Recommended Reading
This list will change once a month and will often have a theme.
For October 2010: Autumn Reads
The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti
A small group of feral, street-wise Peter-Pan-type beings set out on three very different but related missions across the darker side of London. They are missions combining excitement, violence, low cunning, betrayal, loyalty, greed, generosity, cowardice and insane bravery. This is an epic fantasy adventure that is both thought-provoking and thrilling until the very last second, set against the backdrop of an all too familiar yet weirdly different urban landscape. For the first time, Michael de Larrabeiti's much-loved, classic novels "The Borribles", "The Borribles Go for Broke" and "Across the Dark Metropolis" are brought together in one volume. 'A strong and vivid fantasy, much recommended' - "Observer". 'There are books we like, and books we love, and books we need. And then there are books that mean so much to us that they embed themselves in us, irresistibly, and become permanent parts of our mental landscape. Ever since I first read it, "The Borribles" has been such a book for me' - "China Mieville".
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
Fans of Cynthia Ozick are likely already familiar with Ruth Puttermesser, whose highly educated, unlucky-in-love but rather mystical existence as a Jewish woman in New York City has been chronicled in previously published stories appearing occasionally through the years. The Puttermesser Papers collects the old stories, along with several new ones, combined to create a funny and surreal picaresque narrative, touching upon Puttermesser's job at a blueblood law firm, her creation and intellectual sparring with the golem she makes out of soil from her flowerpots, her term as mayor of New York, her own death by murder, and beyond.
The Reed Cutter & Captain Shigemoto's Mother by Junichiro Tanizaki
From Kirkus Reviews
A new translation of The Reed Cutter (1932) and the debut of Captain Shigemoto's Mother mark a recognition of the late Tanizaki's continuing literary importance (see above). Both novellas are filled with poignant reminders of Japan's past, particularly its literary past, as the respective narrators frequently quote from famous poems, plays, and stories. These quotations reinforce the mood of time passing, of ``the transience of humanity, whose endeavors fade without a trace,'' and of a deep longing for a brighter past. In The Reed Cutter, the narrator-- ``the sadness of autumn pressing in upon him''--takes a walk one September afternoon to the site of a famous palace, now in ruins. He visits the ruins, eats dinner in a local inn, and then decides to cross the river by ferry, recalling that this is the night of the famous autumnal full moon. When the ferry reaches a sandbar in the middle of the river, he disembarks. Here, he meets a reed cutter, also out moon-viewing. As the two share a gourd of sak‚, the reed cutter tells the story of his father, who on this night would take him as a small boy to watch through a hedge the annual moon-viewing party of the beautiful Lady Oyu, the woman his father really loved. The second novella is a more discursive and allusive work in which the narrator quotes from the classics as he tells the well-known tale of Captain Shigemoto's mother--a beautiful woman who'd married an aging nobleman; she gave birth to one son, but then her husband one night in a drunken fit gave her as a gift to an important Minister, who was a guest in his house. Years later, the now middle-aged son is finally reunited with his mother, a nun at a remote shrine. Elegiac evocations of mood and time, all in luminous prose.
A new translation of The Reed Cutter (1932) and the debut of Captain Shigemoto's Mother mark a recognition of the late Tanizaki's continuing literary importance (see above). Both novellas are filled with poignant reminders of Japan's past, particularly its literary past, as the respective narrators frequently quote from famous poems, plays, and stories. These quotations reinforce the mood of time passing, of ``the transience of humanity, whose endeavors fade without a trace,'' and of a deep longing for a brighter past. In The Reed Cutter, the narrator-- ``the sadness of autumn pressing in upon him''--takes a walk one September afternoon to the site of a famous palace, now in ruins. He visits the ruins, eats dinner in a local inn, and then decides to cross the river by ferry, recalling that this is the night of the famous autumnal full moon. When the ferry reaches a sandbar in the middle of the river, he disembarks. Here, he meets a reed cutter, also out moon-viewing. As the two share a gourd of sak‚, the reed cutter tells the story of his father, who on this night would take him as a small boy to watch through a hedge the annual moon-viewing party of the beautiful Lady Oyu, the woman his father really loved. The second novella is a more discursive and allusive work in which the narrator quotes from the classics as he tells the well-known tale of Captain Shigemoto's mother--a beautiful woman who'd married an aging nobleman; she gave birth to one son, but then her husband one night in a drunken fit gave her as a gift to an important Minister, who was a guest in his house. Years later, the now middle-aged son is finally reunited with his mother, a nun at a remote shrine. Elegiac evocations of mood and time, all in luminous prose.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Preachy as all get out, and by today's standards kind of corny, but I'm listening to the unabridged version of this back and forth on the way to work now. I'm more than halfway through and am surprised at how entertaining it is. There is something very powerful and convincing in the way Alcott draws this family. Jo March is a great character. -- Jeff
The Boss in the Wall by Avram Davidson and Grania Davis
Professor Vlad Smith is on a terrifying quest, one that will take him from the halls of our most hallowed institutions to the most run-down of old houses in blighted neighborhoods. A mysterious committee, shredded yellowed newspapers, a daguerrotype of a Confederate soldier, a headless corpse and a corpseless head.... These are the clues which Smith must piece together to save his sanity and his daughter, and uncover the terrible secret of the Boss in the Wall. BACK COVER: What a scary story, like a modern Dracula but completely original in its concept and chillingly realistic in its narration. Avram Davidson was one of the finest writers the fantasy field has had, endlessly inventive and uniquely vivid. Grania Davis has completed this work, which he left unfinished, in a way that does him proud. - Poul Anderson
Mickelsson's Ghosts by John Gardner
The final novel by John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, originally published in 1982 just months before his untimely death in a motorcycle accident, is a tour de force. The protagonist Peter Mickelsson, a former star philosophy professor at Brown, relocates to Binghamton University. On the verge of bankruptcy, separated from his wife, in questionable mental health, and drinking heavily, Mickelsson decides to buy a country house in northeastern Pennsylvania. What he encounters there are impassioned and shameless love affairs (one of which results in a regrettable pregnancy), a Mormon extremist cult, small town mythologies, the robbery of a robber, multiple murders, the ghosts of an incestuous family, Plato, and our hero's own possible insanity.
