-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor
Booklovers
- mark your calendars for the impending arrival of the first novel by a
masterful storyteller! Cutting For Stone by
Abraham Verghese will be published in the USA by Knopf in February 3, 2009 and in the UK by Chatto & Windus in April.
I was fortunate to be given a copy of Cutting For Stone last month and gorged myself on all 534
pages in less than two days. Since then, I have passed my copy on to two friends (a
difficult feat as it took some wrestling to separate the book from the
first friend in order to pass it to the second!)
Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor
At this time of year, 'best of year' lists start popping up all over the place. Any number of products that can be measured against easily defined and relatively objective criteria lend themselves comfortably to 'best in class' lists. Considering this, it's somewhat ironic that more 'best of year lists' are devoted to books than any other product that I can think of - ironic because it's difficult to imagine a more subjective topic than what defines a good book. Added to which, while it's quite possible for one person to test every toaster on the market, it's impossible for even the most prolific of readers to read more than a tiny fraction of the books published in a year - so are any of us in a position to opine on which are the best?
Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor
Our household is one of many pets - the dog, the hamster, a dozen or so fish, and an indeterminate number of worms.
The worms moved up the familial totem pole from organic waste disposal unit & free mulch-makers to family pets a couple of years back when husband refused to give up a handful for fishing purposes, claiming that worms were friends not food. With his close affection for our invertebrate friends it was a sad day last week when we lifted the lid of the worm bin to deposit a bowl of potato peelings, to find that the worms were no more - the delicate balance of moisture needed to keep them in health and happiness (wet enough to keep them slithering but not so wet that they drown) had gone awry and the whole bunch had shuffled off their mortal coils.
Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor
A few weeks ago a copy of
What You Should Know About Politics But Don't: A Nonpartisan Guide to
the Issues by Jessamyn Conrad turned up in the mail from Arcade Publishing.
In 13 snappy chapters Conrad covers it all. I read a chapter a day (give or
take) and at the end of the first week I was a whiz on Elections, the Economy,
Foreign Policy and the Military, not to mention Health Care, Energy and the Environment. By the end of the second week I'd got my head around Civil Liberties, the Culture Wars, Socioeconomic Policies, Homeland Security, Education and Trade.
Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor
Looking for a dose of intelligent escapism to get you through the
financial crisis and election woes? Look no further than
The Heretic Queen, Michelle Moran's second novel following
Nefertiti.
Set in the 13th century BC, The Heretic Queen tells the rip-roaring story of the life of
Nefertari, wife to Ramesses II, who is remembered as one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs and, possibly, its longest reigning (an estimated 66 years, two years longer than Queen Victoria).
The Heretic Queen is the sort of book you can stay up late reading but not regret in the morning, it's a fun, fast read but also a very good and informative one - bringing to life a time and place that maybe more than 3000 years in the past but isn't really all that different to today. Fashions come and go, wars are won and lost, people starve while others live in splendor and so on.
