Book Choices for July 2010

I hope I got the month right- anyhow here are my choices- all available on Kindle (yes it was a prerequisite). The first one I read and absolutely loved. The second two are from books we considered but did not pick. I have read both samples from Kindle and will be purchasing them at some point. JB

1: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (September 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375842209
• ISBN-13: 978-0375842207

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. Set during World War II in Germany, this groundbreaking novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist—books. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

2:The Book of Lost Things

by John Connolly
Stolen 110% from Linda's blog- it was perfect, so why change?!

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074329890X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743298902

The story is about a 12-year-old English boy, David, who, after the death of his mother, moves with his father and new step mother to the new wife’s family’s country estate. David is given an attic room lined with old books from a previous occupant and the books begin to literally whisper to him. One day after seeing an intruder in his room, David hears his dead mother’s voice in the sunken garden calling to him for help. He follows the voice and finds himself in a very different place. This new place is not the realm of Disney fairy tales but harkens back to the brutality of the original Grimms fairy tales that do not necessarily have happy endings. This book is definitely not written for kids, or adults who are the faint of heart. Although many of the adventures David encounters echo fairy tales that we all know they all definitely have unique twists and it is David’s understanding of these stories from his reading that enables him to prevail.

3: Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; Updated edition (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060899220
• ISBN-13: 978-0060899226

• When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded that appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectable shocking banquet that lays out his 25 years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.

  From his first oyster in the Gironde to the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, from the restaurants of Tokyo to the drug dealers of the East Village, from the mobsters to the rats, Bourdain's brilliantly written, wild-but-true tales make the belly ache with laughter.