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Adina G.'s Picks
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In the Skin of a Lion
Michael Ondaatje |
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| Toronto in the 30's. A missing millionaire, a theif, a baker, an anarchist nun who is swept off a bridge into the arms of a worker, an ingenue and her iguana and of course, our protagonist caught in the middle of it all. (I had a hard time not choosing Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter that has the syncopated prose of a frantic Jazz session.) |
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Orlando
Virginia Woolfe |
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| "Orlando had become a woman— there was no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been." A young man in Queen Elizabeth I's court lives through four centuries of perpetual youth. Midway through the novel, Orlando becomes a woman. It has been a while since I read this, but I remember my jaw was on the floor for much of it. |
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The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco |
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| Monks! Murder! Secret Books! Suspense! Surround yourself with the trappings of a Classics professor before you begin. I read this at a country house over Christmas with a glass cognac by the fire and Gregorian chants playing on the stereo. |
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Jazz
Toni Morrison |
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| From the very first page, this book is pure, nonstop jazz prose crooning a story of violence and tenderness that will break your heart. Several times. |
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Birds of America
Lorrie Moore |
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| Oh. My. God. Her short stories will have you screaming with laughter one page and swooning with profound sadness the next.
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Park City
Anne Beattie |
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| Sometimes bleak, always gorgeous and witty. Carver without the booze and
smokes. Her characters' addictions are largely human-based.
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Letters at 3am
Michael Ventura |
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| Beware, he can get obsecenely flakey at times, and DO avoid his last
essay on the rebirthing in New Mexico. But his brain will go anywhere
and everywhere. His essays on Vegas are killer.
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As I lay Dying
William Faulkner |
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| Enter the slow trance of Faulkner land where a dysfunctional southern
family makes the journey to bring their mother's body to her resting
ground. The characters are exquisite.
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The Hours
Michael Cunningham |
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| An homage to Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia
Woolfe. A book so good, my toes curled with pleasure and I am still
trying to straighten them out. |
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By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
Elizabeth Smart |
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| A prose-poetry novella, written in the white-hot heat of passion that consumed her life. It will make you want to read her biography, By Heart, by Rosemary Sullivan. |
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Moons of Jupiter
Alice Munroe |
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| Alice is perfect. A master of short fiction. She has a dry, dry wit.
She almost never manipulates you but will bring you to your knees with
truths you never knew could be articulated. All of her collections of
stories are wonderful, but this is my favourite |
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