[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Fiction A to Z December 2008
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:00:45 -0500
Fiction A to Z December 2008
"The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in
the
active and in the passive."
~ William Ralph Inge (1860-1954), English author
New and Recently Released!
Gone Tomorrow - by P.F. Kluge
Publisher: Overlook Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/13/2008
ISBN: 9781590200902
ISBN-10: 159020090X
Once famous for authoring two critically acclaimed novels, George Canaris
hasn't published a thing in the 30 years he's been teaching at a small Ohio
college.
When he's killed in a hit-and-run accident, his literary executor (a young
professor named Mark May) searches Canaris' home for the novel he's said to
have been writing. But what Mark finds is something completely different--a
memoir of Canaris' life, entitled Gone Tomorrow, that includes a detailed
account
of his last year teaching. With a great deal of insight into the writing
process as well as lively commentary on the life of an academic, the manuscript
(and the novel) rings true.
The Hour I First Believed: A Novel - by Wally Lamb
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/1/2008
ISBN: 9780060393496
ISBN-10: 0060393491
In the late 1990s, Wally Lamb's first two novels were chosen for Oprah's book
club. Since then he's edited two collections written by women prisoners, but
it's been a long wait for fans hungry for another novel. Now, with The Hour I
First Believed, they can rejoice. The story revolves around Caelum Quirk
and his third wife, Maureen, who move back to Connecticut after Maureen
narrowly survives--but cannot recover emotionally from--the shootings at
Columbine
High School. At the Quirk family farm, Caelum discovers a cache of family
memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals painful, unexpected
truths
about the Quirk family's past, but which might help Caelum build his future.
Time of My Life: A Novel - by Allison Winn Scotch
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/7/2008
ISBN: 9780307408570
ISBN-10: 0307408574
Jillian Westfield has what should be the perfect life: a loving and successful
husband, a beautiful home, and an adorable, healthy baby. But she's bored
and unsatisfied--and wonders how her life would have turned out if she'd made
different choices and stayed with "the one that got away." Unlike most people,
Jillian actually gets the chance to find out when she wakes up in her ex's
bed--seven years in the past--and begins to relive her life. But taking a
different
path isn't all that easy, as every decision she makes seems to cause a ripple
effect. If you've ever had a "what if" question lingering in the back of
your mind, you'll enjoy Jillian's journey and appreciate what she learns.
First Chapter
Midnight: A Gangster Love Story - by Sister Souljah
Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/4/2008
ISBN: 9781416545187
ISBN-10: 1416545182
This follow-up to Sister Souljah's bestselling The Coldest Winter Ever focuses
on Midnight and his life before the events of that novel. A devout Sudanese
sent to America as a child, Midnight grows up to be a hardworking and
good-looking teenager. Although he is surrounded by vices and temptations, his
devotion
to his religion--and to his mother and sister--prevents him from dishonorable
action, except when he must protect his loved ones. When he falls in love
with a young Japanese girl, he decides the only honorable thing to do is to
marry her; his coming-of-age story will appeal to readers of urban lit, a genre
that Sister Souljah is credited with starting.
First Chapter
An Irish Country Christmas: A Novel - by Patrick Taylor
Publisher: Forge
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/28/2008
ISBN: 9780765320704
ISBN-10: 0765320703
In this charming 3rd installment in the Irish Country series, Dr. Barry Laverty
is disappointed to learn that his sweetie won't be joining him for the holiday
season in rural Ballybucklebo, Ireland. But he's kept plenty busy by his
patients and by the arrival of an incompetent doctor who seems intent on
stealing
patients from his practice. This is just one of many Christmas books published
this season; try 'Tis the Season by Lorna Landvik or A Cedar Cove Christmas
by Debbie Macomber for more holiday tidings.
