Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart

Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart

Overview:

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

SELECTED ONE OF 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, THE NEW YORK TIMES

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
• The Washington Post
• The Boston Globe
• San Francisco Chronicle
• The Seattle Times
• O: The Oprah Magazine
• Maureen Corrigan, NPR
• Salon
• Slate
• Minneapolis Star Tribune
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• The Kansas City Star
• Charlotte Observer
• The Globe and Mail
• Vancouver Sun
• Montreal Gazette
• Kirkus Reviews

The author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart has risen to the top of the fiction world. Now, in his hilarious and heartfelt new novel, he envisions a deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years—and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink.

In a very near future—oh, let’s say next Tuesday—a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse. But don’t that tell that to poor Lenny Abramov, the thirty-nine-year-old son of an angry Russian immigrant janitor, proud author of what may well be the world’s last diary, and less-proud owner of a bald spot shaped like the great state of Ohio. Despite his job at an outfit called Post-Human Services, which attempts to provide immortality for its super-rich clientele, death is clearly stalking this cholesterol-rich morsel of a man. And why shouldn’t it? Lenny’s from a different century—he totally loves books (or “printed, bound media artifacts,” as they’re now known), even though most of his peers find them smelly and annoying. But even more than books, Lenny loves Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel twenty-four-year-old Korean American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness.

After meeting Lenny on an extended Roman holiday, blistering Eunice puts that Assertiveness minor to work, teaching our “ancient dork” effective new ways to brush his teeth and making him buy a cottony nonflammable wardrobe. But America proves less flame-resistant than Lenny’s new threads. The country is crushed by a credit crisis, riots break out in New York’s Central Park, the city’s streets are lined with National Guard tanks on every corner, the dollar is so over, and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Undeterred, Lenny vows to love both Eunice and his homeland. He’s going to convince his fickle new love that in a time without standards or stability, in a world where single people can determine a dating prospect’s “hotness” and “sustainability” with the click of a button, in a society where the privileged may live forever but the unfortunate will die all too soon, there is still value in being a real human being.

Wildly funny, rich, and humane, Super Sad True Love Story is a knockout novel by a young master, a book in which falling in love just may redeem a planet falling apart.

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

A Fierce Radiance Lauren Belfer

A Fierce Radiance Lauren Belfer

Overview:

From the New York Times bestselling author of City of Light comes a compelling, richly detailed tale of passion and intrigue set in New York City during the tumultuous early days of World War II.

Lauren Belfer's panoramic new novel is a love story wrapped around a spy story with a pivotal medical breakthrough at its center. A Fierce Radiance begins days after the attack on Pearl Harbor propels the United States into World War II. Claire Shipley, a savvy Life magazine photographer, has been assigned a photo essay on a young father whose life might be saved by the new miracle antibiotic, penicillin. The divorced Claire has a particular interest in the case, both because she is still mourning the death of her 3-year-old daughter from blood poisoning, which the drug might have cured, and because she is drawn to James Stanton, the doctor overseeing its clinical trials. 

At first Jamie seems perfect; he respects Claire's work and loves her son. But he soon grows preoccupied with the suspicious death of his scientist sister Tia, who was also on the track of new medications. He starts to disappear on secret missions, and is soon presumed dead in an explosion in North Africa. 

So Claire begins to tend to her own life. She strengthens her ties with her wealthy father, from whom she had been estranged—although he, too, behaves suspiciously—and has a fling with Jamie's colleague Nick, who might or might not be a suspect in Tia's murder. She also plunges into some important government work of her own, photographing companies developing antibiotics for the troops. Talented, determined, and vulnerable, Belfer's Claire proves herself a war hero on the home front.

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

City of Light Lauren Belfer

City of Light Lauren Belfer

Overview:

City of Light is quite simply electrifying. Not that there's anything simple about this rich novel, which is first and foremost an examination of illusion, invisibility, and power--physical and personal. Set in the spring of 1901, as preparations for the Pan-American Exposition would seem to promise Buffalo, New York, a permanent place in the world, Lauren Belfer's book is narrated by the never-married headmistress of a fashionable girls' school. At 36, Louisa Barrett does her best to free her charges from their societal shackles. "I'm rather ashamed of all the things I've been able to give my students through the subterfuge of training them to be better wives," she says proudly. What Louisa is most concerned about, however, is her 9-year-old goddaughter, Grace Sinclair, who has grown increasingly unstable since her mother's sudden death. Meanwhile, Grace's father is heading up Buffalo's hydroelectric power plans with dangerous zeal--much to the chagrin of local conservationists who oppose any exploitation of Niagara Falls. Will Tom's intensity, which smacks of fanaticism, extend so far as murder?

But this offers only the barest idea of Belfer's complex grid. In 500 fast pages, she creates a fascinating, disquieting world in which nothing is what it seems. As Louisa battles against her instinct for self-preservation, her past--particularly a vile encounter with the corpulent Grover Cleveland--threatens to undermine her carefully created persona and loose her greatest secret. Looking back on the events of 1901 from the safety (and disappointment) of 1909, Louisa is the most astringent and intriguing of narrators. To Lauren Belfer's endless credit, City of Light is panoramic, subtle, and very physical. In her first novel, she makes us feel the rush of water, the thrill of light, the snap, crackle, and pop of social tension, and--alas for Louisa--the despair of tragic inevitability.

