Books that captivate with their exquisite prose and unforgettable storytelling. Perfect for readers who appreciate the art of language.
10:04: A Novel
Ben Lerner, 2014
256 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
November, 2014
It's hard to tell where you stand in a Ben Lerner work, especially his newest—a dazzling and dizzying read.
♦ Is Lerner the first-person narrator? (Mostly...maybe.)
♦ Is this a work of fiction? (Yes. No... Yes.)
♦ Is the narrator/author/Ben Lerner going to die? (Who knows.)
♦ Is New York City going under water? (Yes and no.)
♦ Is the world ending? (Feels like it could...or should.)
♦ What's the time? (One of the book's big questions.)
If you're wondering what the book could possibly be about, you're hardly alone. Yet its mind-bending quality is what makes 10:04 so compelling—in turn hilarious, thought-provoking, and perplexing.
The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
Jenny Nordberg, 2014
368 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
October, 2014
With ISIS making such lurid headlines, it's hard to think there's anything left with the power to shock. Nonetheless, Nordberg's superb but chilling account of the treatment of women in Afghanistan has left me stunned.
Aside from female oppression, the real subject of her book has to be one of the oddest I've ever encountered: families passing daughters off as boys—a widespread but officially unacknowledged practice known as bacha posh. Strange, yes, but given the culture, it makes all the sense in the world, or at least the Afghan world.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Anthony Bourdain, 2000
312 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
September, 2014
Bourdain is bad-ass. At least he was 30-some years ago; now he's a grey-haired eminence of the culinary world with several books and TV series under his whites. And it's hard to believe that Kitchen Confidential is closing in on 15 years.
But what a book! Gossipy, deeply personal, always witty and sometimes shocking, it manages to be instructive for both professional cooks and the dining public. Cautionary advice for budding chefs? "Show up on time." For diners? "Nix the Eggs Benedict" (come to think of it, skip Sunday brunch altogether).
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Rachel Joyce, 2012
384 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
August 2014
Fictional journeys serve as more than plot devices to move characters from place to place. They represent life passages—from sin to redemption or ignorance to knowledge. Harold Fry's journey is all that and more...but of course he doesn't know it.
In fact Harold doesn't mean to set out on a journey, at first: he simply intends to drop a letter off at the nearest postbox. But then he just keeps going.
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Jonas Jonasson, 2009 (Eng. transl., 2012)
400 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
August, 2014
In this whimsical, even farcical novel, Allan Karlsson crawls out the window of the Old Folks Home and lands in a bed of pansies. He's wearing bedroom slippers, and he's on the run—all to avoid his 100th birthday party.
The book follows Allan, one serendipitous adventure at a time. With luck and guile, he manages to evade his captors, inevitably landing on his feet—though, by now, his feet have left the bedroom slippers for a pair of shoes...shoes belonging to one of the men Allan has killed (sort of killed).