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Ru: A Novel

December 28, 2012

ru

The Communist takeover of Saigon forces Nguyễn An Tinh and her family to leave behind their luxurious life and escape to a refugee camp in Malaysia. From there the family immigrates to Canada and settles in Quebec. Kim Thúy’s novel is called Ru, meaning ‘lullaby’ in Vietnamese, which aptly describes the book’s style of storytelling and reminiscence. It is a slim volume with ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bloomsbury, book clubs, cultural, debut, literary, Vietnam

Heads in Beds

November 30, 2012

Heads in Beds

Jacob Tomsky graduated from college with a degree in philosophy and no idea what he wanted to do. It is summer in New Orleans and before jumping a career and all that entails he decides to take a job at a new hotel as a valet—to test the working waters. With his personable nature and quick mind, Tomsky rapidly moves from valet to the underworld of housekeeping management while ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, Doubleday, memoir, travel

The Weight of Temptation

November 3, 2012

Weight of Temptation

Marina Rubin is overweight by about 65 pounds. She has reached the point well past doctors, diet plans, and pills, and is ready for extreme measures, so she signs up for 3 months at a weight loss clinic. It’s a retreat called The Reeds run by a man known only as Professor. In exchange for paying enormous sums of money, obese people like Marina are treated to psychological abuse ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, social issues

The Gluten-Free Table

October 15, 2012

gluten free

Imagine that your father is a well-loved chef known throughout the world but you can’t eat his food. This was the dilemma faced by Jilly and Jessie Lagasse when both realized, after years of illness without diagnosis, that they were gluten-intolerant and, in Jilly’s case, had celiac disease. This began a process of learning and re-invention, not only for the girls, but for ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: cookbook, cooking, gluten-intolerant, Grand Central Publishing, recipes

Those We Love Most

September 12, 2012

those we love

Those We Love Most begins with one of life’s greatest tragedies- the loss of a young child. James is riding his bike to school as his mother follows with his baby sister in a stroller. He rides out into the street and is killed by a teenage driver. An accident, but one that Lee Woodruff mines to look at the fragile web of relationships, communications and individual responses ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut, family, Hyperion

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid

September 10, 2012

people of forever

Coming-of-age in Israel means something very different than it does in most countries. At 18 all Israeli youth must serve two years in the Israeli Defense Forces. In The People of Forever Are Not Afraid Shani Boianjiu takes the stories of three friends and mixing past and present explores what this time means to them and later, what it does to them. The girls are given the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut, Hogarth, Israel, Middle East, social issues

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