Book Rec of the Day 11/14-19/2009

THE ROAD TO BALI

After a difficult and ugly divorce, Elizabeth Gilbert set out on an odyssey in search of herself. She started in Italy to look for pleasure, mostly in the form of food, especially gelato. Next she was off to Mumbai, India, to connect with her spiritual self. Finally she traveled on to Bali, Indonesia, looking to achieve balance. This might have been a dreary, self-centered travelogue, but Gilbert doesn’t write that way. She meets some extraordinary people along the way, and she is funny and smart and her exuberance is utterly infectious.

EAT, PRAY, LOVE: ONE WOMAN’S SEARCH FOR EVERYTHING ACROSS ITALY, INDIA AND INDONESIA, by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, 2007

THE WEATHER IN TURKEY

The Turkish poet Ka, who has been in Germany for the last twelve years, goes to the town of Kars (kar is the Turkish word for snow) to report on teenage girls who are committing suicide and to connect again with an old university classmate, a beautiful woman named Ipek. It begins snowing at the beginning of the book and doesn’t stop until almost the end. Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk has written a novel that is political, mysterious, truly moving, and as intricate as a snowflake.

SNOW, by Orhan Pamuk; translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely (Vintage Books, 2005)

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Alex Ross, the classical-music critic for The New Yorker, makes history clear through musical history. The many faces of “modernism,” which reflect motives and aesthetics that range from minimalism to revolution to chance to nature, are discussed in this engaging and accessible study. Ross begins with Mahler and Richard Strauss and takes us to the end of the 20th century with Steve Reich and Philip Glass. An excellent tune-up for your ears and brain.

THE REST IS NOISE: LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, by Alex Ross (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

A REASON TO BE THANKFUL

When Cynthia Fiske, a writer of historical fiction for girls, has to visit the Mark Twain home in Connecticut, she is persuaded to share Thanksgiving nearby with her sister, nieces, and 82-year-old father. The happy reunion with father doesn’t quite have the warmth that sister Frances had hoped for, which isn’t surprising, since sister Cynthia believes their father is responsible for their mother’s death. The family drama, underscored by secrets of Mark Twain, comes alive with crackling dialogue. Publishers Weekly starred review.

THE GHOST AT THE TABLE, by Suzanne Berne (Algonquin Books, 2006)

FEMME FATALE

Who was Mata Hari? She was Margaretha Zelle. She had a bleak childhood in the Netherlands. She was a young wife and mother in Java who had to escape her husband. She was a dancer, a courtesan, a spy. And above all, she was a mystery. As she awaits death by firing squad in 1917, this enigma whispers some of her secrets to us. Publishers Weekly starred review.

SIGNED, MATA HARI, by Yannick Murphy (Little, Brown, 2007)

IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

Most of us think we know what’s best for us. But, in fact, good research shows that over and over again, we make bad decisions, undercut our successes, fail to see opportunities, and hold ourselves back. In the realm of money, our cluelessness is especially sad. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone authoritative, extremely interesting, well informed, and so likable that we don’t mind having him point out all our foibles were to show us how to get rid of some of these bad habits? Publishers Weekly starred review.

YOUR MONEY AND YOUR BRAIN: HOW THE NEW SCIENCE OF NEUROECONOMICS CAN HELP MAKE YOU RICH, by Jason Zweig (Simon & Schuster, 2007)