Popular Fiction and Bestsellers Book Suggestion for September 2009

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Summary: Screenwriter Nunn draws on her true-life experience growing up in Africa to create this darkly romantic crime novel set in 1950s apartheid South Africa. Detective Emmanuel Cooper is caught up in a time and place where racial tensions and the raw hunger for power make for dangerous times.

Author Interview

Author Profile

Library Journal Review
Verdict: This skillfully constructed and involving debut-intended as the first in the Detective Emmanuel Cooper series-reveals the terrible toll of apartheid and belongs in all mystery collections. Background: Nunn, a South African-born writer, begins her series in 1952 with the murder of a white police captain in a small South African town riddled with apartheid. The victim was a son-in-law of a leader of the Afrikaner nationhood movement, and his five adult sons are out for vengeance. Arriving from Johannesburg to investigate, Det. Sgt. Emmanuel Cooper wrestles with the police Special Branch, whose officers are searching for communist connections to the crime. Making matters worse, he is targeted by official and unofficial law enforcers as he stretches the boundaries between black and white.-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Beth's Book Suggestion for September 2009

Wish Maker by Ali Sethi

Riverhead Books, 2009

After reading The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I wanted to read another cultural book. This was not a quick book to get into and I laid it aside; after going back to it, I was very pleased with the insight I got into modern Pakistani life.
~Beth

"Through three generations of a Lahore family, Sethi charts the tumults within Pakistani political and social life since partition in 1947, including the regular vacillations between military rule and feeble attempts at democracy….But he is often less interested in providing a social critique than in interpreting juvenescence, which seems no different on the Indian sub continent than it is here. Zaki Shirazi, the book’s narrator, grows up in a household of women — his conservative, disenfranchised grandmother; a headstrong mother who advocates sweeping societal change through the magazine she edits; and his teenage cousin, who fasts only for the purest reason: to get the boy. Zaki presents these characters’ engaging histories, along with his own youthful searches for acceptance, the undulations in their lives echoing those in Pakistani society. By juxtaposing references to American pop culture (“The Wonder Years,” Mariah Carey) with, say, the machination of arranged marriages, Sethi exposes the essential friction of life in modern Pakistan..”-The New York Times Book Review

For more reviews and an interview with the author go to Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Wish-Maker-Ali-Sethi/dp/1594488754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249513729&sr=1-1

The author’s website is at http://www.alisethi.com/

Watch Ali Sethi on the Travis Smiley Show http://video.pbs.org/video/1156309466/program/1127859226
He discusses the cultural and economic differences among Pakistanis.

Best in Books - 8/27/2009 (Thursday) 10-11am

August's selection: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Meets August 27, 2009 10-11am

This monthly discussion group covers both fiction and nonfiction award-winning books recognized as significant contributions to literature.

Meets 10-11am on the fourth Thursday of each month in the Staff Conference Room. Ask for directions at the customer service desk.

Nonfiction Book Group - 8/26/2009 (Wednesday) 3-5pm

August's selection: The Black Swan : the Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb

Meets: August 26, 2009 3-5pm

Enjoy a lively discussion of nonfiction books in this group.

Meets the last Wednesday of the month from 3-5pm

Popular Fiction and Bestsellers Discussion Group - 8/18/2009 (Tuesday) 7-8pm

August's selection: The Women by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Meets August 18, 2009 7-8pm

Join us each month to read and discuss recent popular fiction and bestsellers.

Meets the third Tuesday of each month from 7-8pm in the Southeast Regional Library's Staff Conference Room. Ask for directions at the customer service desk.

Classics Book Discussion Group - 8/13/2009 (Thursday) 7-8pm

August's selection: The Black Arrow : A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson

Meets August 13, 2009 7-8pm

Join us to read and discuss great works of literature that have stood the test of time and have changed and influenced society.

Meets the second Thursday of each month from 7-8pm in the Staff Conference Room.

Wikipedia article about The Black Arrow.

Stevenson's biography and works

War of the Roses

Knit One, Read Too! - 8/5/2009 (Monday) 10-11:30am

August 5, 2009: Read a women's lives & relationships novel and come and share your thoughts.

Meet, mingle and yak about yarn with local knitters! Come to the Knit One, Read Too! group and have fun trading and sharing patterns, techniques, and tips while discussing books. We discuss the book the 1st Wednesday of each month. All skill levels are welcome.

** If you are interested, please bring some type of needlework- knitting, crochet, embroidery, etc.

Meets 1st and 3rd Wednesday each month from 10-11:30am