March 2012: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Thursday, March 1, 2012 @ 7:30 PM
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
by David Mitchell

In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the most influential novelists in the world. He has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. The New York Times Book Review called him simply “a genius.” Now David Mitchell lends fresh credence to The Guardian’s claim that “each of his books seems entirely different from that which preceded it.” The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a stunning departure for this brilliant, restless, and wildly ambitious author, a giant leap forward by even his own high standards. A bold and epic novel of a rarely visited point in history, it is a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable.

The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland.

But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?”

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author. (from http://www.amazon.com/)

Reviews:

• Charles, Ron. "Book Review of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, a Novel by David Mitchell." The Washington Post. June 30, 2010.
• Eggers, Dave. "Empire of Desire." The New York Times. July 1, 2010.
• Linklater, Alexander. "The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell." The Guardian. May 8, 2010.
• Miller, Laura. "At the Gates of a Hermit Kingdom." Salon.com. June 13, 2010.
• Searls, Damion. "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet." The San Francisco Chronicle. June 27, 2010.

Audio/Vidual:

• "David Mitchell on A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet." [from WYNC radio] YouTube.com. July 19, 2010. [video: 9 min 44 sec]
• "Mitchell's Thousand Autumns on a Man-Made Island." Fresh Air from WHYY. August 5, 2010. [audio: 24 min 49 sec]

Related Resources:

• Begley, Adam. "Interviews: David Mitchell, The Art of Fiction No. 204." The Paris Review. Summer 2010.
• Offical Site for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
• Wikipedia: David Mitchell
• Wikipedia: Dutch East India Company

Discussion Questions:

• A Reader's Guide, including discussion questions, for A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is available online at LitLovers.com.

February 2012: Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Thursday, February 2, 2012 @ 7:30 PM
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

"One of the most enjoyable baseball books in years." - The New York Times

"Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the giant offices of major league teams and the dugouts. But the real jackpot is a cache of numbers collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers, and physics professors. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win . . . how can we not cheer for David?" (from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/)

Reviews:

• Ackman, Dan. "Book Review: Moneyball." Forbes. May 28, 2003.
• Hyman, Mark. "Putting the Lie to Baseball's Big 'Crisis.'" Business Week. June 9, 2003.
• Kipen, David. "Billy Beane's Brand-New Ballgame." The San Francisco Chronicle. June 1, 2003.
• Knopes, Carol. "Baseball Stats Take on New Meaning as 'Moneyball' Tells Tale." USAToday. June 8, 2003.
• Maslin, Janet. "Books of the Times: Three Strikes and Your Out at the New Ballgame." The New York Times. May 12, 2003.

Audio/Video:

• "A Conversation About Baseball with Michael Lewis." Charlie Rose. May 23, 2003. [video: 14 min 30 sec]
• "'Moneyball': Tracking Down How Stats Win Games." Fresh Air from WHYY. September 23, 2011 (originally broadcast on May 28, 2003). [audio: 31 min 53 sec]
• "The Man Behind the 'Moneyball' Sabermetrics." Talk of the Nation. September 26, 2011. [audio: 17 min 6 sec]

Related Resouces:

• Crasnick, Jerry. "'2002' Moneyball Draft Class in Review." ESPN.com. September 24, 2011.
• Wikipedia: Billy Beane
• Wikipedia: Michael Lewis

Discussion Questions:

• A reading guide (with discussion questions) for Moneyball is availabe online through LitLovers.com.

January 2012: The Wednesday Letters

Thursday, January 5, 2012 @ 7:30 PM
The Wednesday Letters
by Jason F. Wright

New York Times Bestseller

Jack and Laurel Cooper die in each other's arms one night in the bed-and-breakfast that they own and operate. The event calls their three grown children home for the funeral, including their youngest son, a fugitive from the law who must face an outstanding warrant for his arrest and confront his one true love, now engaged to another man. As events unfold around the funeral, the three children discover a treasure trove of family history in the form of "Wednesday letters"-notes that Jack wrote to his wife every single week of their married lives. As they read, the children brush across the fabric of a devoted marriage that survived a devastating event kept secret all these years. (excerpted from Publishers Weekly)

Audio/Video:

• Interview with Jason Wright about The Wednesday Letters on KSL5 (Salt Lake City, UT) [video: 3 min 52 sec]

Related Resources:

• Jason F. Wright's Offical Web Site
• Official Web Site for The Wednesday Letters
• Wikipedia: Jason F. Wright

Discussion Questions:

• A reader's guide with discussion questions is available online on the Penguine USA web site.

