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Chai Time's Choice
30 books, classified by genre
Recommended by "chaitime212"
Click here for a comprehensive list of Reading Recommendations for 2012 for all tastes
Compiled by writer and book lover Holly Cohen (New York)
FictionRichard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013)
One of the few Mann Booker Prize winners (2014) that I can truly recommend, this novel is a must for those less familiar with the horrors of the Asia-Pacific theater in WWII. The atrocities committed by the Japanese (such as cannibalism) and the horrific experiences of the Australian POWs working on the Thai-Burma death railway, graphically described in the book, are confirmed by historian Anthony Beaver in his 2012 work The Second World War.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky M.L. Stedman, The Light between Oceans (2012)
A novel set on a remote lighthouse island off the coast of Australia, where a couple make a momentous decision that will affect not only their own lives but those of others on the mainland. A sense of doom pervades this post-World War I story as it gradually builds up to a heartbreaking crescendo. An impressive debut novel.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife (UK, 2012)
A big, warm novel of love lost and love regained in early twentieth century Italy and pre- and post-World War I America. Ciro, an orphan boy brought up in a convent, and Enza, the eldest daughter from a poor family, both end up, due to different circumstances, in America, and struggle, separately, to make better lives for themselves. Evocative images of the flavors and vistas of the mountains of northern Italy and the immigrant experience in America. Wonderful, escapist stuff.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Ellen Feldman, Next to Love (New York, 2011)
A mesmerizing portrait of America during an era of cataclysmic change. Three childhood friends in a small town in Massachusetts struggle to cope with the sea changes in their lives, over 20 years, from the time the USA enters World War II in late 1941 and their young men are sent to the front. They face love, loss, grief, remaking their lives, and the gradual break-down of barriers – dividing blacks and Jews, but also women – in America. A very well-crafted novel. Highly recommended.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Lesley Downer, The Samurai's Daughter (aka Across a Bridge of Sighs) (2012)
Late 19th century Japan: samurai and geisha, clan enmity, a clan uprising – and an impossible Romeo and Juliet love story. These are the ingredients that go to make up this unputdownable historical fiction -grounded in true events - written by an author who is an expert on things Japanese.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy (Little, Brown Book Group, 2012)
Parish politics in a small idyllic English village does not seem like an exciting theme for a novel, but J.K. Rowling’s keen observer’s eye, wit, and colorful cast of characters makes this, her first venture into adult literature, an absorbing read - eventually.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Hisham Matar, Anatomy of a Disappearance (New York, 2011)
A mesmerizing tale of exile and loss, father-son relations and family secrets, against the shadowy political background of a ruthless regime. The sadness and loneliness permeating the story are underlined by the spare prose and the omission rather than the inclusion of detail.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Maeve Binchy, A Week in Winter (Random House, 2012)
Those who enjoy Maeve Binchy books will be sorry to hear that this is the last one she will ever write. She died shortly after completing it in 2012. Binchy's books are set in Ireland. Her plots and style are simple, but there is a human warmth and sympathy in them, including in A Week in Winter, that make them a comforting read, especially at bedtime.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Anneli Purchase, Julia's Violinist (2013)
I had the good fortune to read Julia's Violinist before publication. One woman's struggle to survive and protect her children in the aftermath of WWII is a war story with a difference. In her novel, Purchase focuses on Julia's determination and her strength of will. Despite all that she endures, she is a survivor. It's Julia who holds her family together during the horror of reprisals and the deprivation of deportation and internment.
But Julia's Violinist is above all a story of love − for children, parents, siblings and the three men in her life. You will cry for Julia, you will root for Julia, you will cheer for Julia, and above all you will come to love Julia. This is not just one woman's story, but the story of many women, any one of whom it would be an honor and a privilege to know. Recommended by Darlene Jones (Vancouver Island, Canada) Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2001)
I have not always enjoyed books that have won the prestigious Man Booker Prize, which is why I didn’t hurry to read this one. However, in this case I erred. It is an amazing story, not easy to digest in places − for those with a queasy stomach, and especially not for vegetarians. But Martel’s irony and humor soften the grim reality of a boy, originally called Piscine Molitor Patel, and a huge Bengal tiger, named Richard Parker, castaway in a lifeboat but miraculously surviving together for some seven months.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky Anneli Purchase, Orion's Gift (Amazon and Smashwords, August 2012)
Purchase has done it again. Brought us another riveting love story laced with danger and intrigue. This time the setting is the wilds of the Baja Peninsula. The author creates a vivid picture of the terrain and climate with its dangers of bad roads, cows on the highway, the desert itself, and bandidos.
