father and the week of sitting shivah with his enjoyably dysfunctional family that motivates him. Jen's announcement of her pregnancy—doubly tragic because of a previous miscarriage—is followed by the dramas of Judd's siblings: his sister, Wendy, is stuck in an emotionless marriage; brother Paul—always Judd's defender—and his wife struggle with infertility; and the charming youngest, Phillip, attempts a grown-up relationship that only highlights his rakishness. Presided over by their mother, a celebrated parenting expert despite her children's difficulties, the mourning period brings each of the family members to unexpected epiphanies about their own lives and each other. The family's interactions are sharp, raw and often laugh-out-loud funny, and Judd's narration is unflinching, occasionally lewd and very keen. Tropper strikes an excellent balance between the family history and its present-day fallout, proving his ability to create touchingly human characters and a deliciously page-turning story.
http://www.amazon.com/This-Where-I-Leave-You/dp/B003JTHRGE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304517464&sr=1-1

Map of Love-Ahdaf Soueif
Amazon:
In 1997, Isabel Parkman, a recently divorced American journalist, travels to Egypt to research about the impending millennium. But her interest in Egypt has more to do with her crush on Omar al-Ghamrawi, a passionate and difficult older Egyptian-American conductor and political writer, than with her work. Once in Egypt, Isabel neglects her project for a more personal investigation. Lugging with her a mysterious trunk of papers bequeathed to her by her mother, Isabel turns up at Omar's sister Amal's house in Cairo and explains that Omar had said she might be interested in translating the papers. As the two soon discover, Isabel is Amal's distant cousin, and the papers belonged to their mutual great-grandmother, Anna Winterbourne. As a young English widow, Anna traveled to turn-of-the-century Egypt, then an English colony, and fell in love with an Egyptian man. "I cannot help thinking that when she chose to step off the well-trodden paths of expatriate life, Anna must have secretly wanted something out of the ordinary to happen to her," muses Amal, who begins to realize that the same applies to her own life. Soueif (In the Eye of the Sun) writes simply and, on occasion, beautifully. Anna's journal entries are particularly evocative. Sticklers for narrative detail might chafe at the number of incredible coincidences, including a bizarre twist involving Isabel's mother and Omar, and forsaken plot devices (Isabel's millennium project is never mentioned after her arrival in Egypt). On balance, however, Soueif weaves the stories of three formidable women from vastly different times and countries into a single absorbing tale.
http://www.amazon.com/Map-Love-Novel-Ahdaf-Soueif/dp/0385720114

The Art of Racing in the Rain-Garth Stein
Publisher's Weekly:
If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny's bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Racing-Rain-Novel/dp/0061537969/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

Angle of Repose-Wallace Stegner
from the publisher:
Angle of Repose tells the story of Lyman Ward, a retired professor of history and author of books about the Western frontier, who returns to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, in the Sierra Nevada. Wheelchair-bound with a crippling bone disease and dependent on others for his every need, Ward is nonetheless embarking on a search of monumental proportions — to rediscover his grandmother, now long dead, who made her own journey to Grass Valley nearly a hundred years earlier. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014016930x/ref=dp_proddesc_1?ie=UTF8&n=283155

City of Thieves-David Benioff
Publisher's Weekly:
Author and screenwriter Benioff follows up The 25th Hour with this hard-to-put-down novel based on his grandfather's stories about surviving WWII in Russia. Having elected to stay in Leningrad during the siege, 17-year-old Lev Beniov is caught looting a German paratrooper's corpse. The penalty for this infraction (and many others) is execution. But when Colonel Grechko confronts Lev and Kolya, a Russian army deserter also facing execution, he spares them on the condition that they acquire a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Their mission exposes them to the most ghoulish acts of the starved populace and takes them behind enemy lines to the Russian countryside. There, Lev and Kolya take on an even more daring objective: to kill the commander of the local occupying German forces. A wry and sympathetic observer of the devastation around him, Lev is an engaging and self-deprecating narrator who finds unexpected reserves of courage at the crucial moment and forms an unlikely friendship with Kolya, a flamboyant ladies' man who is coolly reckless in the face of danger. Benioff blends tense adventure, a bittersweet coming-of-age and an oddly touching buddy narrative to craft a smart crowd-pleaser.
http://www.amazon.com/City-Thieves-Novel-David-Benioff/dp/0452295297/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1304648058&sr=1-1