December 2011: Mayflower

Thursday, December 3, 2011 @ 7:30 PM

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a fifty-five-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound. The Mayflower’s religious refugees arrived in Plymouth Harbor during a period of crisis for Native Americans as disease spread by European fishermen devastated their populations. Initially the two groups—the Wampanoags, under the charismatic and calculating chief Massasoit, and the Pilgrims, whose pugnacious military officer Miles Standish was barely five feet tall—maintained a fragile working relationship. But within decades, New England would erupt into King Philip’s War, a savagely bloody conflict that nearly wiped out English colonists and natives alike and forever altered the face of the fledgling colonies and the country that would grow from them. With towering figures like William Bradford and the distinctly American hero Benjamin Church at the center of his narrative, Philbrick has fashioned a fresh and compelling portrait of the dawn of American history—a history dominated right from the start by issues of race, violence, and religion. (www.amazon.com)

Reviews:

• Maslin, Janet. "Pilgrims and Indians, the Forgotten Years." The New York Times. May 4, 2006.
• Parini, Joe. "New World, Old Woes." The Guardian. July 21, 2006.
•  Ramsey, Bruce. "A War with Bad Guys on Both Sides in Early America." The Seattle Times. May 12, 2006.
• Shorto, Russell. "Pilgrims and Indians." The New York Times. June 4, 2006.
• Yardley, Jonathan. "Mayflower: A Story of Courage. Community, and War." The Washington Post. May 7, 2006.

Audio/Video:

• Philbrick, Nathaniel. "Debunking Pilgrim Myths: Before Plymouth." NPR's All Things Considered. November 22, 2006. [audio: 3 min 44 sec]
• Philbrick, Nathaniel. "Debunking Pilgrim Myths: The First Thanksgiving." NPR's All Things Considered. November 23, 2006. [audio: 3 min 29 sec]
• Philbrick, Nathaniel. "Mayflower." C-Span Video Library. June 8, 2006. [video: 58 min]

Related Resources:

• BookReporter: Biography of Nathaniel Philbrick
• Nathaniel Philbrick's Official Site
• Wikipedia: Nathaniel Philbrick  

Discussion Questions:

• Discussion questions for Mayflower are available from Nathaniel Philbrick's official site.

November 2011: The Killer Angels

Thursday, November 3, 2011 @ 7:30 PM

The Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara

In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America’s destiny. (Amazon.com)

"My favorite historical novel…A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant."

James M. McPherson

Related Sites:

• Bio of Michael Shaara from Jeff Shaara's Official Site
• CliffsNotes for The Killer Angels
• Gettysburg National Military Park 
• HowStuffWorks: How the Battle of Gettysburg Worked? 
• eHistory Archive: Gettysburg (1863)
• Wikipedia: Battle of Gettysburg
• Wikipedia: The Killer Angels
• Wikipedia: Michael Shaara 

Discussion Questions:

Discussion questions for The Killer Angels can be found on the Framingham (MA) Public Library site.

October 2011: Catfish and Mandala

Thursday, October 6, 2011 @ 7:30 PM

Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
by Andrew X. Pham

A brilliantly written memoir in which a young Vietnamese-American uses a bicycle journey in his homeland as a vehicle to tell his eventful life story. The veteran-penned “going back” book has become a subgenre of the American Vietnam War canon. So, too, has the multigenerational Vietnamese-refugee family saga. Now comes a stunning first: a family tale by a Vietnamese-American that centers on an eye-opening trip to his native land. Pham (born Pham Xuan An) fled Vietnam with his family in 1977 at age ten. Raised in California, he worked hard, went to UCLA, and landed a good engineering job. A few years ago, rebelling against family pressures to succeed and a patronizing, if not racist, work environment, Pham quit his job. Much to his parents’ displeasure, he set off on bicycle excursions through Mexico, Japan, and, finally, Vietnam. “I have to do something unethnic,” he says. “I have to go. Make my pilgrimage.” In his first book, Pham details his solo cycling journeys, mixing in stories of his and his family’s life before and after leaving Vietnam. The most riveting sections are Pham’s exceptional evocations of his father’s time in a postwar communist reeducation (read: concentration) camp and the family’s near miraculous escape by sea from their homeland. The heart of the narrative is Pham’s depiction of his five-month adventure in Vietnam, often not a pretty picture. Because of his unique status as a budget-minded Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese), he runs into significant harassment from the police and many unfriendly civilians. For every moment of self-discovery and enchantment there seem to be ten of disappointment and dispiritedness—plus nearly constant physical pain from his journey and a bout of dysentery. But Pham perseveres. He returns to his home, America, with a smile on his face. An insightful, creatively written report on Vietnam today and on the fate of a Vietnamese family in America. (Kirkus Reviews 10/01/1999)

