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Cody's Staff Picks ~ Summer 2002
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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
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What a great memoir! The author was born in 1969 in England and then raised in Africa. She
and her family survived every kind of pestilence, civil war, dislocation, isolation and
the usual hard life of farming. There is not a shred of sentimentality but there is plenty
of humor, due mainly to her mother who was maniacal, sad, and fierce. Like Mary Karr's
Liar's Club (whose parents were also, as she put it, "drunk and armed"), Alexandra "Bobo"
Fuller's memoir is brave and gorgeous. All of the sights, sounds, and smells of Africa are
pressed into these pages. I could not recommend it more highly. - Beth McFadden
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Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana by Isadora Tattlin
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Sometimes an ordinary person has an extraordinary experience and manages to have us
understand the wonder and transformation. Tattlin is an American housewife and mother
whose European husband was posted to Cuba in the 90s. By Cuban standards they are awfully
comfortable, but still she resorts to Kafka-esque maneuvers. It's hilarious, empathetic
and finally it's a more compelling portrait of Cuba than any of the angry, politically
correct accounts. - Gay Falk
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The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
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This is a very fun first novel set at an all-girls' boarding school on the East Coast. The
story totally hooked me - it's actually a mystery that centers around a woman who returns
to her high school after being separated from her husband. When she starts to get clues
from the students in the Latin class she teaches that her dark past at that school is not
such a secret, she has to face up to what really happened - and learn more about herself
and her colleagues. One of those books I was really satisfied by but yet really sad when I
finally finished! - Corrie Westing
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Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
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If you can get past "set in a shtetl in the Ukraine" you will find this as fulfilling a
novel as you're likely to find this year. The characters are as heartbreaking as they are
hilarious. Foer paints a Chagall-like portrait of Eastern Europe that is too whimsical and
luminous to deserve allegations of magic realism. - Dave Chachere
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Master of the Senate by Robert Caro
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Robert Caro is a modern day Boswell and Lyndon Johnson is his, well, Johnson. This, Caro's
third volume of his biography, covers the period of Johnson's Senate career. It brings to
life Johnson, of course, brilliant, devious, unscrupulous, and imbued with fascinating
complexity. It also covers the history of the Senate and many memorable characters
including Richard Russell, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Eisenhowever, Sam Rayburn, PaulDouglas,
Hubert Humphrey and more. - Andy Ross
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Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
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This story of experiences and fortitude of a young woman seeking the father taken by
renegade soldiers during the Civil War in Missouri territory is freshly told and often
spellbinding. Great for plane, train, automobile, or backyard chair. - Melissa Mytinger
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The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary
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his is, to my mind, still the finest novel written about the artistic process, and the
struggle of the artist to create against time. Artist Gully Jimson is either a genius or a
fraud; either way he's finding it harder and harder to make what he sees in his mind what
he puts on canvas. His struggles to survive and paint are both excruciatingly funny and
faintly sad, as he burns his bridges trying to make his greatest vision real. Alec
Guinness was nominated for an Academy Award for his screen adaptation of this comic novel;
Gully Jimson was one of his finest roles. No finer recommendation is needed. - Russ Harvey
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Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
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Link's grasp of the human character is in contrast to her unfettered, macabre
imagination. These dreamlike stories defy rationality, and adhere instead to the mechanics
of the afterlife. - Dave Chachere
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Playing in the Dark: Whiteness & the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison
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Here's a great companion to any summer reading list. Acting almost as a psychologist,
Morrison probes a kind of literary collective unconscious, an imagination largely shaped
by white writers. Morrison challenges writers of all ethnic origins to forge access to all
corners of the human psyche. Thus, she argues, a more diversified, if not more universal,
narrative will reach the surface of the printed page. - Patsy Eagan
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Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
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The author of
The Magician's Assistant weaves a tightly structured modern myth about
communication and love across the barriers of class and language. In an unnamed Latin
American country, a party of diplomats, bureaucrats, and industry captains is captured and
held hostage by a band of desperate Marxist guerillas. At the center of their tiny new
world is Roxanne Coss, the work's greatest soprano. The hostages and the guerillas find
themselves drawn to each other despite the incipient threat of violence, discovering the
power of music to transform fear and mistrust into something greater. - Dave Chachere
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There & Back Again by Pat Murphy