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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!

The Jericho Commandment (AKA See How They Run) James Patterson

The Jericho Commandment (AKA See How They Run) James Patterson

Overview:

Outside New York City, the palatial home of Dr. David Strauss's parents is attacked by gunmen during a glittering party. As he watches helplessly, his wife is murdered. In Los Angeles, Strauss's brother is killed during the Academy Award ceremonies. In Manhattan, his past sweetheart, Alix Rothchild, is running for her life. Dr. David Strauss is soon obsessed with finding the explosive secret behind the murders of his family members. His dangerous odyssey takes him across Europe, and finally to the Olympics, where one of the most shattering surprises in suspense fiction will take place.

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And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!

The Lost Boy Camilla Lackberg

The Lost Boy  Camilla Lackberg

Overview:

No. 1 international bestseller and Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg’s new psychological thriller – irresistible for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo.

Mats Sverin was Fjallbacka’s financial director on a regeneration project worth millions. When he is found murdered, Detective Patrik Hedstrom must find answers.

It seems Mats was a man who everybody liked yet nobody really knew – a man with something to hide…

Is it just a coincidence that his high school sweetheart, Nathalie, has returned to the area? What does she know about who Mats really was?

However, Nathalie has her own secret. Something has made her and her five-year-old son flee to their remote family home on the ‘Ghost Isle’. And that is where she’ll stay and shield her son from the evils of the world.

But, as the murder investigation draws a blank, the police have to dig deeper – and before long, everyone’s lives will be dragged into the light …

‘The hottest female writer in Sweden’ Independent

‘Heart-stopping and heart-warming … a masterclass in Scandinavian crime writing’ Val McDermid

‘Pacy … with flashing insight into the dark places of the psyche’ Sunday Times

‘Lackberg is an expert at mixing scenes of domestic cosiness with blood-curdling horror’ Guardian

‘Both chilling and thrilling’ Sun

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And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!

The Stone Cutter Camilla Lackberg

The Stone Cutter  Camilla Lackberg

Overview:

The third of Camilla Lackberg's series set in the small seaside town of Fjallbacka, Sweden, is every bit as good as the previous two novels. In THE STONECUTTER, Erica has recently had her baby, a daughter called Maja. As well as all the challenging adaptations required by this event, she is suffering from post-natal depression. Her partner Patrik, a detective in the local police force, is sympathetic but not as much as he could be, disappearing with relief to work with each day and not coming home till late. Erica's main respite in her struggles to cope with a screaming baby and a tip of a house is her neighbour and friend Charlotte. Charlotte is married to Niclas, a handsome doctor, and they have two children. For the time being, the young family is living with Charlotte's mother and stepfather while they look for a house of their own, having recently relocated to the area where Charlotte and Niclas grew up.

As the novel opens, Charlotte's elder child, Sara, is found drowned in the sea. Patrik has to convey the dreadful news to the distraught Charlotte and her mother Lilian. Patrik discovers that Sara left the house in the early morning to go and play with her friend who lives nearby, but never turned up. In tracing Sara's last movements, he also becomes reluctantly embroiled in a longstanding feud between Lilian and their retired neighbours.

It soon turns out that Sara's death is no accident: the post-mortem reveals that the girl drowned in the bath. Patrick has to head up a murder investigation, made difficult by the time that has elapsed since the girl died and the post-mortem results being reported, which makes it less likely any forensic evidence will be found. Still, Patrik and his colleagues do their best to cope with an emotionally very difficult case, missing quite a few clues in the process, and also coming across several other unpleasant secrets and suspicious behaviour on the part of the people they interview that may or may not have anything to do with the case.

Erica, in the meantime, does what she can to support Charlotte while struggling with her own exhaustion and feelings of inadequacy. Charlotte's life gets even worse than before as the police uncover more information, and Erica's help is needed as never before.

The best parts of this engaging and well-written novel, excellently translated by the ever-reliable Steven T Murray, are the descriptions of domestic life, and the completely different expectations of the generations. (How Erica manages not to brain her mother-in-law is beyond me!) For me, the least successful part is the story of the titular stonecutter, a historical account from the 1920s which is interspersed with the modern tale. This story is more of a romantic melodrama than anything else, and although it explains some of the reasons for the modern tragedy, I did not feel that it illuminated it significantly, other than to hint at some questions relating to nature versus nurture.

The interplay between the police detectives and the lives of the characters in the small town, however, are absorbing and realistic. I especially identified with Erica and Charlotte, and wished the book could have contained more about them. The crime part of the story – well, the solution depends on a lucky coincidence, and although Patrik and his colleagues are energetic at following up leads when they occur to them, I think they could do with going on a course to brush up their skills a bit before taking on their next case!

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And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!

