Following on the heels of countless World War II novels, this novel-in-stories, by a young German writer, takes a different perspective. Each story focuses on a different resident or neighbor of a single house near a lake outside of Berlin, with interludes from the perspective of a local gardener. The stories span the entire twentieth century, from the Weimar Republic to reunification. By placing the war’s atrocities within a larger historical context, Erpenbeck amplifies their tragedy. Visitation, in its quietness, is incredibly powerful.
The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist
by Orhan Pamuk Harvard Univ Pr
Our Price: $22.95
The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist, based on the six Norton Lectures that Orhan Pamuk gave at Harvard in the fall of 2009, is an intellectual answer to the question “Why is fiction important?” The conversational tone gives the impression that you’re sitting in a coffee shop with your most well-read friend, arguing over the relative importance of character, plot, and setting, and how your favorite novels have changed the way you think. For me, one of the tests of how much I like a book is what it inspires me to do when I’m done reading it. To Orhan Pamuk’s credit, I’m finally planning to read Anna Karenina.
Weekend Knitting: 50 Unique Projects and Ideas
by Melanie Falick Stewart Tabori & Chang
Our Price: $18.95
First, an admission: I have not yet made any of the patterns in Weekend Knitting. That being said, I love this book. I just learned to knit, and I picked it up in a frenzy of enthusiasm. Even though I don’t have the skills to tackle most of the projects, it’s been an endless source of inspiration. In fact, there’s almost nothing in here I don’t want to try. And since it contains a mix of difficulties (although admittedly not marked, so be sure to read the instructions all the way through before beginning a project), I’ll be able to grow into it. I plan to start with the backgammon tote on p. 50 (the bag at least is well within my skill set), and I aspire one day to be able to tackle the finger puppets at the end.
Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
by Paul Lockhart Bellevue Literary Pr
Our Price: $12.95
We all know how mind-numbing high school math classes can be, so Lockhart's book is a refreshing reminder of what is beautiful and interesting about mathematics. He treats it at an art form to be explored creatively, allowing students to discover results on their own rather than being forced to learn everything by rote with no historical or philosophical context. His ideas on overhauling the public school math curriculum are certainly not all practical, but anyone interested in educating children not to hate the subject would be well served to inject their approach with a little of his point of view.
The Magician's Book
by Laura Miller Little Brown & Co
Our Price: $25.99
Laura Miller, cofounder of Salon.com, loved The Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, but was put off when she reread them as a teenager and discovered the lurking sexism, racism and moralizing (some more overt than others). This book is about how she learned to love them again, and how much they still have to offer. Broken up into three sections, she discusses the different experiences of reading as a child versus as an adult, the problems with Lewis’s writing, and his academic influences, including his relationship with J.R.R. Tolkien. The result will remind you of the value of reading for pure pleasure, as well as the rewards of digging a little deeper.
I wandered into this exhibit at the MFA a couple of years ago, and was blown away by the haunting images of rural life in Idaho. McPhee’s photographs capture the scale of the landscape in contrast to the scale of the life within it. The pictures stuck with me for weeks, I was thrilled to find out that there’s finally a book available. I hope you are too.
Put Out More Flags
by Evelyn Waugh Little Brown & Co
Our Price: $13.99
My mom raised me on a steady diet of P.G. Wodehouse, both his writings and the BBC series based on them. I have always loved the sheer silliness of the characters, and the ridiculous plots that ensnare them. So when I picked up Put out More Flags as my first Evelyn Waugh novel, I was astonished to find the same aristocratic silliness in the much darker setting of the beginning of the Second World War. In Waugh’s book, you’ll be delighted by the antics and the wordplay, but he never lets you forget that in his world, there will always be consequences.
Novels in Three Lines (New York Review Books Classics)
by Felix Feneon NYRB Classics
Our Price: $14.00
The beautiful, funny and sometimes shocking news items contained in this volume are early examples of the recently popular miniature genres such as micro-fiction and memoirs-in-six-words. Although they appear here in translation from the French, the careful choice of words and labyrinthine sentence structure come through, illuminating the most poetic form of journalism you’ve ever read.
The World Doesn't End
by Charles Simic Harvest Books
Our Price: $13.00
This collection of prose poetry by the current Poet Laureate is spare, playful and amazing. Each piece is like a well-constructed riddle that, each time you read it, has a different answer. My personal favorites are those on pages 13 and 17, but open to any random page and enjoy.
Whenever I tell people that I am a math graduate student, they automatically assume that I’m good at arithmetic. I’m not. I can’t do your taxes or compute your chances of winning a poker hand in my head. I’m not alone, and early on in this book, the Number Devil assures us that this is not a prerequisite for interesting mathematics. “Do you want to know something? Most genuine mathematicians are bad at sums. Besides, they have no time to waste on them.” Enzensberger’s not-just-for-kids book introduces some of the miraculous properties of numbers as well as some cleverly disguised mathematical figures (like Mr. Happy Little and his Little bottle). I admit that I was a little worried when he referred to the factorial operation as “vroom” and used other equally whimsical and completely nonstandard terms. The warning at the end of the book, however, placated my fears by reminding readers that most of the terms used are “dream words” and after all, “technical terms don’t exist in dreams. Nobody dreams in big words.”
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her
by Melanie Rehak Harvest
Our Price: $14.00
Almost every woman I know grew up having read at least some of the Nancy Drew mysteries. I'll admit that I couldn't tell you which ones I read, or what their plots were, but the spirit remains with me, and probably explains why I still love to pick up a good mystery for a day at the beach or a long plane ride. I remember being in awe as a child when I first heard that there was more than one "Carolyn Keene." This book tells the story of the women (and men) behind the pseudonym, as well as the history of Nancy's own evolution. She's been edited, revised, updated, condensed, and in recent years rediscovered as the original texts have been re-released by Applewood Press. If you're at all as nostalgic as I am, I highly recommend picking up this book, then tracking down both versions of one of the early books. You'll be amazed at what you find.
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by Simon Singh Anchor
Our Price: $15.95
The Code Book is a brief but fascinating overview of the history of codemaking and codebreaking, masterfully combining the science of cryptography with the drama of human secrecy. The narrative progresses from the earliest simple substitution ciphers, through the historical mystery of the language Linear B, and concludes with a discussion of the dizzyingly modern concept of quantum cryptography. For the mathematically inclined, Singh explains the basic mechanics of each code, and provides a series of exercises of varying levels at the end of the text. But for the more historically motivated, don't let the mathematics deter you. The more technical passages are short and easily skimmed over, and the history is worth the wait. Humans always have and always will hide things from one another, and The Code Book begins to give us an idea of how and why.
The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
by Sy Montgomery Ballantine Books
Our Price: $13.95
Did you know that the wall for which Wall St. was named was originally built to keep control of the pig population of lower Manhatten? I learned this and many other interesting and obscure pig facts by reading Sy Montgomery's The Good, Good Pig. But most importantly this is the lovingly written biography of a 750-pound pig who became part of Sy's family, and part of the community. I know because I grew up in the town next door, and I remember the week that Christopher Hogwood died. It made the front page of the local weekly.
This is the perfect book to read outside on a blanket, enjoying the sunshine and the smell of freshly mown grass. But be forewarned; when I finished it I was ready to move back to New Hampshire and live on a farm...
