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Two women from very different backgrounds meet, become friends, and somehow decide to open a restaurant. This is a story about friendship, and how it can grow between people who don't seem to have much in common, and it is a story about the value of doing somewhat audacious things. At its heart, though, it is the story about two women you'll wish you could meet, and a restaurant you'll wish you could visit.
This is the amazing story of the birth of a huge music festival in the deserts of Mali, the two men at the center of its creation, and what happens when radical Islam comes to Mali. If you've never heard Malian music, this book will probably make you want to listen to some. If you have, this book will probably make you appreciate it all the more. It may also make you rethink what one "ordinary" man can accomplish.
This well-written and fast-paced book takes the reader through the reign of King Richard II, which was filled with intrigue and conflict. It showcases the strength of the short ebook history- it is long enough to leave you feeling like you really learned something about this period of history, but short enough to avoid bogging down in the deep details.
Marlon is enjoying his afterlife spending Perpetual Sunday relaxing on Infinite Beach, when a glitch in the system spurs him to action and leads him to discover some important details about the beforelife that he'd forgotten. This book isn't the first to explore the idea of achieving an eternal afterlife by storing human consciousness in computers, but it is a well-executed story that adds some interesting aspects to the basic idea.
This is a quick-reading novella about a woman who is feeling taken for granted by her adult children, who are still living in their modest family home in Dublin. Binchy has a knack for capturing everyday life, and this book is no exception, which makes it an enjoyable read even though sometimes the story feels like more of a sketch than a fully formed story. When it is a sketch, it is at least a very good sketch!
The dystopic near term future imagined in this book is so believable it is a little bit scary, but the light-hearted and down to earth tone of the first person narration makes this a fun and engaging read nonetheless. Set in Toronto a few years after the consequences of ignoring global warming become obvious, the story follows Olive as her already rearranged world is rattled again when the somewhat authoritarian central city government wants her to turn her successful internet etiquette column into a state-sponsored radio show. Because the story is set in the future, I've categorized this as "sci fi," but the real focus of the story isn't the technology or even the entirely believable world the story builds: it is the characters and how they help each other- or don't. In that sense, the book really is an etiquette guide to the end times.
This is a thought-provoking look at the arbitrary nature of political borders, and the human toll they create. It does not delve into the policy implications of changing our current system, but instead makes a moral argument that we cannot ignore the suffering the system is causing. It is not a book that intends to give answers. It instead forces us to grapple with the morality of our current system, and encourages us to think about what other systems might be possible.
The plot of this charming novella sounds surreal when summarized: a somewhat unsuccessful American man whose mother always told him that his father was Tom Mix falls in love with the music of a Mexican band called Los Gatos Negros, and when he hears that they are in danger from the drug cartels, decides to head to Mexico to rescue them. Meanwhile, the head nun in a convent in a little Mexican town is struggling to deal with the departure of their priest, and the head of one of the drug cartels is longing to leave that all behind and live the life of an artist. All three characters converge in a small town not far from the US-Mexico border, and then things get really weird. But somehow, the characters and their decisions are believable, and the story not only works, but leaves you thinking.
This book is not easy to categorize, but in a way, that is part of its strength. It is about Cerro Rico, a silver mining mountain in Potosi, Bolivia, which has been mined since the time of the Conquistadors. The book looks at the mining operations and also at the tourism industry that has been developed to allow tourists to visit the mines and get a taste of the conditions under which the miners work. Zoellner weaves in a discussion of the larger phenomenon of "dark tourism" (visiting sites associated with death and/or suffering), as well. It is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book. There are no easy answers to the questions it raises, and Zoellner recognizes that and does not attempt to provide any, leaving the reader instead with questions to consider.
The plot of this story is fun, but the real charm is the lead character, who is well-drawn, believable, and downright delightful. Jade Yeo is an ambitious young writer, recently arrived from Malaysia, and working to make a life for herself in London. This is a romance story set in 1920s London, and like many romances, there is some sex- but if that is not your thing, you can easily skip that scene.
Working on one thing at a time, for as long as you need to or feel like it, is a luxury.
