Peter Taylor “The Old Forest and Other Stories”

From the Grand Master of the American short story, these fourteen tales of domestic life in the South during the thirties and forties explore that extraordinary world of manners, expectations, and unspoken understandings. The reader is drawn as if by magnetic force into a world rendered in breathtaking, painterly detail. These stories are marvelous entertainments, rich with amusement, yet Taylor renders his characters truly and understands them in a profoundly meaningful way.    

Thomas

Boris Akunin "Turkish Gambit"

The Russo-Turkish war is at a critical juncture, and Erast Fandorin, broken-hearted and disillusioned has gone to the front in an attempt to forget his sorrows. Captured by the Turks, he wins his freedom in a game of backgammon, before finding himself the unlikely rescuer of Varvara Suvorova – a ’progressive’ Russian woman trying to make her way to the Russian headquarters to join her fiancé.

Fandorin’s efforts to steer clear of affairs of state are thwarted when a traitor is discovered in the Russian camp. Within days, Varvara’s fiancé has been accused of treason, a Turkish victory looms on the horizon, and there are rumours that one of Lady Astair’s Azazel orphans may be making his own bid for power.

Our reluctant gentleman sleuth will need to resurrect all of his dormant powers of detection if he is to unmask the traitor, help the Russians to victory and smooth the path of young love in the third sparkling page-turner from Boris Akunin.

Alex  

Philip Roth “American Pastoral”

Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century’s promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth’s protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father’s glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede’s beautiful American luck deserts him. For Swede’s adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager – a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth’s masterpiece.

Alex         

Book trailer Jack London "The Call of the Wild"

J. Fenimore Cooper “The Last of the Mohicans”

Skirmishes, captures, flights and rescues are only some of the ingredients in this classic tale of bloody conflict between the British and the French in the forests of North America. The story also tells of the cynical exploitation of the native tribes by the two protagonists, setting Indian against Indian, Mohican against Huron. However, there is one honorable European, Natty Bumppo, the loyal and courageous woodsman, who prefers the simple code of natural law to the machinations of the white man. Together with Uncas, the last of the Mohicans, he helps to thwart the efforts of Magua, the sinister Huron, who is intent on preventing Alice and Cora Munro from joining their father, the British commander of Fort William Henry. Oleg

Amy Tan “The Joy Luck Club”

“The Joy Luck Club” was published in 1989. A novel by Amy Tan tells the stories of four sets of mothers and daughters. The mothers were all born in China and the daughters all born in America. Each of the four Chinese women has her own view of the world based on her experiences in China and wants to share that vision with her daughter. The four families are connected through the Joy Luck Club that meets each week. After its founding member passes away, her daughter is asked to take her place at the table and the stories begin. This book tells about women’s hopes, fears, and tragic pasts of mothers and is focused on numerous universal themes, such as family, hope, love, sacrifice and wishes for a better life.
Enjoy a good book and learn more about Chinese culture.
Lena

Lewis Carroll “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass”

“I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole … without the least idea what was to happen afterwards,” wrote Lewis Carroll, describing how Alice was conjured up one “golden afternoon” in 1862 to entertain his child-friend Alice Liddell. His dream worlds of nonsensical Wonderland and the back-to-front Looking-Glass kingdom depict order turned upside-down: a baby turns into a pig, time is abandoned at a disordered tea-party and a chaotic game of chess makes a seven-year-old girl a Queen. But amongst the anarchic humor and sparkling word play, puzzles and riddles, are poignant moments of nostalgia for lost childhood. Original and experimental, the Alice book is recommended for reading because it gives readers a window on both child and adult worlds.
Vasya

Bob Shacochis “Easy in the Islands”

In l985, Bob Shacochis won the American Book Award for his first fiction ”Easy in the Islands”, a collection of tales about life in the Caribbean. Shacochis traveled in the Caribbean and worked there as a member of the Peace Corps. Among the stories are "Dead Reckoning," which describes a storm at sea, and “Easy in the islands”, in which a hotel manager copes with declining business while storing a corpse in a refrigerator…
“Easy in the Islands” is a collection of nine short stories. All stories are fun and interesting. Much of it is brilliant.
Ann

Esmond Wright “Benjamin Franklin. His life as he wrote it”.

Esmond Wright, Professor of History, gives us a good look into the life of Franklin. We see him as a printer, author, businessman, philosopher, politician, diplomat, scientist and a patriot who was a major force in winning his country's independence and securing its life in the Constitution. Born poor in Boston, he died wealthy and esteemed. This book portrays Franklin, "the most modern-minded" of the Founding Fathers, as a cool, charming, stylish, inquisitive figure.
This book was enlightening. I recommend it.
Olga

Book Trailer Astrid Lindgren “Karlsson-on-the-Roof”