Book Recs 10/3 - 10/9/2007

“A spectacular first novel.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A tour de force.”—The Boston Globe

The story of five generations of the Santerre family is moving and unforgettable. Each chapter is narrated by a different family member during a different era, to reveal this deeply Catholic family’s various heartbreaks, loves, losses, triumphs, and regrets. By the end of the novel, you’ll “not just care about the Santerres but also...feel like one of them,” says the San Francisco Chronicle.

LIARS AND SAINTS, by Maile Meloy (Scribner, 2004)

BIOGRAPHIES

Rubi, a jet-setting dandy from the Dominican Republic, lived large and went out with a bang. Rubi ran with entertainers, heiresses, and royalty in glittering locations from Hollywood to Rio. A supposed diplomat, he was more interested in racing cars and bedding women than in working. (Though seducing women was more lucrative than most work: The divorce settlement of his 53-day marriage to Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton earned him millions.) Levy’s book is a fine, breezy tribute to a character who broke the mold.

THE LAST PLAYBOY: THE HIGH LIFE OF PORFIRIO RUBIROSA, by Shawn Levy (Fourth Estate, 2005)

“The real epic of our age.”—Victor Hugo

“Scott was a born storyteller.”—Henry James

“Scott’s characters, like Shakespeare’s and Jane Austen’s, have the seed of life in them.”—Virginia Woolf

Ivanhoe returns from the Third Crusade to woo his lady, Rowena, and team up with Robin Hood. Scott’s heroic tale of chivalry remains a thrill to read.

IVANHOE, by Sir Walter Scott (1819; Modern Library, 2001)

MEMOIRS

“If Dave Barry were to renovate a house, the resulting story might be something like Gutted.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Takes you to places the gang on This Old House wouldn’t go at gunpoint.”—Hartford Courant

Lawrence LaRose renovated his life as he renovated his home. The result: a stunning cape in Long Island’s Sag Harbor, a stronger marriage, a new career, and a hilarious and moving memoir.

GUTTED: DOWN TO THE STUDS IN MY HOUSE, MY MARRIAGE, MY ENTIRE LIFE, by Lawrence LaRose (Bloomsbury, 2005)

Bezmozgis’s debut collection of linked stories about a Russian-Jewish family in Toronto earned him comparisons to Philip Roth and Saul Bellow. The brilliant title story alone—about a young man’s sexual awakening—might have been enough to do it. “Scary good,” says Esquire. “Dazzling,” raves People.

NATASHA: AND OTHER STORIES, by David Bezmozgis (Picador, 2005)

HISTORIES

The crusades are mentioned often in the press these days, but who really knows much about them? Christopher Tyerman does, and thanks to his book, you can too. Tyerman, a medieval scholar, introduces five hundred years of incredibly complex history in an appealing, highly readable, and accessible (only 250 pages here) book. He goes a step further too, explaining how current events are shaped by the foundations laid by the famous holy wars.

FIGHTING FOR CHRISTENDOM: HOLY WAR AND THE CRUSADES, by Christopher Tyerman (Oxford University Press, 2004)

Carl Hiaasen goes to Edinburgh. That’s what you might think when you read Brookmyre’s madcap crime novel, a winner of the First Blood Award in the U.K. for best first crime novel. Journalist Jack Parlabane gets tangled in an investigation of a tony citizen as he tries to avoid entanglements with the victim’s widow. Razor-sharp writing with enough swearing to make Brookmyre’s countryman Irvine Welsh proud.

QUITE UGLY ONE MORNING, by Christopher Brookmyre (Grove Press, 2002)