Thanksgiving Day Parade
…of Books
Pick up a book to read while the bands march in New York
and the turkey roasts at home.
Cyrano. McCaughrean, Geraldine.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a man of action, a soldier, a man of letters, and a hopeless romantic. The one flaw is his enormous nose. All his life Cyrano has loved his beautiful young cousin, Roxanne, but she cannot see beyond his ugly face with its huge nose. So Cyrano writes eloquent love letters to her, which he gives to Christian, a young, handsome soldier, and, of course, Roxanne falls in love with what she thinks is Christian's soul.
My Name is Red. Pamuk, Orhan.
In 16th-century Istanbul, master miniaturist and illuminator of books Enishte Effendi is commissioned to illustrate a book celebrating the sultan. Soon he lies dead at the bottom of a well. A number of narrators give testimony to what they know about the circumstances surrounding the murder. The stories accumulate and become more detailed as the novel progresses, giving the reader not only a nontraditional murder mystery but insight into the mores and customs of the time. By the 2006 Nobel Prize winner for literature.
Brothers. Da Chen.
General Long, well-respected by Chairman Mao, has two sons. Tan is born to his wife, and into a life of privilege; Shento is born into a life full of depravation and cruelty, especially during his time in an orphanage. As the boys mature, Shento learns the identity of his father, but when he is rejected, he vows revenge. Shento trains as an assassin during the Cultural Revolution. He is the first to meet Sumi and fall in love with her. Later, believing Shento is dead, she falls in love with Tan.
Estrella’s Quinceanera. Alegria, Malin.
Estrella is mortified when plans begin for her fifteenth-birthday celebration. She envisions a large, tacky celebration and a gaudy, fufu rufu gown. Even worse, her damas (female escorts) are bitter childhood friends who accuse Estrella of abandoning them since she won a scholarship to a private school in the ritziest neighborhood in San Jose. Then Estrella falls for Speedy, a former grade-school classmate who is also Mexican American, and she feels increasingly conflicted as she moves between her wealthy school friends and the "one big crazy family" of her barrio.
Sold. McCormick, Patricia.
Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she grabs a chance to work as a maid in the city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution. She is told that if she works off her family’s debt, she can leave, but she soon discovers that this is virtually impossible. When a boy who runs errands for the girls and their clients begins to teach her to read, she feels a bit more alive, remembering what it feels like to be the number one girl in class again.
The Emperor’s Children. Messud, Claire.
Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke were buddies at Brown, certain that they would soon do something important in the world. But as all near 30, Danielle is struggling as a TV documentary maker, Julius is barely surviving financially as a freelance critic, and Marina, the startlingly beautiful daughter of celebrated social activist, is living with her parents on the Upper West Side. Two arrivals upset the group stasis: Ludovic, a fiercely ambitious Aussie who woos Marina to gain entre into society, and Frederick "Bootie" Tubb, an immature, idealistic college dropout who is determined to live the life of a New York intellectual.
Fried Eggs with Chopsticks. Evans, Polly.
Polly Evans's itinerary for China was simple: travel by luxurious high-speed train and long-distance bus, glide along the Grand Canal and hike up scenic mountains. Instead, the linguistically impaired adventurer found herself on a primitive sleeper-minibus where sleep was out of the question; perched atop a tiny mule on a remote mountain pass; and attempting a dubious ferry ride down the Yangtze River. From battling six-year-olds in kung-fu class to discovering Starbucks in Hangzhou, Polly relives her Asian adventure with humor, enthusiasm, frustration, and determination.
The Taker. Steele, J.M.
Carly has always counted on going to Princeton, her family's alma mater for generations, but her SAT scores fall far short of Ivy League standards. Then a mysterious text message from "The Taker" promises nearly perfect scores. When she tries the test again, and as her sense of failure intensifies, she accepts the Taker's offer. She also signs up for tutoring sessions with her brilliant, geeky neighbor, and his creative lessons and gentle affection give Carly a new perspective not only on the test and her decision to cheat but also on her friends, family, and boyfriend.
A Higher Geometry. Moranville, Sharelle Byars.
Set in the 1950s, this novel centers on Anna who dreams of leaving her small town for college to study mathematics at a higher level. Meanwhile, her parents want her to follow a more traditional path of getting married and having children. Anna's never really thought about dating, but when she meets Mike she begins to feel different. Their relationship takes off, and goes further than Anna had ever expected. Now it's up to Anna to make her future happen. But how will she choose between the person she loves and her lifelong passion?
Read Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and Those That Want to Write Them. Prose, Francine.
Life is precious, and much of that preciousness lies in the details: the sights, the sounds, the scents we too often ignore in our busy lives. Prose makes a superb application of that concept for readers of fiction. To know how the great writers create their magic, one needs to engage in a close reading of the masters, for that is precisely what successful writers have done for thousands of years.
Pretties. Westerfeld, Scott.
In this sequel to Uglies, Tally has forgotten all that she did as an Ugly and has completely embraced the mindless life of a New Pretty, going to parties, drinking heavily, and thinking of nothing more than the next bit of entertainment. After one of the Uglies from New Smoke comes and delivers a message that leads her to two pills, Tally begins to remember the real reason she is Pretty: to see if the cure will work.
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Mendelsohn, Daniel.
Among the grainy photographs of the Mendelsohn family from the old country, one stood out: that of a dapper father, a proud mother, and four daughters. On the back was the handwritten caption, "Killed by the Nazis." Mendelsohn recalls being told stories as a child by elderly Jews with tattoos on their arms, stories that Daniel, a typical boy, infused with a sense of adventure and romance, but that, as a man, he felt a responsibility to investigate. The truth of what happened to each person in the photograph is appalling.
The Astonishing Life of Octavia Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. Anderson, M.T.
It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments and his own chilling role in them. Winner of the 2006 National Book Award forYA Literature!
Compiled from reviews by Joy Foust 11/06.