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Kinder Than Solitude

March 7, 2014

kinder than solitude

  A trio of friends haunted by a mysterious accident are the key characters in Yiyun Li’s new novel, Kinder Than Solitude. They all live within the same housing compound in Beijing, where life moves along without much disturbance, until an older girl living in one of their houses is overcome by a mysterious illness that later turns out to be chemical poisoning. She is not ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: China, contemporary fiction, cultural, debut, Random House

A Well-Tempered Heart

January 24, 2014

well tempered heart

Not all explicable things are true. Not all truths are explicable. Such an unusual combination: ghost story and love story and yet, in A Well-Tempered Heart it works. Julia is a successful corporate lawyer whose professional achievements are overcome by the personal disappointment of a called-off wedding. As she tries to bring herself back around she is beset with a new ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, Other Press, Southeast Asia

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment

January 17, 2014

gods of heavenly punishment

  There are numerous novels about World War II and the events leading up to it but TheThe Gods of Heavenly Punishment: A Novel comes from a perspective not often seen—that of life in Japan in the late 1930s. Author Jennifer Cody Epstein intermingles the lives of disparate characters that come together and move apart against the backdrop of war. Anton Reynolds is an American ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, historical fiction, Japan, W.W. Norton, WWII

The Hundred-Foot Journey

January 10, 2014

hundred foot journey

I am almost speechless at how much I enjoyed this book. The Hundred-Foot Journey is a beautiful, thoughtfully written story about one man’s trek from unwelcome immigrant to renowned chef in Paris. Hassam Haji starts life living above his grandfather's restaurant in Mumbai. When they family leaves india and settles in France it becomes Hassam's dream to be a chef in a French ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cooking, cultural, food, restaurants, Scribner

The Valley of Amazement

November 18, 2013

Valley of Amazement

  Amy Tan is another author returning this year after a multi-year absence. In The Valley of Amazement she weaves a tapestry of the lives of three generations of women, one silken thread at a time. The novel is a portrait of life in a courtesan house in Shanghai at the turn of the century. Violet’s mother, Lucia, is the proprietor. As she is growing-up Violet believes that ... Read More...

11 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: China, cultural, ecco, historical fiction

Burial Rites

September 9, 2013

Burial Rites

A young woman is condemned to death in Iceland at a time when there were no jails so a family is ordered to house her for her final months. A young priest is assigned to be her spiritual guide to repentance before her execution. All this in 1828 the summer before Agnes Magnúsdóttir is to be put to death in Hannah Kent’s debut novel, Burial Rites. Agnes has been mistreated her ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, historical fiction, Iceland, literary, Little Brown and Company

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