The Preacher Camilla Lackberg

The Preacher  Camilla Lackberg

Overview:

In Camilla Lackberg's crime novel THE PREACHER, Patrik Hedstrom is that most unusual of crime novel characters, a policeman with a happy home life. The setting for this book, the Swedish coastal town of Fjallbacka, remains the same as in Lackberg's crime debut, THE ICE PRINCESS. But whereas in that book Fjallbacka lay in the grip of winter, THE PREACHER places us in peak tourist season and the heat of midsummer.

Detective Patrik Hedstrom is enjoying some quiet holiday time at home with his pregnant girlfriend Erica Falck. Early one morning in a local beauty spot, a small boy discovers the dead body of a young woman and Patrik is recalled to take charge of the case. When more bones are discovered with the body of the murdered girl, the case points to events of almost twenty-five years earlier when two young women were reported missing. At that time a well known local family, the Hults, were caught up in the investigation. Its repercussions split the family irrevocably leaving them feudal and feuding. Now tensions in Fjallbacka increase as yet another young tourist disappears. Patrik and his police team are under pressure to find her before she becomes victim to a serial killer. But with the original suspect in the 1979 abductions long since dead - who can it be?

Lackberg builds the drama skilfully; interspersing the narrative of the murder hunt with short chapter flashbacks to the darkness of the missing girls' final days in 1979. Even the comparative domestic contentment of Erica and Patrik, who retain their humour even when they are besieged by unwanted guests in the heat of a holiday summer, in its own way counterpoints the darkness within the central crime. But the convoluted relationships within the Hult family and one or two plot devices and twists, introduced presumably to prolong suspense and surprise in the closing stages of the novel, I regret to say did interrupt my involvement and stretch my concentration.

The cover of this US edition quotes a review suggesting that Camilla Lackberg shares an audience with Stieg Larsson. Although they do indeed share a translator in Steven T Murray, I am not at all sure that they share the same fans. Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy depicts a world of political paranoia and embedded violent corruption on an institutional scale. Lackberg's psychologically dark murder mysteries sit alongside an altogether more domestic and sometimes humorous portrait of community. These qualities themselves are sure to attract their own US fans. If so, these fans will be pleased to know that THE PREACHER is only the second of Camilla Lackberg's successful series of Fjallbacka crime novels and they should be able to look forward to more to come.

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And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!

The Ice Princess Camilla Lackberg

The Ice Princess  Camilla Lackberg

Overview:


THE ICE PRINCESS is the first in the Erica Falck series set in the real-life small Swedish coastal town of Fjallbacka. Erica Falck is an author of biographies of prominent Swedish female writers and has returned home to finish the unhappy task of clearing her parents' home after a car-crash has left her and her younger sister, Anna, as orphans. At the same time, she is trying to finish writing her much delayed book.

One winter's day Erica is asked by a distressed fellow townsman to go into the house of her former school-friend as he has discovered something dreadful. Her friend, from whom she was once inseparable, is lying dead in a bath, her wrists slashed, the water frozen. The dead woman Alex Wijkner looks to have committed suicide and her parents ask Erica to write a commemorative article about their daughter. This leads Erica to thinking about whether she could make a book out of Alex's life and death, her first piece of fiction, though modelled on Alex.

One of Erica's first interviews is with Alex's friend and gallery co-owner Francine who tells Erica that there's no-way that Alex was suicidal – she was expecting a baby and overjoyed at the prospect.

Meanwhile the death is being investigated by the local police force headed by Bertil Mellberg, who denies his hair loss with an elaborately constructed comb-over. He has been downsized to Tanumshede after making mistakes at Gothenburg. One of his team is Patrik Hedstrom who is an old friend of Erica's and who had an enormous crush on her back in their school days. Alex's death is soon identified as murder by the post mortem examination and Mellberg sees his future (in Gothenburg) lies in wrapping up the case swiftly.

Erica and Patrik's paths overlap when she accompanies Alex's family to the police-station and a relationship soon ensues. To counterbalance this pleasant (and amusingly portrayed) event, Erica has to deal with family issues regarding her loathsome brother-in-law who wants to force Erica and Anna to sell their family home so that he and Anna can move back to his home country of England.

THE ICE PRINCESS is a fairly leisurely tale which, as with a lot of the Scandinavian crime fiction being translated recently, has a heavy emphasis on the characters and building the world in which the crimes occur. The answer to the crime in this case lies in the past and the current tragedy can be laid squarely at the feet of those who should have known better. The small town setting has a very 'Karin Fossum' feel to it. As well as the investigations carried out by Erica and Patrik there's also the matter of how they get together - both of them behaving like teenagers eg deliberating as to what to wear and going round with a permanent grin in the case of Patrik.

There's a strong sense of place and the cold weather is well evoked. I hadn't realised until afterwards that Fjallbacka is a real place and that a tv-series of the books, is also filmed there.

A couple of things niggled me, such as Erica withholding vital evidence for a while and also the author's trick of letting the character get some vital piece of information but not telling the reader what it was. I enjoyed THE ICE PRINCESS, it was a comfortable, cosy read, but I didn't find myself desperate to pick it up, though I did become immersed when I did so. I shall definitely read the next one and maybe the personal relationship side between Erica and Patrik will have moved to the background a little and the mystery angle will be to the fore.

