Fiction
The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz
FICTION Diaz, Junot
Fiction
Oscar, an overweight Dominican from a New Jersey ghetto, dreams of becoming a writer and finding love, but a Fuku curse has haunted his family for generations, and may well prevent him from attaining his desires.
The Martian : a novel
Andy Weir
SCIENCE FICTION Weir Andy
Fiction, Science Fiction
"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old 'human error' are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?" --
Added by Jason
My favorite thing is monsters
Emil Ferris
GRAPHIC NOVEL Ferris My
Fiction, Graphic Novels
"Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late '60s Chicago, and narrated by 10-year-old Karen Reyes, Monsters is told is told through a fictional graphic diary employing the iconography of B-movie horror imagery and pulp monster magazines. As the precocious Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, we watch the interconnected and fascinating stories of those around her unfold" -- Publisher.
Added by Jason
Dept. of speculation
Jenny Offill
FICTION Offill Jenny
Fiction
"Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. Jenny Offill's heroine, referred to in these pages as simply "the wife," once exchanged love letters with her husband, postmarked Dept. of Speculation, their code name for all the uncertainty that inheres in life and in the strangely fluid confines of a long relationship. As they confront an array of common catastrophes--a colicky baby, bedbugs, a faltering marriage, stalled ambitions--the wife analyzes her predicament, invoking everything from Keats and Kafka to the thought experiments of the Stoics to the lessons of doomed Russian cosmonauts. She muses on the consuming, capacious experience of maternal love, and the near total destruction of the self that ensues from it, as she confronts the friction between domestic life and the seductions and demands of art. With cool precision, in language that shimmers with rage and wit and fierce longing, Jenny Offill has crafted an exquisitely suspenseful love story that has the velocity of a train hurtling through the night at top speed. Exceptionally lean and compact, Dept. of Speculation can be read in a single sitting, but there are enough bracing emotional insights in these pages to fill a much longer novel. "--
Added by Jason
Angle of repose
Wallace Earle Stegner
FICTION Stegner, Wallace Earle
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents’ remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America’s western frontier. But his research reveals even more about his own life than he’s willing to admit. What emerges is an enthralling portrait of four generations in the life of an American family.
Added by Jason
The imperfectionists
Tom Rachman
BOOK CLUB KIT Imperfectionists
Fiction
Preoccupied by personal challenges while running a struggling newspaper in Rome, an obituary writer confronts mortality, an eccentric publisher obsesses over his dog, and other staff members uncover the paper's founding by an impulsive millionaire.
Added by Jason
And then there were none
Agatha Christie
MYSTERY Christie, Agatha
Fiction, Mystery
This is the book that got me into Agatha Christie. It is smart, well-crafted, and surprising. -Anne M
Infinite jest
David Foster Wallace
FICTION Wallace, David Foster
Fiction
A spoof on our culture featuring a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation house near Boston. The center becomes a hotbed of revolutionary activity by Quebec separatists in revolt against the Organization of North American Nations which now rules the continent.
Added by Jason
The magnificent Ambersons
Booth Tarkington
FICTION Tarkington, Booth
Fiction, Classics
George Amberson Minafer's family was the most prominent family in late 19th century Indianapolis--but then Indianapolis begins to change and with it, George's family fortunes. If you love descriptions of houses, clothes, and cotillions with a dash of comeuppance and urban renewal, then this book is for you. -Anne M
The year of the runaways
Sunjeev Sahota
FICTION Sahota Sunjeev
Fiction
Short-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, we’ve waited a long time for this novel to cross the pond. The book follows the paths of three Indian men, who are recent immigrants to England, as they try to navigate living in a new country and coming to terms with what they left behind. -Anne M
Added by Jason