The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Location: Barnes & Noble Burlington

When: 06/13/2012 7:30pm

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa Lee

Location: Barnes &Noble

When: 04/18/2012 7:30pm

Serenad by Zulfu Livaneli

Location: Barnes & Noble

When: 2/08/2012 7:30pm

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Location: Barnes & Noble

When: 12/14/2011 7:30pm

One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Location: Barnes & Noble

When: 10/10/2011 7:30pm

6/15/reviews/marque-solitude.html

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Location: Barnes & Noble

When: 08/10/2011 7:30pm

Shiva and Marion Praise Stone come into the world as identical twins attached at the skull. Their father, a British surgeon living in Ethiopia, abandons them within moments of their birth, and their mother (a nun who kept her pregnancy secret from everyone) dies without holding them in her arms. The two brothers are raised in and around the hospital in which they are born. Called Missing. a misspelling of the intended name Mission, its name coincides with one of the major themes of the novel: missing people, missing fathers, missing clues, etc… Abraham Verghese’s sprawling family saga spans nearly fifty years and takes the readers from Ethiopia, to New York, to Boston, and back to the small village in Africa where the story first began.

Marion narrates the novel, taking the reader back to when his mother first makes her voyage to Africa as a young first novitiate of the Carmelite Order of Madras. While traveling there she meets Thomas Stone, a skilled British surgeon, and the first glimmerings of their love begin. In the first part of the book, the reader is introduced to Matron (Missing’s wise leader), Hema (a gynecologist who becomes the boys’ adoptive mother), Ghosh (a warm and caring doctor who imbues Marion with the desire to become a surgeon), Rosina (the boys’ nursemaid), and Genet (Rosina’s young daughter who steals Marion’s heart). Once the characters have been established, the novel moves forward building on the lives of the characters and pulling the reader into their stories.

Verghese’s debut novel is centered around the twins who although are physically identical, are very different people. Their connection as brothers is tested throughout the book, and although the reader sees their relationship through only the eyes of Marion, it is a compelling look at siblings, specifically twins.

He was the rake, and I the erstwhile virgin; he the genius who acquired knowledge effortlessly while I toiled in the night for the same mastery; he the famous fistula surgeon, and I just another trauma surgeon. Had we switched roles, it wouldn’t have mattered one bit to the universe. – from Cutting for Stone -

http://www.caribousmom.com/2010/08/08/cutting-for-stone-book-review/

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Location:Barnes & Noble

When:06/08/2011 7:30pm

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Kathryn Stockett’s phenomenal debut novel The Help, set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, is told from the perspectives of three very different women. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is fresh out of college and back at her parents’ home in Jackson, Mississippi. Her dream is to become a writer. Her mother’s dream is for her to find a well-to-do Southern boy from a good family with a healthy trust fund and get married. Bored with her friends and frustrated by the way they talk to and about their maids—the help—Skeeter dreams up an idea that could change life in Jackson for the better, but it is quite a dangerous proposition.

Aibileen Clark is a fifty-something black woman who works as a maid for Elizabeth Leefolt, one of Skeeter’s close friends. Aibileen has spent her life raising other people’s children and is still mourning her son Treelore, who died in a horrible accident three years ago. Aibileen is stoic and strong, and she knows her place, but she understands what the ladies she works for are really all about. More

http://www.thebookladysblog.com/2009/02/09/book-review-the-help-by-kathryn-stockett/

Siirler

Location: Ruhan's

When: 4/13/2011 7:30pm

Sectigimiz sair/sairler hakkinda biraz bilgi toparlayip paylasagiz ve begendigimiz, okumak istedigimiz siirlerini okuyacagiz.

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra.

Location: Barnes and Noble

When: 02/09/2011 7:30pm

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Eastern philosophy popularizer and mind-body pioneer Chopra has done novels before, and critics have not found fiction his long suit. That should change with this tale of how the Indian prince Siddhartha came to be the enlightened one, the Buddha. The subject is tailor-made for Chopra. He can draw on what he's familiar with: the ancient Indian culture that shaped the historic personage of the Buddha, and the powers of mind that meditation harnesses. Although the novel begins a little slowly with exposition and character introduction, once the character of the Buddha is old enough to occupy center stage, Chopra simply portrays the natural internal conflict experienced by any human seeking spiritual wisdom and transformation. Centered on a single character, the narrative moves forward simply and inexorably. Especially imaginative and intriguing is the low-key nature of the Buddha's enlightenment experience. In case Chopra's fans want something more direct, an epilogue and concluding "practical guide" offer nonfiction commentary and teaching on core Buddhist principles. Chopra thanks a film director friend for sparking the project, and the novel has clear cinematic potential. This fast and easy-to-read book teaches without being didactic. Chopra scores a fiction winner. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Chopra is best known for his spiritual how-to books. Here, he turns to fiction (though he adds a how-to epilogue), writing about the life of Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha. Chopra divides his book into three parts. The first chronicles the youth of a motherless boy who has a destiny: to be a spiritual leader as foretold by astronomers at his birth. But his powerful father refuses to bow to fate and keeps his son isolated from the world. In the second part, Siddhartha, now a husband and father, sees suffering and decides to leave his life of leisure and become a monk. Despite extreme asceticism and a duel with a demon, enlightenment eludes him. In the final section, Siddhartha sees the error of trying to defeat his body and, in one night, achieves enlightenment and becomes the Buddha. The Buddha's story is compelling, and though Chopra's writing can be overly dramatic and his language flowery, he captures the essence of the spiritual seeker, sometimes shockingly single-minded in the pursuit of illumination. When the novel ends, the explanations begin, with Chopra providing a Q and A about the tenets of Buddhism. Many will find his "answers" as enigmatic as they are enlightening. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Benim Adim Kirmizi/My name is Red

