WE THE ANIMALS, a novel by Justin Torres

I bought this book in Seattle to read on the flight home. I had heard an interview with the author a few days earlier. I went into the bookstore knowing I was looking for a new book whose author I had heard interviewed, but I could remember absolutely nothing else about it. I was about to give up, when I spotted it at the far end of the "new novels" display and recognized the title immediately.

The novel is about the youngest of three boys growing up in a poor family, with parents who are volatile, caring, violent, loving, immature, and wise. They are doing what they can to get by. Some of the events are disturbing. Many are superficially disturbing but end up being loving. Others are deeply disturbing.

This book is a fast read, partly because it is quite short (128 pages) but also because the prose itself just demands you to read fast. Published reviews have used words such as “fierce”, “burning”, and “feral” to describe the story and the prose. I thought that much of it read like poetry. In fact, the first chapter (2.5 pages) could be a stand-alone poem. That first chapter may be the best first chapter I have ever read. I would recommend reading that even if you have no intention of reading the book. (I may have to give this book to someone for Christmas just to hear the first chapter read aloud.)

reviewed by Libby

Goodbye, Columbus

Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth

This is a Novella set in New Jersey in the late 50's and is about first love. It starts from the first time this unlikely pair of young adults lay eyes on one another through their turbulent relationship - a poor boy from Newark and a wealthy girl (and her family) from the suburbs. Roth does a beautiful job at capturing the reality and thoughts of the protagonist and the insecurities and mistakes that come with any new relationship, but also captures the playfulness and passion that new summer love brings. A quick read, and worth the pages.

Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

The following is a review of the Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I decided to post them all as one post since I feel like they all really go together. One word of caution, llllloooooonnnnnggggg. You can't really judge how big a book is on a Kindle until you realize you've been reading 2 hours/day for a week and are only 25% of the way through. All 3 books are lengthy but I thoroughly enjoyed the saga.

The story follows the lives of the first 100 people to colonize Mars. They don't really have a goal when the international team lands on the red planet but the books are about what the first 100 do and how they work to achieve their vision of what the new world should be. The time line is fairly unrealistic (they first land in 2026 I believe for example) and the rate at which humans develop new technology makes the Renaissance look like the dark ages. But the story doesn't focus on the science fiction so much as the human and cultural forces experienced by the people there and their relationship with those still on Earth and the terrans who followed them to the red planet. The first 100 were a diverse group so while the narrative wanders back and forth among them, the reader gets to look through the eyes of biologists, physicists, geologists, ecologists, engineers, psychologists, and anarchists and get a feel for what they think is important in life and their fight to get it.

The settlers go about creating a completely new world, as opposed to a second Earth. I really enjoyed many of the changes proposed to traditional society but the author. One major element the author projected is the predicament Earth will be in in the next few hundred years. To me, the major point of the trilogy was to get people thinking about what the future holds for the world and what can be done to change it. He proposes some radical ideas which would likely never be possible on a world with so much momentum in one direction but the first 100 got the privilege to start fresh and do it right from the beginning.

This isn't so much your typical aliens vs. humans, pew-pew shoot em up kind of sci/fi, but more of a fictional anthropology set in the future. I really really liked it and felt fulfilled when the 3rd book was over. There is excellent character development and enough drama and excitement to keep me entertained all while exploring what we think of as human nature and how that can change depending on cultural influences.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

family member: David

book: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon

Amy recommended this book highly to me, and I do the same for you. It's about two young Jewish men, Sam Clay living in Brooklyn in the Depression, and his Czech cousin, Josef Kavalier, who shows up in the middle of the night having escaped, along an arduous journey, from the increasing Nazi oppression in 1939. Sam, a creative, optimistic, excitable, wiseass storyteller, and Joe, a magician, visual artist, and escape artist, jump into the new world of comic books that was exploding with the likes of Superman and Batman, and their greatest creation becomes a nationwide best-seller. The plot goes on to span decades of their "amazing adventures" together, their lives and loves, recounting their childhoods, Sam's Vaudevillian, absent father, Joe's apprenticeship as a magician in Czechoslovakia and his escape, and Joe's lifelong battle, both imaginary and real, with the Nazis. On one level, it is about the whole fascinating comic book business, and, as a reader of Marvel comics as a child, it's very fun in this regard -- lots of inside details about all the characters in the business, presumably based on lots of research, and I think Mark would really like it for this reason -- but it's much more than this. It's a real saga full of rich and fascinating characters. The writing is incredibly inventive and captivating, with great descriptions of scenes, people, and events. It's hilarious at times and absolutlely gut-wrenching at others. It was the rare book I hated to see end. As you can tell, I really liked it.

Rule of Three

Book: Rule of Three

Reader: Eva

I recently read Rule of Three by Megan McDonald. Here's my (long) summary:

The book is about three sisters: Alex (the oldest), Stevie (the middle child), and Joey (the youngest). Stevie is tired of being stuck in the middle and never getting any attention. But when auditions for the school musical are announced, Stevie decides that maybe she's tired of being the "Sensible One". Maybe, for once, she'd like to be in the spotlight. While Joey encourages them, Alex and Stevie are soon engaged in a fierce competition to find out who will get the lead. The fight goes on for a while, and finally Alex gets the lead. Stevie gets even more mad at Alex. Eventually, Stevie is convinced she'll get the lead in some other play and peace is restored.

I love this book!

-Eva

A Stopover in Venice

family member: Gwyn

book: A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker

This wonderful book is a story within a story. A woman boldly finds herself alone in Venice in modern times. There she encounters a group in search of the history of a found mural. Their friendship and support of her lead her to discover her own worth as she discovers the history of a woman from the past.

A knowledge of Venice would have enhanced this book for me. Even without that, I found this book to be tender mixture of history, discovery, and romance.

If any of you read it, let me know whether you enjoyed it too.