2007 books 88 and 89

I'm back from ALA and wow, what a weekend! Getting back was a hassle and a half, but at least I read two books (plus one volume of the Azumanga Daoih manga, the latest New Yorker, an issue of Mental Floss . . . the usual while being delayed in airports).

Dana Reinhardt's A Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life
This YA novel was the recipient of a few awards within the Jewish book community, so I was psyched to meet its author and get her signature while at ALA. It's a really likable book too, about an adopted teenage girl whose birth mother suddenly wants to meet her. I really enjoyed the way it all played out, though there were a few too many moments of Jewish education for my taste. I already know all about Passover and Hannukah, thanks, and I think the non-Jews in the audience don't need to be talked down to. Anyway, A-/B+.

Dalia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz
In this novel, an Iranian Jewish gem dealer is arrested just after the Iranian revolution. What happens to him and his family in the aftermath of his arrest is a really moving story. I especially liked the way his daughter was written, and wondered if this novel was a little autobiographical--apparently Sofer and her family fled Iran in 1982, when she was 10. I also suspect she's Jewish--her last name is Hebrew for "writer". A-.