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Paperback Fiction The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood This Booker Prize-winning novel is an expansive narrative with so many complexities that it has been described as a novel, a memoir, a mystery, a love story, and a work of science fiction. It is the story of the lives of two sisters, Iris Chase Griffen and Laura Chase. Iris, the narrator, has outlived her sister Laura by many decades. As an old woman remembering the past, Iris begins her tale with a blunt accounting of her sister's death: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." The mysterious circumstances surrounding Laura's death, as well as the death of others, become one of many focal points in the narrative. To develop her novel, Atwood uses curious devices. She intersperses excerpts from a novel that Laura wrote just prior to her death. She also interjects newspaper articles to convey facts and science fiction tales to foment a sense of the phantasmagorical. As multi-genre as this novel seems, Atwood aptly creates a harmonious work that bubbles with precise insights, fierce characters, crisp wit and steely realism.
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It's 1939 and WW II has begun. Josef Kavalier, a young boy living in Nazi-occupied Prague, smuggles himself out of Europe and into the home of his Brooklynite cousin, Sammy Klayman. Joe's talent as an artist and Sam's eloquence with words immediately catapult them into a collaboration that creates a world of comic book superheroes that battle evil and oppression. While Sam dreams of acquiring fame and fortune from this venture, Joe sees it as a way to fund his family's flight to freedom. As expected, Hitler and his atrocities provide the boys with a heinous archetype and an endless supply of nefarious deeds. To counter the forces of evil, they create the awe inspiring Escapist who "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains!" Aided by a cast of mighty crusaders they crush and defeat a host of dark side warriors. Like the gallant characters that inhabit this book, Chabon too is endowed with super powers.Throughout this voluminous work (over 700 pages), he masterfully manipulates plot, characters, setting, tone, and dialogue. His prose is electric, his agenda ingenious. By showing us that art can be as effective as combat in fighting a war, Chabon reminds us that there are many ways to win battles and bring solace to those struggling in a cataclysmic world.
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Steve Martin, both a Grammy winning comedian and Emmy winning television writer, gives us his latest creative venture in the form of a best-selling novella. The story is about Mirabelle, a young woman who has traded the tedium of small town life for the numbing monotony of selling gloves at a Neiman Marcus department store. With few friends and no motivation to expand her shallow life, Mirabelle blunts the pain of her isolation with prescription drugs and expresses her despair by producing art that exudes a hopeless ennui. To enliven this otherwise leaden tale of futility, Martin introduces Ray Porter, an egocentric, divorced millionaire who finds Mirabelle enticing. For comic relief, Martin interjects Jeremy and Lisa. Jeremy, a laundromat acquaintance, adores Mirabelle from afar and yearns for her affection. Lisa, a predatory man-eater, stalks Porter as he, unaware, circles his prey, Mirabelle. Although Shopgirl can be wrenching, Martin's capacity for humor brings levity to this work. As such, Shopgirl isn't a bleak tale of woe. It's a dark comedy of manners.
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Rarely, has art-history been so compelling. At the center of this novel is Johannes Vermeer, the master painter of the Dutch Golden Age and a 16 year old housemaid, Greit, who sat as the model for his famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Set in 17th Century Delft, the novel interweaves the few known facts about Vermeer's life with credible speculation about the events surrounding the creation of this famous work. Vermeer's much lauded ability to paint poignant moments of domestic life while melding texture and light serves as the novel's backdrop. Interspersed is the tale of Greit, first as maid then as model, whose value to Vermeer grows so that when she finally poses for this revered work she wears the precious earrings of Vermeer's very jealous wife.
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Inspired by a biblical tale in Genesis, Diamant's novel is narrated by Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob and Leah. The story told is an intimate account of the daily life of Jacob's four wives and only daughter. As such, it delves deeply into the feminine world of birthing, menses, marriage, and aging which, in turn, provides a rich trove of sisterhood stories about the secrets, loyalties, betrayals, and grudges that occurred among the women. Because a red tent is the primary gathering place for the women, it serves as both setting and symbol providing physical shelter and emotional support.
