Recommended Reads
Staff Favorites
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. by Junot Diaz A family saga, written in a combustible mix of slang and lyric prose with touches of sly humor throughout, this novel takes place in the Dominican Republic during and after the horrific reign of the dictator Trujillo. (Fiction Diaz)
The Senator's Wife. by Sue Miller A novel about two women at opposite stages of life. Meri, the young, sexy wife of a charismatic professor, occupies one half of a New England duplex. Delia, her elegant neighbor in the other half, is the wife of a notoriously philandering retired senator. Their complicated relationship is the crux of this compelling book. (Fiction Miller)
Living in a Foreign Language: a memoir of food, wine and love in Italy. by Michael Tucker Tucker and wife Jill Eikenberry (both former Marin residents and stars of LA Law) enjoy all things Italian. Tucker has a knack for taking the reader along on his journey, wishing they could join him for dinner. (945.5 Tucker)
Three Cups of Tea: one man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations--one school at a time. by Greg Mortenson. A Fascinating account of Mortenson's quest to build schools in Pakistan. Heartwarming and inspiring. (371.822 Mortenson)
How Starbucks Saved My Life. by Michael Gates Gill A true story how the super chain changed the author's life for the better. Quite a good read. (921 Gill)
Shantaram. by Gregory David Roberts. Please don't let the 936 pages scare you off. Shantaram is an extremely engaging epic of self-discovery that will linger long after the final page is turned. Read the first paragraph and decide for yourself. (Fiction Roberts)
Mister Pip. by Lloyd Jones Ravaged by war and with little to do but wait for peace, the islanders (most likely set in Papua New Guinea) settle in for the daily readings of Dickens’s Great Expectations by the only white man on the island. As the story begins, only the children attend the readings but soon the whole village is drawn in by the power of the imagination as a means of escape. Tender and shocking stories of their own are revealed as the daily readings commence. (Fiction Jones)
Safe Area Gorazde. by Joe Sacco A graphic novel about the war in Eastern Bosnia with interesting accounts of residents in one of Bosnia's "safe areas". An approachable form of history, along the lines of Art Spiegelman's Maus. (949.742 Sacco)
The Sheltering Sky. by Paul Bowles The title refers to the blue canopy above vast stretches of the Sahara. But on the existential level, the sky is a metaphor for the comforting illusions that protect our delicate eggshell mind, beyond which lies only emptiness and horror. This strange and terrifying exploration of the human condition is an oft-overlooked classic of the 20th century. (Fiction Bowles)
The Uncommon Reader. by Alan Bennett This is a wonderfully funny book that was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2007. Alan Bennett is better known as a playwright but this book of fiction chronicles Queen Elizabeth II and her amusing but tedious duties as monarch. The reader's first encounter with the queen finds her chasing after her incorrigible corgies when she stumbles upon a bookmobile parked at the kitchen entrance of the Palace - to the horror of the librarian! Long story short, the queen becomes an avid reader to the dismay of her staff as she neglects her schedule and wears the same sweater two days running. Bennett captures the manners perfectly. (Fiction Bennett)
Cloud Atlas. By David Mitchell Several interconnected stories from different genres; you proceed forward through time with the first half of each story, then work backwards till the end, so you start and finish with the same story. (Fiction Mitchell)
Gardens of Water. by Alan Drew This debut novel, set in Turkey, explores the interactions between two families, one Muslim and the other Christian, in an Istanbul suburb during the earthquake that struck in 1999. Sinan, the Kurdish father, fears the influence of his Christian neighbors on his son and daughter. He tries to minimize contact with them, but the earthquake binds the two families together. The story convincingly explores the tensions between Islam and Christianity. The power and brilliance of this book lie in the skillfully crafted levels of the plot. (Fiction Drew)