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Publisher's Weekly:
While he is generally considered a Canadian writer, Booker Prize-winner Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka, and he has chosen to set his powerful and resonant new novel in that country during its gruesome civil war in the mid-1980s. Written in his usual cryptic, elliptical style, much of the story is told in flashbacks, with Ondaatje hinting at secrets even as he divulges facts, revealing his characters' motivations through their desperate or passionate behavior and, most of all, conveying the essence of a people, a country and its history via individual stories etched against a background of natural beauty and human brutality. Anil Tessira, a 33-year-old native Sri Lankan who left her country 15 years before, is a forensic pathologist sent by the U.N. human rights commission to investigate reports of mass murders on the island. Atrocities are being committed by three groups: the government, anti-government insurgents, and separatist guerrillas. Working secretly, these warring forces are decimating a population paralyzed by pervasive fear. Taciturn archeologist Sarath Diyasena is assigned by the government to be Anil's partner; at 49, he is emotionally withdrawn from the chaotic contemporary world, reserving his passion for the prehistoric shards of his profession. Together, Anil and Sarath discover that a skeleton interred among ancient bones in a government-protected sanctuary is that of a recently killed young man. Anil defiantly sets out to document this murder by identifying the victim and then making an official report. Throughout their combined forensic and archeological investigation, detailed by Ondaatje with the meticulous accuracy readers will remember from descriptions of the bomb sapper's procedures in The English Patient, Sarath remains a mysterious figure to Anil. Her confusion about his motives is reinforced when she meets his brother, Gamini, an emergency room doctor who is as intimately involved in his country's turmoil as Sarath refuses to be. The lives of these characters, and of others in their orbits, emerge circuitously, layer by layer. In the end, Anil's moral indignation--and her innocence--place her in exquisite danger, and Sarath is moved to a life-defining sacrifice. Here the narrative, whose revelations have been building with a quiet ferocity, assumes the tension of a thriller, its chilling insights augmented by the visceral emotional effects that masterful literature can provide. More effective than a documentary, Ondaatje's novel satisfies one of the most exalted purposes of fiction: to illuminate the human condition through pity and terror. It may well be the capstone of his career.
http://www.amazon.com/Anils-Ghost-Novel-Michael-Ondaatje/dp/0375724370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305070203&sr=1-1

A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
from the dust jacket:
The Kaiser's Germany is the setting of Sybille Bedford's first and best-known novel, in which two families — one from solid, upholstered Jewish Berlin, the other from the somnolent, agrarian Catholic South — become comically, tragically, irrevocably intertwined. "Each family", writes the author, "stood confident of being able to go on with what was theirs, while in fact they were playthings, often victims, of the now united Germany and what was brewing therein". Did the monstrous thing that followed have its foundation in families such as these? "Writing about them made me think so. Hence the title".
http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Novel-Sybille-Bedford/dp/1582431426/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305070481&sr=1-1

The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edward de Waal
Publisher's Weekly:
In this family history, de Waal, a potter and curator of ceramics at the Victoria & Albert Museum, describes the experiences of his family, the Ephrussis, during the turmoil of the 20th century. Grain merchants in Odessa, various family members migrated to Vienna and Paris, becoming successful bankers. Secular Jews, they sought assimilation in a period of virulent anti-Semitism. In Paris, Charles Ephrussi purchased a large collection of Japanese netsuke, tiny hand-carved figures including a hare with amber eyes. The collection passed to Viktor Ephrussi in Vienna and became the family's greatest legacy. Loyal citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Vienna Ephrussis were devastated by the outcome of WWI and were later driven from their home by the imposition of Nazi rule over Austria. After WWII, they discovered that their maid, Anna, had preserved the netsuke collection, which Ignace Ephrussi inherited, and he settled in postwar Japan. Today, the netsuke reside with de Waal (descended from the family's Vienna branch) and serve as the embodiment of his family history. A somewhat rambling narrative with special appeal to art historians, this account is nonetheless rich in drama and valuable anecdote.
http://www.amazon.com/Hare-Amber-Eyes-Familys-Century/dp/0374105979/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305070861&sr=1-1

