Wilson by Daniel Clowes (Drawn & Quarterly).
(Kate's blurb at left)
__________
Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman (Harper).
It's Sarah
Silverman, so what do you expect? Heartwarming stories of domestic life gone
mildly askew?
The Bedwetter is
actually a memoir, and Silverman, as expected, doesn't use a lot of ink trying
to polish her public image. Instead we get stories like 3-year-old Sarah responding to her grandmother's offer of brownies
with "shove 'em up your ass." But, believe it or not, though the book
is filled with hilarity, it also has doses of sensitivity and sincerity, and
glimpses behind the scenes into her personal life and the thoughtfulness behind
the humor.
__________
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (Harper)
From a
starred review in
Booklist: "Allende returns to historical fiction to portray another resilient
woman whose life embodies the complex forces at work in the bloody forging of
the New World. Zarit�, called
T�t�, is born into slavery in the colony of Saint-Domingue, where enslaved
Africans are worked to death by the thousands, and European men prey on women of
color. So it is with T�t� and her 'master,' the deeply conflicted plantation
owner Toulouse Valmorain, who re
lies on her for everything from coerced sex to
caring for his demented first wife, his legitimate son, and their
off-the-record daughter. When the slave uprising that gives birth to the free
black republic of Haiti erupts, Toulouse, T�t�, and the children flee to Cuba,
then to New Orleans. In a many-faceted plot, Allende animates irresistible
characters authentic in their emotional turmoil and pragmatic adaptability. She
also captures the racial, sexual, and entrepreneurial dynamics of each society
in sensuous detail while masterfully dramatizing the psychic wounds of slavery.
Sexually explicit, Allende is grace incarnate in her evocations of the spiritual
energy that still sustains the beleaguered people of Haiti and New Orleans."
__________
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman (Canongate)
Philip
Pullman's
His Dark Materials trilogy is generally seen as an atheist response
to the Christian allegory of
The Chronicles of Narnia. Now, Pullman has written a fictional
retelling of the life of Jesus Christ that
The Financial Times has called "a
simple, powerful, knowing little book . . . Like a small grenade, it will
ricochet uncomfortably around the mind of any Christian believer for some time
to come," and the Sunday
New York Times has said Pullman "traces the familiar journey
toward the cross and makes it fresh. . . . (his) retelling of the central story
in western civilization provides a brilliant new interpretation that is also a
thought-provoking reflection on the process of how stories come into existence
and accrue their meanings."
__________
Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard (Harper)
There is
nothing like being in the capable hands of a professional craftsman, and Elmore
Leonard is certainly that. Unlike
many of his "phone it in" peers, Leonard is still turning out the good stuff,
and his 44th book is as good as any he has written. Here he brings back a few characters
that Leonard's fans know well: Jack Foley and Cundo Rey from
Get Shorty and a
minor character from
Riding the Rap.
__________
The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men who Could be Me by Bruce Feiler (William Morrow)
Biblical
historian Bruce Feiler was facing the situation no parent wants to
contemplate: diagnosed with what
he feared was a terminal cancer, how would his 3-year-old twin daughters cope with the loss of their
father? Feiler decides to assemble
a "Council of Dads," a group of six men who will help guide his
daughters through life in his stead. They are the friends and colleagues who
have known him best in life, men who will be able to tell his daughters who
their dad was. Though the
material is ripe for a good cry on Oprah's famous couch, the author veers away
from the maudlin and delivers a beautifully written and touching book.
__________
The Kane Chronicles, Book One: Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan (Hyperion)
Rick
Riordan's Percy Jackson books are like crack to young readers- highly addictive
and quickly dispatched. Now he
comes at us with the first book of a new series, The Kane Chronicles. Bringing a little Indiana Jones into
the mix, meet Carter and Sadie Kane, raised separately after the sudden and tragic death of their mother. Carter
has spent the last half dozen years traveling the world with his father, a
noted Egyptologist. Sadie, on the
other hand, was raised in London by her grandparents. Carter and Sadie barely know each other when the actions of
their father lead them on a crazy adventure with only a cat to help them
out.
__________
Instructions by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
Know anyone graduating from middle school or high school? Know a grown-up in transition? This is sort of Neil Gaiman's answer to
Oh, the Places You'll Go. Beautiful illustrations accompany Gaiman's wise words about the journey through life. Some kids books are just right for kids and are so much more than a kids book, you know? This is one of those.
__________
The Daring Spectacle by Mark Morford (Rapture Machine)
San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate columnist Morford may not ring every one's
bell,
but if you're the type of reader who digs acerbic wit, feral
wordplay and very, very left leaning lyrical lambasts, then step right
up - this collection is perfect for you. Gathering more than 90 essays
from nearly a decade of work,
The Daring Spectacle is a cultural
yardstick that takes on all comers, often infusing spiritual
insight into bawdy subjects. A bonus for those opposed: Morford
includes dozens of his received 'hate mail' letters, which somehow make
his rants seem somewhat tame by comparison. Truly a unique take on our
daily lives...
__________
The City and the City by China Mieville (Del Rey)
If the novels of Dashiell Hammett and Franz Kafka had a child, and that
child had grown up watching The Twilight Zone and listening to Tom
Waits, it would be
The City and The City. Although Mieville is
often pigeon-holed in the science fiction genre, with
The City and The City he
has produced one of the best mystery novels of the last year.
Now in
paperback.
