The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus

The fabulous cover of this book attracted me. I very soon found the ideas that Marcus explores both interesting and disturbing. Family bonds, father-daughter relationships, interactions with teenagers, love, language and Judaism are some of these ideas. Overarching all normal human relationships and activities, the author introduces a dire illness into the story, to which only adults are susceptible. As a scientist, the narrator shares his attempts to find a cure. The nature of the illness itself, which I refuse to divulge, is both compelling and horrific.

The book was a challenging read for me. It is well written, and so funny (read accurate) in parts that I found myself reading passages aloud to my patient husband. The best book I read last year was ‘The Passage’ by Justin Cronin and while reading The Flame Alphabet I was reminded of The Passage on several occasions...Posted by Moxie

About the Author

"Ben Marcus is the author of Notable American Women and The Age of Wire and String. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. The recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he is a Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University and lives in New York City." ...From the Publisher

Read a conversation with Ben Marcus on the Publisher's website...

Also watch Ben Marcus talk about The Flame Alphabet at the bottom of this page...

Check our Catalogue and reserve online:

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, 2012

Talking to Zeus: My year in a Greek Garden by Jane Shaw

Jane Shaw was working as a volunteer in Chelsea's famous Physic Garden when she earned a placement to work for a year on a very special organic garden in Greece. But this was to be no easy-going break in the Mediterranean. The five-acre plot, which Jane swiftly named 'Alcatraz', was devoid of creature comforts, perched on a steep, remote hillside that was blindingly hot in summer and freezing in winter, and overseen by a 74-year-old, passionate, mercurial eccentric English lady called Joy.

On arrival, Jane is immediately drawn into the intrigue of village life, such as the ongoing feud with the nouveau riche ex-pat neighbour with a sports car, whom Joy suspects has dug an illegal bore hole to water his terraced lawns. But most of all she is beguiled by the vibrant energy of the landscape, the folklore, the food and the numerous engaging characters who flock to Joy as the wise matriarch of the locale. The story arcs through a year of seasons in the garden as Jane learns to love its wild beauty and to relish the hard work and care it needs. This is a charming, wildly entertaining and joyful portrait of a very special place, and will appeal to anyone who loves gardening, or who has enjoyed books such as Driving Over Lemons...From the Publishers

A customer told me that this book was delightful to read. Full of interesting experiences and snippets of poetry. Her enthusiasm was catchy, so biography readers this sounds like one to try.   ...Posted by Moxie

LibraryThing review:  www.librarything.com/work/10890734

Read about the author Jane Shaw: http://bit.ly/9yVuxm

Check our Catalogue and reserve online

Talking to Zeus: My year in a Greek Garden by Jane Shaw, 2010

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco

I finished this book this week! (I have been reading it for two months.) It is a difficult but intriguing read. One of the reasons I persevered was because I was learning so much about French and Italian history. It deals with conspiracies, anti-Semitism, The Freemasons and the Catholic Church. All the names, places, publications and dates are purported to be true. I checked several of them and found that to be so. At the centre of this novel is a fictitious character called Simonini, he meets people like Giuseppe Garibaldi, Dr. Freud and Madam Blavatsky.

This book is beautifully illustrated and, would you believe, contains many recipes.
Reviewed by Moxie 

Visit Umberto Eco's website:  www.umbertoeco.com

Check our library catalogue and review online

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco, 2011

Feel Good Reads

I started thinking about this topic when a library customer asked for such a recommendation. She had just finished a fairly harrowing Jodi Picoult book and needed to read something that was a bit less traumatic. I wish you would help me to compose such a list because I too have been had my mood altered by what I have read and sometimes I know I need a “pick-me-up”.

The LibraryThing website suggests the following authors:

• Nicholas Sparks
• Judith Michael
• Janette Oke
• Jane Austin
• Georgette Heyer

The Fantastic Fiction site recommends:

• Sarah-Kate Lynch
• Nora Roberts
• Bridget Asher
• Marsha Mehran
• Daniele Steel

May I add my favourites:

• Alan Warner
• Nick Hornby
• Lisa Jackson
• Kate De Goldi - (see book cover  - The 10 pm Question)
• Rosamunde Pilcher

Let us know who your favourite "feel good" authors are!...Moxie

Colonel Gaddafi's hat by Alex Crawford

The cover of this book suggests that, “Alex Crawford will forever be the journalist linked to the Libyan rising of 2011”. Alex arrived in Tripoli on 28 April 2011. She takes us through the precarious life of a Sky TV journalist committed to telling the story of the rebels from the battlefield.

