Reading Lolita in Tehran

One of our two books for June 2009 was “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi.  The riots over the election results keeping President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power were happening as we read this book. The passage quoted below from the book struck me as particularly enlightening about Iranian culture.
When reading this book, I thought time and time again [...]

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

In February, our book club read The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (translated by Reg Keeland).  Everyone decided that it was “just what we needed.”  We usually read literary works — national book award winners, etc.  But sometimes you just need to read a mystery.  And this is a smart mystery.  We admired [...]

“Shadow Country,” book for January 2009

 
Our book club is reading Peter Matthiessen’s “Shadow Country: A New Rendering of the Watson Legend” for January 2009.
Judges for the National Book Award honored a comeback on November 19, 2008, giving the fiction award to Peter Matthiessen’s “Shadow Country,” a thorough revision of a trilogy of novels from the 1990s. Matthiessen, 81, last won [...]

The Story Behind Edgar Sawtelle

Here is the link to David Wroblewski’s the story behind “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.”  Our book club read this book as our September choice and we unanimously agreed we would recommend it.  Seldom are we all in accord!  Oprah now has decided to jump on our bandwagon and has recommended it for her book club, [...]

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe was recently featured in the Sept. 8, 2008, Time Magazine.
In 1998, we read Tom Wolfe’s recently published “A Man in Full,” a heavy tome that I’ve just gotten from the shelf and dusted off. I remember it was hot enough off the press then that I had to buy the thing. The waiting list [...]

George Orwell is in the news again! (with Evelyn Waugh)

Some people just can’t keep out of the news.  I recently wrote in this blog about George Orwell’s new blog, which is on the blatherblog blogroll – that’s a tongue twister! 
Now Orwell is the subject of a new book along with Evelyn Waugh.  The book, The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and [...]

The House on Fortune Street

 
Here are links to two reviews of “The House on Fortune Street.”  The first is by a woman, the second by a man.  They are interestingly different in how they describe the characters and the story. Cathy
Romance Languages
Home as a Power Base and Balm to an Arid Heart

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (September 2008 book)

This is the September book.  Here’s a link to a New York Times book review about ”The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” Talking to Dogs, Without a Word