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And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!

The Hidden Child Camilla Lackberg

The Hidden Child  Camilla Lackberg

Overview:

At the end of THE GALLOWS BIRD, young mother and author Erica Falk discovers a trunk in the attic containing a Nazi medal, a stained baby's shirt and some old diaries. THE HIDDEN CHILD is the story of the discoveries Erica makes about her mother's past by reading these diaries and struggling to find out the significance of the objects. She's supposed to be writing her next "true crime" book, as she's just swapped parental leave responsibilities with her husband, police detective Patrik Hedstrom. There is plenty of byplay at the start of the novel as Patrick fails to "get" what is actually involved with looking after a one-year-old, and also cannot resist poking his nose into the investigation of the death of an old man which his colleagues are undertaking, baby in tow.

Erica gets pretty frustrated with Patrik, not least when he meets his ex-wife who herself is struggling to look after her young son while her new husband, a racing driver, is away. She's also distracted from her work by her nervous need to find out more about her mother's past, as the warm young girl who wrote the few diaries in Erica's possession is very different from the cold parent that Erica knew.

Camilla Lackberg knows how to tell a good story, and THE HIDDEN CHILD is to my mind the best book in this series since the first, THE ICE PRINCESS. I think this is partly because Erica's uncovering of her mother's past is directly related to the contemporary case being investigated by the police, which provides the book with more focus than some of the previous titles. Furthermore, the mystery is a good, solid one - I did guess the outlines of the solution just before the author revealed them, but only just. The domestic lives of Erica and Patrik, as well as Erica's sister Anna and her new partner Dan are also well-portrayed as Anna tries to come to terms with an exceptionally recalcitrant teenage stepdaughter and Erica discovers more about the tragedy of her mother's past - and comes to realise the origin of her own name, perhaps. In addition, the lives of Patrick's police colleagues come into the fore, with Gosta seeming to be a little more sensitive than his previous golfing obsession would suggest, and Melberg once again revealing a soft heart under his blustering exterior in an amusing subplot.

The novel is extremely well translated by Tiina Nunnally, whose husband Steven T Murray has translated the previous novels. My only quibble is that far too many characters wink at each other - is this a Swedish habit? Anyway, less winking would be a great improvement. One aspect of this novel that I like very much is that when characters are nice, it pays dividends, as repeatedly shown by Erica's, Anna's, Dan's and Patrik's actions, as well as by the police characters. If Erica and co were less generous, they would not get anything like as far in their investigations.

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The Drowning Camilla Lackberg

The Drowning  Camilla Lackberg

Overview:

THE DROWNING could have been a great little crime novel. At 500 pages, however, it becomes boringly repetitive for a long stretch in the middle after a good start and a somewhat hasty, but at least relatively fast-moving, final section and cliffhanger ending.

The basic story involves four male friends, one of whom, Christian, has just written a debut novel which looks set for greatness and another of whom, Magnus, has vanished three months before the book begins - he has been murdered (the reader knows this because of a prologue). When Magnus's body is found, an investigation begins, led by Patrik Hedstrom of the Fjallbacka police.

Three of the four friends have been receiving threatening letters over a period of time, but won't tell their wives or the police about it. Two of the men have boilerplate happy marriages; two of them have boilerplate miserable ones. For 150 pages, it is interesting to read about the set-up, but after this time, there is nothing much to add, particularly as the reader knows more than the police about what is going on due to regular flashback sequences in italic type. It is simply a question of waiting to be told why the men act as if they have a guilty secret, who is writing the letters, and hence who is committing the crimes and why (if the reader has not worked it out already, that is).

Part of the book is devoted to the domestic concerns of Patrik's wife Erica and her sister Anna. Erica is an established author and has been helping Christian to get his book published. While she is waiting to give birth to twins, she decides to investigate the case on her own. An example of the level at which the book is written comes about half-way through, when Erica decides to try to find out what everyone wants to know but cannot find out - what was Christian's past life before he appeared in Fjallbacka? The reader is simply told that after "talking to about four people", Erica discovers where Christian lived previously, with no information about how she came by the information - hence she beats the police to finding an important clue.

At its heart, there is a good mystery story in THE DROWNING, which is well-translated by the excellent Tiina Nunnally. If the book had been 250 pages long I would have thoroughly enjoyed it, as the author has an accessible, friendly style of writing and her characters (the police and Erica's circle) are potentially interesting. But the thin plot simply cannot bear 500 pages; I became bored with repeated descriptions of drunk, grieving, ill or dissatisfied wives; tensely secretive husbands; the cartoon horrible mad mother/neglected son in the too-many flashback sequences; and the failed efforts of the police to find out any information until the last tenth of the book, when all suddenly falls into place for no particular reason apart from someone finally looking up some records. On balance, THE DROWNING is more for those who enjoy slice-of-life tales than for those who prefer crime novels.

