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Suggestions: November 2006 Book of the Month

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Ice

Ice

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Up to ten titles will be voted on. Suggestions to close September 22nd.

Please post a short description of the book along with the link to the page :)
 
My suggestion is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. Information found on barnesandnoble.com:

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder.
In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"-the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
Translated by John E. Woods
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Here's a link to the site:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780375725845&itm=1
 
Voyageurs by Margaret Elphinstone

In the early 1800s, Rachel Greenhow, a young Quaker, goes missing in the Canadian wilderness. Unable to accept the disappearance, her brother Mark leaves his farm in England, determined to bring his sister home.

What follows is a gripping account of Mark's odyssey and his travels with the `voyageurs' - the men who canoe Canada's fur-trade route.

As adventure and discovery propel the plot forward, Elphinstone takes the reader back in time and intertwines the story with enduring themes of love, war and family ties.

Website:
http://www.margaretelphinstone.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/0994?opendocument&part=4
 
The Human Stain by Philip Roth

Publishers Weekly said:
Roth almost never fails to surprise. After a clunky beginning, in which crusty Nathan Zuckerman is carrying on about the orgy of sanctimoniousness surrounding Clinton's Monica misadventures, his new novel settles into what would seem to be patented Roth territory. Coleman Silk, at 71 a distinguished professor at a small New England college, has been harried from his position because of what has been perceived as a racist slur. His life is ruined: his wife succumbs under the strain, his friends are forsaking him, and he is reduced to an affair with 34-year-old Faunia Farley, the somber and illiterate janitor at the college. It is at this point that Zuckerman, Roth's novelist alter ego, gets to know and like Silk and to begin to see something of the personal and sexual liberation wrought in him by the unlikely affair with Faunia. It is also the point at which Faunia's estranged husband Les Farley, a Vietnam vet disabled by stress, drugs and drink, begins to take an interest in the relationship. So far this is highly intelligent, literate entertainment, with a rising tension. Will Les do something violent? Will Delphine Roux, the young French professor Silk had hired, who has come to hate him, escalate the college's campaign against him? Yes, but she now wants to make something of his Faunia relationship too. Then, in a dazzling coup, Roth turns all expectations on their heads, and begins to show Silk in a new and astounding light, as someone who has lived a huge lie all his life, making the fuss over his alleged racism even more surreal. The book continues to unfold layer after layer of meaning. There is a tragedy, as foretold, and an exquisitely imagined ending in which Zuckerman himself comes to feel both threatened and a threat. Roth is working here at the peak of his imaginative skills, creating many scenes at once sharply observed and moving: Faunia's affinity for the self-contained remoteness of crows, Farley's profane longing for a cessation to the tumult in his head, Zuckerman delightedly dancing with Silk to the big band tunes of their youth. He even brings off virtuoso passages that are superfluous but highly impressive, like his dissection of the French professor's lonely anguish in the States. This is a fitting capstone to the trilogy that includes American Pastoral and I Married a Communist--a book more balanced and humane than either, and bound, because of its explosive theme, to be widely discussed.
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I'll suggest Stephen King's new one Lisey's Story that comes out October 24th.

Here's the AMAZON.COM LINK you should definately check out, it shows a review by Nora Roberts and a brief description.
 
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

Arrowsmith, the most widely read of Sinclair Lewis's novels, is the dramatic portrayal of a man passionately devoted to science. As a bright, lonely boy in a small Midwestern town, Martin Arrowsmith spends his free time in old Doc Vickerson's office avidly devouring medical texts. Destined to become a physician and a researcher, he discovers that societal forces of ignorance, corruption, and greed can be life-threatening obstacles. But he perseveres in his pursuit of scientific truth—even in the face of personal tragedy.

Based on a spiritual ideal, Arrowsmith is the story of a visionary, a man of great energy and purpose, courage, dedication, who never loses hope. Lewis's Pulitzer prize-winning novel illuminates the mystery and power of the medical profession while giving enduring dramatic life to a singular American hero's impassioned struggle for integrity and intellectual freedom.

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I've just finished reading, and was deeply moved by my vote. I now value it's presence in my library...

'Not without my daughter'
- Betty Mahmoody

Betty Lover met the perfect "dark stranger" in a Michigan hospital. Her Iranian therapist, Dr. Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody, became her husband and the father of their daughter, Mahtob. Despite the vicissitudes of the Iran-U.S. hostage crisis, Betty and he flourished until their summer "vacation" in Iran in 1984. The next year and a half were a nightmare. Betty and Mahtob, held hostage by Mahmoody and his family, were subjected to Islamic fundamentalism, Persian nationalistic fanaticism, and a life of squalor. This compelling tale of their terror and escape from Iran is recommended for most libraries.
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