Category Archives: Books

African Stories.

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If you’re looking for recommendations on the “new generation” of African authors, the July issue of Vanity Fair profiles eight of the former “Lions” and 11 or so of the “new wave.” If you can’t find the issue, I’ll let you borrow it.

I, of course, am far more familiar with the old guard. I’ve never forgotten “Burger’s Daughter” (Nadine Gordimer) which I read many, many years ago and I’ve read a few books by J.M. Coetzee. Although one author I read recently is on the new wave list….

(This issue also contains a 1-pager by Bill Clinton on Mandela and their joint HIV efforts that brought tears to my eyes. And a very interesting expose on Diana [P. of W.].)

Fantasy: “Ghosts of Albion: Accursed” by Amber Benson & Christopher Golden

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So apparently there was an online BBC series that began the story of these characters; however I did not find that you needed to have read it to understand and enjoy what goes on here. Two siblings find that on their grandfather’s death they have been appointed the “Protectors of Albion,” mystical defenders of England. 19th century London, feels very Dickensian in its descriptions, but set in Jane Austen’s society world. Ghosts of some of England’s historical heroes (Lord Admiral Nelson, Lord Byron) are their helpers, as well as a vampire (yay!), and Protectors from other lands. Very engaging and personable. So many well-rounded characters, you’re sure to find someone you want to root for. I’ve already got the next in the series waiting in my pile!

(Yes, it’s THAT Amber Benson.)

Fiction: “An Invisible Sign of My Own” by Aimee Bender

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I really haven’t read many people Aimee Bender can be compared to. As when I read some of her short stories in 2005, her writing is not so much “fantasy” as “writing set in the normal world with fantastical elements.” This novel has less of those elements than her short stories do, yet it has the same overall feeling to me.

Mona is a numbers person. Obsessive compulsive, but not in the typical way, and perhaps beyond that. Tender and moving, sad and sometimes scary. Yet ultimately hopeful. Your heart breaks for this girl, with her worries and her need for control and her unwillingness to accept the happy… I would have happily kept reading about her long after the last page.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Making: I’m doing the quilting on Mariko’s quilt. And pretty much nothing else.

Reading: Finally breaking into my Mark Helprin stash with “Freddy and Fredericka.” It’s got a good dose of irreverence and I am quite enjoying it.

Watching: I finished Buffy and Angel…and then I started all over again, but much slower this time (only one a day!). Also just rewatched season 1 of Bones: the Emily Deschanel/David Boreanaz commentary on disc 3 is a LOT of fun. I don’t usually listen to those on movies, but I got into them on Buffy (although on Buffy, they give away MAJOR MAJOR plot points from future seasons. You’ve been warned. My dad, sadly, was caught unawares by a couple of doozies).

Listening: I bought a boatload of new music in the past couple of days and am just slowly making my way through it. So far the White Stripes “Icky Thump” is really rockin’ out.

Fiction: “Single Wife” by Nina Solomon

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Pretty intriguing premise: Grace’s husband vanishes on what she assumes is one of his regular “missing for 3 days, returns like he’s never been gone” jaunts. So she keeps up appearances, pretends he’s at work, or traveling, messes up his clothes to fool the cleaning lady, lies to her/his parents, etc. Yet this time, it’s not three days or three weeks or…

Yet not only does her deception seem to be working incredibly well, others report citings of Laz, or emails. Is he really gone for good, or…

A lot of good stuff in here — plus it’s a good New York/Chicago book with lots of landmarks and reminders from both cities.

Summer Reading

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NPR has a number of summer book lists up, this one has a lot of good stuff on it: new Michael Ondaatje!; book #3 in the “Bangkok 8” series (oops, I haven’t read #2 yet); Bruce Chatwin is definitely great summer fare, always making his way through steamy places; this is the second place today I’ve read about “The Dud Avocado”; “The Children’s Hospital” sounds good; and I’ve been a fan of Anne Fadiman for quite some time now.

Now if it weren’t for the two stacks of books I bought at the Printer’s Row Book Fair this weekend, as well as the two shelves of unreads I’ve lately been giving books away from in despair that they’ll ever find a reader….

Definition #3 really does it for me.

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Brocha holds the braided candle, and Isaac says the prayer marking the end of Shabbat. After he says the last words, Hamavdil ben kodesh lihol, Nina asks, “What do you think is the best translation for that?”

“Blessed be he who separates the holy from the profane,” Isaac says.

“The sacred from the secular,” puts in Elizabeth.

“The transcendent moment from the workaday world,” suggests old Rabbi Sobel in his quaverying voice.

“Mm.” they pause around the smoking candle.

–from “Kaaterskill Falls” by Allegra Goodman

Fiction: “Kaaterskill Falls” by Allegra Goodman

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I think I picked up this paperback after Goodman’s more recent book “Intuition” started being reviewed all over the place. And as to why I decided to read it now, I guess Michael Chabon’s latest got me in the mood for random outbursts of Yiddish (and/or Hebrew) and explications of Talmudic law!

The plot was somewhat meandering (no big climax at the end) and predictable — surely all intelligent people must struggle at one time or another with belief and the irrationality of restrictive religions — but the intelligence and integrity of the writing kept me interested.
Elizabeth was a wonderfully written character, I really enjoyed thinking through her thoughts.

And if you yourself are now in the mood for some yiddish, how about a list of ways to incorporate Yiddish into bedroom talk, via Josh Berg, a friend of a friend.

Fiction: “Pippa Passes” by Rumer Godden

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Un petit roman about a young ballerina who goes to Venice and blossoms. Sweet and light. But pretty inconsequential.

If you are interested in reading Rumer Godden, an author of some renown although you don’t hear much about her these days, I highly (HIGHLY!!) recommend instead both “In This House of Brede” and “China Court” both of which are easy to obtain, in my experience, at any decent-sized used bookstore.

I’ve told you this before, but FYI the author is the namesake of Bruce & Demi’s child.