Books and Breads Blog

April 29, 2010

Good Scent from Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

Short stories on Vietnam and Vietnamese living in Texas. I read about half the stories. They were good, but they were all short stories. It...

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April 29, 2010

The Finer Points of Weiner Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith *** (of 4)

A German professor of philology with a specialty in irregular Portuguese verbs is mistaken at an academic conference for a veterinarian with a similar name...

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April 29, 2010

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry **** (of 4)

The title refers to the fine balance between hope and despair for four Indians surviving emergency rule, poverty, and the caste system in India ruthless...

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April 29, 2010

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat ** (of 4)

The dismal lives of Haitian peasants working for insensitive Dominicans goes from bad to worse in this depressing story that feels like an early Danticat...

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April 29, 2010

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer * (of 4)

It has received excellent reviews from Newsweek, New York Times, New Yorker, and my mother, but I couldn’t read even half of it, so take...

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April 29, 2010

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer *** (of 4)

I really enjoyed this book, but I have to admit I didn’t understand it. The story line kept coming in and out of focus. Nevertheless,...

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April 23, 2010

Everyman Dies Alone by Hans Fallada **** (of 4)

Published originally in 1947 in postwar Germany and only translated into English in 2009 this is a fictional recounting of a true story: a Berlin...

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April 23, 2010

The Emporer of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter * (of 4)

Feh. What can I say other than my review may divulge more about me than the book. Ostensibly a best selling novel of murder, law,...

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April 23, 2010

East of Eden by John Steinbeck **** (of 4)

A retelling of the stories of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel transposed to three generations of two families living mostly in Salinas, California during the...

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April 23, 2010

Dragon Bones by Lisa See *** (of 4)

A very good mystery with archaeology in the Three Rivers Gorges of contemporary China.

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