Sylvia, running from her husband and a life threatening letter, finds fleeting peace and solace in the campgrounds of the Baja. First, a drunk man tries to molest her. Then she loses her passport and wallet. Then she finds Kevin. He too is on the run. The two fall in love/lust or perhaps it’s the other way round. As their relationship grows greater dangers emerge. First, from the secrets they keep from each other and then from their spouses who are in hot pursuit. Purchase knows how to paint a glorious picture of the setting and hold us spell-bound by the action. A great read. Recommended by Darlene Jones (Vancouver Island, Canada) Anneli Purchase, The Wind Weeps (Amazon and Smashwords, December 2011)
From a sheltered life in Ontario, Andrea crosses the continent to the rugged world of West Coast British Columbia. This story sucks the reader in with a humorous and intriguing look at the lives of commercial fishermen. The reader is caught in Andrea’s life as her decisions lead her down a path she could never have anticipated. Soon you are sitting on the edge of your chair, tense with worry about Andrea. And the ending!? All I can say is that there had better be a sequel. The mechanics are solid, the imagery vivid and the emotional impact will have you rooting for Andrea.
Recommended by Darlene Jones (Vancouver Island, Canada) Wendy Unsworth, The Palaver Tree (Amazon, October 2012)
My own books are partially inspired by my experiences in Africa, so this book was a natural for me. Subtle, direct, gentle, and jarring, The Palaver Tree takes the reader on an incredible journey from the safety of small town England to the dangers of Africa.
But, for Ellie, Diane, and Tiffany, England isn't safe either as the wily and unscrupulous Gabriel cons them all. And the Africa Ellie comes to know and love - the friends she makes and the children she teaches - cannot protect her from the dangers of either Gabriel or the rioting as rebels attempt a coup to overturn the government. I've lived and traveled in Africa and found this book taking me down memory lane. Thankfully, I never had to face the dangers Ellie faced. If you're looking for a good read, that takes "ordinary" people into extraordinary circumstances, this is it. Recommended by Darlene Jones (Vancouver Island, Canada) Jenny Twist, Domingo's Angel (Melange Books, July 2011)
A survey of fiction readers showed that the one of the most important aspects of a novel for readers was what they learned. Domingo's Angel fills the bill perfectly. The reader learns about conditions in Spain through the lives of villagers in the mountains. The story is beautiful, heartbreaking, and haunting. The characters, depicted so vividly, stay with the reader long after the book is done. This is one I will read and reread. Do pick up a copy. You won't be disappointed.
Recommended by Darlene Jones (Vancouver Island, Canada) Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (Random House, 2010)
A charming tale of a widowed British major who falls in love with a Pakistani woman. The story tells how love triumphs over his - and his English village's -conservatism and bigotry.
Recommended by Anne Hosansky (New York) Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (UK, 2009)
A fictionalized bio of Thomas Cromwell, Henry V111 and Anne Boleyn. Written so expertly you feel as if you're inside Cromwell's astute head and living in those times. The English author won the Booker Prize with this.
Recommended by Anne Hosansky (New York) Penny Vincenzi, The Decision (UK, 2011)
Another riveting book by Penny Vincenzi. Her settings might be "frivolous" (swinging London in the 1960s, the fashion world), but you can't fault her for character and plot and sub-plot development, which she does slowly but surely in her 750+ page, eventful and many-peopled novels. This one focuses on the stormy relationship between an upper-class girl from the fashion world and an ambitious property tycoon from a working class background. The culmination is a dramatic court case over the fate of their small daughter. The ending, as always, is a happy one, more or less. So what! It's a great read.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky (Israel) Victoria Hislop, The Thread (UK, 2011)
Probably Hislop's best work so far. A sweeping saga set against the backdrop of Thessaloniki's turbulent twentieth century history. Hislop says in her epilogue: "I wrote The Thread to explore for myself the strength and courage that the inhabitants of Thessaloniki must have had to survive the events of the twentieth century. I hope I have done them justice." Through her thorough research and engaging characters and story, I think she has.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky (Israel) Martin A. Line, Portait of a Prisoner (Amazon Press, 2012)
Martin Line’s new book begins with a prison sentence being read out. This immediately caught my attention, especially as we subsequently find out that the prisoner, David Cuthbertson, has been wrongly convicted. This gives us a clue about the story line, but our interest is aroused as to how it will unfold.
From what we are told about Cuthbertson’s early family life and his school friends, we learn that he was a nice, bright young boy but from a violent background. So his apparent turn to criminality was not suprising. The book then moves onto a well-presented description of Cutherbertson's life in prison and how he coped there. Here the author introduces poetry and flashbacks to illustrate Cuthbertson’s mental slide, an interesting twist in what could have been a conventional story. From this point, however, it reverts to type as a love story develops and Cutherbertson's file is reopened. At the conclusion, all the ends are a little too tidied up, with justice being done and the characters reformed. Martin Line was inspired to write this book by a concern that some people are wrongly convicted and imprisoned. Most, however, would not have the fortitude of David Cuthbertson, or an opportunity to have a wrong righted. Recommended by Elenor Leveritt (Gold Coast/Brisbane, Australia) Ildefonso Falcones, The Hand of Fatima (London, 2010; trans. from Spanish)
For those addicted to hefty works of historical fiction. The storyline is set against the violent and bloody conflict between the Moors (Moriscos; the “New” Christians, after their forcible conversion) and the “Old” Christians in sixteenth century Spain, and culminates in the expulsion of the former in the early seventeenth century. The protagonist is Hernando (the Nazarene) who is torn between the two worlds and accepted by neither after being born to a Muslim mother raped by a Catholic priest. Hernando is also torn between his love for a Muslim woman and a Christian one. Fatima, in the title of the novel, has a dual meaning: she is Hernando's Muslim love, but "the hand of Fatima" [Arabic: hamsa] is also an amulet that protects against the evil eye. Progress through the book is slow and tedious at times, but it is interesting for its historical aspect.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky (Israel) Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mom [or Mother, in the British version] (NY, 2011; trans. from Korean)
A story with a universal message: how we tend to take our mothers for granted until we lose them and only then begin to understand and appreciate them. The setting, however, is particularistic: South Korea, home of the writer, which gives the foreign reader an interesting insight into the culture of that society. An elderly mother who has lived all her life in the countryside goes missing in Seoul. During their search for her, three of her children and the no-good husband do some soul-searching, each in his or her own voice, about their relationship to the mother and the sacrifices she made for them. Another important, also universal theme is the generation-culture gap between traditional, rural parents and their educated, urbanized children.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky (Israel) Vladimir Nabakov, Lolita (Paris, 1955; NY, 1965)
Just reread Nabakov's "Lolita" - so brilliant. What a master of the exact words he was. Again, humor (dark) within a macabre situation. Biting portrait of the American motel landscape, too.
