Current Book Selection
September 2008
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
This
charming classic, first published in 1970, brings together 20 year of correspondence
between Helene Hanff, a writer living in New York City and Frank Doel, an
antiquarian bookseller at 84, Charing Cross Road in London. Through the years,
though never meeting, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based
on their common love for books. As Helene's sarcastic and witty letters are
responded to by the stodgy and proper Frank Doel of 84, Charing Cross Road,
a relationship blossoms into a warm, charming, feisty love affair.
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October 2008
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Jane
Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession
with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and
Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a
wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed
women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly
become realer than she ever could have imagined. Decked out in empire-waist
gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners
and gentlemen-or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing
them. It's all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more
her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about
to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate
in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
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November 2008
Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker
This
is a very impressive 'talk-comic' about everyday life and all the views a
society-critical person has on it, brought with subtle humor. Main-character
Anne is a columnist for some obscure magazine. While she makes her way through
life she gets into all kinds of Seinfeld-esque situations, meaning she overanalyzes
things we all come across so that everything gets to be a point of either
insecurity or humor. Especially the do's and don'ts in relationships are
points of discussion. Accompanied by Ricky, a guy who seems to have women
all figured out and comes off as verbally unbeatable, Anne comes across things
that are wrong with her (or at least she thinks so), men, and not being able
to do anything without valid I.D. And as if her life isn't troubled enough
her seemingly crazy sister comes to live with her, claiming she's the 'Queen
of the Leather Astro-Girls of Saturn'...
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December 2008
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
Hanta
has been compacting trash for thirty-five years. Every evening he rescues
books from the jaws of his hydraulic press, carries them home, and fills
his house with them. Hanta may be an idiot, as his boss calls him, but he
is an idiot with a difference - the ability to quote the Talmud, Hegel, and
Lao-tzu. In this baroque and winsome tale, Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera has
called "our very best writer today," celebrates the power and the
indestructibility of the written word.
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Last modified: 20 August, 2008 | Content provider: Karen Morse