Since the last month of the school year is insanely crazy, I have not been able to post as regularly as I would prefer. I have tons of magazines and newspaper clippings waiting to be read, with book information I would like to share. Here are some I thought would be great books to check out while vacationing or commuting."Ce l'abbiamo fatta, Chou-Chou, we did it, he says, using the name he gave to me, clutching the steering wheel of the old BMW with..."
2. A Good and Happy Child: A Novel by Justin Evans The setting alternates between George Davies's difficult childhood in Preston, Va., a small college town, after his father Paul's untimely death, and his equally challenging life as an adult and new father in New York City.
3. Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra Writing about the life of Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha.
4. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin In this exquisitely written, deeply moving account of the death of a father played out against the backdrop of the collapse of the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, seasoned journalist Godwin has produced a memoir that effortlessly manages to be almost unbearably personal while simultaneously laying bare the cruel regime of longstanding president Robert Mugabe.
5. Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson Blinded in a childhood accident, Mike May never hesitated to try anything—driving a motorcycle, hiking alone in the woods, downhill skiing—until the day, when May was 46, an ophthalmologist told him a new stem-cell and cornea transplant could restore his vision.
6. Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child Ex-military cop Jack Reacher is the perfect antihero--tough as nails, but with a brain and a conscience to match.
7. Later, at the Bar: A Novel in Stories by Rebecca Barry The 10 linked stories of Barry's first-rate debut capture the idiosyncrasies of an upstate New York backwater where social life revolves around Lucy's Tavern, founded by the late Lucy Beech, who "loved live music and dancing and understood people who liked longing more than they did love."
8. Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States (P.S.) by Pete Jordan For 12 years, Jordan (aka Dishwasher Pete) tramped about the U.S. washing dishes.
9. Flower Children by Maxine Swann This wistful, episodic second novel by Swann (Serious Girls) is made up of vignettes about four sibling "flower children" whose parents are Pennsylvania farm country back-to-the-land hippies.
10. Nine by Andrzej Stasiuk and Bill Johnston Grim and harrowing, this novel by a deserter from the Polish army under communism paints a vivid and disturbing picture of contemporary life in Poland.
11. Sylvia: A Novel by Leonard Michaels and Diane Johnson First acclaimed as a story-length memoir, then expanded into a novel, Sylvia draws us into the lives of a young couple whose struggle to survive Manhattan in the early 1960s involves them in sexual fantasias, paranoia, drugs, and the extreme intimacy of self-destructive violence.
