Religion is dying…but everybody still has to believe in something. It would be intolerable—you couldn’t stand it—to finally have to say to yourself, “Why keep pretending? I’m nothing but a random atom…” So, my people, that leaves only our blood, the bloodlines that course through our very bodies to unite us. All people everywhere, you have no choice but—Back to blood! In ... Read More...
The Art Forger
The 1990 theft of thirteen painting from the Gardner museum in Boston is still one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the art world. Despite the seeming ineptitude of the two thieves, a massive manhunt and a $5 million reward, the works have never been recovered. B.A. Shapiro uses this theft as the background for her new book The Art Forger. Claire Roth is a talented artist ... Read More...
The Wine of Solitude
At eight, Hélène Karol lives in a small Russian town with her parents, Boris and Bella, and her grandparents. She is an odd, lonely girl largely because her mother is willful, spoiled and selfish, interested in only her own desires and unwilling to do anything more than blame her daughter for spoiling her fun. When her father loses his job and leaves for Siberia to manage a ... Read More...
In Sunlight and In Shadow
And if you were a spirit, and time did not bind you, and patience and love were all you knew, then there you would wait for someone to return, and the story to unfold. Mark Helprin’s Winter's Tale was a magical enthralling ode to New York City and the first and only book I wanted to read after 9/11, despite having originally read it when I lived in NYC . It’s a timeless tale ... Read More...
The Forgiven
The suburbs of Tangiers were ruined, but the gardens were still there. And so were the crippled lemon trees and olives, the dogged disillusion and empty factories, the smell of seething young men. A sybaritic weekend in the Saharan desert of Morocco, at a fantastically renovated fortress compound. Richard and Dally have invited friends from around the globe and for Londoners, ... Read More...
Sometimes a Great Notion
When I learned that Ken Kesey grew up in Oregon I thought I was long overdue to read one of his books. I had seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and didn’t think I needed to revisit that subject so I opted for his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion. The story is set in Oregon logging country in the early 1960s. It catches the Stamper family (aptly named) at the height of ... Read More...
