Selection Day

Cricket. I was a bit concerned that my lack of knowledge about the sport of cricket would diminish my ability to appreciate Aravind Adiga’s novel titled, Selection Day. The plot involves two poor boys who have been set on a path by their father to get out of their slum and become successful cricket players. My ignorance of the game turned out to be no barrier at all, given Adiga’s skill at focusing attention on the human dynamics, not the sporting fine points. As always, Adiga’s prose is outstanding, the characters are complex and well developed, even the buffoons. Adiga’s descriptive language brings the sights and sounds of India to vivid realization. This is a novel about dreams, our own and others, and the ways in which life presents us with opportunities to move toward or away from those dreams. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Selection Day from amazon.com.

Christmas Days

Twelve. Midway through the twelve days of Christmas, I started reading Jeanette Winterson’s book titled, Christmas Days. Fans of Winterson’s prose will discover twelve well-written stories that I found totally entertaining. On top of that are two bonuses: tasty recipes for the season and reflections by Winterson about her Christmases past that are written as finely as her fiction. Whatever time of year you read this book, you will receive a taste of Christmas and be entertained by good stories. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Christmas Days from amazon.com.

The Mistletoe Murder

Feted. I was feted recently by reading four posthumous stories by P.D. James in a collection named after one of them, The Mistletoe Murder. An added bonus is that a young Adam Dalgliesh is featured in two of the stories. I inhaled these storied quickly, and was entertained thoroughly. It felt like running into an old friend after a long time spent apart. I was quite thrilled when I finished the first story with the sense I had felt often from this fine writer: she tricked me again! Fans of P.D. James are those readers most likely to enjoy this new collection. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Mistletoe Murder from amazon.com.

Sleeping on Jupiter

Abuse. Fans of dark fiction can wallow in a few hundred pages of violence and abuse in Anuradha Roy’s novel titled, Sleeping on Jupiter. With a large cast of characters, many of whom are travelers, Roy sets most of the action in a fictional seaside Indian town where many temples draw visitors. She stimulates the interest of readers in a large cast of characters and changes time periods to mix up the momentum. What first appears dark becomes joyful on further development. Violence and abuse are not the final state for any character. If you surrender yourself to Roy to take this journey to India, you are likely to join many characters in uncovering joy in life, no matter what. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Sleeping on Jupiter from amazon.com.

Mister Monkey

Disturbed. I was shaken out of my comfort zone from the first few pages of Francine Prose’s novel titled, Mister Monkey. I found myself becoming interested in what was happening on the set of a very terrible children’s musical. Once hooked, Prose had me laughing while watching her draw out the humanity of a wide cast of characters as she examines their lives closely. As I read on, I kept thinking about love, laughing, and wincing. There are millions of stories in the city, and Francine Prose knows how to create characters who may disturb and delight us at the same time. Let’s not even get started about Darwin, or dating. At every turn, Prose kept me with her, asking for more. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Mister Monkey from amazon.com.

Moonglow

Invention. Fans of finely written literary fiction can celebrate the latest novel by Michal Chabon titled, Moonglow. With the cleverness I’ve come to anticipate from this fine author, Chabon offers this work as a memoir, structures it as a novel, and uses deep autobiographic resources to bring the characters to vibrant life. The novel’s narrator refers to the protagonist as his grandfather, and much of the plot involves what the grandson learns about his grandfather at the very end of the grandfather’s life. Sex, prison, invading Germany in WWII, secrets, lies, regrets, the Space Race: all these elements flow out in rich detail and fine prose. Chabon maintains energy throughout the novel despite adding layers of complexity. This fine writer tells a great story about storytelling, and does it using such finely crafted prose and such insight into character that at times he took my breath away. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase Moonglow from amazon.com.

Thank You for Being Late

Mansplaining. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman offers readers almost five hundred pages of his viewpoints and thoughts in a new book titled, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. Veering very close to mansplaining at times, he pulls back just before crossing that line. The advantage of reading Friedman is that you can read quickly over what seems familiar or what you’ve heard before, and spend a little time in those areas where he has new insight or an interesting synthesis. He offers some remedies for the challenges of living in our accelerated world: extend trust, build community, fight isolation and collaborate. While so many concepts are fundamental, and reflect the world in which many of us were raised (as Friedman himself explores in reflections in this book about his Minnesota youth), it seemed timely for me to spend a few hours being reminded of those fundamentals and what is important. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Thank You for Being Late from amazon.com.