Middlemarch by George Eliot
Review:
Dorothea Brooke can find no acceptable outlet for her talents or energy and few who share her ideals. As an upper middle-class woman in Victorian England she can't learn Greek or Latin simply for herself; she certainly can't become an architect or have a career; and thus, Dorothea finds herself "Saint Theresa of nothing." Believing she will be happy and fulfilled as "the lampholder" for his great scholarly work, she marries the self-centered intellectual Casaubon, twenty-seven years her senior. Dorothea is not the only character caught by the expectations of British society in this huge, sprawling book. Middlemarch stands above its large and varied fictional community, picking up and examining characters like a jeweler observing stones. There is Lydgate, a struggling young doctor in love with the beautiful but unsuitable Rosamond Vincy; Rosamond's gambling brother Fred and his love, the plain-speaking Mary Garth; Will Ladislaw, Casaubon's attractive cousin, and the ever-curious Mrs. Cadwallader. The characters mingle and interact, bowing and turning in an intricate dance of social expectations and desires. Through them George Eliot creates a full, textured picture of life in provincial nineteenth-century England.
http://www.amazon.com/Middlemarch-Oneworld-Classics-George-Eliot/dp/1847490174/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305071133&sr=1-1

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Amazon review:
"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the practices and gadgets we take for granted today--let's hope the sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren't yet to come.
http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305071457&sr=1-1

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Publisher's Weekly:
Nine years after winning the National Book Award, Franzen's The Corrections consistently appears on "Best of the Decade" lists and continues to enjoy a popularity that borders on the epochal, so much so that the first question facing Franzen's feverishly awaited follow-up is whether it can find its own voice in its predecessor's shadow. In short: yes, it does, and in a big way. Readers will recognize the strains of suburban tragedy afflicting St. Paul, Minn.'s Walter and Patty Berglund, once-gleaming gentrifiers now marred in the eyes of the community by Patty's increasingly erratic war on the right-wing neighbors with whom her eerily independent and sexually precocious teenage son, Joey, is besot, and, later, "greener than Greenpeace" Walter's well-publicized dealings with the coal industry's efforts to demolish a West Virginia mountaintop. The surprise is that the Berglunds' fall is outlined almost entirely in the novel's first 30 pages, freeing Franzen to delve into Patty's affluent East Coast girlhood, her sexual assault at the hands of a well-connected senior, doomed career as a college basketball star, and the long-running love triangle between Patty, Walter, and Walter's best friend, the budding rock star Richard Katz. By 2004, these combustible elements give rise to a host of modern predicaments: Richard, after a brief peak, is now washed up, living in Jersey City, laboring as a deck builder for Tribeca yuppies, and still eyeing Patty. The ever-scheming Joey gets in over his head with psychotically dedicated high school sweetheart and as a sub-subcontractor in the re-building of postinvasion Iraq. Walter's many moral compromises, which have grown to include shady dealings with Bush-Cheney cronies (not to mention the carnal intentions of his assistant, Lalitha), are taxing him to the breaking point. Patty, meanwhile, has descended into a morass of depression and self-loathing, and is considering breast augmentation when not working on her therapist-recommended autobiography. Franzen pits his excavation of the cracks in the nuclear family's facade against a backdrop of all-American faults and fissures, but where the book stands apart is that, no longer content merely to record the breakdown, Franzen tries to account for his often stridently unlikable characters and find where they (and we) went wrong, arriving at--incredibly--genuine hope.
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Novel-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0312600844/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305071782&sr=1-1

