Breakfast with Buddha

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo  323 pp.

Otto Ringling has recently lost his elderly parents in a car accident. Otto, a cookbook editor for a book publisher and his flakey, new ager sister, Cecilia are set to drive from the east coast to the family farm in North Dakota to make arrangements for selling it. At the last moment his sister announces she is not going but wants her brother to take her guru, Volya Rinpoche (Rinpoche is a title given to respected teachers) to see the property. She has decided to give away her portion of the estate for the Rinpoche to build a meditation center. Otto is highly suspicious of this little man in the saffron robes but has no choice but to agree. However, the little man turns out to be a fascinating companion and Otto can't help but become the recipient of his non/teaching in spite of his anger and frustration over the situation. Otto even learns about meditation and yoga--the latter to a painful degree. The Rinpoche imparts his wisdom while enjoying new experiences like bowling and miniature golf. I enjoyed this book and the gentle way the Rinpoche teaches Otto how to change his outlook. While not laugh-out-loud funny you can't help but smile while reading it.

Sisterland, by Curtis Sittenfeld

Of course, much of the fun of this book is recognizing the many St. Louis places and landmarks that are in it.  Sittenfeld followed her husband here from the east coast when he was offered a job at Washington University.  It will be interesting also to hear her speak at the April Friends of the Library event.  Identical twin sisters, Vi and Kate (nee Daisy), have “senses.”  From a fairly early age, they become aware of their ability to sometimes foretell the future.  Kate has had the happier life – she’s married to a man she loves and has a charming two year old daughter, Rosie, and new baby Owen.  She has made a conscious decision to put her senses behind her.  Vi has had a troubled life, dropping out of college her first year, never settling down with a partner, and making her living in low-paying jobs.  When her ESP helps find a kidnapped child, she parlays this into a more successful career as a psychic.  All hell breaks loose when she predicts that a major earthquake will hit St. Louis on October 16.  Kate’s husband Jeremy is a scientist in Washington University’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, and he and his colleague, Courtney, have a rather different take on this prediction.  A page-turner, and, not surprisingly, the earthquake turns out to be somewhat different than predicted.  397 pp.

Sea creatures, by Susanna Daniel

A novel about a difficult choice.  Georgia Quillian met her husband, Graham at a sleep clinic in the Chicago area, but Graham’s sleep problems are far worse than the garden-variety  insomnia she has.  He has “parasomnia” which causes him to do very frightening things while asleep, so frightening that most of the time he fights off sleep for days, then literally chains himself to the wall so that he won’t be able to harm himself – or others—when he finally has to succumb to it.  Despite this handicap, he is a successful researcher, in demand enough that when they are forced to Illinois leave because of something he may have done while asleep, he is able to find a new job researching hurricanes in the Miami area, which is Georgia’s hometown.  While Graham is at work, Georgia stays in the decrepit houseboat they have bought and parked outside her parents’ home on the Coral Gables waterway and cares for their three-year-old son, Frankie.  Troublingly, Frankie has recently stopped speaking at all.  To bring in some needed income, and keep herself busy, she takes a job as an assistant to a reclusive artist who has isolated himself in his house in “Stiltsville,” a group of dwellings literally up on stilts in the middle of the ocean.  At first, her job is mainly ferrying groceries and supplies out to Charlie, but as time passes, she, Frankie and Charlie become close.  As the historic Hurricane Andrew bears down on the area, all of their lives will be changed forever.  An interesting and disturbing book.  311 pp.

The woman upstairs, by Claire Messud

“When you’re the Woman Upstairs, nobody thinks of you first.  Nobody calls you before anyone else, or sends you the first postcard.   Once your mother dies, nobody loves you best of all.”  This is the grim reality that Nora Eldridge faces in this novel about art, love, and betrayal.  Nora was supposed to become a Great Artist; instead she teaches third grade and fits her art in where she can in her solitary rooms upstairs.  In her early forties, she feels that life has passed her by.   Then a new boy comes into her class, the strikingly beautiful Reza Shahid, son of a Lebanese father, Skandar, and Italian mother, Sirena.   They have left their home in Paris for a year in Cambridge, where Skandar is at Harvard.  Sirena is a “real” artist – with recognized work and on the cusp of breaking through to real critical acclaim.  Events draw Nora into their close circle where she finds herself falling in love with all of them.   The aptly named Sirena suggests that they share the rent on a large loft studio and Nora begins to get serious about making her own artistic mark.  As the Shahid’s year in Cambridge draws to a close, Nora finds herself abandoned, betrayed, and angry enough to perhaps start to really live.  253 pp.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy DeLisle, 336 pages.

