Books and Breads Blog

April 30, 2010

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri *** (of 4)

Compelling in the way of an auto crash. I could not look away, but I definitely felt worse for having partaken. Like her Interpreter of Maladies,...

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April 30, 2010

The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey * (of 4)

An Irish western outlaw in 1870s Australia. I think the book won some famous prize. I found it unreadable, predictable drek. Recommended by Terri Laufer

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April 30, 2010

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini *** (of 4)

A bottomless well of hopelessness, despair and background warfare in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion of the 80s through the American invasion post 9/11. Seen...

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April 30, 2010

The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra ** (of 4)

A poetically written account of life under the Taliban extremists of Kabul Afghanistan. It’s written by an Algerian, not an Afghani, with a self-described vendetta...

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April 30, 2010

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemorovsky ** (of 4)

According to the NY Times, this stunning book contains two narratives, one fiction and the other a fragmentary, factual account of how the fiction came...

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April 30, 2010

The Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth * (of 4)

Winner of the Booker Prize totally boring Midrash of the Iliad. I couldn’t finish it.

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April 29, 2010

Snow by Orhan Pamuk ** (of 4)

Ostensibly there is a plot based on the return of a Turkish exile to his small eastern hometown where the national debate about the politicization...

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April 29, 2010

Small Island by Andrea Levy **** (of 4)

There’s a reason this book won the Whitbread Award for best book of the year, one of Britain’s most prestigious literary awards. It captures the...

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April 29, 2010

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut ** (of 4)

As a twenty year old soldier Vonnegut was one of the few people to survive the allied bombing of Dresden in World War II. For...

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April 29, 2010

The Secret River by Kate Granville *** (of 4)

The British caste system of the 18th century was unendurable for average citizens and petty crime was often a necessity. Read Dickens, for example. In...

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