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Publisher's Weekly:
If some authors are masters of suspense, others postmodern verbal acrobats, and still others complex-character pointillists, few excel in all three arenas. In his long-awaited third novel, Franzen does. Unlike his previous works, The 27th City (1988) and Strong Motion (1992), which tackled St. Louis and Boston, respectively, this one skips from city to city (New York; St. Jude; Philadelphia; Vilnius, Lithuania) as it follows the delamination of the Lambert family Alfred, once a rigid disciplinarian, flounders against Parkinson's-induced dementia; Enid, his loyal and embittered wife, lusts for the perfect Midwestern Christmas; Denise, their daughter, launches the hippest restaurant in Philly; and Gary, their oldest son, grapples with depression, while Chip, his brother, attempts to shore his eroding self-confidence by joining forces with a self-mocking, Eastern-Bloc politician. As in his other novels, Franzen blends these personal dramas with expert technical cartwheels and savage commentary on larger social issues, such as the imbecility of laissez-faire parenting and the farcical nature of U.S.-Third World relations. The result is a book made of equal parts fury and humor, one that takes a dry-eyed look at our culture, at our pains and insecurities, while offering hope that, occasionally at least, we can reach some kind of understanding. This is, simply, a masterpiece.
http://www.amazon.com/Corrections-Novel-Jonathan-Franzen/dp/0312421273/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305071995&sr=1-1

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
Amazon review:
From as early as grade school, the world seemed to be on Nic Sheff's string. Bright and athletic, he excelled in any setting and appeared destined for greatness. Yet as childhood exuberance faded into teenage angst, the precocious boy found himself going down a much different path. Seduced by the illicit world of drugs and alcohol, he quickly found himself caught in the clutches of addiction. Beautiful Boy is Nic's story, but from the perspective of his father, David. Achingly honest, it chronicles the betrayal, pain, and terrifying question marks that haunt the loved ones of an addict. Many respond to addiction with a painful oath of silence, but David Sheff opens up personal wounds to reinforce that it is a disease, and must be treated as such. Most importantly, his journey provides those in similar situations with a commodity that they can never lose: hope.
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Boy-Fathers-Journey-Addiction/dp/B001VEHZYS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305113594&sr=1-1

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
from the book:
Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure.

The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe's shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures.

Like Brooks's beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha's Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb's Crossing further establishes Brooks's place as one of our most acclaimed novelists.
http://www.amazon.com/Calebs-Crossing-Novel-Geraldine-Brooks/dp/0670021040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305113845&sr=1-1

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie
Publisher's Weekly:
With vivid and energetic prose, Emmy Award–winner and author MacQuarrie (From the Andes to the Amazon) re-creates the 16th-century struggle for what would become modern-day Peru. The Incas ruled a 2,500–mile-long empire, but Spanish explorers, keen to enrich the crown and spread the Catholic Church, eventually destroyed Inca society. MacQuarrie, who writes with just the right amount of drama ("After the interpreter finished delivering the speech, silence once again gripped the square"), is to be commended for giving a balanced account of those events. This long and stylish book doesn't end with the final 1572 collapse of the Incas. Fast-forwarding to the 20th century, MacQuarrie tells the surprisingly fascinating story of scholars' evolving interpretations of Inca remains. In 1911, a young Yale professor of Latin American history named Hiram Bingham identified Machu Picchu as the nerve center of the empire. Few questioned Bingham's theory until after his death in 1956; in the 1960s Gene Savoy discovered the real Inca center of civilization, Vilcabamba. Although MacQuarrie dedicates just a few chapters to modern research, the archeologists who made the key discoveries emerge as well-developed characters, and the tale of digging up the empire is as riveting as the more familiar history of Spanish conquest.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Incas-Kim-MacQuarrie/dp/0743260503/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305320335&sr=1-1

Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
Publisher's Weekly:
San Francisco socialite and art-world doyenne Bibi Chen has planned the vacation of a lifetime along the notorious Burma Road for 12 of her dearest friends. Violently murdered days before takeoff, she's reduced to watching her friends bumble through their travels from the remove of the spirit world. Making the best of it, the 11 friends who aren't hung over depart their Myanmar resort on Christmas morning to boat across a misty lake—and vanish. The tourists find themselves trapped in jungle-covered mountains, held by a refugee tribe that believes Rupert, the group's surly teenager, is the reincarnation of their god Younger White Brother, come to save them from the unstable, militaristic Myanmar government. Tan's travelers, who range from a neurotic hypochondriac to the debonair, self-involved host of a show called The Fido Files, fight and flirt among themselves. While ensemble casting precludes the intimacy that characterizes Tan's mother-daughter stories, the book branches out with a broad plot and dynamic digressions. It's based on a true story, and Tan seems to be having fun with it, indulging in the wry, witty voice of Bibi while still exploring her signature questions of fate, connection, identity and family.
http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Fish-Drowning-Amy-Tan/dp/B002GJU418/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305320574&sr=1-1