Location: Barnes and Noble

When: Tuesday December 7, 2010, 7:30pm

Benim Adim Kirmizi/My name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Acclaimed Turkish novelist Pamuk offers this fascinating murder mystery set against the backdrop of 16th-century Istanbul. The story surrounds a sultan who commissions a book to celebrate his life and times, as well as a set of talented artists hired to recreate the work in the European style. But when one of the artists disappears, the answer to his whereabouts seems to lie in the images themselves. British narrator John Lee reads with a classical tone, drawing on his theatrical experience to create a rousing, epic, but personal reading sure to appeal to a wide range of listeners. Lee reads with such inherent skill that his words seem to be coming straight from memory, recreating Pamuk's ancient world in colorful clarity. A Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 6).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Library Journal

In 16th-century Istanbul, master miniaturist and illuminator of books Enishte Effendi is commissioned to illustrate a book celebrating the sultan. Soon he lies dead at the bottom of a well, and how he got there is the crux of this novel. A number of narrators give testimony to what they know about the circumstances surrounding the murder. The stories accumulate and become more detailed as the novel progresses, giving the reader not only a nontraditional murder mystery but insight into the mores and customs of the time. In addition, this is both an examination of the way figurative art is viewed within Islam and a love story that demonstrates the tricky mechanics of marriage laws. Award-winning Turkish author Pamuk (The White Castle) creatively casts the novel with colorful characters (including such entities as a tree and a gold coin) and provides a palpable sense of atmosphere of the Ottoman Empire that history and literary fans will appreciate. Recommended. Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Location: Sibel's

When: Tuesday September 21, 2010, 7:30pm

Audrey Niffenegger throws you into a pretty perplexing scenario at the start of The Time Traveler's Wife. Here are a woman and a man meeting in a Chicago library, but while Clare clearly knows Henry and has done for ages, Henry doesn't have a clue who she is. This, we gradually understand, is because he has been travelling from his future to her past, and in that past they fell in love, so he hasn't yet met her in his own present. Somehow, that tangled mess of tenses sorts out on the page into a scene that is entirely comprehensible and rather charming.

Niffenegger goes on to exploit the possibilities of her fantasy scenario with immense skill: no wonder this first novel has spent weeks on the bestseller lists in the US. Her version of time travel lends itself to neat comedy - it is an uncontrollable condition, which means Henry can find himself sucked out of the present and thrown naked into another time and place at any moment.

For instance, when Clare and Henry finally get married, with all their family and friends in attendance, he is maddeningly whisked away just before the ceremony. But luckily, through one of the sweet coincidences that is a feature of Niffenegger's world, an older Henry falls through the years to take his place, and only the most observant of guests wonders about his suddenly grizzled appearance.

Even at such a carefully composed moment of comedy, Niffenegger keeps the pitch tuned not just to the mechanics of her magical world, but also to the emotions of the couple. This is what saves this novel from being just a childish joke: her ability to mesh the japes with a careful grounding in the dynamics of character and relationship. Take away the time travel, and you have a writer reminiscent of Anne Tyler and Carol Shields, who captures the rhythms of intimacy, who burrows into the particularities of family life. Because she builds this scaffolding of domesticity, what you remember is the realism as well as the fantasy, and through much of the book the time travel works to enhance the reality rather than take over from it.

When Clare first makes love with Henry she is 18, but he has travelled back in time, and in his present he is 41, has been married to her for years, and is finding their relationship going through a bad patch. After they make love, he is pulled back into his present with the thirtysomething Clare, who is waiting for him crossly: "Henry's been gone for almost 24 hours now, and as usual I'm torn between thinking obsessively about when and where he might be and being pissed at him for not being here... I hear Henry whistling as he comes up the path through the garden, into the studio. He stomps the snow off his boots and shrugs off his coat. He's looking marvellous, really happy. My heart is racing and I take a wild guess: 'May 24, 1989?' 'Yes, oh yes,' Henry scoops me up, and swings me around. Now I'm laughing; we're both laughing."

This scene epitomises the best thing about this book, which is the way Niffenegger uses time travel as a way of expressing the sense of slippage that you get in any relationship - that you could be living through a slightly different love story from the one your partner is experiencing. And she certainly weaves her plot well. This is one of those books that makes you want to eat it up from start to finish, eager to see how the twisted curves of time will be straightened out. But despite the way that I felt sucked through the novel, the book's limitations eventually begin to grate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jan/31/featuresreviews.guardianreview17

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee

Location: Sibel's

When: Monday May 24, 2010, 7:30pm

“That’s us, the British colonials, battling against our circum stances, always,” the formidable Edwina Storch says to Claire Pendleton over tea one sweltering afternoon. Most of the colony’s British residents are cultivating a lifestyle of potted palms and potted duck. But not 28-year-old Claire. While her compatriots wilt and sweat, she glows. Hong Kong suits her. “Something about the tropical clime had ripened her appearance, brought everything into harmony.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/books/review/Fugard-t.html

Alamut by Vladimir Bartol

Location: Alkim's

When: Thursday March 25, 2010, 7:30pm

Alamut is set at the end of the 11th century, and tells the story of the legendary Hasan ibn Sabbah's plan to conquer, utilising the first 'Assassins'. Ensconced in the practically impregnable Alamut fortress, the Ismaili leader does not have great armies at his disposal -- but he does have a plan.

