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Farishta – A Novel About Foreign Service in Afghanistan by Patricia McArdle

On June 5, 2011, in Book Reviews, Fiction, by Editor

Twenty-one years ago, diplomat Angela Morgan witnessed the death of her husband during the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Devastated by her loss, she fled back to America, where she hid in the backwaters of the State Department and avoided the high-profile postings that would advance her career. Now, with that career about to dead-end and no true connections at home, she must take the one assignment available-at a remote British army outpost in northern Afghanistan.

One Day – A Romantic Comedy by David Nicholls

On May 27, 2011, in Book Reviews, Fiction, by Editor

The Hollywood-ready latest from Nicholls (The Understudy) makes a brief pit stop in book form before its inevitable film adaptation. (It’s already in development.) The episodic story takes place during a single day each year for two decades in the lives of Dex and Em. Dexter, the louche public school boy, and Emma, the brainy Yorkshire lass, meet the day they graduate from university in 1988 and run circles around one another for the next 20 years. Dex becomes a TV presenter whose life of sex, booze, and drugs spins out of control, while Em dully slogs her way through awful jobs before becoming the author of young adult books.

The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi

On May 13, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

The “quack” who saved a king… Featuring a star-studded cast of Academy AwardÂ® winners and nominees, The King’s Speech won the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award and is generating plenty of Oscar buzz. This official film tie-in is written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue–grandson of Lionel Logue, one of the movie’s central characters. It’s the eve of World War II, and King Edward VIII has abdicated the throne of England to marry the woman he loves.

On Blu-ray: Life – Narrated by David Attenborough

On May 10, 2011, in Movies, DVDs, Blu-ray, by Editor

This enthralling BBC series examines “the lengths living beings go to to stay alive,” in the words of Sir David Attenborough (Oprah Winfrey narrates the Discovery Channel version). Aided by breathtaking high-definition cinematography, the makers of Planet Earth explore the more colorful strategies the world’s creatures employ to procreate, evade predators, and obtain nourishment. Cameras travel though the air, under the water, and right into the faces of insects, like the alien visage of the stalk-eyed fly.

Jane Austen Education, A: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz

On May 3, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author’s novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen’s teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature student to a happily married man, Deresiewicz’s A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man’s discovery of the world outside himself.

The Pumpkin Eater (New York Review Books Classics) by Penelope Mortimer

On April 24, 2011, in Book Reviews, Fiction, by Editor

The Pumpkin Eater is a surreal black comedy about the wages of adulthood and the pitfalls of parenthood. A nameless woman speaks, at first from the precarious perch of a therapist’s couch, and her smart, wry, confiding, immensely sympathetic voice immediately captures and holds our attention.

The Tudors: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer

On April 19, 2011, in Book Reviews, Nonfiction, by Editor

Arguably the most famous rulers in world history, Tudor monarchs Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I were, according to journalist and author Meyer (A World Undone), cold and ruthless egotis[ts] whose self-created myths have prevailed over reality in our historical memory of them. Henry VII, the first Tudor, was a competent ruler who filled the royal treasury with gold, avoided war, and shrewdly consolidated his power by stripping away the nobility’s autonomy. By contrast, Henry VIII’s determination to enforce his religious change on his people led to a reign of terror, and his squandering of his riches contributed to the monarchy’s later collapse under Charles I.

A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice by Kenji Yoshino

On April 16, 2011, in Book Reviews, Law, Nonfiction, by Editor

Yoshino, a constitutional law professor at NYU, looks at the concepts of justice in Shakespeare’s major plays as they relate to the role of law in modern society and to particular events in today’s world. Perhaps for the shock value alone, he begins with the horrifically violent Titus Andronicus, a play driven by an ever-widening circle of revenge. After contemplating the meaning of revenge, Yoshino surprises, as he often does, by arguing that America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wars of revenge.

My Father’s Fortune: A Life by Michael Frayn

On March 5, 2011, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, Nonfiction, by Editor

In his latest offering, acclaimed British novelist Frayn travels the familiar territory of the father-son relationship. The elder Frayn was a self-made man, a roofing salesman with a trademark homburg hat, a stellar vocabulary, and charisma oozing from his pores. (All this in spite of a very modest upbringing—he and six other family members lived in just two rooms.)

21 – The Eagerly Awaited Sophomore Album From British Singer-Songwriter Adele

On February 26, 2011, in It's all about music..., by Editor

21 is the eagerly awaited sophomore album from British singer-songwriter Adele. It’s the follow up to Adele’s critically acclaimed, Grammy award winning debut album 19 (both named after her age at the time the songs were written). Recorded in Malibu and London, 21 offered Adele the opportunity to work with such luminary producers and songwriters as Rick Rubin, Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Dan Wilson and Fraser T. Smith, as well as continuing to work with Francis “Eg” White and Jim Abbiss.