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Sunday Reviews

Written on: July 26th, 2010 by: in Blog Posts

A thorough reading of this week’s New York Times Sunday Book Review section reveals the typical wealth of new and fascinating books, and the typical question- “which one to read first?” Some of the most interesting-looking are listed below, available from your local Delaware library. And remember, you can read back issues of the book review section, as well as hundreds of other newspapers and magazines, in our subscription resources- click this link and enter your library card number and PIN.

• Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selena Hastings is a vivid portrait of a cruel and secretive writer, “a strong case against Maugham the man,” as the reviewer writes and a very readable account of his erotic and artistic accomplishments.
• Howard Norman’s What is Left the Daughter is “a novel about the illogic of love and the violent chaos it leaves in its wake.”
• The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman is the (Jane) Austen-influenced yet “thoroughly modern” story of two sisters.
• Lily King’s Father of the Rain is the newest work from a “beautiful writer, with equally strong gifts for dialogue and internal monologue,” which explores the tempestuous relationship between a daughter and her father.
• Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz is a “smart and lively” examination of why we make mistakes and why we don’t know when we are making them.
• Finally, The Great Oom by Robert Love is one of a couple of books reviewed in this weeks paper about the early, strange history of Yoga in America, form its earliest demonizing as “soul-destroying poison of the East” to eventual acceptance in Hollywood and beyond.