Customer Comments

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh is a gift. When I started the book I wasn't sure I would finish it. I am so glad I did. I recognized Moshfegh's artful description and lush beautiful sentences. One of my favorites here: "my emotions passing like headlights that shine softly through a window, sweep past me, illuminate something familiar, then fade and leave me in the dark again." That said, what I loved about the book was the ending which was beyond anything I expected. I had to reread the last two chapters to take it all in. This book brought about an awakening. It's a book about life and how you choose to live it. I've been in a good mood since I read it....3 days and counting!

Another overwhelmingly impressive narrative from Ian McEwan, possibly the best living writer today. Strangely told by the perspective of a fetus, McEwan's small book gives us a concise picture of the world the fetus is about to join. Even though the narrator sees and hears all, he struggles to affect anything. As evil flourishes and mystery intrigues, the plot culminates with a rather satisfying ending. This book doesn't disappoint, and oh, the writing of course has you stopping every few pages to reread some of the most eloquent prose written today.

What a riveting read! I haven't felt so strongly about a book in years. Messud is excellent, not only in her literary skills, but in her ability to pin down the idiosyncrasies in all of us and force us examine them under bright light. This psychological novel has had a profound effect on me.... I am now left to wonder about the reality of day to day living and underlying motives of both my friends and myself.

On Chesil Beach is a story of newlyweds whose miscommunication during their honeymoon end up destroying their chance for a life together. McEwan, with his amazing style and prose, shows us that our journey in life can be as fragile as a few words.

Solar..another one of Ian McEwan's gifts to us! A book for all the intellectual snobs who can appreciate the comic irony of the distasteful and self centered, 53 year old physicist Michael Beard, whose ambition is to save the world from a portending global warming disaster. The book is masterful in the usual McEwan fashion. Besides all of this.... where else can you find the words "conflation" and "sinecure" used in the same sentence?

This book amply demonstrates that we are all basically simple human beings who just want to be loved and respected. It is the saddest book I have read....so much unfairness of things. I was profoundly affected.

Are there really people in the world like Deo? Like Sharon and like Charlie and Nancy Wolf? Kidder doesn't just make us believe, he SHOWS us the potential of the human spirit and the power one person has to make a difference.

A Pearl in the Storm is the best non-fiction I have read in a long time. Not only was this book thrilling to read, but since I've read it I have mustered up the courage to attempt things that I only thought about before.

Every word is a chosen jewel in this wonderful book of history and fantasy. The Mughal Empire versus Florence Renaissance in religion, war, and philosophy... oh... and lots of emphasis on the power of sex throughout history.

Simple yet unusual with a bond of mysticism and daily life, After Dark is a novel in which the action takes place within a 24 hour period. Murakami never tells you how to interpret or feel, but the intensity of the words comes bouncing off the page. Once again Murakami has written a novel so engaging it's impossible to put down.

My Detachment by Tracy Kidder is a story about the Viet Nam War, but it's much more than a war story. Kidder allows you to really get to know him by unabashedly sharing his innermost thoughts. At times you see him as an immature unprepared prep school/Harvard grad. Other times, you are able to see his intellect and read his heart. (Kidder has to be the most non-judgmental person on earth!) From a historical aspect you learn a lot, but the success of the story is getting to know him as a person.