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The Gallows Bird Camilla Lackberg

The Gallows Bird  Camilla Lackberg 

Overview:

The fourth in the Erica Falck-Patrik Hedstrom series set in Fjällbacka and Tanumshede, south-west Sweden, contains all the ingredients that made the previous three novels such a success. What's more, like many of the better crime-fiction series, one can read THE GALLOWS BIRD without having first read the previous novels, though readers will probably enjoy it more if they have.

The backbone of the series is the relationship between Erica, a writer, and Patrik, a police detective, who get together in the first novel (THE ICE PRINCESS); by the time THE GALLOWS BIRD opens, they are living together, have a cute baby and are very soon to be married. Another recurring theme is that of Erica's sister Anna, the victim of dreadful domestic abuse, made even harder for Anna to deal with because she has two very young children herself. In THE GALLOWS BIRD, Anna is living with Erica; her presence in the novel and the sisters' relationship add to its emotional depth. Another factor that ties together the series is the Tanumshede police station, where we follow the lives of Patrik (who acts as a proxy for the lazy, rather stupid chief Mellberg) and his colleagues from book to book.

The focus of each novel, however, is a crime (or crimes) that is independent of the other books. Here, the story starts in a rather bitty way, as Patrik is called out to a fatal car crash that turns out to be non-accidental, and a coach-load of ghastly teenagers turns up to take part in a fifth-rate reality TV show. Soon the teens are making a nuisance of themselves by getting drunk, fighting, and displaying their various neuroses (or worse) as they fulfil their contract by undertaking menial jobs and being filmed working and interacting (mainly arguing) with each other. The town worthies are only too delighted with the nationwide publicity, but it isn't so easy for Patrik and colleagues to cope with the fallout. Eventually, one of the contestants is found dead, so the police have to investigate the crime while suffering continual media interference as well as the obstructiveness of the show's materialistic producers and sullen participants.

As usual, I felt that Patrik and colleagues were occasionally a bit slow off the mark to make rather obvious connections or to pick up on clues, and some aspects of the plot depended on people not looking up relevant information in archives or being on holiday so not replying to requests for information. Another of my pet-hates features in the book; passages in italics interspersed with the main story purporting to come from the "mind of the killer". Nevertheless, both investigations are solidly and engagingly depicted; particularly noteworthy is the sensitivity of Patrik and most of his colleagues to vulnerable witnesses, some of whom are portrayed vividly (for example Sophie, the daughter of the car crash victim). In the end, however, the (rather too clearly signalled) solution was too far-fetched for my taste.

The personal story of Erica and her circle is a strong theme in the novel, and although quite a heavy dose of romance is present here in the form of her preparations for her wedding, this gives the book a warm heart despite some of the nasty, long-standing secrets that underlie the rest of the story. At the end of the book, Erica makes an intriguing discovery about a mystery in her own past that I look forward to her investigating in future. In the meantime, I recommend THE GALLOWS BIRD as a book by a natural storyteller that is both easy and pleasurable to read - and how nice to see the translator praised on the cover of the book, a far too rare occurrence in my experience.

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And Blessed Are The Jackstocks Which Care Only For Themselves!

The Arrangement 9 H.M. Ward

The Arrangement 9   H.M. Ward

Overview:

When Avery finds out that the cowboy who requested her services for the night is Marty, things take an unexpected turn. If Avery declines her friend, she'll be in trouble with Miss Black, but if she accepts--this could mean a new, normal relationship and saying farewell to Sean forever.

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The Year of Dreaming Dangerously Slavoj Zizek

The Year of Dreaming Dangerously Slavoj Zizek

Overview:

The renowned philosopher finds a utopian future in worldwide protests.

So where do we stand now, in 2012? 2011 was the year of dreaming dangerously, of the revival of radical emancipatory politics all around the world. Now, a year later, every day brings new proofs of how fragile and inconsistent the awakening was, with all of its many facets displaying the same signs of exhaustion: the enthusiasm of the Arab Spring is mired in compromises and religious fundamentalism; the OWS is losing momentum to such an extent that, in a nice case of the “cunning of reason,” the police cleansing of Zuchotti Park and other sites of the OWS protests cannot but appear as a blessing in disguise, covering up the immanent loss of momentum. And the same story goes on all around the world: the Maoists in Nepal seem outmaneuvered by the reactionary royalist forces; Venezuela’s “Bolivarian” experiment more and more regressing into a caudillo-run populism… 

What are we to do in such depressive times when dreams seem to fade away? Is the only choice we have the one between nostalgic-narcissistic remembrance of the sublime enthusiastic moments, and the cynically-realist explanation of why the attempts to really change the situation had to fail?

The first thing to state is that the subterranean work of dissatisfaction is going on: rage is accumulating and a new wave of revolts will follow. The weird and unnatural relative calm of the Spring of 2012 is more and more perforated by the growing subterranean tensions announcing new explosions; what makes the situation so ominous is the all-pervasive sense of blockage: there no clear way out, the ruling elite is clearly losing its ability to rule. What makes the situation even more disturbing is the obvious fact that democracy doesn’t work: after elections in Greece and in Spain, the same frustrations remain. How should we read the signs of this rage? In his Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin quotes the French historian André Monglond: “The past has left images of itself in literary texts, images comparable to those which are imprinted by light on a photosensitive plate. 