Guy DeLisle, animator, graphic artist and graphic travel writer, moved with his children and wife to Jerusalem while she worked for Medecin sans Frontiere for a year. DelLisle's drawings and text give his version of the state of Israel, its citizens and their relationship to Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinians. It's not a cheery story. He describes his encounters with settlers, armed joggers, soldiers at countless checkpoints, and disillusioned NGO workers. Delisle does a wonderful job conveying a sense of place and of the sometimes hopeless situations he encounters.

Check our catalog.

The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, 455 pages.

As it says on all copies of the reprinted editions of the book, "Robert Galbraith is a psuedonym for J. K. Rowling." Unless it isn't, and this is just one more twist in this story.
Lula Lang, glamorous, drug-addicted (maybe), and depressed (reportedly) super-model has committed suicide. Her brother doesn't think so, even though that is what the police have ruled it; suicide. Lula's brother John hires as private investigator, one Cormoran Strike, to find out the truth.
Cormoran is having a few issues of his own as the book opens up. He's got some health problems as a result of a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he has a few girlfriend concerns, and he seems to be temporarily homeless. He is a good detective though. With the help of Robin, a temporary secretary whom he cannot afford to adequately pay, Cormoran begins to unravel the tangled relationships and intrigues centered around the late super-model. It doesn't burn up the page, but the Cuckoo's Calling has a nice steady rhythm, and the characters are all sharply defined (and cleverly named-one of them being Some, Guy- if you put the last name first and ignore the accent marks). Here's hoping we'll see a sequel.
Check our catalog.

A Naked Singularity

A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava, 678 pages. This was a big, sprawling, trippy book that just kept going. It's about young lawyers making a difference in the Public Defender's office, and then it's about a couple of those idealistic young attorneys planning the perfect heist. Two of the IYAs are also trying to get a convicted murderer off of death-row. And one of the main attorney's neighbors is bringing Ralph Kramden / Jackie Gleason back to life by watching the honeymooners over and over again in a loop. While it sometimes grinds and groans under the weight of the several simultaneous stories, it is a really well-written, imaginative, and satisfying novel. Check our catalog.

The Five Fists of Science

The Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction; art by Steven Sanders, unpaged

In this graphic novel, Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain team up to save the world/defeat Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan with a giant steampunk robot. I love Tesla and Twain as much as the next person, and I really did like the character development given to them by Fraction and Sanders, but I just really couldn't get into this comic. I have the sneaking suspicion that it's the steampunk bit. As much as I like the idea of steampunk, any attempts I've made to read or watch something in this genre have left me nonplussed. Sad, since I wanted so much to enjoy this.

The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, 455 pages

Cormoran Strike is your typical down-on-your-luck private eye — he's got just one client, he just broke up with his fiancee, he's deeply in debt, and, because of all that, he's sleeping in the office on a foldaway cot. He's also the illegitimate son of a rock star and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, both of which have given him plenty of mental and physical issues to deal with. But then John Bristow, the brother of a childhood friend, strolls into his office, asking him to investigate the supposed suicide of Lula Landry, Bristow's adopted sister and supermodel. The investigation takes Strike into a world much more suited to his rocker father, filled with drug-addled movie stars, sexy supermodels, and money-hungry filmmakers (and plenty of red herrings, since this is a hard-boiled mystery).

Wow, this Galbraith fellow can really write! Great character development, well-plotted... it's hard to believe this is his first book. Oh who am I kidding? We all know this is J.K. Rowling's pseudonym. You wouldn't know it from the writing style though... no traces of Harry Potter here (unlike Casual Vacancy, which felt from the start like a YA author trying to write a deliberately grown up book, and is likely why I haven't yet finished it). But if you think about how masterfully Rowling wrote Harry Potter, weaving complex plots and keeping millions of readers guessing through seven books, it's not hard to see why she'd do such a great job writing mysteries. Perhaps she just needed a little less pressure and fewer expectations; hiding behind "Robert Galbraith" definitely allowed her to do that. I hope we see more Galbraith books from her in the future. This one was awesome.

You

You by Austin Grossman 383 pgs.

Staff favorite Grossman's second book is the story of friendship and video games.  Mostly the creation of video games.  A high school nerd pack make their way into video production minus Russell who thinks he needs to become a traditional adult.  Russell bounces around never really finding his path and then ends up at the video game company started by his former friends minus Simon who died in an odd accident.  The company is faltering and Russell must solve a mysterious software problem to try to save it.  This follow up to "Soon I will be Invincible" is pretty good but can't compare to the greatness of his previous book. Part of it is probably my lack of experience with gaming and I didn't find myself picturing this book as a movie.  Still, I will probably read anything Grossman writes.

check our catalog