The Element by Sir Kenneth Robinson
Publisher's Weekly:
Robinson (Out of Our Minds), renowned in the areas of creativity development, innovation and human resources, tackles the challenge of determining and pursuing work that is aligned with individual talents and passions to achieve well-being and success. The element is what he identifies as the point where the activities individuals enjoy and are naturally good at come together. Offering a wide range of stories about the creative journeys of different people with diverse paths to the element—including Paul McCartney, The Alchemist author Paulo Coelho, and Vidal Sassoon as well as lesser-known examples—he demonstrates a rich vision of human ability and creativity. Covering such topics as the power of creativity, circles of influence, and attitude and aptitude, the author emphasizes the importance of nurturing talent along with developing an understanding of how talent expresses itself differently in every individual. Robinson emphasizes the importance of mentors and reforming and transforming education, making a convincing argument bolstered by solid strategies for honing creativity. Motivating and persuasive, this entertaining and inspiring book will appeal to a wide audience.
http://www.amazon.com/Element-Finding-Passion-Changes-Everything/dp/0143116738/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305320870&sr=1-1

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Publisher's Weekly:
Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts.
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Tea-Mission-Promote/dp/0143038257/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305321137&sr=1-1

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Bookmarks:
Most critics agreed that Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is an entertaining read—lively and humorous, written with the intent to shock. More controversial is Chua’s stereotyping of Chinese and Western cultures, not to mention her authoritarian parenting methods. Critics judged the book largely by asking the following questions: Should self-esteem come before accomplishment, or accomplishment before self-esteem? If the latter, should it be achieved by threats and constant monitoring? Chua’s teenage daughters are undeniably accomplished, but at what emotional cost? While some reviewers found that Chua’s technique borders on abuse and her writing was, at best, self-serving, others were impressed by her parenting results and opined that the West could learn a few things from this remarkably driven Chinese American mother.
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/1594202842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305321263&sr=1-1

Dead Aid by Dambisi Moyo
Publisher's Weekly:
In this important analysis of the past fifty years of international (largely American) aid to Africa, economist and former World Bank consultant Moyo, a native of Zambia, prescribes a tough dose of medicine: stopping the tide of money that, however well-intentioned, only promotes corruption in government and dependence in citizens. With a global perspective and on-the-ground details, Moyo reveals that aid is often diverted to the coffers of cruel despotisms, and occasionally conflicts outright with the interests of citizens-free mosquito nets, for instance, killing the market for the native who sells them. In its place, Moyo advocates a smarter, though admittedly more difficult, policy of investment that has already worked to grow the economies of poor countries like Argentina and Brazil. Moyo writes with a general audience in mind, and doesn't hesitate to slow down and explain the intricacies of, say, the bond market. This is a brief, accessible look at the goals and reasons behind anti-aid advocates, with a hopeful outlook and a respectful attitude for the well-being and good faith of all involved.
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Aid-Working-Better-Africa/dp/1553655427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305321578&sr=1-1

March Book Club-Friday, March 18th

Greetings everyone~
Discussion of Wolf Hall will be happening on Friday, March 18th at Violeta Dumler's home beginning at 4:15 p.m.

Violeta's address is Gomez Sanchez 172, Urbanizacion La Aurora (which is parallel to Benavides-19th Benavides to be precise)

Here are the directions from Violeta:

1) Coming down the Benavides Ave. THE "first signal" you are close, is Higuereta(Plaza Vea) to your right and the "future" train...you´ll pass it underneath.

2) Two blocks farther you´ll see a big public school - Juana Alarco de Dammert, to your right too and there´s a light, as soon as you go through you drive one long block more (20th Benavides), then make a right (dead end) and my house will be, the second one to your left.
Violeta does ask that you RSVP if you are coming so she can plan accordingly. Her email is: abue1mumu@yahoo.com

Book Club-Sunday, December 12: A World for Julius

Greetings all~
I hope that you are all ready to discuss A World for Julius at our final book club of 2010. (or, at least you're like me, frantically trying to finish before Sunday!)

