Carol's Pick: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua
An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way.
Carol says: This was a real eye-opener to the differences between Eastern and Western child rearing. I loved Amy's standards and was embarrassed as to how we Westerners are raising our children. Wish I could do it over again.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
STAFF PICKS -- The Swan Thieves
Carol's Pick: The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova
Synopsis:
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
Carol says: This book was full of devotion, obsession and mystery, demanding you to turn each page. Would be interesting to artists. Great characters.
Synopsis:
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
Carol says: This book was full of devotion, obsession and mystery, demanding you to turn each page. Would be interesting to artists. Great characters.
Monday, February 14, 2011
PATRON PICKS -- Chasing the Night
Cathy's Pick: Chasing the Night, by Iris Johansen
Synopsis:
A CIA agent’s two-year-old child was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, this torment is something Catherine Ling awakens to every day. Her friends, family, and colleagues tell her to let go, move on, accept that her son is never coming back. But she can’t. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her— and that person is Eve Duncan. She knows that Eve shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie. Now, Eve must take her talents as a forensic sculptor to another level, using age progression as a way to unite Catherine with her child. As Eve gets drawn deeper into Catherine’s horror, she must face looming demons of her own.
Bonnie’s killer is still out there. And a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine’s son alive, or not? These two women endure the worst fear any mother can imagine in Iris Johansen’s latest thrill ride, a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul.
Cathy says: Johansen's latest Eve Duncan thriller does not disappoint--action and suspense make you eager to turn the page.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A Man in Uniform by Kate Taylor
Against the background of the infamous Dryfus Affair in Belle Epoque France, Taylor has written a tale of intrigue, romance and transformation. The "Man in Uniform" is a successful bourgeios Parisian lawyer, Francois Dubon, who leads a sedate and settled life. He is visited by a mysterious widow who inveigles him to prove Dryfus innocent of the charge of treason that has condemned him to solitary confinement on Devil's Island in French Guiana. There are flashes of humor as well in the efforts Dubon makes to play detective. Evocative of its time and place, this is a book which will draw you in and on to its satisfying completion.
PATRON PICKS -- Cleopatra: A Life
Christine's Pick: Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff
Synopsis:
Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator.
Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and—after his murder—three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.
Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.
Christine says: Clearly historical, but well-written and engaging. Cleopatra is even more fascinating when placed in her proper historical context.
Synopsis:
Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator.
Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and—after his murder—three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.
Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.
Christine says: Clearly historical, but well-written and engaging. Cleopatra is even more fascinating when placed in her proper historical context.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
In Search of Eden, by Linda Nichols
I have recently read this book and loved it. This is one of those feel good books. It is a story of a young woman looking for a child she had when she was 15. Her mother insisted she give it up for adoption; she didn't have a choice, didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, only got to hold her baby for a minute. Each chapter is written in the voice of a different character, so the author really keeps you involved in the book. I was always interested to know what was going to happen next to each character.
There is a bit of a religious overtone, but I quickly got used to it, and felt that it gave some depth to the characters. This book does raise some interesting questions on the topic of adoption.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Diana
There is a bit of a religious overtone, but I quickly got used to it, and felt that it gave some depth to the characters. This book does raise some interesting questions on the topic of adoption.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Diana
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