There’s a lot going on in this book. Basically, Toru Okada has just quit his job in Tokyo and all kinds of strange people enter and leave his life while all kinds of strange things happen to him. To say more would give away some things. I finished this book, put it down, and told Continue Reading…
Wilhelmina “Willie” Upton has just returned to her hometown, having made something of a mess of her life while away at grad school in Stanford. Then her mom drops a bomb on her that has her scrambling through family history to solve a mystery. Maybe I’ve read too many books lately where the storyline goes Continue Reading…
Lucy Bergmann’s husband Thom, is a brilliant physicist who is searching for life on other planets in the near future. He is killed in the opening chapter of the book, and we’re led to believe that religious nuts who didn’t want his discoveries published might have been behind his death. A few years later, Lucy Continue Reading…
Oscar Wao is a loser. There’s really no kind way to put it. But it might not be entirely his fault. His family is from the Dominican Republic, where the evil dictator Trujillo held sway for an unbelievable amount of time. Oscar’s family fell into Trujillo’s bad graces way back in the day and they Continue Reading…
Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza fall in love when they’re very young. Ultimately, Fermina chooses to marry Juvenal Urbino, a wealthy, well-respected doctor from a good family. Florentino decides to wait for Dr. Urbino to die so he can renew his pursuit of Fermina. As he waits, he has 622 affairs. The best thing about Continue Reading…
Piscine Molitar Patel’s family owns a zoo in India. When they decide to immigrate to Canada, they sell all the animals, book them all on a cargo ship, and head off to deliver them en route to their new home. The ship promptly sinks and Pi is left alone in a lifeboat with some of Continue Reading…