The novel begins by focussing on two young individuals who are among the many cogs in Hasan's plan. Halima is a young girl who had been sold off in distant Bukhara and has now been transported to Alamut, not knowing what awaits her. The buyer promised her previous master that she: "would live like a princess", and she does find herself in a sort of paradise. There are many other girls and women there -- and a few eunuchs to take care of their needs, and teach them -- and while there are a variety of lessons that fill much of the day, life there is almost idyllic. Even leopards and gazelles frolic together .... . But the girls aren't sure what they're being groomed for.
At about the same time as Halim arrives at Alamut a young man named Avani ibn Tahir also reaches it. He is an Ismaili whose grandfather was beheaded -- "the first martyr for our cause in Iran" -- and whose father has sent him to serve the Ismaili cause and avenge his grandfather's death. He is taken in and begins a rigorous training with a number of other young men to become fedayeen ("A feday is an Ismaili who's ready to sacrifice himself without hesitation at the order of the supreme commander").
Hasan remains far removed from most of the goings-on, helping add to the air of mystery about him. But he has grand ambitions:

He was the master of thirty armed fortresses. He was the commander of thousands of believers. He lacked only one tool to assume absolute power. To become feared by all potentates and foreign despots far and wide. That tool was the plan just now on the verge of being launched. A plan built on thorough knowledge of nature and human weakness. An insane and wild plan. A plan calculated in every respect.

He's embraced the idea that: "The truth is unknowable. Therefore we believe in nothing and have no limits on what we can do." But that doesn't stop him from using the teachings and the lore of Islam to get his way. His followers believe: "He's the prophet", first after Allah himself -- and so if he says it's okay for the girls to have some wine then they can enjoy some wine. http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/slovenia/bartolv.htm

The Fourty Rules of Love by Elif Safak

Location: Beliz's
When: Thursday, Januray 14, 2010 7:30PM

The Forty Rules of Love is the follow-up novel to Turkish author Elif Shafak's 2007 novel,The Bastard of Istanbul. Ella Rubinstein is forty years old, the mother of three, and she is stuck in a rut. She remains married to her husband, David, and stays in the marriage although she suspects her husband of cheating on her numerous times. Her life is one of ease and financial security, but it lacks passion. Determined to re-enter the work force after taking a break to raise her children, Ella takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. The first book that she is given to read and summarize is Sweet Blasphemy, a novel that tells the story of how the great poet Rumi met Shams of Tabriz, the man who changed Rumi's path in life forever. As Ella reads this novel she begins an intimate correspondence with Aziz Zahara, the author of the novel, because she has found something in Aziz's words that is desperately missing from her own life.

Shafak has chosen to write the book using parallel narratives, a daring choice that pays off in her case. One narrative is that of Ella, and we join her as she experiences discontent in her own life, highlighted as she reads the story that the literary agency has assigned to her. The other narrative tells the story of Shams of Tabriz, the whirling dervish who enters the great Rumi's life and impacts it greatly. Although this potentially could have been confusing, it is not, as Shafak writes with such grace that we are clear on whose story she is telling, and how that story relates to the other one.http://book-chic.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-forty-rules-of-love-by-elif.html

Wish Club by Kim Strickland

Wish Club by Kim Strickland

Location: Dilhan's
When: Thursday, December 3, 2009 7:30PM

tella Cameron gets back to romance basics in The Wish Club and it works well for her and for her readers. There's an honest, fresh quality to this story that I found missing from the author's last couple of books. Although the plot of this book is simple and familiar, two people from very different backgrounds fall in love, the story line is insightful and the character development of the hero is very good. The Wish Club includes — what has come to be obligatory in books by Cameron — some kinky sex between the villains, but not much. The author has a good story and doesn't need the filler.

Because of the kindness of a good man, ten-year-old Max and his sister were rescued from the streets of London. Straun Rossmara, Viscount Hunsingore, not only rescued the two illegitimate and unwanted children, he adopted them and gave them his name. Max Rossmara grew up adoring his father, his family and the daughter of a tenant farmer on his uncle's estate in Scotland, Kristy Mercer....http://www.theromancereader.com/cameron-wish.html

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You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation

Location: Barnes and Noble98 Middlesex ParkwayBurlington, MA 01803 US
When: Thursday, October 29, 7:30PM