Focus on: Books for Foodies
Crescent - by Diana Abu-Jaber
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 5/1/2004
ISBN: 9780393325546
ISBN-10: 0393325547
At 39, American-born Sirine lives in her childhood home with her Iraqi uncle,
who took her in after her parents were killed. She's the chef at a popular
Middle Eastern restaurant in Los Angeles, where she cooks mouth-watering
recipes for Arabs missing their homelands. But her staid existence is turned
upside
down when she meets her uncle's colleague Hanif, a handsome Arabic literature
professor, with whom she starts a passionate relationship that stirs up memories
of her parents and questions about her Arab-American identity. Once you've had
a taste of author Diana Abu-Jaber's writing, you'll want more; try her debut,
Arabian Jazz, or for something completely different, the suspenseful Origin.
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes,
Romances, and Home Remedies - by Laura Esquivel; translated by Carol Christensen
and Thomas Christensen
Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/1/1992
ISBN: 9780385420167
ISBN-10: 0385420161
According to her family's tradition, youngest daughter Tita must remain
unmarried in order to care for her tyrannical mother, despite the fact that she
has fallen in love with a young man, Pedro. Worse, her mother marries her
eldest daughter to Pedro instead. Tita's refuge is the kitchen, where she pours
her emotion into her cooking (her sister's wedding guests all begin to cry
after sampling Tita's cake). This popular, delectable book was a bestseller
when it was first published in the early 1990s; if you've already read it and
enjoyed the touches of magical realism and romance, try Sarah Addison Allen's
Garden Spells for a Southern take on the magic of cooking.
Five Quarters of the Orange - by Joanne Harris
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/1/2007
ISBN: 9780061214608
ISBN-10: 0061214604
As a child more than 50 years ago, Framboise Dartigen was forced to flee the
French village where she grew up during the German occupation. Now she's
returning
to it under an assumed name to run a crêperie (using family recipes) and to
learn why it is that her family name is still so despised by the townspeople.
With vivid descriptions of food, evocative portrayals of post-war France, and a
complex mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the novel, Five Quarters
of the Orange may remind some readers of Joanne Harris' bestselling Chocolat,
but this novel is of "a far more complex vintage" (Booklist).
First Chapter
The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel - by John Lanchester
Publisher: Picador USA/Henry Holt & Company
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/1/2001
ISBN: 9780312420369
ISBN-10: 0312420366
This "diabolically clever" (Publishers Weekly) prize-winning novel takes the
form of the memoirs of Tarquin Winot, an impeccable, epicurean Englishman and
lifelong Francophile. As Tarquin meditates self-importantly on foods, wines,
and restaurants and shares such culinary lore as the origins of the peach,
niggling questions are raised as to the trustworthiness of his proclamations.
What, for instance, is the true nature of his relationship with his brother,
a critically acclaimed artist? And why do so many of his acquaintances die?
Booklist suggests that if you "appreciate fine language and like the feel of
a mystery hanging over the story line," you'll feel right at home.
The Last Chinese Chef - by Nicole Mones
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 5/4/2007
ISBN: 9780618619665
ISBN-10: 0618619666
Food writer Maggie Elroy's husband has been dead a year when a woman in China
files a paternity claim against his estate. Still struggling with grief, Maggie
heads to Beijing to deal with the claim and to profile a rising chef, the
half-Chinese American-born Sam Liang. Sam has his hands full--he's translating
his grandfather's book (a treatise about cooking for the imperial court) and
preparing to compete in a nation-wide cooking competition (to cook at the
Olympics!)--but his recipes and knowledge of Chinese cuisine help Maggie's love
of food return. With plenty of fodder for foodies, you'll want to make
sure you're not hungry when you start this book.
First Chapter
La Cucina - by Lily Prior
Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/1/2001
ISBN: 9780060953690
ISBN-10: 0060953691
When 18-year-old Rosa's first love comes to a terrible end, she takes to
cooking to ease her grief, but eventually leaves her rural Sicilian town for the
city of Palermo. Twenty-five years later she has become a librarian, and still
lives to cook. But the overweight, overlooked Rosa doesn't truly come back
to life until she meets a man who comes to her library for research, but who
falls in love with Rosa and her flair for cooking. All goes well (better than
well, in fact, for she experiences a sensual reawakening) until history seems
to repeat itself and her lover disappears. Among other mouth-watering
compliments,
Publishers Weekly calls this debut "sumptuously appointed, celebratory and
sensuous."
First Chapter
Table of Contents
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