Book Recommendations
Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami
With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
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December 16,2007.
Slaughterhouse 5
by Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut was a genius. If you were a publisher reading the synopsis (if he ever did such a thing!) on Slaughterhouse 5 you would probably need to have a lie down for a while, whilst you wondered if you ever dared print such a thing. But back in 1969 it was, and drew interest at a time of ant-war protests in the US. Vonnegut follows Billy Pilgrim as he stumbles towards the curtain of the Allied bombing of Dresden at the end of World War 2. In-between Billy slips in and out of time travel and is kidnapped by an alien race called the Tralfamadorians who put him in a zoo. The aliens perceive all points in time at once: "When a Tralfamodorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that person is just fine in plenty of other moments." Billy also meets his favourite author Kilgore Trout. "Are - you Kilgore Trout?" "Yes." Trout supposed that Billy had some complaint about the way his newspapers were being delivered. He did not think of himself as a writer for the simple reason that the world had never allowed him to think of himself in this way. "The - the writer?" said Billy. "The what?" Slaughterhouse works on a number of levels. (Let me be clear, the book should not work, the fact that it does is a testament to Vonnegut.) It is funny, moving and informative. It brings into perspective the level of suffering in a city which Vonnegut describes as having no military significance (it was untouched until the bombing at the end of the war). Vonnegut himself survived the bombing as a prisoner of war in Dresden.
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Dreams of Speaking
by Gail Jones
Modern science, machines, and technology provoke fascination for Alice in Gail Jones's Dreams of Speaking. Boxed up in an apartment in Paris she attempts to write out this fascination. She encounters the intelligent Mr. Sakamoto, who shares her interests and introduces her, through their random and comfortable friendship, to information on the many wonders of modernity. (Reviewed By Angela Meyer)
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The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened.
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The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas père, Richard Pevear (Translator)
As his masterful translation of Anna Karenina proved, Peavar is adept at bringing classics of world literature to life. In a translation that's colloquial and accessible, Peavar's Three Musketeers is an invigorating story of derring-do and court intrigue that's given little boys reason to swordfight each other for hundreds of years.
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A Piece of Normal
by Sandi Kahn Shelton
Shelton's wonderful story about an advice columnist for a smalltown newspaper who can't seem to change her own life for the better will make you laugh and make you think. Pitch perfect and memorable, A Piece of Normal is the perfect thing to read when you want to be entertained by a really smart, really funny friend.
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The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan
Lots of food for thought in Michael Pollan's beautifully written book about why and how we eat what we eat -- and what might be wrong with that. You'll never look at a Chicken McNugget in quite the same way again. A terrific, conversation-provoking choice for reading groups.
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The Elements of Style Illustrated
by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White
Take one classic and well-loved style manual, and mix it with witty illustrations by children's book author and New Yorker cover artist Maira Kalman and you have this week's recommendation. For those who don't know, Strunk & White's little book on writing well is no hoary tome of dusty grammar rules. It's an inspiring read that's as light on its feet today as it was when it first came out decades ago. Now paired with wonderful illustrations by Maira Kalman, it's worth revisiting, or coming to for the first time.
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