Have you ever had a conversation with someone of the opposite sex that seemed like you were operating on different wavelengths, or that the conversation you thought you were having was interpreted completely differently by the other party? Dr. Tannen argues that it's not in your head: women and men in conversation is much closer to cross-cultural communication than we might imagine. She then goes on to enumerate the many ways that miscommunication arises based on the different ways we tend to speak and interpret conversations: through the lens of status (men) or connection (women).Dr. Tannen's research, including transcripts of conversations from studies of boys, girls, men, and women of various ages and anecdotal evidence from real conversations persuasively makes the case for the status and connection at work in every conversation. I appreciated that the author never makes a moral judgment about the way one or the other interprets the conversation. She merely explains what's going on from each point of view, giving each party the language to express what they're trying to do or say. I recognized many conversations as ones I have had with my brother, my father, and male friends. Some of the topics she touches on, such as high-involvement/high-considerate and direct/indirect ways of speaking are beneficial even in conversations with people of the same sex (for example, as a "high-involvement speaker" I can now explain to my family that I really do end a sentence with "and" waiting for someone to overlap my speech). Because she ties everything back to the original ideas of status and connection, her comments on conversations do become a bit repetitive after awhile. But her conversational style and clear presentation of a persuasive argument make this book worth reading.
(http://www.librarything.com/work/1345249)

Istanbullular by Buket Uzuner

Location: Serpil'in evi

When: 09/22/09 , 7:30PM


Yaz 2005. Yalnızlıklar ve imkânsız aşklar şehri İstanbul. Atatürk Havalimanı. Belgin, Ayhan ve diğerleri. Sonunda artık hiçbirinin eskisi gibi olmayacağı 4 saatlik serüven.İstanbullular romanı, Atatürk Havalimanı dış hatlar terminalinde, sevse de sevmese de hepsinin İstanbul' la gönül, iş, ekmek, yurt ve/veya kimlik bağları olan, 15 kişinin hayatla, kendileriyle, hiç beklenmedik büyük bir tehditle ve İstanbul' un kendisiyle yüzleşmelerinin hikâyesini anlatıyor.İstanbul'un kendisinin de bir anlatıcı- karakter olduğu roman, modernitenin ve şehrin sınırında; genetik bilimciden-gurbetçi işçiye, taksi şoförunden-ünlü bir heykeltıraşa, tuvalet temizlikçisinden-mimarlar odası eski başkanına kadar İstanbullu 15 kişinin yollarının kesiştiği bir ortamda, yüzyılımızın göçlerle genişlemiş İstanbul' undan, dolayısıyla Türkiye' sinden bir kesit sunuyor. Bir İstanbul romanının en olmazsa olmazı aşksa elbette baş köşede yer alıyor!13 yıl önce hayatını değiştiren trajik bir olayı İstanbul'la özdeşleştirerek şehri terk edip New York'a yerleşen Bebekli bilim kadını-akademisyen Belgin Gümüş'ün (41), orada bir sergi açılışında tanıştığı ünlü Türk heykeltıraş Ayhan Pozaner'e (38) aşık olur. Birlikte yeni bir hayat kurmak üzere İstanbul'a dönmekte olan Belgin hamiledir ve bebeği doğurma konusunda kararsızdır. İstanbul'a ve Ayhan'a olan aşkı, her türlü ihanetten çok çekmiş biri olarak onu ürkütmektedir.Aslen Adanalı pamuk işçisi bir çiftin yedinci çocuğu olarak doğan, müstehcen bulunduğu için sürekli parçalanan Maçka Parkı'ndaki heykellerini tekrar tekrar onarmasıyla tanınan heykeltıraş Ayhan Pozaner, kendi 'İstanbul Rüyası' nı gerçekleştirebilmiş ender bir 'İstanbullu'dur. Darüşafaka Lisesi ve Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar mezunu, 'kendi kendini yetiştirmiş' bir insan olan Ayhan, kendisinden yaşça büyük, kültürel/sınıfsal olarak farklı bir burjuva kızı olan Belgin'e sırılsıklam aşıktır ama tıpkı İstanbul'a duyduğu ürpertili hayranlık gibi bu aşktan da ürkmektedir.Aynı havalimanı çatısı altında pasaport kontrol çizgisinin iki yanında bekleyen Ayhan ve Belgin, aşktan ve İstanbul'dan korkarak, kararsız, tedirgin; özlemle ve suçlulukla yanarak, her an birbirlerinden, İstanbul' dan kaçmayı düşünmektedirler.Bu sırada dış hatlar terminalinde bir dijital arıza nedeniyle bütün uçuşların iptal edildiği ANONS edilir. Herkes bu ANONS'un bir bomba ihbarıyla ilgili olduğundan kuşkulanır ve ölüm endişesiyle iç hesaplaşmaya girer. Tuvalet temizlik işçisi varoşlu Hasret Sefertaş, pasaport polisi şoven Üzeyir Seferihisar, taksi şoförü İstanbullu Kürt Hamo Türk, Duty Free müdürü İstanbullu laik Yahudi Jak Sarfati, Moskova'dan dönen liberal işadamı Mehmet Emin Entek, onun genç sevgilisi ve asistanı Tijen Derya, türban yasağı nedeniyle Amerika'da üniversite eğitimi almaya giden türbanlı Aleynâ Gülsefer, Cannes'da bir festivale giden ünlü sinema yazarı İstanbullu Levanten Anna Maria Vernier, Fransa'da okuyan kızını
ziyaretten dönen Fransızca öğretmeni İstanbullu Ermeni Ayda Seferyan, yurtdışında yaşayan kızı ve torununu ziyaretten yaşadığı Büyükada'ya dönen emekli tarih öğretmeni Kemalist Ulviye Yeniçağ, Barcelona'daki bir mimarlık konferansında Türkiye'yi temsil eden İstanbullu aktivist, ünlü mimar Erol Argunsoy, onun genç sevgilisi havalimanı barmeni İ. Baturcan Uzunçay, Atina'ya göçmüş akrabalarını ziyarete giden Boğaziçi Üniversitesi çevre bilimci İstanbullu Rum Prof. Yannis Seferis, San Francisco'daki ailesini ziyarete giden İstanbullu turizmci Susan Constance Berlin'den tatile gelen Alevî işçi Sabriye Bektaş ve Belgin'i karşılamaya gelen dadısı, dert ortağı, eski besleme İstanbullu Kete...

