Monthly Archives: December 2019

Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer

27 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, Non-fiction

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If you can accept that there are no maps. no pictures, and 19-year-old Brit “wit/slang” descriptions, you are in for a reading experience (much like Wild and Educated and  A House in the Sky) where a courageous woman takes on big risk, totally unprepared, and out of sheer determination manages to win the 1,000 kilometer horse race (riding 25 horses) in Mongolia.  Fascinating read!

“An inspirational tale of struggle―dehydration, injury and isolation―ultimately overcome through grit and sheer willpower.” ―Thomas Gebremedhin, Wall Street Journal Magazine,

“First-time author Prior-Palmer transforms from hopeless 19-year-old underdog into surprising champion of the grueling 2013 Mongol Derby in this exhilarating, visceral account of her attempt to win a 1,000-kilometer horse race across the Mongolian countryside . . . Filled with soulful self-reflection and race detail, this fast-paced page-turner is a thrill ride from start to finish.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Excellent prose and rigorous honesty . . . An unusual pleasure to read . . . Prior-Palmer writes with a dash and boldness few writers possess; her language seems sui generis . . . Her narrative alchemy is remarkable; in every chapter, she turns boredom to suspense and back again. The Derby is at once heart-stoppingly close and a miserable slog to which we already know the ending. That shifting―heroism to comedy, glamour to stinking holes in the ground―creates a tension far more interesting than the question of who’s going to win the race, or how.” ―Lily Meyer, NPR

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Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

16 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Moving, intimate, and beautifully written –  a novel that at once reminds us that the most peaceful and ordinary lives can be utterly upended in unimaginable ways. Travel  beneath today’s news headlines with this couple. Their journey is unforgettable.

“Nuri’s story rings with authenticity, from the vast, impersonal cruelties of war to the tiny kindnesses that help people survive it. . . . A well-crafted structure and a troubled but engaging narrator power this moving story of Syrian refugees.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 “A haunting and resonant story of Syrian war refugees undertaking a treacherous journey . . . Readers will find this deeply affecting for both its psychological intensity and emotional acuity.”—Publishers Weekly

“Great for book club…Christy Lefteri, who volunteered at a refugee center in Athens, tells a powerful story about the refugee experience, hope, and love.” —Real Simple

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Travel Light, Move fast by Alexandra Fuller

10 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Biography, memoir, Non-fiction

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This is her 4th memoir about her eccentric English family growing up in Africa.  I recommend all the earlier ones: Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, and Leaving Before the Rains Come.  This one is her good-by to her father.  Try them all.  Gutsy, humorous, not a bit sentimental.

“Travel Light, Move Fast is a sensitive, meticulously wrought portrait of one family’s sometimes-challenging dynamics, set against an unforgiving African backdrop. Fuller’s beautiful prose juxtaposes the grieving process with the lessons she learned from the man whose adventures shaped her.” —BookPage

“[Fuller’s] family remains endlessly fascinating and delightful companions for long-time readers and new ones alike. . . A gorgeously written tribute to a life well lived and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable loss and grief.” —  Booklist, starred review

“[Fuller] sifted through a lifetime of memories in order to pen this celebration of the man whose profound influence helped shape her own worldview. [She]writes gracefully about embracing grief as an indelible part of the human experience. Another elegant memoir from a talented storyteller.” — Kirkus Reviews

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The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

02 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, United States

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Number one New York Times best seller

Oprah’s Book Club Pick

From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom.

“The most surprising thing about The Water Dancer may be its unambiguous narrative ambition. This isn’t a typical first novel. . . . The Water Dancer is a jeroboam of a book, a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler. . . . It is flecked with forms of wonder-working that push at the boundaries of what we still seem to be calling magical realism.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“An experience in taking [Toni] Morrison’s ‘chances for liberation’ literally: What if memory had the power to transport enslaved people to freedom?’ . . . The most moving part of The Water Dancer [is] the possibility it offers of an alternate history. . . The book’s most poignant and painful gift is the temporary fantasy that all the people who leaped off slave ships and into the Atlantic were not drowning themselves in terror and anguish, but going home.”—NPR

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