Recommended by Anne Hosansky (New York) Emma Donoghue, Room (NY, 2010)
An unusual and poignant story about a woman and her little son, imprisoned by a rapist. Despite the tragic situation, there's enormous brave humor throughout.
(Longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize) Recommended by Anne Hosansky (New York) |
Non-FictionVivek Dehejia & Rupa Subramanya, Indiamix: Making Sense of Modern India (Random House, 2012)
Why does the stock exchange dip during a lunar eclipse? Why did Nehru ignore the Chinese threat in the lead-up to the 1962 war? Why is it that a stranger might risk his life to save yours on one day, and a street full of passers-by might casually watch you bleed to death on another? Why did pollsters wrongly predict a BJP [Indian People's Party] victory in 2004, and what was the real reason for their defeat? And why is India's Independence Day not, in fact, on the day on which it is celebrated?
In pithy, bite-sized chapters, economists Dehejia and Subramanya tackle these seeming mysteries and unearth the real reasons why only we are like that. The answers are entertaining and surprising, and reveal a picture of modern India as never seen before. Recommended by Delia Maria (Pune, India) Carolly Erickson, The Girl from Botany Bay (New Jersey, 2004)
This is the sort of family history I would like to write one day. It is based on factual events surrounding Mary Broad, who was transported as a convict to Australia. Through a series of fortunate circumstances she twice avoided the gallows, and was eventually reunited with her family in England.
This is not the sort of book where you feel sorry for the main character. Mary Broad is always strong and determined in the face of everything that happens to her. Her story encourages admiration for her endurance and for her ability to seize an opportunity when it arose. It has been thoroughly researched and the author vividly depicts the sights and smells of the new colony, and the feelings of the convicts. She also describes the situation of the naval officers and government, who struggled with a distant government and corruption in an alien land. The biography has been cleverly knitted together through known facts about Mary Broad and the histories of England and Australia, and educated guesses about how these were interrelated. If one is not familiar with her story, the reader will find the ending quite unexpected. Recommended by Elenor Leveritt (Gold Coast/Brisbane, Australia) Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance (London, 2010)
Who needs a novel when they can read a fascinating saga like that of de Waal’s family. Spanning over 150 years, the tale begins with the family’s rise in Odessa, its emigration, in parallel, to Paris and Venice, where its various members enjoyed wealth and power, and its downfall and dispersion on the cusp of the outbreak of World War II. What inspired de Waal to research his family history was his inheritance of a collection of netsuke, tiny Japanese carvings, which accompanied the family and its fortunes after being purchased by a cousin of de Waal’s great grandfather in Paris. De Waal’s recreation of the atmosphere of pre-World War I Paris and Vienna, and of the postwar years and the lead-up to the Anschluss in the latter is almost palpable, and the book as a whole is unputdownable.
Recommended by Beryl Belsky (Israel) The Collected Essays of Walter Murdoch (Sydney/London, 1938)
Sir Walter Murdoch was Scottish-born, but lived for most of his long life in Australia. His down-to-earth essays were widely published throughout the Australian media. He had the rare gift of being able to reduce the heights of philosophical muse to the language of ordinary men and women; additionally, his was a wicked wit, and he sometimes delved into satirical asides that were full of good humour and common sense. He founded the Murdoch University, in Perth, Western Australia. A wonderful human being and an inspired writer.
Recommended by Bryan Clark (Alice Springs, Australia) Phillip Knightley, Australia: A Biography of a Nation (London, 2000), 372 pp.
Most books of this type, according to my experience, are largely derivative, re-hashed material from other historians of one level or another. Knightley's book, however, strikes out alone into the fields of research and often his conclusions are not those of his colleagues. He evaluates independently, delving through the myths, legends and folklore - an unpopular stance in conservative Australia - and tells his story in his own individualistic manner. Recommended by Bryan Clark (Alice Springs, Australia) |