The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

The story of a British woman, Claire, who marries a dull British government man who gets a position in post-war Hong Kong. She takes on a job as a piano teacher to a very wealthy Chinese family, the Chens. She gets entangled in the mystery and drama revolving around the Chens and their driver, Will. The story goes back and forth between the past and present (present in the book is early 1950's).

Very entertaining.

Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

This is actually a collection of related short stories, written from the point of view of a teacher. I read the first two right after seeing the movie, "The Class" and it was quite fitting. Teachers should ALL read these first two stories.
A very talented writer.

The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant

This book captivated me from the start. The way she develops the plot and story line, pull the reader in from the first chapter. The beginning takes place in the present, when Vivien meets her dead uncle's former girlfriend and fiance and there's an iciness and story to be told. The reader senses the tension between the two and wants to learn the story.
The author then goes back to tell Vivien's (and her family's story). Her own folks tell her nothing of their past - they only poison her with stories of her evil uncle. Her parents really don't live. They exist. They feel so fortunate to have escaped thier native Hungary and to find "shelter" in London that they turn their back on the past and don't share it with their daughter. She has a thirst for knowledge, for the truth, for an identity and she learns all of this from her uncle Sandor.
She was told he was an evil and bad man, but in truth, he was just a survivor and a person who wants to live, savor life and is not the bad slum landlord he was made out to be (and served in prison for his crimes).
People choose different outfits to change them on the outside. Here's a great quote from the book:

"The clothes you wear are a metamorphosis. They change you from the outside in. We are all trapped with these thick calves or pendulous breasts, our sunken chests, our dropping jowls. A million imperfections mar us. There are deep flaws we are not at liberty to do anything about except under the surgeon's knife. So the most you can do is put on a new dress, a different tie. We are foreven turning into someone else, and shoud never forget that someone else is always looking."

Reading Short Stories

For quite a while I have resisted reading short stories. Not sure why. I guess I like the experience of a novel....the build up of plot, the thrill of getting to the climax, and to reaching the finish.
Well, with the advent of a favorite author, Jumpha Lahiri, coming out with a critically acclaimed collection of short stories, I am now a convert. I've read about half of them so far, but can combine that with another novel...which provides a very rich reading experience.
So, right now I am reading "Unaccustomed Earth" by Lahiri and "The Clothes on their Backs" by Linda Grant. Love them both!

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

This is an amazing book. A difficult topic - losing a child - but written with such beauty and sensitivity. There are so many deep and thoughtful passages about memory, about how the mind works, and how we see. The protagonist is a photographer and the author brings the theme of photography into the mix with such relevance to the story. there were passages that I wanted to read over and over again.
"We take pictures because we can't accept that everything passes, we can't accept that the repetition of a moment is an impossibility. We wage monotonous war against our own impending deaths, against time that turns children into that other lesser species: adults. We take pictures because we know we will forget. We will forget the week, the day, the hour. We will forget when we were happiest. We take pictures out of pride, a desire to have the best of ourselves preserved. We fear hat we will die and others will not know that we lived."
This is just one passage dealing with how photography reflects life.
The book seemed a little long because I wanted SO much to know the outcome. Will she find Emma? But the fact that it went on so long was just the point that the author was making. When something like this happens, every day must seem like an eternity. I kept thinking....she will find Emma, or else the book would have been 100 pages shorter. But then I would think.....NO, she will NOT find Emma and that IS the point. Every day there is the same pain, but different feelings. She is capturing this so realistically.
Anyway, I am not giving away the end. It is worth reading this book. I LOVE the author's website too. Here is a link:
http://michellerichmond.com/

The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III

Interesting premise.... Takes place in the days prior to 9/11 and has many characters whose lives are touched in strange ways. The stripper who "entertains" one of the hijackers in Florida before the hijackings - true situation, I hear. And all of the other people who are involved with her. Her daughter, Franny, who she takes to the strip club that night because the babysitter is hospitalized with a panic attack (that is interesting, in retrospect!) AJ, the client who is thrown out of the club for touching one of the strippers and who finds the crying child and takes her away from that den of iniquity, saving her from a rotten mother. His wife, Deena, his mother, who was raped in a hotel room, where she is employed as one of the cleaning staff.
A whole motley crew of characters, not sympathetic when you consider them and their lives, what they do, how they act, etc. but Dubus manages to make them all human and nearly likeable, or at least gives us a glimpse into their heads, into their motives for what they do, their dreams, ideals, etc.
A lot like his other book "House of Sand and Fog," which I liked a lot better
But this was good and thought provoking and exciting. Glad that I read it.

Goldengrove by Francine Prose

Prose....what a perfect name for this author. The writing is impeccable. I loved this book about a family of four, who becomes a family of three when the oldest daughter dies tragically after diving into a lake and never resurfacing. Seems she had a heart ailment that went untreated. How the family copes with this tragedy is a beautiful journey - mostly told through the eyes of the younger daughter, Nico, who gets involved with her sister's boyfriend after the tragic death. Very well written and subtle story with a truly beautiful ending. Read each word.