Moonlight In Odessa, by Janet Skeslien Charles

I may just have found my new favorite sub-genre: mail-order bride fiction.


Where I heard about this book: Found it while browsing at the library.


What I thought of this book: Fun! 3 1/2 stars


What this book is about: A feisty intelligent young woman in Odessa seeks both a future in America and a loving husband, so naturally she ends up dating Americans on wife-finding junkets. This is good chick lit - it's got all the elements of a cheesy romance novel, but is much better. The heroine is great, the writing is good. What makes the book really stand out is the description of life in post-Soviet Russia. The phrase "as we say in Odessa" became slightly tiresome after a while, but this glimpse into the life of a modern Russian woman was fascinating. As with all formulaic novels, the obvious plot twists take some forbearance, but it's a quick and entertaining enough read that the reader doesn't get too bogged down. I'd recommend this for airplanes, beaches or sick days.

Here's an interesting look at several covers designs for the novel - the ones that were used in different countries, the one that wasn't chosen - a part of the novel that impacts the readers, but to which we rarely pay much attention.

Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, by Martha N. Beck

Let's hear it for everyone who did not go to Harvard! According to this book, it is a wretched place full of striving, uncaring people, which will turn you into a workaholic automaton. I wonder if Martha Beck, in her current enlightened state, would now find that Cambridge is full of self-reflective loving people looking for the same. It strikes me that she was not exactly inviting joy and empathy into her life while she was there. She did, however, learn to look past academic success to the greater joys of being human.



Where I heard about this book: Anne again!


What I thought of this book: Very interesting and a quick and compelling read. 4 stars.


What this book is about: An insanely busy PhD student and her even busier husband discover that she is pregnant with a Down syndrome baby. They both have a lot of paranormal experiences, which she chalks up to the unborn child attracting angels, positive energy, call it what you will. This book is about letting go of societal standards of success, and enjoying and appreciating life as it is. Ironically, I read this book when I was sick; I should have just stayed in bed and rested until I was healthy, but kept trying to return to work, which made me sicker. Which just goes to show the importance of the author's message - letting go of productivity-at-any-cost really is good for you. Alas, it can be hard to do. Martha Beck and her husband really struggle with this throughout the book.

Martha Beck is now a life coach and motivational writer. She has other books, most of which don't interest me all that much; they are very much in the self-help genre, which I generally avoid like the plague. This one, however, looks interesting - Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith. I am a sucker for this kind of memoir, if well-written.

e by Matt Beaumont

If I were to return to school and slog my way through a PhD so that I could teach literature, my specialty would definitely be office lit. Come to think of it, having just such an odd specialty might help snag me a place in a PhD program... But no, I am a happy amateur reader. And happy to have read this very entertaining book.


Where I heard about this book: My sister Anne and Carie, with whom I used to work at the library.


What I thought of this book: Great. 5 stars.


What this book is about: Told entirely in email, this is the story of the inner workings of an ad agency over the course of two very busy weeks. Matt Beaumont manages to create fully realized characters merely through their messages to, from and about one another. A great comic tale full of intrigue, ego, betrayal and political maneuvering, this is one of those beautifully rendered satires that remains oddly credible in spite of the outrageousness of both its characters and plot twists. Upon browsing Beaumont's website, amusingly titled letstalkaboutme.com, I've decided to put not only all of his novels on my reading list, but also every book written by his wife, Maria Beaumont.

The Rotter's Club, by Jonathon Coe

I would certainly have liked this book better if I could have kept the characters straight! I'm not sure whether to lay the blame for this with my faulty memory, but somehow all of those boys-from-the-80's names sounded the same to me, and I kept having to look up which one was Doug, and which Philip and so on. I can't say that I didn't like this book, but I'm not sure what the point was. Oddly, though, when I heard that there is a sequel I was immediately interested. We'll see if I actually get around to reading it.


Where I heard about this book: My long-lost friend Mark.


What I thought of this book: Good. 3 1/2 stars.


What this book is about: A bunch of school friends in 80's Birmingham England. The story encompasses their families, which are intertwined through work and sex. The book follows the kids through high school, examining all of the usual coming-of-age themes: romance, cliques, parents, struggles to be independent. The characters are compelling, but apparently the boys are too much alike because I kept mixing them up! I would recommend this book to someone closer in age to the characters than myself.

The FInancial Lives of the Poets, by Jess Walter

I always love reading novels in which I think I'd feel at home. I also love novels which are predicated on the idea that life could change into something completely unrecognizable through a series of small events and choices. Because I think that life really is like that, but is not usually written that way. This novel is both of those things. The characters are not very different from me and the people I know. And although Matthew Prior makes some eccentric decisions in his desire to fix his downward-spiraling life, his actions are not really any more bizarre than those any one of us might make when pushed to the edge by the stress of modern living.

The falling man featured on the cover of the novel is eerily similar to the one from the Mad Men intro. Coincidence, or savvy marketing? My guess is the latter. Kind of a stroke of genius, if you ask me. Here's a really great video ad for the book, along with a nice little review.


Where I heard about this book: NPR's Book Notes


What I thought of this book: Fantastic. 4 1/2 stars.


What this book is about: Matthew Prior wakes up one day to discover that he is out of a job, his wife is having a My Space affair, and his house is due for repossession within the week. Yikes. Another victim of the only-way-is-up 90's and 00's. The novel follows his increasingly misguided efforts to pull himself out of both financial and romantic ruin. This is an extremely entertaining book, with a charming character at its center. The best part, to my mind, is that every chapter begins with a poem, in a different style and structure each time.

Which brings me to Jess Walter's website. He and I clearly have similar taste in novels, so now I have even more books to add to my reading list courtesy of his Great Books sidebar. And for 2010 he is writing a haiku review of the books he likes. Which puts him squarely in the sexy authors category.


See his recommended reads and haiku (haikus?) here.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

400-some pages have rarely flown by so quickly. I had such a hard time putting this book down - it is responsible for several later-than-intended nights. After passing this book by for weeks, I'm glad I finally picked it up. I had expected it to be depressing, but found it instead uplifting, despite several heart-wrenching scenes and the general awfulness of the theme. It struck me in the same way the show Mad Men does - I know that things were unfair and bias rampant in this era, but seeing it up close is kind of horrifying.



Where I heard about this book: My best book recommender, my sister Anne.


What I thought of this book: Great. 4 1/2 stars.


What this book is about: Set in Jackson Mississippi in the early sixties, this book describes the lives of white Southern women and their black "help". It is told in the alternating voices of three characters; one white, two black. I found each voice distinctive and authentic; this book is all about stereotypes, but the author manages to keep these people sounding realistic, if slightly exaggerated. By the end I really did have a great sense of hope for unity and the end of racism, which is in itself a pretty good reason to have read this book. I also loved how lots of subplots were woven in. Altogether the story should have been a lot less believable than it was - surely the sign of some good writing.