...

http://www.buketuzuner.com/TR/kitaplar_romanlar_istanbullular.asp

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox

Location: Ruhan'in Evi
When: 6/26/09, 7:30PM

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox


Long before I discovered that Michael J. Fox had Parkinson's disease, I had already been an ardent fan and admirer. Growing up watching Family Ties and his movies, I was heavily influenced by his own distinct brand of dry wit and comedy. So when I found his first memoir, the number one bestseller Lucky Man (2003), I devoured the book in one sitting. It was a funny, witty and truly moving book.
His second book, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist isn't really a memoir. Although Mr. Fox peppers this book with some very funny anecdotes about his life experiences, it's really more of a collection of personal essays dealing with his views on four themes: work, faith, family and politics. These themes are spread out into four chapters.
Always Looking Up deals more with his battle with Parkinson's, picking up where Lucky Man left behind, but delves into more serious tones as he chronicles his battles with the disease. Luckily, the reader is spared from depressing narratives, and rightfully so, because the title does suggest optimism.
Michael J. Fox is a particularly gifted writer, though, as he states in the book, he has never finished high school or college, and one has to marvel at how articulate he can be.This in itself is testament to the man's unrelenting passion for continuous improvement, particularly so, given the crippling nature of Parkinson's.

...
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-always-looking-up-the/

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Location: Serra'nin Evi
When: Wednesday, April 29, 7:30PM

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Another delightful Binchyesque amalgamation of intersecting lives...The collective, charming effect of these story lines suggests that individuals are more connected than they might think." –Publishers Weekly"Only a curmudgeon could resist this master of cheerful, read-by-the-fire comfort." –Kirkus Reviews"Interweaving the domestic narratives of a dissimilar collection of individuals is beloved Binchy's stock-in-trade, and once again, she does so with sublime ease, inventively engaging readers through a reassuring and persuasive combination of gracious warmth, gentle humor, and genuine affection." –Carol Haggas, Booklist“Ambitious and intelligently conceived...A heart clinic is really the perfect metaphor for how this book feels. It's a warm and comfy world [and reading Heart and Soul is] not unlike getting a hug from your mother...Binchy's millions-strong readership...will not be disappointed.” –William Kowalski, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)"Oh, the bliss...Maeve's back, on top form...The heart is the theme, literally and metaphorically, and this is heartwarming stuff–sweet but never cloying." –The Times"[Maeve Binchy] knows how to fashion a minor drama into a crisis, and the book rattles along from one gripping story to another, leaving the reader with a satisfying glow...It does exactly what it says on the tin: gives heart and soul." –Daily Mail"[Heart and Soul] brings together the secret hopes and dreams of a disparate group of characters...with [Binchy's] trademark warmth and empathy." –Irish Sunday Independent"Maeve Binchy's latest novel is packed as usual with wonderful characters...Full of warmth, caring and commonsense." –CHOICE
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/parent-9780307265791/Heart-and-Soul-eBook.html

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

Event:Kitap Klubu Mart Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Alkim'in Evi
When:Thu, 03/12/09, 7:30PM

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

The new novel from Jill Smolinski ("Flip-Flopped") takes a trendy concept and spins it into a charming tale, albeit with a few holes. She creates yet another cookie-cutter chick-lit world, where the heroine, June, is a little witty and a little self-conscious and works at a job in which she is underappreciated. Then comes the whirlwind transformation that turns her world upside down and elicits positive change.
After a Weight Watchers meeting, June is in a car accident. Her passenger, a 24-year-old woman, dies. After soul-searching and a push from outside forces, June decides to finish the dead girl's list of "20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday."
From "eat ice cream in public" to "change a life," the items begin to make June into a better person. She sees the world around her differently and opens herself to new possibilities. The story is complicated by June's attraction to the dead girl's brother, a traffic reporter who can help her career, one in which women climb the corporate ladder if they look good in a tight skirt.
June's lack of self-esteem muddles the plot as everyone around her has to build her up to see what they see: an attractive and able career woman who can stand on her own feet. Also troubling is June's lack of emotion; Smolinski would have made the novel more interesting if she included the emotional turmoil of a woman trying to make amends after a fatal accident.
This is summer reading candy. The pages seem to turn themselves, but the story never quite reaches the emotional or adventurous pinnacle it strives to attain.

http://www.tbo.com/entertainment/books/MGBN8ZHR42F.html

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution

Event:Kitap Klubu Ocak Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Sibel Babacan
When:Wed, 02/4/09, 7:30PM