I was very interested in this detail as my cousin Anton, photo journalist, arrived there at the same time. He was killed on the 5 April, 2011. Of course, I scoured the book for details of where he and Alex had both been. I tried to imagine how he might have coped and correlate some of the stories we heard with her's. Alex has four children and a husband at home and entered a war zone in pursuit of the story! This is astounding to me and one might wonder why? She asked this of herself when fear threatened to overwhelm her. She said that if she was going to die she may as well tell the world what was going on while she was at it. I was struck by the guts required to do this job and the friendly support and protection from the Libyans.
...Reviewed by Moxie

Read about the author Alex Crawford OBE in an interview with Adam Jaques for The Independent - http://ind.pn/MZkiF5
Check our Catalogue  and reserve online                                                                                                               
Colonel Gaddafi's hat : the real story of the Libyan uprising by Alex Crawford, 2012

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Did you see Eva Bradley's review of this book on Saturday 30 June in The Hawkes Bay Today?  'Too much sex!', she implied. Do you agree? I wonder how it compares to our own queen of erotica, Nalini Singh?
I have not read it yet. There are 35 reserves on the HDL's 3 copies. I'm number 36.  Posted by Moxie

 Read Eva Bradley's review (Wanganui Chronicle)

Read more reviews at Library Thing: www.librarything.com/work/11347028/reviews 

Check our Catalogue and reserve online

Fifty shades of grey by E. L. James   

         

A death in the family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

I asked a customer (Jerry) to review A Death in the Family and this is what he wrote:

"This book is an "autobiographical novel".  The title refers to the death of the author's father. It is the first of six books. It fully details the lives of his family and friends and has caused some controversy because of the level of exposure. The entire series sold 450,000 copies in his country of origin, Norway.

I would describe the book as a documentary of the author's life and the lives of those around him. By the use of minute details he accurately describes emotions, character, hopes, fears. As I read this book I felt that he was not only speaking for himself but also for everyone who is living a "real" life with all its stresses and failures. In addition, it introduces Norwegian art and literature in a way that familiarises the reader with this culture."
Posted by Moxie.

Winner of the Brage Prize for fiction 2009.

Read a review and backgrounder in The Independent

[This is the first of six books comprising the author's "My Struggle" (Min Kamp" in Norwegian) cycle. 
In the US the title was literally translated as "My Struggle Book One", whereas in the UK and Canada it has been issued under the title "A Death in the Family".]

Check our Catalogue and reserve online

 A death in the family by Karl Ove Knausgaard 

Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

A library customer emailed this response after reading Sense of an Ending:

“Enjoyable book...i like stories with the unreliable narrator, where you never quite get to the bottom of the truth...truth being liquid anyway...lots of liquid here..."

See my earlier post re this book.  We are always keen to hear which books you enjoyed...or didn't!  Posted by Moxie

Check our library catalogue and reserve online:
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes,  2011

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

This is the first time that I have tried this ‘5 star’ author. (Julian Barnes also wrote Flaubert’s Parrot.)

On finishing the last page I immediately turned to the front of the book and started reading it again. It’s one of those stories that that left me wondering whether I ‘got’ it all. Tony, the narrator, is still speaking to me.  I won’t say anything about the plot as that would spoil it for you. I will say that Tony has the same difficulty we all have, we remember things in a very selective way. Memory, Time and Insight were just three of the many big topics we (Tony and me) got to wrestle with.  I have not come across anyone else to talk to about this thought provoking book, so please read it quickly so that we can compare notes.

PS. The Sense of an Ending won last year’s Man Booker Prize...Posted by Moxie

Check our library catalogue and reserve online: 
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes,  2011

The best books of 2011

Thought I’d make my first post about my reading plan for 2012. Yeh, I know it is May, 2012. I started my reading year armed with a survey of  the “best books” of 2011. Hmph, you may say, according to whom? Well, good point,  I composed my list after several hours on the Internet. I looked at sources like Library Journal, The Guardian and The Boston Globe. I was interested in a  list of  books that most "experts" rated highly.   Posted by Moxie

The "best" books of 2011 - click on the links to go to the Catalogue

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami