2006 books 46, 47, 48, 49, 50

i read five and a half books in under 40 hours this weekend (i also slept, valiantly tried to find passover-kosher food in a strange city on easter, drove around in circles, and found a place to live), which is definitely some sort of personal best. at least i think so.

brief summaries:

irene nemirovsky's suite francaise
the stupid bull's head bookstore files this under judaica instead of under fiction, even thoguh none of the characters are jewish and the subject matter doesn't really relate to anything jewish. this is a whole new level of ghetto-ization of authors. anyway, since the author has actually gotten more press than the story, here is the deal: nemirovsky, a ukrainian-born jew who spent most of her life in france as a well-known author, died in a concentration camp in 1942. her daughters, in hiding, had a suitcase of her writings, but never had the heart to read what they presumed were her diaries. it turns out she had planned a five-part novel about WWII, and had managed to write the first two parts before being arrested. of course it was shipped off to a publisher, became a bestseller, was translated, etc.

so, the story? actually, pretty amazing--especially considering that she was writing a novel of occupied france during the occupation. the last parts take place in 1940-1, and she was arrested in summer 1942. the story revolves around a good-sized cast of characters who all sort of connect to each other in different ways as france loses its battles and german soldiers move in. intriguingly, the publishers have chosen to add several appendices, one of which contains nemirovsky's notes/plans for the suite of novels, and another of which prints letters her husband wrote trying to find her after her arrest (before he, too, was taken away). very moving on the whole, but the novel would stand on its own without all the background.

anyway, if you're in chapel hill adn want to buy this, don't bother looking in the, you know, fiction and literature section.

dean bakapoulos' please don't come back from the moon
in a suburb of detroit, all the husband and fathers suddenly leave and their families are left to deal with the aftermath. this has a profound effect on their sons, who grow up with the same shadows over them. um, i'm tired and don't feel like summarizing the whole plot right now. this was a good book.

ellen raskin's the westing game
one of my all-time favorite books has recently been reissued as part of the puffin modern classics series. yay!!!! actually i think this is the only raskin book that is still in print (such a frickin' shame), but whatever, it has a nice new cover and compact size now. man, i loooove this book (thoguh as always found some of the writing at the end a little awkward). anyway, what happens when an eccentric old rich guy brings 16 disparate folks together in a weird game to inherit his estate? good times, that's what. personal history time: my 6th grade english class read this and we had to design book covers as an assignment, and i remember being livid that several unimaginative little girls gave away the lynchpin of the plot in their designs. the fools!! the jerks!! (um. anyway.)

johanna sinisalo's troll: a love story
translated from the finnish, this story involves a young photographer who brings home a sick and weak troll cub. gradually his obsession with the troll causes mad problems, yo. it's told through several perspectives and through (presumably fake) book excerpts. a dark, but enjoyable, story.

miriam toews' a boy of good breeding
i like a book that deals with small town canada. in this case, the mayor of the town is obsessed with being the smallest town in canada. meanwhile you have your whole small town family stuff going on, centering on a young woman named knute (with the equally improbably-named daughter summer feelin') who returns to the town to help care for her ailing father. highly recommended. (confidential to minty: one minor character bears your name!)