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution

Thomas L. Friedman's no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy—both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.
Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy—which he calls "Geo-Greenism"—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.
As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era—the Energy-Climate era—through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought 3 billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted "green revolution" has hardly begun. With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution—with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman—fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver

Event:Kitap Klubu Aralik Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Barnes and Noble
98 Middlesex Parkway, Burlington, MA
When:Wed, 12/17/08, 7:30PM

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is the true story of Mortenson's work building schools in remote villages in Pakistan. Mortenson moves from a lost climber who promises a school to one small village to a major player in promoting peace through education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His story is too crazy to be made up. Three Cups of Tea is good reading for anyone who wants to understand more about Central Asia and be inspired by what one humble person can do.
http://bestsellers.about.com/od/memoirs/gr/three_cups_tea.htm

Eat, Pray, Love Yazar by Elizabeth Gilbert

Event:Kitap Klubu Ekim Ayi Toplantisi
Location: Barnes and Noble
98 Middlesex Parkway, Burlington, MA
When:Tue, 10/28/08, 7:30PM

Eat, Pray, Love Yazar by Elizabeth Gilbert

Review by JENNIFER EGAN
Published: February 26, 2006
Early on in "Eat, Pray, Love," her travelogue of spiritual seeking, the novelist and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert gives a characteristically frank rundown of her traveling skills: tall and blond, she doesn't blend well physically in most places; she's lazy about research and prone to digestive woes. "But my one mighty travel talent is that I can make friends with anybody," she writes. "I can make friends with the dead. . . . If there isn't anyone else around to talk to, I could probably make friends with a four-foot-tall pile of Sheetrock." This is easy to believe. If a more likable writer than Gilbert is currently in print, I haven't found him or her. And I don't mean this as consolation prize, along the lines of: but she's really, really nice. I mean that Gilbert's prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in. Her previous work of nonfiction, "The Last American Man" (she's also the author of a fine story collection and a novel), was a portrait of a modern-day wilderness expert that became an evocative meditation on the American frontier, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002.
Here, Gilbert's subject is herself. Reeling from a contentious divorce, a volatile rebound romance and a bout of depression, she decided at 34 to spend a year traveling in Italy, India and Indonesia. "I wanted to explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well," she writes. "I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two." Her trip was financed by an advance on the book she already planned to write, and "Eat, Pray, Love" is the mixed result.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/books/review/26egan.html

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

Event:Kitap Klubu Eylul Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Barnes and Noble 98 Middlesex Parkway, Burlington, MA
When: Tue, 09/23/08, 7:30PM

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

The human memory can either be a blessing or a curse; a blessing because it allows you to hold onto moments in time that you cherish and a curse because it won't let you forget things you'd rather not remember. No matter how hard you try, once something has been observed and recorded by your brain it's stored there permanently unless you have that piece of your brain killed - and even that isn't foolproof because nobody's quite sure which parts of the brain do what. Memories thought isolated to one part of the mind can migrate of their own volition and show up again somewhere else completely unexpected and unwanted.
History is a recording of past events that sometimes has nothing to do with what actually happened, but unlike memories, history has a way of surviving unchallenged. Somehow because it is written down, or recorded officially, it is considered much more accurate than anything the human brain is capable of remembering. The fact that histories are sometimes written by people with vested interests in how they read and years after the events recounted took place doesn't seem to change anyone's opinion of their veracity. Only in the face of irrefutable evidence can history be re-written, and even then there will always be resistance.
All of us have a history; we were all born, we all were children, adolescents (a time a lot of would choose to forget if we could, I'm sure), young adults, and so on down the line until we die. As we age we formulate our own histories based on the memories we have of the days we've lived. Yet like any history there are points in time that are beyond the reach of our own memories, and we have to rely on what other people claim has happened.

