Telegraph Avenue
by Michael Chabon
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Michael Chabon’s mastery of language alone is enough to recommend anything he writes. But the characters in Telegraph Avenue provide much more to enjoy. The story centers around two friends in Oakland, California who own a used record store that is “nearly the last of its kind.” Archy is black, Nat is Jewish, and their wives are also partners in a midwifery practice. All of them are beleaguered by cultural and economic realities that endanger their livelihoods, but they keep doing what they believe in. Meanwhile their children have their own troubles which are drawn sympathetically yet realistically. The neighborhood, customers, relatives, friends and enemies are portrayed with a warts-and-all detail that makes them very multi-dimensional, believable and relatable. The story unfolds at a deliberate pace but the humanness of the characters and the joy of Chabon’s writing will draw you in. For music buffs, there’s an extra nostalgic delight in vintage vinyl. Clarke Peters reads for Recorded Books in a rich, deep voice, delivering Chabon’s metaphors and dialogue with the power, humor and sly intelligence they deserve.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Fiction, Literary fiction
The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver
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Barbara Kingsolver reads her ambitious 2009 novel in a soft and expressive voice with deliberate pacing. The story unfolds over three decades in Mexico and the U.S., and each character has a particular voice within the author’s reading. It centers on the young man Harrison Shepherd whose parents (American father and Mexican mother) are marginal to the picture, and who keeps diaries in which he is a third-person narrator of his own life. Though he holds himself as a perpetual outsider, his life is in the middle of some serious action: as a teenager he gets a job as a plasterer and then a cook for Diego Rivera, living with the painter, his artist wife Frida Kahlo and the exiled Leon Trotsky for whom Shepherd does clerical work. Later, he moves to South Carolina on his own and becomes a successful novelist, until he is targeted by Joe McCarthy’s HUAC. The fictionalized descriptions of these larger-than-life figures and the historical events surrounding them are the focus of the novel, with the main character acting as quiet observer and chronicler, adding his own wry take on the proceedings. It’s an unusual device that creates an inside view of epic times through distant eyes that could be your own. Which is not to say there’s no emotion in it–there’s more than enough passion in the cast of characters, and plenty of historical context to arouse the reader’s.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Fiction, Historical fiction, Mexico
Wordy Shipmates
by Sarah Vowell
[Audiobook]
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A romp through Puritan history. Vowell, a commentator on NPR’s This American Life narrates this witty and sarcastic look at a small slice of Puritan history, intermixed with popular culture references. This quote from the book will give you a good sense of how she looks at history:
“I wish I didn’t understand why Hutchinson risks damming herself to exile and excommunication just for the thrill of shooting off her mouth,” writes Vowell. “But this here book is evidence that I have this confrontational, chatty bent myself.”
Includes music and quotes read by such luminaries as John Oliver from The Daily Show. 6 discs, 7 hours
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: History, Non-fiction
Nonviolent Communication
by Marshall Rosenberg
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Nonviolent communication, also known as compassionate communication, is a language of empathy, respect and connection. Dr. Rosenberg developed the program based on his long experience in conflict resolution. The underlying concept is that emotions are based on needs, and that seeking to understand your own and the other’s true needs and feelings leads to peaceful interactions where everyone is more likely to get their needs met. Appropriate on any scale, it’s been helpful to me so far in personal, professional and business relationships, and Rosenberg has used it to mediate and resolve conflicts between ethnic groups and governments throughout the world. It is a truly idealistic vision of how every one of us can create a more compassionate world through learning and applying caring communication.
Also available as a
book.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Communication, Non-fiction, Psychology
Farewell, my Subaru
by Doug Fine
[Audiobook, Book]
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A practical and funny memoir of an ex-suburbanite’s adventures creating a sustainable lifestyle in New Mexico, living “off the grid” with dairy goats, monsoons, and biofuels.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Memoir, Non-fiction