The future alone possesses developers active enough to scan such surfaces perfectly.” Events like the OWS protests, the Arab Spring, demonstrations in Greece and Spain, etc., have to be read as such signs from the future. In other words, we should turn around the usual historicist perspective of understanding an event out of its context and genesis. Radical emancipatory outburst cannot be understood in this way: instead of analyzing them as a part of the continuum of past/present, we should bring in the perspective of the future, i.e., we should analyze them as limited, distorted (sometimes even perverted) fragments of a utopian future which lies dormant in the present as its hidden potential. 

According to Deleuze, in Proust, “people and things occupy a place in time which is incommensurable with the one that they have in space”: the notorious madeleine is here in place, but this is not its true time. In a similar way, one should learn the art to recognize, from an engaged subjective position, elements which are here, in our space, but whose time is the emancipated future, the future of the Communist Idea.

Žižek’s new book, The Year of Dreaming Dangerously, is a collection of essays focusing almost exclusively on what Žižek sometimes calls “shitty politics” in his interviews and public speaking engagements. As we are used to expecting from Žižek’s public engagements, the discussion of “shitty politics” in his new book is filled with many excursions through contemporary ideology. Though The Year of Dreaming Dangerously is divided into ten so called “chapters,” the essays neither hang together nor do they form a unity, despite the fact that Žižek deals with repeating themes, such as the political events of 2011, Capitalism, and new ideological expressions of the contemporary political state of affairs.

The first three chapters and the essay on Occupy (Chapter 7) are marvelous essays, however, as they display Žižek’s uncanny ability to transport well known topics found in the Marxist traditions to new, often psychoanalytical or ideological, shores. In addition, in these chapters one can study his political commitments in more detail. All texts are written from what Žižek calls the “engaged position” (129), namely, the assumption that we are unable to analyze the current political and cultural situation from a neutral standpoint – populist, determinist, or stagist Marxist positions included. Insofar as the view from nowhere, which allows us to know in advance where the historical process is going and what tools we need to push it forward, is not given to us, Žižek seems to say, we need, simply, to accept the diversity of contemporary signals and the mess we currently find ourselves in on the practical level as well on the theoretical level. A messy reality, in other words, cannot be overcome by non-messy theorizing.

“Such passion, in a man whose work forms a bridge between the minutiae of popular culture and the big abstract problems of existence, is invigorating, entertaining and expanding inquiring minds around the world.”—Daily Telegraph

“A great provocateur and an immensely suggestive and even dashing writer ... Žižek writes with passion and an aphoristic energy that is spellbinding.”—Los Angeles Times

“The thinker of choice for Europe’s young intellectual vanguard.”—Sean O’Hagan, Observer

“Žižek’s ingenious handling of culture, films, philosophy, intellectual history, personal stories, daily politics, combined with a politically incorrect wit (especially in his lectures) is truly enjoyable. This at times overwhelming combination of ideas remains unmatched in the contemporary intellectual scene.”—Christian Lotz, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

“Žižek highlights exciting trends in class-organization, political consciousness, cooperation, and struggle ... [and] frames various victories as ‘signs from the future’ so the necessity of inner subjective engagement with social struggle becomes clear.”—Book News

“His ability to fuse together Martin Heidegger’s ‘fundamental ontology,’ Francis Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ and Naomi Klein’s ‘shock doctrine’ in order to undermine our liberal and tolerant democratic structures is a practice few intellectuals are capable of.”—Al Jazeera

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Strange Fits of Passion Anita Shreve

Strange Fits of Passion  Anita Shreve

Overview:

A labyrinthine tale of truth and deception from acclaimed novelist Anita Shreve.

As she did in her first novel, Eden Close , Shreve opens this absorbing story with oblique hints of a violent event--here a murder committed by a woman in response to domestic abuse--then segues to flashbacks that slowly reveal the circumstances leading up to it. A reporter who wrote a book about the crime shares her notes, presented in alternating versions and voices. Most affecting is the voice of the accused woman, who flees Manhattan with her six-month-old daughter to seek sanctuary in a coastal Maine village where she is protected by the clannish but sympathetic townspeople. She finds temporary solace in an affair with a sensitive lobsterman, but is betrayed to her husband by another man out of jealousy. Shreve is particularly effective in evoking the landscape and atmosphere of a close-knit community and the authentic vernacular of its nicely differentiated inhabitants. Her elegiac, portentous prose provides effective pacing. The novel's main drawback, however, lies in its predictability, and in the lack of credibility for the heroine's violent act, faults Shreve somewhat overcomes by raising the question of journalistic integrity (did the reporter alter her notes?) and the possibility that the accused woman's account might have contained deliberate falsehoods. In spite of its superficialities, however, the novel is often insightful and moving.
    
