On to the October picks... It was difficult, but I've narrowed it down to these three gems:
Option #1 - People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008.
Option #2 - The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Option #2 - The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Novel by Graham Greene, published in 1940. Set in Mexico during the era of anticlerical violence by revolutionaries, the story depicts the martyrdom of the last Roman Catholic priest, who is being hunted by a police lieutenant. The "whisky priest" is a degraded alcoholic who has broken most of his vows but who nevertheless insists upon performing his duties until the very end, when he is finally captured and executed. The book is a Christian parable, pitting God and religion against 20th-century materialism.
Option #3 - The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Option #3 - The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
This fictionalized autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, captured in Daisy's vivacious yet reflective voice, has been winning over readers since its publication in 1995, when it won the Pulitzer Prize. After a youth marked by sudden death and loss, Daisy escapes into conventionality as a middle-class wife and mother. Years later she becomes a successful garden columnist and experiences the kind of awakening that thousands of her contemporaries in mid-century yearned for but missed in alcoholism, marital infidelity and bridge clubs. The events of Daisy's life, however, are less compelling than her rich, vividly described inner life--from her memories of her adoptive mother to her awareness of impending death. Shields' sensuous prose and her deft characterizations make this, her sixth novel, her most successful yet.
Now vote for your favorite and let me know if Tuesday, October 27th works for you!
Now vote for your favorite and let me know if Tuesday, October 27th works for you!