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-bastard-of-istanbul/

Life's a Beach by Claire Cook

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: Tuesday, June 17, 7:30PM

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Sehnaz'in evi -Acton

Tartisilacak Kitap: Life's a Beach by Claire Cook

Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
By the bestselling author of Must Love Dogs, the story of two grown-up sisters who fight like cats andd dogs ��” but call each other at least twice a day.
When Must Love Dogs was published, the Chicago Tribune called it "pitch-perfect" and the Washington Post declared, "Readers will hope that Claire Cook will be telling breezy summer stories from the South Shore of Massachusetts for seasons to come." Luckily for her legions of fans, Cook returns with another sparkling romantic comedy that's reminiscent of Must Love Dogs in all the right ways, but very much its own animal — about a relationship-challenged single woman, her quirky-to-put-it-mildly extended family, and the summer the shark movie came to town.
Life's a bit of a beach these days for Ginger Walsh, who's single at forty-one and living back home in the family FROG (Finished Room Over Garage). She's hoping for a more fulfilling life as a sea glass artist, but instead is babysitting her sister's kids and sharing overnights with Noah, her sexy artist boyfriend with commitment issues and a dog Ginger's cat isn't too crazy about. Geri, her BlackBerry-obsessed sister, is also nearly over the deep end about her pending fiftieth birthday (and might just drag Ginger with her). Toss in a dumpster-picking father, a Kama Sutra T-shirt-wearing mother, a movie crew come to town with a very cute gaffer, an on-again-off-again glassblower boyfriend, plus a couple of Red Hat realtors, and hilarity ensues. The perfect summer read, Life's a Beach is a warm, witty, and wise look at what it takes to move forward at any stage in life.
Review:
"Must Love Dogs author Cook returns with Ginger Walsh, 41, who has ditched her job in sales and moved above her parent's garage with a cat she calls Boyfriend — despite (or because of) her casual relationship with alluring glassblower Noah. As big sister Geri gets anxious about her impending 50th, their parents decide to sell the house, and Geri's second-grader Riley lands a small role in a horror movie being filmed in their quaint New England town. Ginger babysits Riley on the set and meets a gaffer who may be charming enough to make her forget all about Noah. Cook's wit and unflagging heart save this moderately paced beach read from its anticlimactic ending. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"'Must Love Dogs author Cook returns with Ginger Walsh, 41, who has ditched her job in sales and moved above her parent's garage with a cat she calls Boyfriend — despite (or because of) her casual relationship with alluring glassblower Noah. As big sister Geri gets anxious about her impending 50th, their parents decide to sell the house, and Geri's second-grader Riley lands a small role in a horror movie being filmed in their quaint New England town. Ginger babysits Riley on the set and meets a gaffer who may be charming enough to make her forget all about Noah. Cook's wit and unflagging heart save this moderately paced beach read from its anticlimactic ending. (June)' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Cook...ably catalogues the issues facing 40-something women, but the generic settings and tepid romances prevent this book from taking off." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"In this lighthearted, breezy read, Cook...displays a wry sense of humor and knows how to write realistic characters." Library Journal
Review:
"[F]illed with hilarity, sister love and sister hate, juicy arguments and hard-won reconciliations, but most of all, heart." Adriana Trigiani, author of Return to Big Stone Gap
Synopsis:
From the bestselling author of "Must Love Dogs" comes the story of two grown-up sisters who fight like cats and dogs--but call each other at least twice a day.
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About the Author
Claire Cook is the author of Must Love Dogs, Multiple Choice, and Ready to Fall. She lives in Scituate, Massachusetts, with her husband, where they are occasionally visited by their borderline adult children and their laundry.(http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781401303242-2)

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

ABOUT THE BOOK
Macon Leary hates travelling and writes guide books for these businessmen who feel the same. The ‘Accidental Tourist’ series tells them how to travel in such a way that they will feel that they have never left home. Macon however, finds himself unable to provide a guidebook for his soul – he fails to save his marriage and cannot come to terms with the random, senseless death of his son. His answer is to retreat into a downward spiral of complex rituals and habits that threaten to take over his life. Two random incidents that leave Macon with a broken leg and a need to get his dog trained become a potential turning point in his life, but the question is whether Macon’s retreat into the comfortable and habit and conformity has gone to far to allow him to grab the moment and take his life down another unknown route.
‘My favourite writer, and the best line-and-length novelist in the world, is Anne Tyler, the Americna author of The Accidental Tourist and Saint Maybe… Brilliant, funny, sad and senstive’ Nick Hornby, Author of High Fidelity and How To Be Good
‘Anne Tyler gets better with every book, and this one is a triumph – funny, profound, sad and ultimately reassuring.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Now poignant, now funny… Anne Tyler is brilliant’ New York Times Book Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but grew up in North Carolina, as the daughter of an industrial chemist and a social worker. The family lived among various Quaker communities in the rural south before settling in Raleigh, North Carolina. These years formed background for her Southern literary flavour, which is seen in the settings of her fiction.
At the age of 19 Tyler graduated from Duke University, North Carolina, where she twice won the Anne Flexner Award for creative writing She did post-graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University before settling in Baltimore, where she has lived for much of her adult life, If Morning Ever Comes in 1964 and became a full-time writer in 1967. She is the author of 14 novels of which The Accidental Tourist won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1986 and was made into a film starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in 1988, and Breathing Lessons was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. The Amateur Marriage was published in 2004.
Anne Tyler was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby in The Sunday Times survey in 1994 as ‘the greatest living novelists writing in English.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
www.realsimple.com
When your children were young, did you ever worry that being a mother and a writer were mutually exclusive?
I learned early that I cared much, much more about my family than my writing. If a novel wasn't going well, I could still enjoy my children, but if one of my children was sick, I couldn't even remember what the novel was about. In that way, I've been lucky. I didn't have to deal with any serious inner conflicts.
What kind of writing schedule, if any, do you follow?
I try to write every weekday, starting fairly early in the morning and stopping in the afternoon, because my mind always seems to "click off" later in the day. I believe in the importance of routine - going into the same room every morning, sitting in the same place on the couch, hearing the same birds in the tree outside my window.
Do you keep any kind of journal when writing a novel?
No, no journal. It seems to me that writing about writing would weaken any impetus to undertake the writing itself. I do have a cardboard box filled with three-by-five index cards on which I've very briefly - telegraphically - jotted down random daydreams, or phrases that intrigue me, or thoughts about "what if." What if such-and-such a type of character had to deal with such-and-such a situation? That sort of thing.
I write with a Parker 75 fountain pen, a No. 62 nib (I live in fear they'll be discontinued), and black ink on unlined paper. I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, and then put what I've written into a computer. But I rewrite it all over again in longhand at the end because the slow pace of longhand and the silence (no clicking of keys) make it easier for me to catch false notes.
How does Baltimore nourish you as a writer?
Baltimore is so much its very own self, with its own language and style and way of looking at things, that a novel set there just seems automatically to develop extra layers. It's a wonderful gift for a writer. I can't imagine living anywhere else.
Which of your novels was the most difficult to write? Which experience was the most pleasurable? Is there an early work you still feel especially proud of?
I always think the most recent book was the most difficult. Certainly the most pleasurable was Searching for Caleb. Writing that was like attending a long party. And the book I'm proudest of is Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, because it's the one that most closely resembles my original vision of it.
What happens after you finish a novel? Is it difficult to let go of certain stories or characters?
After I send a manuscript off to my agent, I always picture my central characters riding the train alone to New York City, looking hopeful and a little scared, and I feel very protective of them. If my agent calls later to say he likes the book, I think, Well, bless their hearts, they made it after all! And then I more or less forget them (more information http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/offthepage/guide.htm?command=Search&db=/catalog/main.txt&eqisbndata=0099480018)

