[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Fiction A to Z March 2008

  • From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:14:18 -0400

"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into 
bouillon cubes."
~ John le Carré, British author
New and Recently Released!
The Little Lady and the Prince - by Hester Browne
Publisher: Pocket Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/5/2008
ISBN: 9781416539063
ISBN-10: 1416539069
In her 3rd appearance, girlfriend-for-hire Melissa Romney-Jones has been asked 
to help reform playboy Prince Nicolas of Hollenberg by doing what she does
best--acting as a surrogate girlfriend by teaching etiquette, improving 
bachelor wardrobes, and providing advice. This alter ego is Honey 
Blennerhesket--think
"Mary Poppins with silk stockings." However, as Melissa and her fiancé plan 
their wedding, complications ensue, and she winds up juggling the affections
of three very different men. Lots of fun for anglophiles and chick lit readers.
His Illegal Self - by Peter Carey
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/5/2008
ISBN: 9780307263728
ISBN-10: 030726372X
Che Selkirk is seven years old when a woman arrives at his grandmother's Upper 
East Side apartment in 1972, where he has been raised since his activist
mother was involved in an accident at a protest while holding the one-year-old 
Che. Believing that this woman is his mother, and told no differently by
his grandmother, Che runs off with the woman, who asks Che to call her Dial. 
They end up in the wilds of Queensland, Australia, where Che, a precocious
boy, discovers that Dial isn't truly equipped to raise him safely. The slowly 
emerging truth about their relationship makes for a "psychologically astute
and diabolically suspenseful novel" (Booklist).
First Chapter
Gardens of Water: A Novel - by Alan Drew
Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/5/2008
ISBN: 9781400066872
ISBN-10: 1400066875
Irem is 15 the night an earthquake destroys her home in a small town outside of 
Istanbul. She and her family are sent to live in an American refugee camp,
where their interaction with their former neighbors, an American Christian 
family, leads to an earthquake of a metaphorical kind. Her father, a Kurd who
despises Americans for their involvement in the destruction of Kurdish villages 
by Turks, wants to move his family away from Western influences, and will
not stand idly by as he sees his daughter fall in love with an American, or his 
son grow interested in Christianity. More than anything, this debut novel
is a "richly detailed, finely plotted demonstration of culture clash" 
(Booklist).
The Konkans - by Tony D'Souza
Publisher: Harcourt
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/1/2008
ISBN: 9780151015191
ISBN-10: 0151015198
For those who don't know, the Konkans to which this book refers are the 
descendants of a group of Indians converted to Catholicism by the Portuguese in
the 16th century. Francisco D'Sai is a first-born son in a long line of 
first-born Konkan sons, but his father is a Konkan who wants only to be accepted
into white suburban society. His mother, on the other hand, is an American who 
went to India with the Peace Corps and wanted to stay forever. Though Francisco
is born and grows up in Chicago, it is his mother and his Konkan uncle who 
surround him with colorful tales of India and his Konkan heritage. As narrator,
Francisco observes them--and their struggles.
First Chapter
The Age of Shiva: A Novel - by Manil Suri
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/4/2008
ISBN: 9780393065695
ISBN-10: 0393065693
When 17-year-old Meera marries an aspiring singer in order to escape her 
overbearing father, she finds herself further marginalized by her demanding 
husband,
her lustful brother-in-law, and the religious orthodoxy of her new family. Her 
unhappy marriage is further compounded when her husband, realizing that
he will never achieve his dreams, becomes an alcoholic. Her one bright spot is 
her son, but her overweening love for him soon becomes suffocating. Kirkus
Reviews calls their story, told against the backdrop of India's independence 
and the political struggles that followed, "finely conceived, absorbing and
powerful."
A Fraction of the Whole - by Steve Toltz
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/12/2008
ISBN: 9780385521727
ISBN-10: 0385521723
Jasper Dean needs a way to fill the time (he's in jail), so he decides to write 
his life story (his only other viable option is to go insane). He realizes,
however, that his story is as much about his much-despised father as it is 
about him, so he starts by getting one important fact out of the way: his 
father's
body, he claims, will never be found. From there he goes into the dizzying tale 
of his life with his father, a brilliant if difficult man, which takes
