Books and Breads Blog

April 22, 2010

Betrothed by S.Y. Agnon

A wonderful little novella that I listened to on tape about a botanist who arrives in Palestine in 1909 (I think) is quickly surrounded by...

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April 22, 2010

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

About a Peruvian hostage crisis and a love affair between two hostages, one of whom is an extraordinary opera singer. My father, mother, and sister-in-law...

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April 22, 2010

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie ** (of 4)

Listened to on tape, December 2004. It was a good story, but had two strikes against it. The author is Chinese. The book was written...

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April 22, 2010

The Attack by Yasmina Khadra **** (of 4)

The Arab wife of a Bedouin Israeli physician straps a bomb to her waist and blows up a restaurant where Israeli children are celebrating a...

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April 22, 2010

American Pastorale by Phillip Roth

Another great piece of Phillip Roth writing about father-daughter relationship in the turbulent 1960’s era of revolution.

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April 22, 2010

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Written for a thinking reader, treats you like you are intelligent, though he could have used a bit of editing to cut some of the...

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April 22, 2010

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou **** (of 4)

Using all her gifts as a poet, Angelou recounts a period in the 1950s when she joined a community of ex-patriot African Americans in Ghana...

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April 14, 2010

Recommended book – Dirt (What’s not to like?)

“Dirt” by William Bryant Logan. It’s written like a poetic memoir, half natural history half philosophical treatise. The writing is fantastic, the author is extremely...

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April 1, 2010

Typhoon by Charles Cummings ** (of 4)

A seriously mediocre suspense story about a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, young Mi-6 Agent doing secret agent stuff for God and Country in the waning days before...

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February 27, 2010