Harriet's Corner
The Bi-Monthly Newsletter of What to Read
Issue #1: The one that started it all...
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Dear Friends and Fellow Book-lovers,
This is the first of what I hope will be a bi-monthly newsletter with my current list of recommended reading. I have put off sending this newsletter long enough for two events to transpire.
The first is the release of THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini in paperback. This is a powerful novel by an Afghani émigré who follows the lives of two boys growing up in the once beautiful Kabul and following them through the Russian war years and the beginning of the brutal Taliban regime. It is a heartbreaking story of love, trust and loyalty, betrayal, guilt and redemption....grand themes for sure but rendered in a most personal manner against a vast historical backdrop. As one reviewer said, the only flaw in this novel is that it ends too soon.
The second event is that I have just finished reading THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I couldn’t put this book down which is why I couldn’t write my newsletter sooner. This is a very difficult book to try to describe....but here goes: set in Barcelona at the close of WW II it is a boy’s quest through the secrets and shadows of Barcelona neighborhoods for a mysterious author whose book has proved as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget. This book is in what has been referred to as the “book book genre”...at it’s heart is storytelling, books and a single physical book...whose plot is intertwined with the life of Daniel, our young protagonist. It is a historical mystery, a romance and a tribute to the mystical power of books....Don’t miss this one!
Many of you know my fondness for historical fiction. Those of you who share this love, will be absolutely thrilled with THE BIRTH OF VENUS by Sarah Dunant. It is the story of an independent young girl in turbulent fifteenth century Florence which is about to be seized by the wrath of the fundamentalist monk, Savonarola. Her desire to become a painter is played out against the fascinating backdrop of the art, religion, political intrigue and the philosophy of the day. All of which, by the way, is presented with historical accuracy. The first two pages will absolutely draw you in to this book....trust me on this!
As a bit of a change of pace, here are a few of my “beach or airplane reads”:
1. FLASH HOUSE by Aimee Liu
This exciting novel is set in tumultuous post WW II Asia where young American Joanna Shaw moves to Delhi with her Chinese-American journalist husband who happens to have socialist-communist leanings in a time and place that is bubbling over with intrigue between the Indians, Russians, Chinese, Tibetans and Afghanis. The husband, Aidan, sets out for a ‘story’ in Kashmir and does not return.....Joanna, her young son and a young girl rescued from a house of prostitution, the Flash House of the title, set out for Srinagar to discover what happened to Aidan....part mystery, part love story, part spy story.....it moves along quickly and keeps one guessing throughout. Thoroughly engaging.
2. EMPIRES OF SAND by David Ball
This is a romantic adventure with a sweeping story reminiscent of the historical novels of Dumas....or more recently, Bartle Bull.
We travel from Paris of the Franco-Prussian War to the Sahara Desert in the company of the Tuaregs, the famous ‘Blue Men of the Sahara.” While implausible in parts, one tends to overlook this fault because of the sheer excitement of the story. To quote another reviewer, this books offers “... love, lust, war, sex, pederasty, blood, guts, betrayals, heroism, sadism, cannibalism, Francophobia, homophobia, anti-Catholicism, anti-Islamicism... emperors and slaves, dukes and beggars, nuns and whores, camels and goats... Well, you get the idea....its great fun.
For my friends the non-fiction readers:
1. CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR by George Crile
Charlie Wilson's War is the untold story of how the Central Intelligence Agency armed the Afghan Mujahideen in what became the CIA's largest and most successful campaign in history. I had to keep reminding myself that I was not reading a work of fiction....an amazing page turner. It’s also hard to believe that a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman, liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer who engaged in serial affairs and a wheeler-dealer of consummate skill is a real live person....well, he is and he is Charlie Wilson. This is the best selling non-fiction book Iconoclast has seen in a long time....and coming out any day now in paperback.
NOW IN PAPERBACK!
2. ALL THE SHAH’S MEN by Stephen Kinzer
If you haven’t had enough of the CIA, this book is a must. As my son stated when he gave me this book.....”if you want to know why they really hate us over there...read this.” Kinzer writes in an easy flowing style as he tells the gripping tale of how the CIA and the British government overthrew the elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, who was wildly popular at home for having nationalized his country's oil industry. The CIA then proceeded to re-install Mohammed Reza Shah who was viewed by the world as a total puppet of the US and Britain. An amazing account of how governments really work..........A nice bookend to Kinzer’s account of the installation of the Shah is SHAH OF SHAHS by the fabulous Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski....I don’t know why the font just got smaller...maybe it’s time for me to stop writing...this book details the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and along the way raises some very scary questions.
NOW IN PAPERBACK!
And for you francophiles...comme moi:
1. SIXTY MILLION FRENCHMEN CAN’T BE WRONG (why we love france but not the french) by Jean-Benoit Nadeau &
Julie Barlow
2. SPOTTED IN FRANCE: A DOG’S LIFE....ON THE ROAD by Gregory Edmont
This is a must if you love France AND dogs!
3. ALMOST FRENCH by Sarah Turnbull
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