Black Robe by Brian Moore
It was a time when the French laid claim to everything, but in truth the wilderness that was Canada belonged to the natives. The Jesuits saw the Savages (as they called them) as souls to be saved. The natives saw the Black Robes (as they called them) as destroyers, threatening the gods and sorceries by which their lives were ordered. Out of that conflict between two cultures, two worlds, Moore has fashioned an extraordinary novel.
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
From Library Journal
Is it poetry? Is it a novel in verse? A fable? A myth? However you define Carson's distinctive and wildly inventive new work, it is riveting reading. At the center of the narrative is a winged red monster named Geryon; throughout, we see him struggling with his family, falling for the indifferent Herakles, and discovering photography as a means of comfort and escape. Wistful yet whimsical, offhand yet intense, funky yet erudite (Carson, a classics professor at McGill, grounds this work in ancient Greek myth), this is a reading experience like no other.
Is it poetry? Is it a novel in verse? A fable? A myth? However you define Carson's distinctive and wildly inventive new work, it is riveting reading. At the center of the narrative is a winged red monster named Geryon; throughout, we see him struggling with his family, falling for the indifferent Herakles, and discovering photography as a means of comfort and escape. Wistful yet whimsical, offhand yet intense, funky yet erudite (Carson, a classics professor at McGill, grounds this work in ancient Greek myth), this is a reading experience like no other.
Ships Afire by J. J. Armas Marcello
From Publishers Weekly
Spanish buccaneer Juan Rejon, setting sail in the early 16th century, discovers Salbago, a fictitious New World Latin American island. Rejon and his shifty crew settle Salbago, nearly eradicating the island's only nativespacks of large, eerie, green dogsand erecting Royal, an alluring, seedy Bagdad of a city, sprawling over the harbor. The pirate instinct continues in the next generation with Rejon's only child, Alvaro, the product of Juan's union with the ravishing Arab prostitute Zulima. Alvaro leaves Salbago in search of new lands to plunder and becomes a wealthy slaver in Santo Domingo. But he eventually returns to Salbago, half-crazed from years of searching the South American jungle for the mythical city of El Dorado and pitifully addicted to coca leaves. First published in Spain, Armas Marcelo's wild epic explores the fine line between reality and fantasy, the point at which obsessive greed and lust twist into madness. This exaggerated adventure tale also embodies a biting criticism of conquest, epitomized by the 16th century Spanish Empire and its destructive craze for power. These conquistadores, Rejon father and son, end their days as lunatics, pathetically trapped between past glories and their miserable present and future, as the Dutch invade and pillage Salbago. The author's luscious style matches the exotic content: every page erupts with rococo, erotic language, with lengthy, convoluted, enticing constructions, all admirably translated by Arvio.
Spanish buccaneer Juan Rejon, setting sail in the early 16th century, discovers Salbago, a fictitious New World Latin American island. Rejon and his shifty crew settle Salbago, nearly eradicating the island's only nativespacks of large, eerie, green dogsand erecting Royal, an alluring, seedy Bagdad of a city, sprawling over the harbor. The pirate instinct continues in the next generation with Rejon's only child, Alvaro, the product of Juan's union with the ravishing Arab prostitute Zulima. Alvaro leaves Salbago in search of new lands to plunder and becomes a wealthy slaver in Santo Domingo. But he eventually returns to Salbago, half-crazed from years of searching the South American jungle for the mythical city of El Dorado and pitifully addicted to coca leaves. First published in Spain, Armas Marcelo's wild epic explores the fine line between reality and fantasy, the point at which obsessive greed and lust twist into madness. This exaggerated adventure tale also embodies a biting criticism of conquest, epitomized by the 16th century Spanish Empire and its destructive craze for power. These conquistadores, Rejon father and son, end their days as lunatics, pathetically trapped between past glories and their miserable present and future, as the Dutch invade and pillage Salbago. The author's luscious style matches the exotic content: every page erupts with rococo, erotic language, with lengthy, convoluted, enticing constructions, all admirably translated by Arvio.
