Spring is here!

Here in Michigan, the daffodils smile their sunshine-y smiles, leaf buds burst on trees, the birds serenade each morning but its been raining like crazy....sounds like Spring has sprung! To celebrate, this week's blog is dedicated to books that were or will be released this Spring.

 __________________________________________________________________

Picking up a  book hot off the presses is a great way to celebrate something new!  Here are two such books that I've read recently.  Note: The Dinner was published a couple of years ago in the Netherlands, it just came out as an English translation in 2013, so it is new to the English-speaking world.


The Dinner by Herman Koch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A "laid off schoolteacher". Murdering teenage boys. A mom who will spend time in jail to protect her son's secret. A political candidate and father of one of the said murdering teenagers. A weeping, scene-making wife of said political candidate. A dinner at a high-brow restaurant. The components of The Dinner. And what a dinner it was!

Okay, here is the disclaimer. Not everyone is going to like this book. It is not a happy book. Its not a funny book either. What it is is an excellent bookclub selection. (Plenty of moral dilemmas and nasty characters for book-clubbers to hash out.) Its also a quick read or listen, which I highly recommend.

So why read it? For the masterful writing.  Koch plays with the readers' emotions, teasing the reader along,  pulling back from lifting the lid on a morsel of information they crave. He peppers information throughout the course of the dinner. Speaking of the dinner, the fact that an entire story could be written about what takes place during the course of one dinner amazes me. Koch  pulls it off.

Why else should you read it? For the unreliable narrator. Really. If Koch had chosen any of the other members of the dinner party as narrator, it wouldn't have worked half as well.  (Not that any of them would be reliable narrators either.) The narrator, Paul Lohman, gains the reader's confidence in the beginning of the book. Former schoolteacher, father, middle class...nice guy, right? Well, I'll leave that for you to find out. After all, I did tell you he was an unreliable narrator.

One more thing I want to mention. This book is billed as the "European Gone Girl". Now, I haven't read Gone Girl, but many people have. The reviews I've read of those who have read both books say this book is not a Gone Girl. It seems the similarity lies in the fact that both contain a full menu of nasty characters.

Is this book one you will want to read? I don't know. But I can tell you that I had no problem finding motivation to devour it!

View all my reviews

The Fun Parts by Sam Lipsyte
The Climber Room: The sign in the Sweet Apple kitchen declared it a nut-free zone...
The Dungeon Master: Is there life after video games?
Deniers: The Ballad of Craig and Mandy...
The Republic of Empathy: First short story I ever read with multiple narrators...
The Wisdom of the Doulas: Doulas or doulos, does gender determine the spelling?
Snacks: Obese boys, gym class, Need I say more?
The Worm in Philly: A children's story about Marvelous Marvin Hagler?
Expressive: Folks say I have one of those faces.
Ode to Oldcorn: Oldcorn was a shot-putter from the hippie days.
The Appointment Occurs in the Past: Grilled steaks and a fateful meeting on a roof...
Peasley: The Man Who Killed the Idea of Tanks in England says...
Nate's Pain is Now: Nobody loves an author on the way down...
The Real-Ass Jumbo: The world would end. The brink beckoned. A bright guy might as well pick a date.

My Review
 My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

__________________________________________________________________

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow. Helen Keller

With the advent of Spring, I went scurrying to my bookshelves to look for "bird books" to read. These ones were warbling to me to read them soon. If you have read any of these, leave a comment to let me know if they left you singing.

Title	Last Name	First Name	Genre	What is it About?
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa	Drayson	Nicholas	Fiction	Widower, Mr. Malik, is secretly in love with birdwalk guide, Rose Mbikwa
Bird Brains	Savage	Candace	Non-Fiction	Crows are not dumb!
Bird by Bird	Lamott	Anne	Non-Fiction	Anne on writing…
Birds Without Wings	Berneires	Louis	Fiction	A colorful village in the Ottoman Empire faces a new world.
Bridge of Birds	Hughart	Barry	Fiction	Fantasy quest set in ancient China
The Hummingbird's Daughter	Urrea	Luis	Fiction	A young girl wakes from a dream with power to heal
The Snoring Bird	Heinrich	Bernd	Non-Fiction	Humorous memoir of the author's naturalist father
The Spectator Bird	Stegner	Wallace	Non-Fiction	A look at his mother's journals send Joe Allston on a journey back in time.
Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs	Stegner	Wallace	Fiction	Essays about the American West

Keeping with the theme, the list below is composed of newly-released or soon-to-be released books that are on my radar. Anything here that will spring to the top of your list?

Title	Last Name	First Name	Genre	Pages	Pub Date
Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed	Melton	Glennon	Memoir	288	3/2/2013
Birth of an Opera	Rose	Michael	Non-Fiction	441	3/18/2013
Gulp	Roach	Mary	Science	336	4/1/2013
Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli and Me	Volk	Patricia	Memoir	304	4/2/2013
Mom and Me and Mom	Angelou	Maya	Memoir	224	4/2/2013
Bolivar: American Liberator	Arana	Marie	Biography	624	4/9/2013
Carrie and Me: Mother, Daughter Love	Burnett	Carol	Memoir	224	4/9/2013
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming	Dreher	Rod	Memoir	288	4/9/2013
A California Childhood	Franco	James	Memoir	160	4/9/2013
Dirt Work	Byl	Christine	Memoir	256	4/16/2013
Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath	Winder	Elizabeth	Memoir	272	4/16/2013
Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze	Harmsen	Peter	History	320	4/19/2013
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena	Marra	Anthony	Fiction	400	5/7/2013
Blood of Gods	Iggulden	Conn	Fiction	464	5/23/2013
Silver Star	Walls	Jeanette	Fiction	288	6/1/2013

"Books my friends/family told me I had to read!" is next. The alphabet challenge and (I)ndia will be appearing soon...