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This Pulitzer Prize winning debut is a collection of nine stories that explore the complexities of adjustment that occur when new situations, relationships, and cultures are encountered. Within settings either in India or abroad, Lahiri's Indian born characters seek to forge a balance between their deeply rooted heritage and the expectations that unfamiliar experiences bring.The awkward feeling of foreignness that suffuses all of Lahiri's characters demonstrates her versatility with setting and tone. To develop this feeling of disconnectedness, she changes physical locales frequently.To establish a tone of distance, she has new emotions emerge in her characters as they evolve. Her intimate awareness of human feelings and the universality of her themes allow her stories to transcend ethnicity making their lessons applicable to all.
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Compiled by best selling author Nick Hornby and written by a cast of talented, young story-tellers, Speaking with the Angel is an unusual anthology of first person narratives. Never before published, these tales are fresh takes on our postmodern era and the pop culture that permeates it. Although edgy, irreverent, and sometimes outrageous, these stories have been compiled, not only to entertain, but to also serve a higher purpose. Hornby, the father of an autistic son, aspires to assist others afflicted with this disorder by donating a portion of each book's sale to the organizations that benefit autism worldwide. And while the challenges confronted by the characters in these stories are not ones of autism, the underlying themes within suggest that all humans, in some way, are afflicted. As such, it's quite possible that these very different stories might be promoting a single universal creed: for all to heal, we all must help in what ever ways we are able.
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In this exceptional work of historical fiction, Susan Vreeland takes a clever premise and expertly weaves eight interrelated tales to produce a single, stunning work of art. Johannes Vermeer, a 17th Century Dutch master painter, is known to have produced 35 works of art, but in Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Vreeland proposes that he painted a 36th. For Vreeland, this last painting serves as her most important literary device. By documenting its travels from owner to owner and describing the different attributes that each owner admired about the work, Vreeland actually paints the portrait using prose as her medium. In addition, she also provides a rich trove of history about its many owners from the 17th century to the present. Working backward in time, the story begins in the basement of its current owner, the son of a Nazi soldier, and concludes within the moment that Vermeer first became inspired by the sight of his young daughter dressed in a smock of hyacinth blue.
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Paperback Non-Fiction Personal History by Katharine Graham Written by one of America's most respected and admired women, Personal History is Katharine's Graham's candid memoir that chronicles her life from privileged childhood to venerable publisher. Born to multimillionaire, Eugene Meyer and Agnes Ernst, Graham describes her early life as one of enviable affluence marred by the tyranny of an overbearing father and the neglect of a self-absorbed mother. As a young woman, Graham acknowledges that although she was well educated and intelligent, she lacked self-confidence and initiative. Accustomed to life as the subservient daughter, she easily assumed the role of subservient wife when she married her charismatic suitor, Phil Graham. Her happiness soon eroded, however, as her husband's manic-depression worsened and his infidelities increased. Her cataclysmic marriage ended abruptly when her husband committed suicide. As overseer of The Washington Post, Graham's father bequeathed this job to his son-in-law. Following Phil Graham's death, Katharine assumed the helm. With no training and a frail ego, Graham grappled with the challenges of running a newspaper. Soon, national events tested her ability to perform the job and each time she did so admirably. Her adept navigation of the journalistic quagmires created by the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the pressmen's strike, transformed The Washington Post into one of the nation's most respected news organizations. Graham's introspective commentary, humorous anecdotes, and gracious treatment of both friends and foes make Personal History not only a spectacular read, but proof that the public's opinion is well deserved: Katharine Graham was one incredible person.
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 Guns, Germs, and Steel : The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond Despite impressive credentials as an evolutionary biologist, Diamond's attempt to chronicle 13,000 years of global history seems to be not only grandiose but, by the vast scope of the undertaking, unachievable.Yet, after reading and delving deeper, it seems that he has admirably succeeded in summarizing human history and building a plausible argument that geography and environment (and not race and culture) shaped the modern world. In essence, the areas of the earth best endowed with plants, animals and climates became populated centers where trades, laws, and literacy emerged. Consequently, societies viewed today as "privileged" in contrast to those perceived as "underprivileged" are those groups that became civilized earliest in history. Given the scope of what Diamond covers in this work and the almost 500 pages within which he does it, readers should be pleased. Neither short-changed nor overburdened, they are treated to an exciting new way to envision the world.