Reviews:

•  "Andrew Pham's Catfish and Mandala." BBC's h2g2. May 10, 2001.
• Goodheart, Adam. "Travel: Holiday Books 1999." The New York Times. December 5, 1999.
• "In Brief: Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham." The Guardian. October 13, 2000.
• Lee, Yishane. "Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam." Time Asia. January 10, 2000.
• Lloyd McMichael, Barbara. "Going Full Cycle: Andrew X. Pham Pedals Along a Journey of Discovery." The Seattle Times. September 30, 1999.
• Orizio, Riccardo. "From Lost Identities to Lost Tribes." The Independent. April 16, 2000.

Audio/Video:

• "Catfish and Mandala." C-SPAN2's BookTV. December 2, 1999. [video: 51 min 46 sec]
• Susan Stamberg. "Favorite Summers - Part IV: Andrew X. Pham." NPR's Morning Edition. July 24, 2001. [audio: ?]

Related Resources:

• Andrew X. Pham's Official Web Site
•  Bissell, Tom. "Destination: Vietnam: The Literary Guide to the World." Salon. June 15, 2006.
• Pham, Andrew X. "Belonging to All the World: A Poem by Andrew X. Pham." NPR. October 17, 2001. 
• Wikipedia: Andrew X. Pham

September 2011: City of Thieves

Thursday, September 1, 2011 @ 7:30 PM

City of Thieves 
by David Benioff

During the Nazis' brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible. By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men. (synopsis from www.powells.com)

Reviews:

• Berrett, Jesse. "Fiction Review: Benioff's City of Thieves." The San Francisco Chronicle. May 13, 2008.
• Collins, Robert. "City of Thieves." The Observer. June 28, 2009.
• Fishman, Boris. "Wartime Rations." The New York Times. July 6, 2008.
• Keenan, Justin. "Nothing Is Illuminated." The Harvard Book Review. Summer 2008.
• Meaney, Thomas. "Living by Their Wits." The Washington Post. July 10, 2008.

Audio/Visual:

• "David Benioff of City on Thieves: Interview, Part I (from BordersMedia)." YouTube. March 31, 2009. (6 min 4 sec)
• "David Benioff of City on Thieves: Interview, Part II (from BordersMedia)." YouTube. March 31, 2009. (6 min 4 sec)
• "David Benioff of City on Thieves: Interview, Part III (from BordersMedia)." YouTube. March 31, 2009. (3 min 11 sec)

Related Sites:

• "David Benioff." The Internet Movie Database (IMBD)
• "David Benioff." Wikipedia. 
• Kachka, Boris. "Dungeon Master: David Benioff (Q&A)." New York Magazine. May 18, 2008.

Discussion Questions:

• A reading guide, including discussion questions, for City of Thieves is available online from the Penguin.com (USA) site.

August 2011: Whatever You Do, Don't Run

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide
by Peter Allison

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run is a hilarious collection of true tales from top ­safari guide Peter Allison. In a place where the wrong behavior could get you eaten, Allison has survived face-to-face encounters with big cats, angry ­elephants, and the world’s most unpredictable animals—herds of untamed tourists and foolhardy guides whose outrageous antics sometimes make them even more dangerous than a pride of hungry lions! Join Allison as he faces down charging lions—twice; searches for a drunk, half-naked tourist who happens to be a member of the British royal family; drives a Land Rover full of tourists into a lagoon full of hippos; and adopts the most ­vicious animal in Africa as his “pet.” Full of lively humor and a genuine love and respect for Botswana and its rich wildlife, Whatever You Do, Don’t Run takes you to where the wild things are and introduces you to a place where every day is a new adventure! (from back cover)

Reviews:

•  Alford, Henry. "Holiday Books: Travel." The New York Times. December 2, 2007.

Audio/Visual:

• The Cheetah Watch Chat with Peter Allison: Part 1 (8 min), Part II (4 min 1 sec), and Part III (4 min)

Related Resources:

• Westwood, Alison. "Interview with Peter Allison, Author of Don't Look Behind You." Getaway. March 19, 2010.
• Wikipedia: Peter Allison