Previous Book Club Selections & Beyond
We love our books, those we include in the Book Club Selections, and those we've read, but for whatever reason, haven't made it to Book Clubs status. For
those books, we've made a special place. Visit Other Recommendations page, for more reading ideas.
2009 Hardcover Fiction
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Euginia Kim. This debut novel is set in Korea and spans 30 years beginning in 1917. is about the lives of an aristicratic family that is devastated by the Japanese takeover of the country. The book gives a wonderful description of the extraordinary traditions of Korean culture which was devastated Korea's century old traditions. the author's grandmother and her great grandmother were courageous women.
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
Mandel's debut novel takes place in New York and Montreal and tells the story of a young woman, abducted by her father when she was seven and their years traversing the United States, avoiding a Canadian detective whose obessession with the case results in the disintigration of his marriage and abandonment of his own daughter. The daughters lives intersect as each grapples with her deprevation of stability.
The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer
This is a compelling story about a small-time farmer, Helmer, who goes through his days numb with routine. He tolerates his ailing father, hires a young farm hand, and wonders about the hooded crow perched at the kitchen window that seems to be watching his every move. Bakker’s deft prose and charming (if sometimes dark) wit is both poignant and amusing.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin was our first 2009 hard cover book selection and has received wide international acclaim.
It is a moving collection of short stories that explores class, culture, power, and desire among the ruling and servant classes of Pakistan.
Paperback Original Selections for 2009
Ray of the Star by Laird Hunt is a pyrotechnical novel that, with the arrival of the bloody-lipped horrors, propels its protagonist, Harry, through a concatenation of immense, sensuous sentences, on a tour of our modern world that escalates to an unimaginable velocity, among a clutter of clauses that refuse ordinary subordination and so becomes a lens for the meticulous exploration of the sublimity of the banal. Like The Impossibly, The Exquisite, and Indiana, Indiana before it, Ray of the Star is pure, wonderful writing.
The Jewish Husband by Lia Levi and translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar (Europa Editions) takes place in the 1930's in Italy as Mussilini and his government impose steadily more stringent race laws on the Italian Jews. Harry Katz falls in love and marries Sonia Gentile. This maybe the darkest of the book club books.
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
This exquisitely written novel spans 57 years. Beginning in Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, the author takes us to Delhi just before the partition of India. From there we travel to Pakistan, then to New York and Afghanistan and back to New York after 9/11.
This is an extremely intelligent and engaging book. The many cultures and their sub-cultures reflect the complexities we face in this globalized world. In addition, it was short listed for The Orange Award which goes to women writers of any nationality whose books are written in English.
The Tanners by Robert Walser
Translated from German by Susan Bernofsky with an introduction and photographs by W. G. Sebald. This book is the reason I decided to abandon any attempt at a review. I loved it. The protagonist is a wistful, slothful, and intelligent young man with whom we spend about two years wondering if he will ever stop his naive pontificating and begin to honestly observe the world. It is witty. The descriptions of scenery are beautiful and the translation is superb.
2008 Hardcover Fiction
The Painter from Shanghai, Jennifer Cody Epstein (Norton); Harry, Revised, Mark Sarvas (Bloomsbury); The Islands of Divine Music, John Addiego (Unbridled); The Story of a Marriage, Andrew Sean Greer (FSG).
2008 Paperback Original
The Diving Pool, Yoko Ogawa and translated by Stephen Snyder (Picador); The Waitress Was New, Dominique Fabre and translated by Jordan Stump (Archipelago); The Marriage of True Minds, Stephen Evans (Unbridled); The Leper Compound (Bellevue Literary), Laura Nangle; Disquiet (Penguin Group), Julia Leigh.
2007 Hardcover Fiction
The Folded World, Amity Gaige (Other Press); The Last Summer of the World, Emily Mitchell (Norton; The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Juno Diaz (Riverhead); and The Pirates Daughter, Margaret Cezair-Thompson (Unbridled)
2007 Paperback Original
For the first year of our PBO club, we chose: Hick, Andrea Portes (Unbridled); The Lamentations of Julius Marantz, Marc Estrin (Unbridled); Spring Tides, Jacques Poulin and translated by Sheila Fischman (Archipelago), and How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, Pierre Bayard and translated by Jeffrey Mehlman (Bloomsbury)
2006 Hardcover Fiction
The Last of Her Kind, Sigrid Nunez (fsg); A Season of Fire and Ice, Lloyd Zimpel (Unbridled); Giraffe, J.M. Ledgard (Penguin Press); & Famous Writers School, Stephen Carter (Counterpoint)
2005 Hardcover Fiction
The Distance Between Us, Masha Hamilton (Unbridled); Wolf Point, Edward Falco (Unbridled); Seven Lies, James Lasdun (Norton); and Lucky Strike, Nancy Zafris (Unbridled)