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 Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik In 1995, Adam Gopnik, his wife, and infant son moved to Paris. As a foreign correspondent for The New Yorker, Gopnik was transplanted to the City of Light to write a column called the Paris Journals. For the next 5 years, Gopnik wrote about his observations and experiences from the perspective of "an American abroad." Upon his return to New York, he decided to write a series of essays derived from his columns and the private journal he kept while in Paris.The result was Paris to the Moon, a comic, sentimental collection about his expatriate family experiencing both the romantic and exasperating aspects of Paris life. The magical portrait of Paris that emerges is one of tree-lined boulevards, charming sidewalk cafés, quaint shops, dazzling façades, strolling shoppers, and violet twilights. In contrast, the targets of Gopnik's ire are a bit eccentric: the decline of French dominance in haute couture & cooking, the annoying bureaucracy of Parisian fitness clubs, and the peculiarities of French kindergartens. As a journalist who has won numerous reporting awards, Gopnik admirably succeeds in forging a type of literary journalism that eloquently blends the magical with the absurd. For Francophiles, this is un piece de resistance.
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 Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose From interviews with survivors as well as the journals and letters of deceased soldiers, Stephen Ambrose vividly recounts the story of the "Screaming Eagles." According to Ambrose, Easy Company was the most famous and admired of all eighty-nine divisions of the United States Army during the Second World War. This elite fighting force consisted of 147 men who joined simply because they wanted to be the best soldiers in the army. From 1941 to 1945, these men were not only the best Army GIs, they were also the best combat paratroopers in the world. Although the battle group was ordained "Easy Company" there was nothing "easy" about being a member of this outfit. After enduring months of grueling physical and mental training, these men went on to serve in the most horrifying battles of World War II. Some of their battlegrounds included Normandy's Utah Beach, the Netherlands's Arnhem, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Rhine offensive. They also assisted in the liberation of Dachau and in the taking of Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" in Bavaria. Their strong bond of brotherhood and "fight to the death" creed emerged not only because they shared heroic missions, but because they also shared atrocities common to all combatants: shell shock, starvation, foxhole freezing, and a host of debilitating diseases. In Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose starkly chronicles E Company and the war they fought. As both an accolade and a cautionary tale, the book hails the men and their heroics all the while reminding us that even the most physically fit and expertly trained suffered and succumbed.
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 It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong's first Tour de France victory was proclaimed by the media to be one of the most memorable moments in sports history. Armstrong's triumph was viewed as astounding because of the incredible odds he beat to win this world-class cycling race. As a senior in high school, Armstrong was already regarded as a talented and tenacious competitor. At 18, he was a professional triathlete and was training with the U.S. Olympic cycling team. In 1993, his hardwork paid off. He won the World Cycling Championship and secured a stage in the Tour de France. And when it seemed that nothing could stop Armstrong's rise to the top, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Accustomed to grueling work-outs and beating formidable odds, he brought this same endurance and determination to his battle with the disease. He researched his illness and its treatment options, interviewed physicians, and assisted in designing his therapy. And even when the cancer spread to his lungs and brain, he refused to give up. It's Not About the Bike is the story of his ordeal, recovery, and reclamation of champion status in the world of cycling. After winning his fight against cancer, he became a two-time winner of the Tour de France, married the girl of his dreams, and became a father. This story chronicles the successes, set-backs, and strength of Armstrong's indomitable spirit.
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 Galileo's Daughter : A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel Upon learning that 124 letters written by Galileo's daughter, Maria Celeste, were intact and preserved at the National Central Library of Florence, Dava Sobel traveled to Italy to read and translate them. As an award winning science writer, Sobel keenly recognized their value as a foundation for a historical biography about Galileo. Maria Celeste was born in 1600 and was the eldest of Galileo's three illegitimate children. Because her illegitimacy made her unmarriageable, Galileo placed her in a cloistered Franciscan convent at the age of thirteen. From there, she maintained a lifelong correspondence with him.Through her letters and Sobel's interwoven narrative, a loving father-daughter relationship is revealed. Directly from Maria Celeste's correspondence, we learn about Galileo's invention of the first telescope, his startling deduction about the Earth's orbit around the sun, her role in transcribing his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican, and his heresy conviction which lead to his being placed under house arrest. Brilliantly constructed and eloquently written, this work suffers only from Sobel's inability to access Galileo's letters to his daughter. Sadly, Sobel suspects that those letters were probably destroyed by the Mother Abbess out of fear that the Church might make a connection between them and a heretic's daughter.