Below are the directions from Jane Murphy, who will be hosting on Sunday. Please take note of the message in bold and we look forward to seeing you soon. . .

When: Sunday, December 12th at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Calle Los Manzanos 264, Interior J, La Molina
How:
I live in a Quinta in San Isidro and my bottom flat is within a gated complex of various houses between Javier Prado
and Miroquesada on Los Manzanos. The closest distinctive buildings are Clinica Golf on Miroquesada or the Chinese Embassy on Granda. My house telephone number is 264-4611 and my cell: 99-276-4496. Please be aware that I do not have the capacity to get my messages...so, do not leave one, please. Please RSVP by Friday 9 December so that a small lunch can be prepared and planned for you. Our discussion group will also be walking around the San Isidro area to look at Julius' old home and also to go to his school on Angamos (thanks to Randa).

October Book Club-Sunday, October 24, 11 a.m.

Greetings clubbers~
It is time to gather once again, this time to discuss The Professor and the Housekeeper. And what better day of the week than Sunday to discuss such a quiet, reflective book? Randa Breuer will be hosting and the details are below (also take a look at Randa's special tour offer after the directions):

What: Have brunch and discuss The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (only 190 pages, so if you haven't read it yet, you can do so in NO TIME!)

Where: Randa Breuer's home

Malecon Pazos, 102 apt. # 301
Barranco, Lima
Telephone: 247-9339 (01 247 9339 if calling from a cell. phone)
989 252 260

Directions: Malecon Pazos is the continuation of the same Malecon of Miraflores, it keeps changing names. In Barranco, it becomes Paul Harris, then Mario Vargas Llosa (where he actually lives), then for one block, it is called Malecon Pazos. Right now, there is a building that is blocking the road, so when you get to my block, you can't miss it: It is blocked off and you have to take a small detour around:
Saenz Pena, go up to Dedalo, turn right just before dedalo, then first left, then U when you arrive to the Malecon.

My building is a red (wine colored) building directly above Cala Restaurant on the malecon.


If coming from the direction of the school: Take the via expresa de paseo de la Republica (known as the sanjon, the one that goes to Miraflores and Barranco), take it all the way to the LAST exit, and that will take take you right to Barranco.
Go Down Avenida del Sol (where Estudio Cuatro is).

Take a left turn at San Martin (just before the Malecon)

Pass one set of traffic lights, then you get to Saenz Pena where the Spanish Embassy is and Dedalo. Take a right on Saenz pena, U turn as if going to Dedalo, take a right just before dedalo, and follow the detour to get you to the Malecon where my block is and the construction.

Instructions for Taxi: Print out and give them the following directions and address:

Malecon Pazos 102
Barranco Lima

Es sobre el Malecon de Barranco pasando Saenz Pena (3 cuadras despues de Estudio Cuatro y avenida del sol)

PERO en esta misma cuadra el malecon esta cerrado.
Por favor tomar el desvio despues de Saenz pena y bajar hasta el malecon.

And after Book Club ends. . .
I would be happy to do a walking tour of Barranco after the book club is over. Let me know how many are interested. (say from 2-4).
If you have never spent time in Barranco, it is lovely. Some musts here are:
Dedalo (shop), art galleries (2 famous ones), Museo Pedro de Osma, (Entrance fee about 5-1- soles) Bridge of sighs (puente de los suspiros), bajada al mar (access to waterfront), and one extra special craft store run by an English lady (forgot the name).
Also, we are 5 minutes away from Larcomar by car, 20 minutes walk. So your family can meet you there and make a day of it. Plaza Kennedy is a lovely walk away.

Oh, yes, and Casacor will still be on until November first, and it is open on Sundays. That is about a 7-minute walk away.
What is Casacor? A consortium of architects and designers that renovate Casonas in Barranco and turn them into a showcase of their art and products. Well worth a visit. (entrance fee about 25 soles) This is an annual event.

Book Club is Back!

Hello again everyone~
It seems like it has been a long time since we last connected regarding book club, too long in fact. The wait is over though and it sounds like we may have some new blood joining us in our futile yet fun quest to read all the books worthy of our attention. The details:

When: Friday, September 24
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Where: Cynthia Herrera's home
Batallon Libres de Trujillo 237, Santa Teresa, Surco

Directions:

This is literally behind Chacarilla and close to the Franco Peruano school.

