Suggestions: June 2007 Book of the Month.

[mehastings]

Suggest a book!

Please post a description. Suggestions to end April 15.

 

[angerball]

Here's my nomination! I've just started this book, and it's a fantastic read.

Grotesque - Natsuo Kirino

Readers with a taste for ambiguity and oddball characters will enjoy this twisted novel of suspense from Japanese author Kirino (Out). The Apartment Serial Murders case, which involved the brutal killings of two Tokyo prostitutes, has gripped the country, leading to the arrest of a Chinese immigrant, Zhang Zhe-zhong, for the crimes. Strangely, Zhang freely admits to murdering the first victim, Yuriko Hirata, but denies the near-identical slaying 10 months later of Kazue Sato. The events leading to the killings are related from a variety of perspectives—that of Yuriko's unnamed older sister, bitterly jealous of her sibling's good looks; of each victim; and of the accused. Unusual connections—for example, Kazue was a classmate of the older sister—cast doubt on the veracity of individual narrators. This mesmerizing tale of betrayal reveals some sobering truths about Japan's social hierarchy.

 

[angerball]

I have another nomination (greedy, aren't I? ). This one's a non-fiction, and I know it has been read or is about to be read by a few people here; I'm sure it would be an interesting discussion topic.

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Synopsis taken from Amazon:
Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, tells of his exasperation with colleagues who try to play both sides of the street: looking to science for justification of their religious convictions while evading the most difficult implications—the existence of a prime mover sophisticated enough to create and run the universe, "to say nothing of mind reading millions of humans simultaneously." Such an entity, he argues, would have to be extremely complex, raising the question of how it came into existence, how it communicates —through spiritons!—and where it resides. Dawkins is frequently dismissed as a bully, but he is only putting theological doctrines to the same kind of scrutiny that any scientific theory must withstand. No one who has witnessed the merciless dissection of a new paper in physics would describe the atmosphere as overly polite.

 

[Anamnesis]

Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno. Review found on B&N.com.

Brian Oswald is an oddly endearing, conflicted Chicago high school student, obsessed with hard rock and his best friend, a pink-haired punk named Gretchen. Brian frets over his attraction to Gretchen; after all, she's overweight, belligerent, and prone to fistfights. Like all teenagers, Brian struggles with his identity. A bit of an outcast, he uses this condition to assess the social options available to him at his parochial school. Quiet, introspective Brian identifies best with the punks, even if he doesn't quite join their ranks. But his emotional honesty allows him to see clearly behind their arrogant posturing a very real anger and a true love of music: "When everything else was wrong, [the music] made it right."

Hairstyles of the Damned is a richly detailed, deeply evocative account of those painfully remembered teenage years -- a time of roller-coaster emotions, when nearly every insignificant slight feels like a body slam. Meno's prose pulls no punches. His language is raunchy, direct from the mouths of punks, and pungently recalls American adolescence in the '90s as a time so raw that readers will cringe at its veracity, fictional though his account may be. Meno's snapshot of the past is so achingly lucid, so compelling, and so alive, that readers will not only see it but will smell it, taste it, and feel it as well.

 

[Maizara]

Samira & Samir by Siba Shakib:

The extraordinary true story of a young Afghan girl following her heart in a man's world - a tale of love and courage, and of a remarkable woman who fights to find her own path in life.

When Samira is born her father is devastated. He needs a son to succeed him so, ashamed and feeling he has failed as a man, he decided to bring Samira up as a boy. And Samira becomes Samir...

 

[-Carlos-]

Carry Me Down by M. J. Hyland



Carry Me Down is an engrossing story that at its heart examines an adolescent’s difficulties navigating the world. John Egan is a misfit — a twelve-year-old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant — who diligently keeps track of the lies large and small that are told to him. John’s been able to detect lies for as long as he can remember; it’s a source of power but also great consternation for someone so young. With an obsession for the Guinness Book of World Records, a keenly inquisitive mind, and a kind of faith, John remains hopeful despite the unfavorable cards life deals him. John is like a tuning fork, sensitive to the vibrations within himself and the trouble that this creates for him and his family, and when his sanity reaches near collapse, a frightening family catastrophe threatens to destroy them. Carry Me Down is a restrained, emotionally taut, and sometimes oddly funny portrait whose drama drives toward, but narrowly averts, an unthinkable disaster.