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The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857. After 70 years of painstaking labor and dedication, its 12 volumes represented the most compact and complete history of the English language. Spearheaded by Professor James Murray, this compendium became regarded as an unprecedented literary feat. It integrated the largest collection of quotations from published works and described every connotation of every word in the English language. Winchester's story about the making of the OED is a fascinating tale, not only because it describes the most ambitious literary project ever undertaken, but because it reveals that its most valuable contributor was a schizophrenic murderer imprisoned in an asylum for the criminally insane. Both a physician and a Civil War veteran, Dr. William Chester Minor submitted more than 10,000 entries. That this potentially dry account about the vocabulary of language is exhilarating, suspenseful and intriguing, is entirely due to the author's masterful research and eloquent prose. Winchester, a British Journalist and author of 12 other books, blends a reporter's quest for detail with a historian's penchant for cause and effect. The result is a riveting read.
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 Georgiana : Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman Just when it seems that the past has been exhausted of colorful characters worthy of a tell-all biography, an under-appreciated personage worthy of profile is plucked from the past. Eighteenth Century England's Duchess Georgiana Spenser was rich, flamboyant, hedonistic, and politically savvy. As a champion of the Whigs, the Duchess was both reviled and worshipped by the British press for her brazen efforts to influence Parliament and princes. This impressive historical biography by Foreman, is both a treat and treatise. Foreman's diligent archival research and polished prose make the book both scandalous and scholarly. Many parallels have been made between Georgiana and her descendant, the late Lady Diana, due to their similar public personas and tormented personal lives. Foreman rejects these claims as coincidences but readers are encouraged to examine the facts before rendering a decision.
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 The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav According to Gary Zukav, human beings have entered a new phase of evolution. In the first phase, our acquisition of self knowledge and worth occurred through our physical senses and our ability to control our environment. In this second phase, we now seek self awareness and importance by way of the soul. The impetus for this change in how we perceive the self and become empowered comes from our growing desire to be less body-dependant and more spirit-reliant. As immortal souls first and physical beings second, Zukav believes that human beings have become aware that harmony and happiness can only be attained from changes made within. Striving to attain fulfillment solely through the mastery of our external environment neglects the essence of what we truly are and promotes only violence and destruction. In this unusual work, Zukav maps the genome of the soul and, in simple language and clear logic, provides the care plan we need to nourish it and make it flourish.
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 Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces by Tom Clancy, John Gresham, William Yarborough This is Clancy's seventh book in a series that profiles elite agencies within the U.S. military. At present, it is the most comprehensive overview of the U.S. Army Special Forces. In this volume, Clancy studies the soldiers who are "perhaps America's most professional and capable warriors." Known to many as the Green Berets, this male-only, fighting fraternity is often the first to deploy to the world's most dangerous epicenters of war. Once on the scene, they execute secret counterinsurgency missions that range from the covert corruption of enemy morale to hand-to-hand guerilla combat. Unlike most soldiers who specialize in one type of job, the SF are trained to be adept at a broad range of fighting skills. They are expected to function at all times at their physical and mental best and, while they are trained primarily for combat and surveillance operations, they also provide catastrophic disaster relief. Besides describing the standard SF profile and the ways the men are recruited and trained, Clancy also discusses specific SF missions as well as the weaponry, communication systems, and survival gear used to perform them. Clancy is impressed by this premier fighting force and, as expected, his portrayal is one of praise and admiration.
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American born, Bill Bryson lived and worked for 20 years in England where he wrote for British and American publications. Upon his return stateside, he settled in Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife and four children. To reacquaint himself with his native country and to get "fit after years of waddlesome sloth," Bryson persuaded his life long chum, Stephen Katz, to accompany him on a trek of the Appalachian Trail. What follows is a hilarious escapade that Bryson retells as part travelogue, history lesson, botany field-trip, and conservation appeal. What makes this book so engaging is Bryson's self deprecating humor and his gentle ridicule of a very stout and sluggish Katz. With 25 pounds of Snickers Bars (Katz's for life sustenance) and 11 books and 59 maps (Bryson's for must-have navigational accuracy) the two set out to slog the trail's 2,100 miles. Beset by the threat of bear encounters, the intermittent loss (or jettisoning) of provisions, bouts of bodily incapacitation, and other annoyances too numerous to count, the pair finally surrenders after lumbering an impressive 800 miles. Bryson's insightful entertainment with a wilderness backdrop is a must-read. It's so enjoyable, in fact, that readers can only hope that sequels of Bryson and Katz scaling a minor summit or swimming a small estuary are trips already in the works.
