August Book Selections
Finally, finally, I've come up with a list of books. Yes, I cheated and looked at Oprah's summer reading list. And a whole bunch of others. There's not really a theme beyond me picking three books that sounded interesting. Vote in the poll below by 5 pm, Friday August 5th. I'll let you know what we'll be reading!
Conquistadora, By Esmeralda Santiago
"Gloriosa Ana María de los Angeles Larragoity Cubillas Nieves de Donostia—Ana for short—is slight for a Spanish aristocrat, and unfashionably dark-skinned. In convent school in the 1830s, having eccentrically buried her not-so-pretty nose in a journal of a conquistador, she decides to become one, after a fashion, herself. "Ana despaired that she was born female and centuries too late to be an explorer and adventurer," writes Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican*. A decades-long story about marriage, slavery, and calculated choices—Ana makes an unspoken, unnatural pact with her young husband and his twin brother—Conquistadora (Knopf) is a splendid expedition into colonial history complete with enrapturing suspense to the very end." Read more: http://www.oprah.com/book/Conquistadora-by-Esmeralda-Santiago?editors_pick_id=31642#ixzz1TirWNpA5
Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
"Do we ever truly know each other? Is intimacy possible in a culture where every interaction can be tracked and quantified by constantly updated data streams? These are the questions at the heart of Gary Shteyngart's postapocalyptic black comedy, Super Sad True Love Story. Taking place a few decades in the future, in an America where the war on terror has led to financial and ethical bankruptcy, the novel revolves around the affair between Lenny Abramov, 39, a second-generation Russian Jew bereft at the thought of his mortality, and the significantly younger Eunice Park, a Korean-American from Fort Lee, New Jersey, who lives to shop. "We're such an unlikely couple, so unlikely," Lenny cries one night in a Staten Island tavern, "because she's beautiful and I'm the fortieth ugliest man in this bar. But so what! So what!... Isn't this how people used to fall in love?" Suddenly, chaos strikes and the world reverts to a pretech era in which all we have is our isolated humanity. This leads Lenny to reassess his work for the Post-Human Services division of a company that markets high-end immortality, while Eunice finds herself unexpectedly politicized. Shteyngart makes trenchant, often hilarious, observations about a fading empire in which companies merge in bizarre combinations (LandO'LakesGMFord), and paramilitarism rules. How do we survive in such a world? The answer, this pointed novel argues, lies in trying to stay together despite ourselves." Read more: http://www.oprah.com/book/Super-Sad-True-Love-Story-by-Gary-Shteyngart?editors_pick_id=26705#ixzz1Tis7Zn6Q
Once Upon a River, Bonnie Jo Campbell
One of the most talked-about new releases of the season, this novel will be sure to get you some jealous looks from your fellow literary beachgoers. More importantly, it’s an adventure story that will keep you pinned to your towel. Sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, armed with her trusty rifle, “only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley,” sets off on a river journey through the wilds of rural Michigan in search of her mother. Margo has repeatedly been touted as the female Huck Finn, which means you’ll probably want to be her best friend. From Flavorwire
"Gloriosa Ana María de los Angeles Larragoity Cubillas Nieves de Donostia—Ana for short—is slight for a Spanish aristocrat, and unfashionably dark-skinned. In convent school in the 1830s, having eccentrically buried her not-so-pretty nose in a journal of a conquistador, she decides to become one, after a fashion, herself. "Ana despaired that she was born female and centuries too late to be an explorer and adventurer," writes Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican*. A decades-long story about marriage, slavery, and calculated choices—Ana makes an unspoken, unnatural pact with her young husband and his twin brother—Conquistadora (Knopf) is a splendid expedition into colonial history complete with enrapturing suspense to the very end." Read more: http://www.oprah.com/book/Conquistadora-by-Esmeralda-Santiago?editors_pick_id=31642#ixzz1TirWNpA5
"Do we ever truly know each other? Is intimacy possible in a culture where every interaction can be tracked and quantified by constantly updated data streams? These are the questions at the heart of Gary Shteyngart's postapocalyptic black comedy, Super Sad True Love Story. Taking place a few decades in the future, in an America where the war on terror has led to financial and ethical bankruptcy, the novel revolves around the affair between Lenny Abramov, 39, a second-generation Russian Jew bereft at the thought of his mortality, and the significantly younger Eunice Park, a Korean-American from Fort Lee, New Jersey, who lives to shop. "We're such an unlikely couple, so unlikely," Lenny cries one night in a Staten Island tavern, "because she's beautiful and I'm the fortieth ugliest man in this bar. But so what! So what!... Isn't this how people used to fall in love?" Suddenly, chaos strikes and the world reverts to a pretech era in which all we have is our isolated humanity. This leads Lenny to reassess his work for the Post-Human Services division of a company that markets high-end immortality, while Eunice finds herself unexpectedly politicized. Shteyngart makes trenchant, often hilarious, observations about a fading empire in which companies merge in bizarre combinations (LandO'LakesGMFord), and paramilitarism rules. How do we survive in such a world? The answer, this pointed novel argues, lies in trying to stay together despite ourselves." Read more: http://www.oprah.com/book/Super-Sad-True-Love-Story-by-Gary-Shteyngart?editors_pick_id=26705#ixzz1Tis7Zn6Q
One of the most talked-about new releases of the season, this novel will be sure to get you some jealous looks from your fellow literary beachgoers. More importantly, it’s an adventure story that will keep you pinned to your towel. Sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, armed with her trusty rifle, “only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley,” sets off on a river journey through the wilds of rural Michigan in search of her mother. Margo has repeatedly been touted as the female Huck Finn, which means you’ll probably want to be her best friend. From Flavorwire
