The female narrator, a commercial artist, takes her boyfriend and two friends (a married couple) on a trip to Northern Quebec, where they stay in her childhood home out in the woods. Secretly, the narrator wants to find her father, who has gone missing. Married once before, the main character longs to discover when and how the part of her capable of loving someone else also went missing. Surfacing is an honest portayal of one woman who feels a sense of disconnect from her life and those around her.
Book Lovers
Surfacing
Jun 30, 2011
Anonymous
Left Neglected
Sarah Nickerson is a highly-motivation and deeply ambitious woman who spends 25 hours a day balancing the demands of her career and, time permitting, her family. She is a quite masterful in her juggling of these priorities, until the day a high-speed car crash leaves her with a rare form of brain damage that deletes the concept of “left” (as opposed to “right). When Sara loses her ability to see the left side of a room, or control her left hand, she gains an opportunity to take stock of the things that really matter.
Jun 30, 2011
Anonymous
Bossypants
An entertaining combination of humor writing and biography, this well-written collection of essays is recommended to any and all fans of Fey’s work, including the semi-biographical 30 Rock. Funnylady Fey addresses her childhood in Pennsylvania, getting started in comedy, and balancing the challenges of a career in entertainment with those of maintaining a family with her usual blend of self-deprecation and sharp wit.
Jun 30, 2011
Anonymous
Idlewild
Our narrator, Halloween, has a problem: he can’t remember anything! As he starts to gather clues from friends and acquaintances, he soon learns that he is in a school for gifted children- and that one of those teens is dead (did Halloween do it? He can’t be sure). Halloween can’t remember what happened to cause him to forget so much- and no one else does either. And what is up with the overly stern headmaster, Maestro? This page-turning debut from Nick Sagan (yes, the son of famed astronomer Carl Sagan) is kind of like watching Inception or the Matrix- it takes you to multiple levels of reality (or is it virtual reality) to tell this story and does so in a mostly exciting, engaging style. Recommended for Sci Fi fans and fans of a good thriller who want to stretch their imaginations a little.
Jun 22, 2011
Anonymous
In the Garden of Beasts
In the Garden of Beasts tells the story of the Dodd family's years in 1930s Berlin. William Dodd is named US Ambassador to Germany and is sent to Berlin in 1932. His family, consisting of his wife, son and flirtatious daughter Martha, also make the journey. The book is a riveting look at a Germany undergoing tremendous change and upheaval as well as a look at the diplomatic positions of not only the United States but of other countries as well. Another fascinating readable historical book by a master.
Jun 16, 2011
Susan
Moby-Duck
In 1992, a freight container ship hit rough seas and lost some of its load. Included in the loss were containers of plastic bath toys (beavers, frogs, turtles, and rubber ducks). In 2005, a student wrote an essay about the rubber ducks and made a lasting impression on his teacher Donovan Hohn. Hohn was so intrigued with what happened to the toys that he quit his job and researched the paths of where the ducks may have traveled. His 2-plus years of journeys took him to Alaska, Hawaii, China, and the Arctic. His traveling companions were varied in their knowledge and personal quests.
Jun 11, 2011
Susan
Angelology
While V.A. Verlaine is researching the relationship between a convent in upstate New York and philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller, he runs into some trouble. Unbeknownst to Verlaine, his employer, Percival Grigori, is a Nephilim (the offspring of a human and an angel) that is searching for an artifact linked to an order of fallen angels. Abigail Rockefeller knew of this artifact. In investigating the artifact, Verlaine and Sister Evangeline of the convent are pulled into a long-existing war between humans and angels. What begins as a very slow read turns into an action-packed story.
Jun 10, 2011
Anonymous
The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands (poems)
This book of poems isn’t traditional by any means (there aren’t sonnets or poems of any specific form nor do any of the poems use a rhyme scheme) but the topics they touch on (love, loss, war, Abu Graib) are as contemporary as anything written about in fiction material today. The poet, author of Another Bull*** Night in Suck City, uses a variety of means to compose his poems including collage/cut-ups and blocking out text from other source material (which isn’t always effective as the source material in the Abu Graib section- the ennervating complete testimonies are included in the back of the book). Memories seem to evolve on the page and get old at the same time (which could be a commentary on our techno-fast culture). Each poem is fresh and shifting, though, and I come up with new interpretations the closer I read each. Recommended for people who enjoy current topics and contemporary poetry.
Jun 10, 2011
Anonymous
The Sweet Relief of Missing Children
Leonora was raised to be nice and to help others. She was also raised to be wary of strangers. In spite of this, Leonora disappears one day on her way home from school. Years before, a boy decides to run away from home to escape his mother and stepfather. In an intricate web of characters, Braunstein weaves a connection between these two children, entangling a series of individuals whose lives are shaped by the pain of others. A relatively quick read that will keep you riveted from the first page to the last.
Jun 2, 2011
Anonymous
The Condition
The premise of The Condition is familiar: a fractured New England family comes to terms with how they feel for each other, and what it means to be kin. The story begins in Cape Cod during a family vacation, the year before Gwen McKotch is diagnosed with a genetic condition that impedes her physical maturity. From there the story skips forward two decades to examine the effects of this summer on the entire family, from the parents down to the youngest brother. Haigh moves between narrators, each firm in his or her view of the family dynamic and shedding light on the disparity between how we see ourselves and how we are viewed by those closest to us.
May 25, 2011
Anonymous