It’s parallel to the Panamericana Sur Highway, if you’re on the highway, you get off on Reynaldo Vivanco and drive down 2 blocks to Batallón Tarma. Make a left hand turn and follow the curve down past a small park and turn left on the first corner. That’s Batallón Trujillo.

If it’s easier, you can go down Velasco Astete to Caminos del Inca and turn left at Don Mamino and the traffic lights, drive one block and turn left at the next set of traffic lights. The first block says Ayacucho, but it turns into Batallón Trujillo after that first short block.

And Finally, the Why: We're be discussing Dave Eggers' epic novel What is the What. If you are eager to read more about the author or the subject of the book, here are some links that may interest you (thanks to Randa Breuer for sending the first link my way):

From the website dedicated to Valentino Achak Deng and his continued work for Sudan:

http://valentinoachakdeng.org/essay.php

The wikipedia entry for Dave Eggers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Eggers

Eggers on TedTalk:

http://www.ted.com/speakers/dave_eggers.html

A Few of Our Favorite Books

Greetings again, FDR Book Lovers~
With the school year rapidly coming to a close, I asked our book club members to tell us about one of their favorite books, because let's face it, the six books that we read each year for book club just isn't enough! Thanks to those who contributed one of their favorites and if you missed this time, don't worry, I'll probably be asking the question again sometime down the road. Here we go. . .

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Unlike many, I never read this book until I was an adult and have loved it ever since. I first read it because it was one of those classics everyone else seemed to have read. Immediately, I responded to the story, the narrative voice Lee created with Scout, and the issues which are still so relevant today. Then, I became an English teacher and decided to teach the novel with a class of 34 students (32 of them were Black and 2 of them Latin). From then on, I always elected to teach the novel whenever possible, and with older students as I found that they appreciated it on such a deeper level. Now, I've brought the book to my class of 18 International Baccalaureate students at the British-Peruvian school where I currently teach in Lima, Peru. Although I always enjoy re-reading stories - since I find I always get something new out of it - it is through my teen-aged students that I would call this novel one of my favorites. And despite the fact that I've read the story countless times, I find my eyes filling with tears and my voice catching as I read the final scene when Scout meets Boo and we realize the true meaning of the title...
-Aviva Baff

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
My favorite novel that I have read and reread at different stages of my life is Jane Eyre. It is totally linear, it has a bit of the martyr, the perfect soul, and it is terribly romantic. The language is beautiful and it is a perfectly satisfying read!
-Randa Breuer









A Very Long Engagement by Sebastian Japsirot
Immerse yourself in this beautifully written novel of WW I, part historical fiction, part mystery, part romance. When five French soldiers are court martialed for self-multilation to get out of combat, they are sent to the front lines through the notorious trenches, hands tied behind their backs, and pushed into No Man's Land for the Germans to shoot them. Five bodies are recovered, but who exactly were they? Mathilde Donnay, fiancee to one of the soldiers, tries everything she can to piece together what really happened, including writing letters to family members of the soldiers, traveling to speak to other soldiers, and hiring a private detective. She is an amazing heroine, full of wit and vigor even while confined to a wheelchair. As the story unravels, you will be mesmerized by her determination and hope that her beloved Manech survived.
-Kathy Caldwell

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
I chose this book as lately I get a hold of all possible information related to the Eastern world. . .it simply fascinates me. Awesome reading. It impressed me how the feelings and thoughts are so accurately expressed here. It tells the story of a young boy from Kabul, Afghanistan who befriended the son of his father's servant-another boy, his own age. It's set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy if AFG through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the U.S., and the rise of the Taliban regime.
-Violeta Dumler




Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
A tale of an Australian criminal in Bombay/Mumbai that keeps you turning the pages. A semi-autobiographical story set in a world few tourists see, or hope to see in Bombay/Mumbai. The adventure is also about friendships, loyalty, love and justice. (see Amazon for a better description)
-Melody Hopkins







If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was a master of the introvert's medium. Reading this book is more like listening to him tell a story. When the noise and the images and the demands become too much, I love to jump inside of Calvino's imagination and disappear into a world of the probable, even if I never arrive at the destination.
-Tim McKenna






Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
I only need one finger to count the number of (nearly) 1000 page epics that I've read more than once and that book is Lonesome Dove, which I intend to read a few more times in my life. Telling the story of a cattle drive from the border of Texas to the untapped wilderness of Montana, we follow a cast of colorful characters who struggle with mortality, love, cowardice along the way, not to mention a cold-blooded killer, thieves, deadly water moccasin snakes, and the whims of Mother Nature. All that, plus perhaps my favorite literary character of all-time in Augustus McCrae.
-Tim Stokes




Alright everyone, we will see you again sometime in August when details will be provided of our next book club meeting. Enjoy What is the What and the other books that may cross your path over the next couple months.

2010-11 Book Club Selections

A refugee, a math whiz, two maids, a King's assistant, a Peruanito, and a bridge. One or two words can hardly describe the rich selection of titles the FDR Book Club members chose for the 2010-11 campaign, but these pithy descriptors do provide an indication of the wide variety of selections for the upcoming year. Without further ado and with your own drum roll playing in your head, the unveiling:

September: What is the What by Dave Eggers (560 pages, paperback)
The book club chose two epics for the upcoming year, deciding to strategically place them when members will have more time available for leisure reading. We begin the year with Eggers' critically acclaimed story of a Sudanese refugee.

From the Publisher:

What Is the What is an epic novel about the lives of two boys during the Sudanese civil war. For those who think they know about the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, this novel will be an eye-opener. And if you think you know the work of Dave Eggers, this is in many ways a complete departure: it's straightforward and unflinching, and yet full of unexpected humor and adventure amid the madness of war.

Eggers has been working on the book for four years now, deeply entrenched in the community of Sudanese refugees in the U.S., and in 2003 went to southern Sudan with a refugee named Valentino Achak Deng. During that trip, Deng was reunited with the family he hadn't seen in 17 years. What Is the What is a book about the lives of these two boys — one, at seven, too young to know what's happening to his country; the other, at ten, old enough to fight for the rebel army.

Through it all, the two boys persevere through one of the most brutal civil wars the world has ever known, finding themselves in one unbelievable, utterly surreal situation after another. What Is the What is thought-provoking, exciting, and repeatedly heartbreaking.

October: The Housekeeper & the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (192 pages)
Our October selection garnered several votes from the book club members and is eagerly anticipated by several.

From the Publisher:

He is a brilliant math professor, with a peculiar problem — since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young housekeeper with a ten-year-old son who is hired to care for him. And between them a strange, beautiful relationship blossoms. Though the professor can hold new memories for only eighty minuets, his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past; and through him, the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the housekeeper and her son. The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family where one before did not exist.

November: A World for Julius by Alfredo Bryce Echenique (450 pages)

We end the first half of the book club year with the classic 1970 novel that centers around a young Peruvian boy. This book garnered the most votes from book club members among the various choices.

From the Publisher:

Julius was born in a mansion on Salaverry Avenue, directly across from the old San Felipe Hippodrome. Life-size Disney characters and cowboy movie heroes romp across the walls of his nursery. Out in the carriage house, his great-grandfather's ornate, moldering carriage takes him on imaginary adventures. But Julius's father is dead, and his beautiful young mother passes through her children's lives like an ephemeral shooting star. Despite the soft shelter of family and money, hard realities overshadow Julius's expanding world, just as the rugged Andes loom over his home in Lima.

March: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (672 pages)

The big boy arrives! We'll be keeping you occupied over your summer/winter vacation (depending upon your hemisphere) with this tale from the days of King Henry VIII.

From the Publisher:

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power.

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

In Mantel's 16th century monarchy, individuals must fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

April: The Help by Kathyrn Stockett (451 pages)

Nominated by several members and enthusiastically voted upon for inclusion, April brings this popular choice (available in paperback, January 4, 2011).

From the Publisher:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobodyas business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

May: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (160 pages)

The final book of the year is Wilder's classic set in 18th century Peru which takes on the weighty questions of life in its brief pages.

From the Publisher:

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714,the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world.

By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His search leads to his own death — and to the author's timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.