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Bailey Beldon is a comfort loving norbit, a very unlikely candidate for an adventure to
the center of the galaxy. But in this clever retelling of The Hobbit by Nebula winner Pat
Murphy, our hero embarks on a journey through outer space and encounters various unusual
creatures, one of them fire-breathing. - Alison Moreno
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The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
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So at odds with herself is the key character in this debut novel, you may have a hard time
finding her at all likeable. But the novel works its magic quite easily - I root for the
too-smart, un-wise Langston to get it together, look at what's real, and, yes, begin
liking that small town preacher. - Melissa Mytinger
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Godspeed by Lynn Breedlove
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Before finishing the first chapter, I excitedly began recommending this to anyone who
would listen. Ten years in the making, this story is a vivid, gritty, and poignant peek at
a subculture existing right under our noses. The fresh prose style chattily sucks you in
with its "just right" balance of slang, pop-culture references, and the occasional
well-placed $10 word. The narrator's painfully honest and perceptive observations make
this epic universal even at its most foreign moments. Godspeed is the most absorbing,
thought-provoking and well-written debut novel I've read in years. - Melissa McDonough
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Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parke
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We here in northern California like to knock the Southland, but sunny beaches, backroom
politics and a flawed hero make for GREAT summer reading. Parker knows his turf, and knows
his subjects, and this Edgar Award nominated novel set everywhere in Orange County from
the beaches of the rich to Little Saigon and the barrios of Santa Ana is as effective and
exciting a mystery as you could read this summer. - Russ Harvey
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Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
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I hardly ever read science fiction, but I'm so glad I picked this up! It's about a woman
who travels as an anthropologist to a colonized planet, unsure if she will survive. A
really great story of self-discovery, justice, and strong women! I'm really glad this book
has been reprinted. - Corrie Westing
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Empire Falls by Richard Russo
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What I consider a real "summer read" - longish, just under 500 pages, with a complete cast
of characters that have life breathed into them with the detail that only space and time
can give. Miles, who runs the Empire Grill, is going through a divorce but Walt, who is
his "soon-to-be-ex's" fiancé can't stop hanging out there trying to "help him improve his
business." His teenage daughter has some hard lessons of her own to learn about
relationships. These lives are shown in all their human aspects: the best harbor secret
fears and pettiness, the worst show moments of sensitivity and grace. There is humor here
and more than a few times you will find yourself saying "I know what she means, I hear
what he's trying to say." - Anita May
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Quarrel & Quandary by Cynthia Ozick
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There are many reasons why Ozick received awards for this book; one is her adroit use of
the English language. If you don't read this compilation for its seamless prose though,
treat yourself to her argumentative genius! Her essay "Who Owns Anne Frank?" is
particularly compelling. - Patsy Eagan
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The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
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An awe-inspiring debut, this is a compelling, seamlessly constructed and frequently
brilliant portrait of colonial India, England, and Africa, with a protagonist you'll not
soon forget, even as his identities meld again and again. - Melissa Mytinger
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In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World it Made by Norman F. Cantor
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Historian Cantor is a provocative and enormously readable authority on the medieval
period. This book, about the effects of the Black Plague on every aspect of English
medieval life, reads like a novel. I had several aha! moments. It's hard to put down. -
Alisa Dockery
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The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe
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If you enjoy being transported to a different world when you read, Coe's book is the novel
for you. He brilliantly explores the economics, politics and social mores of 70s
Birmingham through four friends as they come of age, cutting seamlessly from one
character's tale to the next. It's a wonderful mix of hilarity and pathos that is hard to
put down. Luckily a sequel is in the works. - Susan Jokelson
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American Gods by Neil Gaiman
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America is a land of immigrants, and all these people and all these cultures have brought
their own gods to the land. Eventually most are forgotten, relegated to the twilight of
mythology and folklore, while newer and flashier gods stake their place. The old gods,
however, stay here, waiting and finding worship however they can. Now a war is brewing
between old and new, and a man named Shadow seems to have found himself in the
middle. Gaiman has written a dark and fascinating novel of troubled gods and troubled men,
a novel that will definitely make you pause to think as you obsessively turn to the next
page. This is one to stay up way too late with! - Russ Harvey
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The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos by Anne Carson
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The subtitle calls this a fictional essay but it is as satisfying as a novel - the many
characters clearly drawn so that I cared what happened to them and long after I was done I
