Book Rec of the Day 6/30-7/7/2008

HISTORY IN A NOVEL

This powerhouse of a second novel by Nunez begins with Georgette and Ann as Barnard roommates in 1968. Ann is a radical lefty from a very cushy background; Georgette knows poverty all too well and is surprised and even a little appalled that Ann should romanticize it. As the countercultural revolution ferments, Ann immerses herself in a violent, ideological brand of activism, and finally, in 1976, she shoots and kills a policeman and goes to prison, where she writes impassioned essays that come to the attention of magazine editor Georgette. A searing examination of America’s recent past.

THE LAST OF HER KIND, by Sigrid Nunez (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)

Tui De Roy does for South America what Ansel Adams did for the Pacific Northwest, searing into our memories images of places we may never have seen. De Roy grew up in the Galápagos, an archipelago that belongs politically to Ecuador, comprising 13 main volcanic islands, 6 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still forming and erupting regularly. This is nature photography at its spectacular best.

GALÁPAGOS: ISLANDS BORN OF FIRE, by Tui De Roy (Warwick House, 2000)

“The novel races toward a conclusion so shocking that even longtime Patterson devotees won’t see it coming.”—Booklist

Out in the Hamptons where the wealthy while away their summers, the bodies of three young men are found on a billionaire’s basketball court. Dante Halleyville, high-school basketball prodigy, is arrested and goes to the one person he can trust to defend him, a very small-time attorney named Tom Dunleavy. Fortunately, Tom’s girlfriend, Kate Costello, is a very savvy Manhattan lawyer. Money, forbidden fruit, violence, deceit, suspense, and action all come together for some good old summertime adventure and a fine beach (or hammock) read.

BEACH ROAD, by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge (Little, Brown, 2006)

SHORT FICTION

Alexie’s third collection of stories introduces us to some sorrowful, beaten-down characters, Indians who nevertheless possess the strength, the wits, and the sense of humor to survive. “The two funniest tribes I’ve ever been around are Indians and Jews, so I guess that says something about the inherent humor of genocide,” quips the main character in the smart and poignant “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” about a homeless Indian who recognizes his grandmother’s stolen dance regalia in a pawnshop window and the day he spends trying to collect the $999 he needs to buy it back. Alexie has a brilliant talent for shedding light on the human condition through these stories of contemporary Indians of the northwestern United States.

TEN LITTLE INDIANS, by Sherman Alexie (Grove Press, 2003)

Competitive eating isn’t exactly an Olympic sport, but it is making headway. Nerz writes with gusto about the distended stomachs and involuntary emptying of same, the training techniques of the winners, and the Belt of Fat Theory. He profiles such prize-winning gurgitators as Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, Ed “Cookie” Jarvis, and, of course, the incredible Takeru Kobayashi, who year after year stuffs more hot dogs down his throat than anyone else at the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest. Not a book for all times and places, it nevertheless should amuse you while you lie on the beach and digest that burger, fries, and shake you indulged in for lunch this afternoon.

EAT THIS BOOK: A YEAR OF GORGING AND GLORY ON THE COMPETITIVE EATING CIRCUIT, by Ryan Nerz (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006)

YOU GOTTA LAUGH

“[I]nspired parody. . . . [T]he book’s ultimate joke . . . is that it’s not only more informative about how American government and culture work than the textbooks it burlesques, but gives us a keener sense of having a stake in both.”—Tom Carson, The New York Times Book Review

If you didn’t get to it in 2004, or even if you did, the lessons you learn in Stewart’s brilliant and bestselling satire of a modern civics text are still pertinent and oh so funny!

AMERICA (THE BOOK): A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO DEMOCRACY INACTION, by Jon Stewart (Warner Books, 2004)

When it was first published, this classic novel won the World Fantasy Award. Harold Bloom includes the book in his list of the Western Canon of the 20th Century, and Ursula LeGuin said that Little, Big “all by itself calls for a redefinition of fantasy.” The story is about Smoky Barnable, who marries Daily Alice Drinkwater and lives with her and her family in a place called Edgewood. The Drinkwaters are somehow connected with a world of fairies and are trying to fathom their place in some strange ongoing story. Little, Big is a truly unusual, allusive, and evocative book.

LITTLE, BIG, by John Crowley (1981; Harper Perennial, 2002)

ANDROID DREAMS

“Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence. His intriguing new book envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend its biological limitations—transforming our lives in ways we can’t yet imagine.” —Bill Gates

The “singularity” in question is that point in time when human brains and bodies merge with their machines. It may all sound too crazy, yet Kurzweil is an accomplished inventor and intellectual who has to be taken at least somewhat seriously.

THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR: WHEN HUMANS TRANSCEND BIOLOGY, by Ray Kurzweil (Penguin, 2006)