Terrebonne hosting fundraising tournament
May 29, 2012
Cecile Brou Mongrue
May 31, 2012
THE BEGINNER’S GOODBYE
By Anne Tyler
Knopf $24.95
“The strangest thing about my wife’s return from the dead is how other people reacted.”
With that line, Anne Tyler opens her marvelous book with a smile that explodes into laughter and then into a poignant love story.
Aaron’s wife, Dolores, is killed when a tree falls on their house, leaving him totally despondent until, months later, she suddenly appears, only briefly the first time, and only on a few more occasions, but her appearances lift his spirits and restore his zest for life.
The book’s title comes from Aaron’s “vanity” press series of books for beginners, “Beginner’s Soups” and “Beginner’s Monthly Budgets,” as examples.
A PARTIAL HISTORY of LOST CAUSES
By Jennifer DuBois
The Dial Press $26
The Game of Chess is a metaphor for the confrontation between Russian Aleksandr Bezetov, the World Chess Champion, and American Irina Ellison, a 30-year-old English lecturer from Massachusetts. Irina, who is certain she will die of Huntington’s disease, as did her father, travels to Russia to find Aleksandr and question why he never answered her father’s letter asking how one proceeds when a game is obviously lost. Although she finds Aleksandr, he’s no longer interested in chess, but politics, and is running for president against Vladimir Putin. Talk about lost causes.
GUILTY WIVES
By James Patterson and David Ellis
Little, Brown $27.99
Patterson departs from his “Women’s Murder Club,” four gals who solve murders, and introduces us to four women who become known as the “Monte Carlo Murderers.” The four, Abbie Elliot and her three best friends, arrive in Monte Carlo for four days of unrestrained fun, festivities and fraternizing away from home and husbands, but the fun soon ends when they are charged as terrorists, found guilty of a sensational murder and sentenced to years in a horrendous French prison. Will they survive, and can they escape? This one will keep you guessing and quickly turning pages.
CALICO JOE
By John Grisham
Doubleday $24.95
Young baseball phenomenon, Joe Castle from Calico, Ark., was an instant sensation as rookie hitter for the Chicago Cubs, setting records by hitting three homeruns at his first three times at bat in the majors, and hitting safely in his first 19 games. Kids everywhere idolized him, especially Paul Tracey, whose father Warren is a hard drinking, hard-throwing pitcher for the Mets and a violent hitter at home. Envious of “Calico Joe,” as he becomes known, Warren deliberately aims a hard fastball at his head that not only shatters Joe’s career but destroys Warren’s life with wife and son, Paul. Grisham hits this one out of the park.
BASEBALL’S BEST SHORT STORIES
Edited by Paul D. Staudohar
Chicago Review Press $18.95 Paperback
Baseball’s Best Short Stories, 28 in all, offers sports fiction at its best. Beginning with Frank Deford’s fanciful follow-up to “Casey at the Bat,” imagining what happens after the mighty Casey strikes out, there follows Ring Lardner’s “Alibi Ike,” Damon Runyon’s “Baseball Hattie,” and more from James Thurber, Garrison Keillor and other observers of the game.
PIE IT FORWARD
By Gesine Bullock-Prado (Photos by Tina Rupp)
Stewart, Tabori & Chang $29.95
WARNING: Reading this book can cause severe craving for pies; every kind of pie, from Tort to Torte, and the genuinely American Apple Pie. The author suggests pies are suitable for every occasion, even weddings, and takes umbrage with those who disagree. Even cooks who’ve never baked anything will be sorely tempted to give one or more of these simple recipes a try.
– Raymond “Ray” Saadi is a longtime local radio station owner/operator who’s moved from broadcasting to books. Now retired, he has been writing book reviews for more than 12 years.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Anne Tyler has 19 published books to her credit. Despite her popularity, the Baltimore resident rarely grants face-to-face interviews or does book tours.
