Recent Reviews

Amnesty by Aravind Adiga is “a day in the life” novel that kept me sitting in my car many times after arriving at my destination, listening and waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering if Danny would be caught - by immigration officials or by the murderer. I kept hoping he would do the “right thing”--and somehow escape the consequences he would face for doing so. From around 8:30 a.m. to 7:03 p.m. we are privy to Danny’s thoughts and fears, and learn his life story, from Sri Lanka to Dubai and finally Australia. A masterfully suspenseful and extremely timely tale of hope and hopelessness, Amnesty will keep you listening late into the night. Recommended by Nancy

DUE IN APRIL: Lulu Miller's Why Fish Don't Exist won't be categorized, and that's a central theme of the book, too. Part memoir, part biography, part philosophical treatise, and part natural history, the book explores scientist David Starr Jordan's colossal failures and undaunted persistence to categorize the world's fish even in the face of the Los Angeles earthquake. As does Miller, we want to find in Jordan the heroic sorter of life's chaos and the hope to persist even on our darkest days. But history, Jordan, and life itself will not be labeled and pinned down. This is a heartbreaking and ultimately triumphant journey to this ultimate truth. By its end, I found myself applauding the author and myself for our contentment with messiness and surprise. Recommended by Kelly

DUE IN APRIL: Richard Wagamese's simple and yet hypnotic writing builds to a symphony of grief, regret, and ultimately gratitude for life and its lessons and gifts. Part confessional and part legacy of father to son, For Joshua is a tribute not only to Wagamese but also to the rich, healing tradition of the Ojibwe people whose way of being in the world offers a model for surviving, belonging. Recommended by Kelly

DUE IN MARCH: At a time when even the most common backyard birds are beings not to be taken for granted, this anthology reminds American readers all that we still have to cherish and lose. They can trace the same thrill from 19th century writers like Henry David Thoreau who warms to the sound of the wood thrush right through to the writing of present day modern American writers whose ears, eyes, and hearts are still moved to hope, "the thing with feathers that perches in the soul." We owe a debt of gratitude to editors Williams and Rubenfeld for researching this beautiful connection through time. Recommended by Kelly