The Night Circus

From  Ellen  Druda
Author:  Erin Morgenstern
The Night circus [sound recording CD]
This is the story of the romance between a man and woman destined as children to become opponents in a magical game in which only the winner will survive.  We follow them through their studies and formative years as they develop their skills as illusionists, able to manipulate the physical world around them.  Their stars cross and uncross and cross again working in the Cirque De Reves as the story draws to its fantastic conclusion.  Told in lush descriptive passages, the images are vivid of this turn-of-the-century steam punk night extravaganza, filled with eccentric characters, arcane magic spells, and dramatic love.  Narrator Jim Dale weaves the dialog around the plot points with a talent that enhances the richness of the text.

Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

From Eileen Effrat
Author:  David King
Death in the City of Light:    The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
If you were mesmerized by Eric Larson’s  Devil in the White City,  try this meticulously researched and  very readable account of Marcel Petiot, a Parisian doctor accused and convicted of brutally murdering  at least  twenty-seven people between 1941- 1944. War time Paris was in pandemonium, as the German Gestapo, French Gestapo, gangers and   resistance fighters vied for power and indiscriminately killed.   For Commissaire George-Victor Massau, the  investigating police  officer  for the case, this was a political minefield.  Anyone of those factions could be involved. The trial in 1946 was a circus as it attempted to try all 27 cases at once.   Although convicted and sentenced to death, many questions were never answered   and still remain a mystery. Was Petiot allied with the Gestapo or the French resistance?  Or  neither?  How did he initially kill his victims?  This is a true crime story that vividly describes Paris in the Second World War.

The Necklace

From Michelle Lauer-Bader
Author:  Cheryl  Jarvis
The Necklace
This is a fascinating story. The first question most people will ask is how can 13 women share anything? But it quickly becomes apparent that the necklace is only the means to get us to think about what do we really need and how can we make others happy. Most of us cannot afford a necklace like this, even if we share the cost.  But we can think about the rampant consumerism that exists in America and what we can do about it.  This would be a good book discussion selection.

We bought a zoo

From Jackie Cantwell
Author:  Benjamin Mee
We bought a zoo
This is the remarkable true story of a successful journalist and married father of two who buys the dilapidated Dartmoor Zoo in southwest England. The book was made into a movie, in theatres now, starring Matt Damon. Benjamin is joined in this venture with his siblings and widowed mother, who sinks her inheritance into the purchase.  Ever media-savvy, Ben lands a TV deal to film the park being prepared to be reopened for the public. This book has it all: a love story, exotic animals, impatient creditors, indifferent bankers, demanding government officials, and a ragtag crew of zookeepers. The most exciting parts are when the most dangerous animals (such as Sovereign the jaguar) escape or almost escape their enclosures.   A fascinating section, which became known as the Day of the Dentist, was when a renowned animal dentist checked the teeth of all the animals in a marathon, costly session. The threat of danger always lurks, which makes the narrative so suspenseful. Will the park pass the inspection? Will it ever open to the public again? Will his family give up on his dream?

The Rites & Wrongs of Janice Wills

From Jamie Kauffman
The Rites & Wrongs of Janice Wills
Author:  Joanna Pearson
 The book The Rites & Wrongs of Janice Wills is a great book for teen girls. Its about a nerdy anthropologist, Janice, and all of her observations on the life of a high schooler. Throughout the book she discovers how strong her friendship with her best friend, Margo, needs to be. Once the Miss Livermush pageant comes up, (which is the most exciting thing in Melva) everything and everyone seems to be changing in ways her anthropology research cant explain. This novel was an exciting and addictive read.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: my year of magical reading

From Catherine Given
Author:  Nina Sankovitch
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: my year of magical reading
I just finished Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch, about a woman who self-prescribes a book a day for a year as a way to re-group after her beloved sister’s death.  It’s a beautifully written story of lessons distilled from 365 authors’ works.  By briefly sharing what she derives from the experience and how she applies writers’ messages to her own life, Sankovitch creates a unique memoir, one that any avid reader of books will appreciate.  She also provides a list of richly meaningful non-fiction and fiction books to add to our own must-reads.  She says:

\”Words are witness to life: They record what has happened and they make it real. . . . Stories about lives remembered bring us backward while allowing us to move forward.  The only balm to sorrow is memory:  The only salve for the pain of losing someone to death is acknowledging the life that existed before.\”

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair will likely be cherished by anyone mourning the loss of a loved one.  For others, it will provide an affirmation of the value of thoughtful reading of good literature.

