february book lovin'

are you guys good for monday, feb. 28 at 7 or 7:30??

*all descriptions taken from amazon

Kingsolver's ambitious new novel, her first in nine years (after the The Poisonwood Bible), focuses on Harrison William Shepherd, the product of a divorced American father and a Mexican mother. After getting kicked out of his American military academy, Harrison spends his formative years in Mexico in the 1930s in the household of Diego Rivera; his wife, Frida Kahlo; and their houseguest, Leon Trotsky, who is hiding from Soviet assassins. After Trotsky is assassinated, Harrison returns to the U.S., settling down in Asheville, N.C., where he becomes an author of historical potboilers (e.g., Vassals of Majesty) and is later investigated as a possible subversive. Narrated in the form of letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings, the novel takes a while to get going, but once it does, it achieves a rare dramatic power that reaches its emotional peak when Harrison wittily and eloquently defends himself before the House Un-American Activities Committee (on the panel is a young Dick Nixon). Employed by the American imagination, is how one character describes Harrison, a term that could apply equally to Kingsolver as she masterfully resurrects a dark period in American history with the assured hand of a true literary artist.

A gritty western couched in the easy storytelling style of a folk ballad (think 3:10 to Yuma as sung by the Kingston Trio), Leif Enger's highly anticipated second novel (his first was Peace Like a River) tells the story of outlaw Glendon Hale's quest to right his past, as seen through the eyes of his unlikely companion Monte Becket. So Brave, Young, and Handsome begins with Becket, a struggling novelist bewildered by the success of his first book, who has pledged to his wife, son, and publisher to "write one thousand words a day until another book is finished." Four years and six unfinished novels later, Becket sits on the porch of his Minnesota farmhouse about to give up on number seven, when he spies a man standing up in his boat "rowing upstream through the ropy mists of the Cannon River." Eager to set aside his waning tale about handsome ranch hand Dan Roscoe, Becket calls out to the mysterious white-haired boatman and his life changes forever. At turns merry and wistful, romantic and tragic, So Brave, Young, and Handsome is as absorbing as a campfire tale, full of winking outlaws and relentless villains--the sort of story to keep you on the edge of your seat with hope in your heart.

The talented House continues his long love letter to Kentucky in this starkly beautiful, overtly literary third novel, following Clay's Quilt (2000) and A Parchment of Leaves (2002). Restless 16-year-old Anneth is running wild, drawn to nightclubs, liquor, and music, while her steadfast sister, Easter, is a devout Pentecostal. Despite their differences, the two sisters have an unbreakable bond, forged in the aftermath of their father's death in a coal-mining accident and their mother's suicide. Anneth elopes with a musician to the big city of Nashville, where she becomes so homesick for the water and greenery of her Appalachian hometown of Free Creek, Kentucky, she comes racing back. Easter faces the pain of a miscarriage, which severely tests her faith. Whether describing the sight of dozens of redbirds or the taste of moonshine, House does so in prose that is both lovely and cadenced. Rural Kentucky is so vividly rendered, it's no surprise native son House has been showered with regional awards. In addition, his work on National Public Radio should garner extra attention for this title.

1, 2, 3 go! (and don't forget to let me know if the date is good, too!)