still wonder why. The "tangos" referred to in the subtitle will take you in strong poetic
arms and sweep you along so that when the dip comes you're ready and you know why this is
poetry. - Anita May
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Cross Dressing by Bill Fitzhugh
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A little bit of insurance fraud goes astray when Dan's brother Father Michael dies while
using his health insurance in the hospital. Dan's got people who don't like him, so it
seems like a good idea to take over his dead brother's life, and disappear. Who'd have
thought that Michael has enemies, too, and that being a man of the cloth might just be
more dangerous than being a sleazy ad-exec? And is it OK to fall in love with a nun if
you're not really the priest she thinks you are? It might just take a miracle to get of
this? - Russ Harvey
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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
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How is it possible to write a novel essentially of heaven, a novel containing no syrup, no
mawkishness, no Hallmark Hall of Fame aura? And how to incorporate a dead teenager, as
well as the very-much-alive killer and mourning family and friends? This is gutsy and
simply, superlatively wonderful. Pick it up; you won't regret it. - Melissa Mytinger
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Lion's Blood by Stephen Barnes
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This is a thought-provoking and very entertaining read. An alternate history in which
Moors establish a civilization in North America and the African followers of Islam own
plantations worked by European slaves - this is not a turnabout revenge fantasy. The
relationship of two boys, one African, one Irish, as they grow into manhood is well
developed and complex, in their world of slave uprisings, first loves, and the Moors
ongoing war with a powerful Aztec empire. Exciting. - Patrice Suncircle
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An Intimate Look at the Night Sky by Chet Raymo
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Long summer nights beg long evenings looking up at the stars. Astronomer Raymo's earlier
book Soul of the Night has appeared on this list before; that isn't stopping us from
recommending this book as well. It's a loving look upward by someone who knows what to
see. Our fellow staffer put it best when she said of this book, "All I want to do is lay
back in a chair, look at the sky and let someone read this to me." If you can't find that
someone, do yourself a favor and read it to yourself! - Russ Harvey
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The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
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This is my favorite book from 2001 (It's in paperback this June!) It is currently
nominated for the Hugo Award. Wilson has written a fast-paced S.F. adventure that begins
in Thailand and continues in a near-future depression America. The science fictional
mystery is engrossing, and while the lead character is not likeable, his story is
fascinating. You won't want to miss this one. - Eric Schultheis
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I Remember by Joe Brainard
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This is for every grandparent to share with his/her charges. A captivating collection of
memories, this touching and sentimental book begins each entry with "I remember". It also
begs for memories of your own. - Melvin Jahn
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On the Yard by Malcolm Braly
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Have you ever heard of this book? Do you know this author? Me either. Hooray for NYRB for
continuing to publish forgotten, over-looked and formerly out-of-print gems like this
one. (Their covers are always beautiful, too.) This author spent 17 years in prison, wrote
3 novels while behind bars and this book was written after he was paroled from San Quentin
in 1965. It was published in 1967. Written with care and craft, each character is lovingly
portrayed, yet all are brutal. Set at San Quentin, this is not a typical San Francisco in
the 60s novel, but it has that cool jive aspect. How can I say? I feel enhanced by this
book, it's got so much heart and soul I may have to stay up all night AGAIN and start
over. What a marvel. - Beth McFadden
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Island by Alistair MacLeod
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These sixteen stories, presented chronologically, written between 1968 and 1999, are each
and every one beautiful. They are set in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, where the author
was raised. The stories are robust and aching and to the bone. The life of commercial
fishing, mining, farming, and just the very real life between people are the subject and
setting of these stories. Extremely strong writing, way up there among the best short
story collections. - Beth McFadden
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McSorley's Wonderful Saloon by Joseph Mitchell
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Called "the New Yorker reporter who set the standard", Mitchell offers an essayist's dream
- more than two dozen pieces of superlative prose form a dazzling compendium of New Yorker
literary journalism at its best. - Melvin Jahn
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Romancer Erector by Diane Williams
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Said by Ben Marcus to be in the "lovely far limits of radical storytelling", Williams
combines violence with sweetness to provide new contexts for both. If you read these
highly charged, extra short stories you'll find emotions inside yourself you never knew
you had, confusing emotions without name that will still feel specific somehow. - Amina
Cain
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Before it's Too Late by Stanton E. Samenow
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This may seem an unusual title to find on a summer list, but perhaps this is the ideal
time to read it. I know of no book more readable, more clearly thought out, nor one which
expresses more empathy for the plight of parents who must daily deal with a difficult
child. Read it now and prepare for a smoother, least troublesome year ahead. - K.K.