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Turning 50 was a transformative event in Joan Anderson's life. It prompted not only an evaluation of the years she had already lived, but it also caused her to speculate about the unlived years yet to come. Having dedicated much of her existence to a husband and family, Anderson saw only a stale marriage, an empty nest, and the discontented person she had become. In this narrative memoir, Anderson describes the “retreat, repair, renewal and regeneration” that occurred while she lived alone by the ocean for a year. This solitude by the sea prompted Anderson to use the wonders of nature to create metaphors that brought insight, self-discovery, and purpose to her empty life. To potentiate her soul-searching experience, she began to record her thoughts for later reflection. From observations like, “As wave after wave hits the beach they transform the shoreline in a different way each time,” she made parallels to her own life and began establishing goals for her future. Her ability to reconnect, reconstruct, and infuse her mid-life with meaning inspired her to write about her experience “in hopes of invigorating other women to take time away to restore themselves.”
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 Desire of the Everlasting Hills : The World Before and After Jesus (Hinges of History, Vol 3) by Thomas Cahill, Luann Walther In this third volume of the best-selling Hinges of History series (How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews), Cahill uses historical facts, theological doctrine, political events, sociological observations, and a 21st Century perspective to tell the story of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. To do this, Cahill begins by profiling each gospel writer's life by providing a detailed description of each. He presents the Gospel narratives, the Pauline letters, and the history of the early church so credible conjectures can be made about the forces that influenced each writer. He then explores how each writer influenced Christianity. Within this framework, Cahill interweaves the central question: Did Jesus' life and death indelibly influence ancient as well as modern civilization? While the precise depth and breadth of Jesus' influence may never reach a consensus, Cahill presents his answer and provides arguments to support it. On the plus side, Cahill makes wrestling with complex liturgical issues surprisingly pleasant by making his language user-friendly. Conversely, when issues still under hot scholarly debate are discussed, he dismisses arguments that don't support his theories. Overall, this book, like its two preceding volumes, is an impressive undertaking. To call into question the tenets of traditional theology as well as today's radical revisionist interpretations of the Bible, is a commendable feat many capable writers are reluctant to attempt.
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Paperback Advice
Phillip C.McGraw, a psychologist and self-described "strategist," specializes in helping people improve the quality of their life.The basic premise underlying his approach is that some people live life reacting to happenstances, while others proactively shape life's happenings to accommodate their goals. In other words, McGraw promotes the mindset that people should be the determiners of their destiny and not pawns controlled by random circumstance.To create a Life Strategy that promotes the attainment of any goal, he believes that people must do 4 things. First, they must engage in brutally honest self-analysis. Second, they must recognize their personality strengths and weaknesses. Third, they must accept what he calls Life Laws: universal rules that govern behavior. And fourth, they must adopt conduct that exploits their strengths, improves or diminishes their weaknesses, and conforms to McGraw's 10 Life Laws. This self-help book is not for those looking to be coddled or compassionately reformed. It's a boot camp, self-help manual devised from years of experience as a behavior specialist, trial scientist, motivational speaker, and life coach. Having sold more than 1,200,000 copies, McGraw's tough-love approach to a better life must be working for some.
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Don Miguel Ruiz, a shamanic healer and teacher, offers an innovative approach for transforming a mediocre, hum-drum life into an experience of immense satisfaction and joy. By integrating a specific code of conduct that he calls the Four Agreements into day to day living, he believes people will discover self-sabotaging behaviors that impede success and deter happiness. By: 1) being impeccable with your word, 2) never taking anything personally, 3) never making assumptions, and 4) always doing your best, Ruiz believes practitioners of these steps can change their life forever.To derive the maximum benefit from his book, he advises that readers should:
For a family or friend seeking a happier life, this is a very simple but highly effective first step.
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This third edition of America's best-selling pregnancy book is completely revised & updated. Incorporating the most recent developments in medicine and nutrition, this popular guide addresses a multitude of prenatal issues: the stages of fetal development, common annoying symptoms and strategies for alleviating them, proper prenatal nutrition, exercise during pregnancy, serious pre-term conditions, traditional and non-traditional caregivers, labor and delivery options, and pain management. Additional information specific to this revision includes: working while pregnant, the role of the father before and during labor, health issues that affect conception, high risk behaviors to avoid, multiple pregnancies, and second pregnancies.
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