him on a series of utterly nutty escapades across Australia. "This is one 
rampaging and irresistible debut," says Booklist.
First Chapter
Books into Movies
The Feast of Love - by Charles Baxter
Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 8/14/2007
ISBN: 9780307387271
ISBN-10: 0307387275
The Feast of Love is exactly what it sounds like--an assortment of intertwined 
and deliciously told stories of love flavored with everything from passion
to regret. They feature a man working to get over his first--and then his 
second--wife, a young couple madly in love, and a professor who longs for his
missing son. The 2007 movie had an all-star cast (including Morgan Freeman and 
Greg Kinnear), but you should read the book to get a true taste of "the
seemingly effortless ebb and flow of the author's clear-sighted yet deeply 
poetic vision" (Publishers Weekly).
First Chapter
Everything is Illuminated: A Novel - by Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 4/16/2002
ISBN: 9780618173877
ISBN-10: 0618173870
In Jonathan Safran Foer's "haunting debut" (Kirkus Reviews), an American 
college student named Jonathan Safran Foer goes to Ukraine to search for the 
woman
who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He's aided in his search by a 
translator named Alex, whose hilarious malapropisms and broken English add an 
element
of humor to the quest. Make no mistake, however--there's as much tragedy as 
there is farce. In the 2005 movie, Elijah Wood played Jonathan Safran Foer,
and the author himself had a cameo as a leaf blower.
First Chapter
Bee Season: A Novel - by Myla Goldberg
Publisher: Anchor Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/25/2005
ISBN: 9780307276858
ISBN-10: 0307276856
Nine-year-old Eliza Naumann is an indifferent student ignored by her father, a 
brilliant scholar of Jewish mysticism, in favor of her "gifted and talented"
older brother, Aaron. All that changes when she starts winning spelling bees. 
As their father starts spending more time with Eliza, grilling her for the
next level of competition and seeing in her a pathway to God, Aaron looks for 
fulfillment elsewhere, and finds it with the Hare Krishnas. Meanwhile, 
breadwinner
mom Miriam is losing her grip on reality, and is breaking into other people's 
houses as a way to give her life meaning. This touching debut was made into
a movie in 2005, and starred Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche, with Flora 
Cross as Eliza.
First Chapter
The Namesake - by Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/1/2003
ISBN: 9780395927212
ISBN-10: 0395927218
This rich portrait of intergenerational relations and the immigrant experience 
follows the members of the Ganguli family, who leave behind their traditional
life in India for a middle-class life in Massachusetts in the late 1960s. 
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies) captures
their difficulties merging with the American way of life over three decades, 
two continents, and two generations. The Namesake was made into a movie of
the same name in 2006.
First Chapter
Atonement: A Novel - by Ian McEwan
Publisher: N.A. Talese/Doubleday
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 3/1/2002
ISBN: 9780385503952
ISBN-10: 0385503954
In an English manor in 1935, 13-year-old Briony Tallis misinterprets several 
encounters between her older sister, Cecilia, and her childhood friend Robbie
Turner, and when a cousin is sexually assaulted, Briony quite simply becomes 
the victim of her own vivid imagination. Sadly, when she acts upon her beliefs
and accuses Robbie of her cousin's assault, she unleashes a terrible series of 
events. When she comes to realize that she might have been wrong, she begins
to seek a way to atone for her error. This award-winning book was the basis for 
the 2007 movie, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards.
First Chapter
The Devil Wears Prada - by Lauren Weisberger
Publisher: Broadway Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 5/30/2006
ISBN: 9780767925952
ISBN-10: 0767925955
Miranda Priestley, editor of Runway magazine, is a name that strikes fear into 
the hearts of many an editorial and personal assistant. For recent Ivy League
graduate Andrea Sachs, working for Miranda is just the first step on her way to 
an editorial position with The New Yorker--but how is Andy to get editorial
or writing experience if her days (and nights) are spent catering to Miranda's 
every demanding and outrageous whim? Between fetching (lunch) and delivering
(laundry), Andy does have some perks (designer clothes), but she's not so sure 
that they're worth working for the boss from hell. This entertaining novel
was the basis for the 2006 movie starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.
First Chapter

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  • » [bksvol-discuss] Fw: Fiction A to Z March 2008