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The A List: The National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films edited by Jay Carr
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What makes these 100 films (107, actually) essential? Essential to whom, and for what? The
book of movie lists is a genre unto itself, a hybrid of consumer guide, ad campaign, and
competitive display of fan fetishism. Half the fun of this book is in debating the 41
assembled film critics on your own terms (Jailhouse Rock makes the cut for sociological
reasons; are these less important than aesthetic reasons?); the other half is in learning
about movies and filmmakers you haven't yet heard of. The A List is an intelligent and
accessible introductory guide to the promises, fulfilled and unfulfilled, of the movies. -
CK Penchant
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Green Eyes by Andrew O'Hare
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Here's a poignant love story of two gay boys set in Northern Ireland, one Protestant, one
Catholic. It is a really fine and moving novel about their relationship and the way their
families respond to that relationship. - Jim Paton
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And Never Let Her Go by Ann Rule
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Young and intelligent, Anne Marie Fahey was thrilled to be a working part of Delaware
political life. Then, in June of 1996, the beautiful, affable Anne Marie disappeared,
leaving her agonized siblings and friends to unveil the truth of her life. In this superb
work - restrained yet compelling - Ann Rule documents the driven world of politics, the
entanglements of two of its' families, and the fierce, fierce fight of the Fahey family
for justice. - K.K.
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Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
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I took this on vacation recently and enjoyed it immensely. The novel has a jarring
beginning, and goes on to trace the lives of four children growing up in Northern
Ontario. I very much liked the characterizations, and the way of life in this remote area
of Canada. A really good read. - Jim Paton
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Raising the Hunley by Brian Hicks & Schuyler Kropf
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During the past two years, A&E has traced the history of the astonishing Confederate
submarine H.L. Hunley, in one reenactment of the submersible's attack on the USS
Housatonic, and in another documentary of the discovery and raising of the Hunley. The
mesmerizing tale of the difficult preservation and the attendant moral issues regarding
the 8 seamen who perished when the Hunley sank have been captured in this new book. -
Melvin Jahn
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Communion: The Female Search for Love by Bell Hooks
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This is the culminating work in bell hooks' trilogy about love. Its main premise - that
women can find love in a community of souls rather than that potential Prince Charming -
leads to a myriad of insights about how women can find fulfillment. This is not a
self-help book. It's a welcome cultural criticism, and her all-inclusive approach towards
a loving society is a move both women and men can embrace. - Patsy Eagan
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Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown
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It is such an excellent moment when you know you're reading a story you haven't been told
before. Here's a first novel that is breathtaking, intensely compelling, and filled to the
brim with two people you'll marvel at meeting and knowing. If this is an indication of
things to come for this writer: WOW. - Melissa Mytinger
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Disaster! The Great San Francisco Earthquake by Dan Kurzman
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Disaster novels are the bread and butter of summer reading. Here is a story to top all
those pretenders: the real story of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This was an event
that has shaped the Bay Area for almost 100 years, yet only now are all the stories, and
all the facts, coming to the surface. The more you learn from this fascinating and
beautifully written books, the more you'll love the place we've chosen to live. - Russ
Harvey
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Before & After: Stories from New York edited by Thomas Beller
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Front-to-back before stories, back-to-front after stories, all were written for a
neighborhood web site. We share the pre-9/11 fascination with New York, and hear the
post-9/11 reaffirmations and shock. A well done collection. - Maggie Rendall
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Trust Us, We're Experts by Sheldon Rampton & John Stauber
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If you've ever had the sneaking suspicion that you're not getting the whole story about,
well, everything, then this is the book for you. We live in a country where PR firms can
"spin" statistics into advantageous positions for just about anyone with the money to pay
them; this always surprising and sometimes darkly funny expose is exactly what you'll need
to learn how to see through the smoke to the trees. - Russ Harvey
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Krazy & Ignatz: Complete Kat Komics 1925-1926 by George Herriman
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An anthology of Herriman's brilliant full page comic strips that is as clever verbally as
it is visually. The simple premise of Herriman's "strip" is cat (Krazy) loves mouse
(Ignatz), mouse hits cat with brick, dog (Offissa Pupp) hauls mouse to jail. Krazy Kat
belongs in the pantheon of comic art with Pogo and the Katz and Jammer Kids. - Melvin Jahn
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The Half-Finished Heaven by Thomas Transtromer, chosen & translated by Robert Bly
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Once again, this Swede will surprise you. It is not about the possibility of poetry as
style; it is about its nature, the unknown origin of imagination and thought itself. One
must not readily grant his simplicity; he might play a game of chess with Death, however,
with Odradek's laughter. He has many faces. He is a pure wonder. - Goto
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Starlight 3 edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
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Those who read science fiction and fantasy will love this anthology of all-new
stories. The lead story by Ted Chiang blew me away and earned a Hugo nomination from
me. There are many big name authors, and great stories in this collection. Any fan of the
SF short story must read this! - Eric Schultheis