"Thrilling and finely written . . . Ms. Shreve renders the beleaguered woman's voice, and the voices of other townspeople, with the arresting clarity we ask of all good writing."-The New Yorker

"Shreve's prose is clear and compassionate, and her message moving."-The Washington Post Book World

"Superbly rendered . . . both touching and troubling. The box-within-a-box structure moves Shreve's subtle and searing book beyond the contemporary horror genre. It creates a kind of double novel."-Cosmopolitan

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Virgin James Patterson

Virgin James Patterson

Overview:

In Boston, a young woman finds herself pregnant--even though she is still a virgin.

In Ireland, another young woman discovers she is in the same impossible condition.

And in cities all around the world, medical authorities are overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse. It all feels like a sign that something awful is coming.

Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private investigator, is hired by the Archdiocese of Boston to investigate the immaculate conceptions. Even as she comes to care about and trust the young women, she realizes that both are in great danger. Terrifying forces of light and darkness are gathering. Stepping into uncharted territory where the unknown is just the beginning, Anne must discover the truth--to save the young women, to save herself, and to protect the future of all mankind.

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Season of the Machete James Patterson

Season of the Machete  James Patterson

Overview:

Cool and glamorous, they appear to be a successful couple on a holiday. Yet Damian and Carrie Rose are psychopathic murderers for hire. On this picture-perfect vacation island, their target is Peter Macdonald, a dashing young American who forsakes a life of leisure to confront cold-blooded terror. But when they clash in a shocking endgame, a hideous truth will emerge - one that can destroy them all.

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The Thomas Berryman Number James Patterson

The Thomas Berryman Number James Patterson

Overview:

You are about to begin one of the classic American novels of suspense by one of the world's bestselling authors. It begins with three terrifying murders in the South. It ends with a relentless and unforgettable manhunt in the North. In between is the riveting story of a chilling assassin, the woman he loves, and the beloved leader he is hired to kill with extreme prejudice.

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Midnight's Captive Donna Grant

Midnight's Captive   Donna Grant

Overview:

Bound by the gods. Champions against evil. The Dark Warriors have taken their battle from ancient Scotland to the modern world—where a woman’s love is the greatest danger of all…

ENSLAVED BY DESIRE

Laura Black knows her boss is a man of many secrets—haunted by some unknowable force, driven by some unspeakable destiny—and yet it makes her crave the devilishly handsome, roguishly charming Charon all the more. When she uncovers a betrayal that will send her into a world of magic, she turns to the only one she trusts: Charon. Even when she’s in jeopardy of losing her heart…

UNLEASHED IN FURY

Charon Bruce endures a relentless yearning to have Laura for his own, an ache he knows will never be fulfilled. After the town he has protected for centuries is targeted by a ruthless Druid, he has no choice but to reveal his secret to Laura. He must fight the deadliest foe he’s ever known if he’s to keep her safe. But when Laura is captured by his nemesis, he must choose between winning the battle of good versus evil—or losing the woman he loves.

"I don't think there is another author who can compare in the extensive worldbuilding that Grant has been able to do in across all her series." --Under the Covers Book Blog

"For all your Paranormal romance lovers out there who haven't yet discovered or downloaded this FANTASTIC imaginative series then I just don't know what words I can say...this is an action-packed AWESOME series to get into." --Audible

"Grant has crafted a chemistry between her wounded alpha and surprisingly capable heroine that will, no doubt, enthrall series fans and newcomers alike."--RT Book Review

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Iron Maiden -- The Trooper (Cover)

Iron Maiden -- The Trooper (Cover)

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Get Bent C.M. Stunich

Get Bent  C.M. Stunich

Overview:

Naomi Knox is missing.
I don't even f*cking know whether she's dead or alive.
What I do know is that she's the air I need to breathe.
She's my redemption, an all consuming fire that burns in my blood.
And I'll do anything to find her. Anything. Even if it means the end for me.

Turner Campbell is searching.
But he has no f*cking clue what it is he's searching for.
There's darkness all around and enough secrets to choke.
There are angels, and there are devils. It's impossible to tell them apart.
Light needs to be shone on the truth, but there's no one left to hold the torch. The line between life and death is blurred, and the players are all thoroughly entrenched in the game. The question is: am I still one of them?

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Uprising Jessica Therrien

Uprising Jessica Therrien

Overview:

Elyse has done everything she can to protect her friends from The Council's reach. As long as they believe she's dead, she has time to rest and train for war. And war is inevitable.

When Kara arrives with the news that Anna and Chloe have been captured, Elyse is faced with the realization that no one is safe until The Council is stopped and Christoph is destroyed. She doesn't need a prophecy to tell her to lead an army. Christoph has done the one thing that ensures she'll fight to the death. He's threatened the people she loves.

It will take more than the words of an oracle to help them fight against the most powerful Descendant alive. To break The Council's oppression and rise up against a plot so many years in the making, Elyse will need to get dangerously close to her enemy. So close, in fact, she may not survive.

