Sunday, June 8, 2014

Celia's Suggestions for our August book


MIDDLESEX,  JEFFREY EUGENIDES

Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition era, Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of 1967, before they move out of the tree-lined streets of suburban Gross Point, Michigan.
To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction.  Lyrical and thrilling, MIDDLESEX is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic. 529 pages

RISE AND SHINE, ANNA QUINDLEN

It’s an otherwise ordinary Monday when Meghan Fitzmaurice’s perfect life hits a wall. A household name as the host of Rise and Shine, the country’s highest rated morning television show, Meghan cuts to a break-- but not before she does something that, in an instant , marks the end of an era, not only for Meghan but also for her younger sister , Bridget.  A social worker from  the Bronx , Bridget has always lived in Meghan,s shadow.  The impact of Meghan’s on-air truth telling  reverberates thru both their lives affecting Meghan’s son,husband,friends and fans.
269 pages


THE CAT”S TABLE MICHEAL ONDAATJE

In the early 1950’s an eleven -year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England.  At mealtimes he is seated at the “cat’s table”-- as far from the Captain’s Table as can be --- with a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults and two other boys.  As the ship crosses the Indian ocean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury!
The Cat’s Table is a spellbinding book about the magical, often forbidden discoveries of childhood, and a lifelong journey that begins with unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage!
288 pages

D ISGRACE, A NOVEL   -  J M COETZEE

Written with austere clarity “Disgrace’  explores the downfall of one man, and dramatizes with
unforgettable and almost unbearable  vividness the plight of South Africa a country caught in the chaotic aftermath of the overthrow of A’parthied.
David Lure is a South African professor of English at a unnamed university in Cape .  After an affair with one of his students, he looses his job and his reputation.  He takes refuge with his daughter , Lucy at her farm.  At first the two experience harmony and Lurie finds peace with himself.  However, one day Lure and his daughter are attacked by three men and Lucy is raped. Subsequently, Lure goes thru a crises , not knowing how to cope with his personal and family tragedies.  He is also confused by the newfound guilt he suddenly feels about his last affairs…


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