January 25, 2011
Posted by Dana
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If your book club wants THE hot new title and doesn't mind reading a hardcover, have I got a recommendation for you:
CLARA AND MR.
January 2011
Readers may remember Juliette Fay from her debut novel, SHELTER ME, which was one of my early Bets On selections. She returns with a new Bets On selection this week, DEEP DOWN TRUE.Here, Dana Stellgarten is newly divorced and still a bit jangled about it. She has two kids with divided lives, shuffling between their mom and dad, a niece who shows up on her doorstep in all her Goth glory to clock some time with her, and enough drama in her life to make a woman get a job for some sanity as well as a paycheck.
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When 7-year-old Bethany meets her 6-year-old cousin Reana Mae, it’s the beginning of a kinship of misfits that saves both from a bone-deep loneliness.
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Charlie Giles is at the top of his game. An electronics superstar, he’s sold his startup company to a giant Boston firm, where he’s now a senior director. With his dog, Monte, at his side, Charlie is treated like a VIP everywhere he goes.
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January 2011
Bullying is the topic du jour these days. But we have not seen a story quite like what I read in A THOUSAND CUTS by Simon Lelic.
Here’s the line that drew me in: Samuel Szajkowski, a history teacher, walks into a school assembly and turns an ordinary day into a memorable one as he pulls a gun and kills three students and a co-worker before turning the gun on himself.
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—Matthew Pearl, author of THE DANTE CLUB and THE POE SHADOW
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
January 24, 2011
Posted by Dana
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Barbara Kingsolver's novel
THE LACUNA is the life story of a fictional author, Harrison Shepherd, who came of age in Mexico with with real life historic figures Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Lev and Natalia Trotsky and then moved to America to write during the time of J. Edgar Hoover and the American witch hunt for communists.
January 21, 2011
Posted by Dana
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As American women, we often take our freedom for granted. Our right to read and write and speak freely are just there and not something we take time to be thankful for. But this is not the case in many places in the world. In today's post, regular contributor Denise Neary shares a story of Afghan women who are risking everything to tell their stories and the organization that is helping them do it.