Last Man in Tower

From Ellen Druda
Author: Aravind Adiga
Title: Last Man in Tower (sound recording)
Love of money is indeed the root of all evil. A congenial group of apartment dwellers who share the same building in a middle-class neighborhood in Mumbai are offered a buy-out deal from a powerful real-estate developer. Most are happy to accept the offer, but a few are hold-outs, including retired teacher Masterji. The pressure begins to build to convince Masterji to agree to sell his share in the building, and as the story draws to its inevitable conclusion, we watch this group of once friendly neighbors commit desperate acts so they can cash in. Aravind paints a vivid picture of life in current day India and narrator Sam Dastor brings the story alive with his authentic reading.

The rogue : searching for the real Sarah Palin

From Jackie  Cantwell
Author:  Joe  McGinniss
The rogue : searching for the real Sarah Palin 
One word to describe this book is: juicy!  If you’re a fan of Sarah Palin, you’ll consider this book a hatchet job.  If you’re not a fan, you’ll devour every word.  One thing is certain: Sarah made many enemies along the way, many of whom were willing to talk to the author. There are many revelations. She does not cook or clean, and her children essentially raised themselves.  Any parental supervision they received was by Todd, her husband. She and Todd fight and threaten divorce all the time. She rarely eats, instead surviving on caffeinated drinks. She has serious mood swings. She can’t keep to a schedule and has never had a legislative agenda, except to mix religion with government.  She viewed the  governorship as a P.T. job, going in at 10 AM and leaving by 3 or 4 PM. She would go straight to bed when she came home, and didn’t want to be  disturbed. She’s obsessed with shopping and reading People magazine. A strength she possesses is that she is good at meet-and-greet events during campaigns. She fought to get her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, because he was divorcing her sister. She fired all of the people of color after she was elected governor.  John Bitney, her legislative director, was quoted as saying “She just isn’t comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people.” Mr. McGinniss rented the house next door to the Palins as he was researching the book. Fox News jumped onto Palin’s claim that McGinniss was peering into Piper’s bedroom from his balcony. He used the balcony to make cell phone calls & to look at the lake. It wasn’t possible to peep into Piper’s bedroom from his home. A “Cast of characters” and an index would have been helpful.

Palinisms : the accidental wit and wisdom of Sarah Palin

From Jackie Cantwell
Author:  Jacob Weisberg
Palinisms : the accidental wit and wisdom of Sarah Palin 
According to the author’s very humorous introduction, Palinisms occur when Palin expresses one of her views about God, Alaska, oil drilling, or the political establishment in her idiosyncratically involuted syntax.  According to Weisberg, Palin’s exuberant incoherence testifies to an unusually wide gulf between confidence and ability. She is proud of what she doesn’t know and contemptuous of those “experts” and “elitists” who are too knowledgeable to be trusted.  Here are some of my favorites. When asked by Katie Couric which newspapers she reads, Sarah replied, “All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.” And this is Sarah speaking at a town hall meeting in  Michigan, “Oil and coal? Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s  not.”  And Sarah explains her foreign policy experience to Katie Couric, “As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.”  This book is a lot of fun and at just 96 pages, it can be read in one sitting.

Mary Boleyn : the mistress of kings

From Eileen Effrat
Author:  Alison  Weir
Mary Boleyn : the mistress of kings 
Alison Weir, noted Tudor historian, is on a mission.  Weir wants to set the record straight on what is known and what is not known concerning Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn and sister-in-law of Henry VIII. Using an impressive array of primary sources and extensive secondary research,   Weir  attempts to stop  the myths and correct  many unsubstantiated claims that keep popping up in recent historical fiction (The Other Boleyn Girl) and the HBO series, the Tudors.  While Weir attempts to fill in unknown gaps in Mary’s life, she makes it very clear that this is speculation on her part backed up by her reading of historical documents.  If you are a fan of Weir’s previous biographies, you will not be disappointed.