Mutluluk-Bliss by Zulfu Livaneli

Mutluluk-Bliss by Zulfu Livaneli

Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Meryem, a fifteen-year-old girl, lives in a rural village on the shores of Lake Van in Eastern Turkey. Her simple life changes dramatically after her uncle, a sheikh in a dervish order, rapes her. She is considered an outcast for shaming her family. When she is locked in a shed and left alone for days, she comes to the painful realization that her family expects her to hang herself with a length of rope left on the dirt floor. But she is defiant.
As tradition still has it, a judgment must be made in the name of honor. She is told she is to be taken to Istanbul, a shining city she envisions being just over the nearest mountain. Many girls from her village have "gone to Istanbul," and she assumes it must be a wonderful place since not one has returned. In fact, those girls have been the victims of "honor-killings."
Cemal, Meryem's cousin, a commando in the army, has been fighting in the mountains against the rebels. On his return home, he is welcomed as a hero though he has been severely traumatized by his war experiences. His father, who had violated Meryem, charges Cemal with the task of executing his cousin's punishment. As he and Mereym begin their journey, they proceed through the marketplace where the townspeople have gathered, some weeping and others mocking her.
In Istanbul, a Harvard-educated professor named Irfan lives an elite existence. He has published many books, hosts a radio show, and seems to enjoy success and jet-set freedom. He revolts against the routine of his soulless life, deciding to leave his wealthy wife and Istanbul. He charters a boat to sail the Aegean. By coincidence, his path crosses with that of Meryem and Cemal. They embark on a journey togetherthat fills their hearts with hope and sets them free.
Already an international bestseller, this lyrical and moving tale juxtaposes the traditional and modern and draws attention to human rights violations against women in the Middle East.
Review:
"The paths of three characters converge to illustrate, perhaps too patly, the conflicts of contemporary Turkey. Raped by her uncle, the sheikh, 15-year-old villager Meryem has shamed her family. To save the family name, Cemal, the sheikh's son, a soldier home from his tour fighting Kurds in the Gabar Mountains, is ordered by his father to take Meryem to Istanbul and to murder her. When Cemal and Meryem reach Istanbul, they are shocked by the cosmopolitan city, full of women wearing low-cut blouses and children who disobey their parents. Cemal falters at the moment of decision and, instead of murdering Meryem, travels with her to the seaside, where they encounter Irfan, a successful Istanbul professor who, plagued by insomnia and anxiety, has fled his cushy life to set sail in the Aegean Sea. Irfan offers them jobs on his boat and forges a tenuous mentorship with Meryem, but Cemal, whose psychological torment is richly captured early in the book, is soon reduced to a glowering presence. Livaneli, a former exile who was elected to Turkey's Parliament in 2002, takes great pains to reveal his country's complex culture, but the result often reads like a cautionary fable. Readers should prepare themselves for heavy-handed allegory." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"A writer, composer, and elected member of the Turkish parliament, Livaneli offers readers a fascinating look at the diversity of Turkey today in his American debut." Library Journal
Review:
"Eye-opening and deeply moving — essential for anyone looking for decency in the world today." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"[T]his novel by an eminent Turkish writer and member of Parliament tells a gripping contemporary story that gets behind stereotypes of exotic Islam to reveal the diversity in individual people and the secrets and lies, cruelty and love, in family, friendship, and public life." Booklist
Review:
"Livaneli is an essential force in Turkey's musical, cultural and political scene." Orhan Pamuk, author of the national bestseller, Snow
Synopsis:
Already an international bestseller, this lyrical story ripped from the headlines embodies the sweep and contradictions of modern Turkey and shows that lovely things can happen in the space between wounded people.
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About the Author
O.Z. Livaneli is one of Turkey's most prominent and popular authors as well as an accomplished musician and composer, whose works have been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. He was held under military detention during the coup of March 12, 1971 and lived in exile for eight years. He studied music in Stockholm, then lived in Paris and Athens, returning to Turkey in 1984. He was one of the founders of the Turkish-Kurdish Peace Movement and the initiator of the Campaign Against Violence in Turkey, and he has made significant contributions to the Greek-Turkish Frienship Committee. He was elected a Member of Parliament in 2002.
(http://www.powells.com/biblio/97803123605350