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Blow-Up & Other Stories by Julio Cortázar
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A strange and wonderful collection, the title story of which the Antonini film was
based. In these stories, a man visiting an aquarium turns into an axolotl, and a
middle-aged brother and his sister find themselves forced out of their family home by
guests they never see, only hear. Cortázar is the master of quiet, alien situations. -
Amina Cain
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Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire by Jose Manuel Prieto
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This is an exotic and beautifully written novel of love just out of reach. Set in Russia
and Istanbul, it is the story of a black market smuggler and the two things he struggles
to have: the rare butterfly he's hired to find, and the beautiful woman he loves. Prieto's
years in Russia make this an authentic read, his heart makes it romantic. - Russ Harvey
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When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe
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Again a story you've not heard before. A family and its neighbors in the Philippines
populate this wonderment of a novel during the last days of World War II. Isabele,
Alejandro, and Domingo bring enormously uncertain days and nights to life and bring the
best of hope, bravery, and constant storytelling to Kodacolor life. - Melissa Mytinger
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The Graduate by Charles Webb
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Before the play was the movie, before the movie was the book. Plastics are still the
future. Having an affair with the mother of the woman you love is still a bad idea, though
the opportunities for comedy are endless. The Berkeley in this book is still Berkeley. The
Graduate remains one of the funniest and most evocative novels written on that stage
between graduation and grown-up, and the transition from lust to love. - Russ Harvey
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The Years of Rice & Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
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As the story begins, a Mongol scout finds that Europe is empty. The time is that of the
Black Plague, but much more than three-fourths of the European population is
gone. Robinson explores the idea of a world without Europe in a series of ten sequences that
visit different people and places spaced over the course of 700 years. The characters live
and breathe, ideas and philosophies dance, and I would be surprised if this bestseller
didn't win awards. - Eric Schultheis
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The Headless Bust, or a Melancholy Meditation of the False Millenium by Edward Gorey
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The elegantly incorrigible master of delightful macabre and luxuriant despair has done
with doing. A great loss to his many admirers. His final gift, given with consummate
panache is this. "Then high above the rural scene/Appeared a giant aubergine/On which were
limned for all to see/The mystic letters Q.R.V" - Melvin Jahn
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Summerhouse, Later by Judith Hermann, translated by Magott Bettauer Dembo
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Whenever I encounter such work of perfection, I have to read again and again, fascinated,
obsessed. These stories are like strangers: just surrender and listen. You will find
something familiar yet alien, all too disturbing, and you won't be sure why. All so
beautiful. - Goto
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Little, Big by John Crowley
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Without a doubt, this is the best fantasy I've ever read. This charming work of family
history involves a young man, Smoky Barnable, who falls in love with a woman watched over
by faeries and spirits. Crowley's writing is beautiful and subtle; he dares to describe
ineffable moments and moods. Once you've finished this book you will understand why it won
Crowley the World Fantasy Award. - Eric Schultheis
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Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks by Justin Chin
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Say communities of individuals share a richly patterned background of language, ethnicity,
race and traditions; imagine society as a work of fiction written in the language of law,
a collection of individuals bound only by moral and legal obligations. Do communities, if
they truly exist, outlive their usefulness, merely paving a path to societies? And where
does a queer, tattooed, first-generation Chinese-American immigrant slam poet find a place
within either concept? Justin Chin is a writer who watches government-censored American
movies in Singapore; enrolls in a Bay Area-based Christian program to "cure"
homosexuality; fires assault rifles in North Carolina; investigates the Thailand sex
market; and tells us what he really, really thinks about White Buddhists... - CK Penchant
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Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
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Actually, it was very, very hard to pick which of Mr. Moore's books to put on this
list. From Bloodsucking Fiends, a twisted comic love story of vampires in the Financial
District of San Francisco, to
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Childhood Friend,
the book that asks the question "What if Jesus knew kung fu?" Christopher Moore has
written a collection of smart, very funny, well researched books that would lighten any
summer mood, and defeat the demons of any airport. Take a chance and smile this summer. -
Russ Harvey
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Slackjaw by Jim Knipfel
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Here is a powerful look at life altering events. In his early 20s Knipfel was diagnosed
with retinitis pigmintosa and was given the advice the "he had better start Braille now."
Knipfel's memoir is swift-paced, unpredictable and moving; his almost absurdist
perspective gives his book an eerie atmosphere of life in a "damaged" world. Most
definitely a re-reader. - Melvin Jahn
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Three Apples Fell from Heaven by Micheline Aharonian Marcom
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Here are voices to be heard. This American Armenian author rendered all the wishes,
desires, distress and rages of those silenced by genocide in 1915, with utmost
sincerity. Yet, it is not all about that subject; she has proven the value of artistic
endeavor in the time of global destruction with genuine poetic truth. We must be grateful
to have such talent. - Goto
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