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Tragic J. A. Huss

Tragic  J. A. Huss

Overview:

Rook Walsh is TRAGIC

Because life so far – just sucks. Some girls get parents. Rook got the foster care system. Some girls get Prince Charming. Rook got an abusive frog. Some girls get lucky…

Rook got a second chance.

And she took it. Because when fate throws you a bone – you grab it with both hands and run.

Antoine Chaput knows the minute he spies Rook in his photography studio that she’s got The Look. The dark and desperate look he must have to land the exclusive TRAGIC media contract.

Rook is paired up with top model, Ronin, and he’s everything her abusive ex-boyfriend wasn’t. Patient, gentle, happy, attentive, and sexy! He knows exactly what to do to make Rook blush for Antoine’s camera.

Rook’s luck changes in an instant and suddenly she’s the darling of the modeling world. It’s a dream job to go with a dream guy and all she has to do is look pretty and follow directions. But there’s always a price to pay – and Rook is about to get the bill.


Video About This Book

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The White Princess Phillippa Gregory

The White Princess   Phillippa Gregory

Overview:

The newest novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory tells the passionate story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of the White Queen, who gets caught in the middle of a battle for the crown of England.

The White Princess opens as the news of the battle of Bosworth is brought to Princess Elizabeth of York, who will learn not only which rival royal house has triumphed, Tudor or York, but also which suitor she must marry: Richard III her lover, or Henry Tudor her enemy.

A princess from birth, Elizabeth fell in love with Richard III, though her mother made an arranged betrothal for her with the pretender to the throne: Henry Tudor. When Henry defeats Richard against all odds, Elizabeth has to marry the man who murdered her lover in battle, and create a new royal family with him and his ambitious mother: Margaret Beaufort, The Red Queen. But, while the new monarchy can win, it cannot, it seems, hold power in an England which remembers the House of York with love.

The new king’s greatest fear is that somewhere, outside England, a prince from the House of York is waiting to invade and re-claim the throne for the house of York. Fearing that none of his new allies can be trusted, Henry turns to his wife to advise him, all the time knowing that her loyalties must be divided. When the young man who would be king finally leads his army and invades England, it is for Elizabeth to decide whether she recognizes him as her brother and a claimant to the throne, or denies him in favor of the husband she is coming to love.

"Loyalties are torn, paranoia festers and you can almost hear the bray of royal trumpets as the period springs to life. It’s a bloody irresistible read."
(People Magazine)

"Bring on the blood, sex and tears! . . . You name it, it's all here."
(USA Today)

“Gregory returns with another sister act. The result: her best novel in years.”
(USA Today)

“Gregory delivers another vivid and satisfying novel of court intrigue, revenge, and superstition. Gregory’s many fans as well as readers who enjoy lush, evocative writing, vividly drawn characters, and fascinating history told from a woman’s point of view will love her latest work.”
(Library Journal)

“Gregory is one of historical fiction’s superstars, and The Kingmaker’s Daughter shows why . . . providing intelligent escape, a trip through time to a dangerous past.”
(Historical Novels Review (Editor's Choice Review))

“Wielding magic again in her latest War of the Roses novel … Gregory demonstrates the passion and skill that has made her the queen of English historical fiction.…Gregory portrays spirited women at odds with powerful men, endowing distant historical events with drama, and figures long dead or invented with real-life flaws and grand emotions. She makes history … come alive for readers.”
(Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“Gregory ... always delivers the goods.”
(New York Post)

“Elizabeth must navigate the treacherous waters of marriage, maternity, and mutiny in an age better at betrayal than childbirth. . . . At this novel’s core lies a political marriage seen in all its complexity.”
(Publishers Weekly)

“This rich tapestry brings to vivid life the court of Henry and Elizabeth. Meticulously drawn characters with a seamless blending of historical fact and fiction combine in a page-turning epic of a story. Tudor-fiction fans can never get enough, and they will snap this one up.”
(Library Journal (starred review))

"Gorgeous fun."
(New York Daily News)

"As usual, Gregory delivers a spellbinding exposé."
(Kirkus Reviews)

"Replete with intrigue and heartrending drama."
(Booklist)

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The Summer I Said Yes Tess Harper

The Summer I Said Yes   Tess Harper

Overview:

I'm not in any position to pursue a relationship. The last one I was in almost destroyed me. But even though I know he's toxic, I can't stay away.

He has a dangerous smile and eyes that seem to see right through me. A kiss that makes me forget all the ways he could break me. And when he touches me, I become a wild thing that disregards all the walls I so carefully erected to keep me safe.

So I left without saying goodbye.

I thought that was the end. I thought I'd never see him again. And then he walked into the Freshman Art History Survey course I was teaching.

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The Shining Girls Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls  Lauren Beukes

Overview:

THE GIRL WHO WOULDN'T DIE HUNTS THE KILLER WHO SHOULDN'T EXIST.

The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own."

Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant to have a future.

Kirby is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women, burning with potential, whose lives Harper is destined to snuff out after he stumbles on a House in Depression-era Chicago that opens on to other times.

At the urging of the House, Harper inserts himself into the lives of the shining girls, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He's the ultimate hunter, vanishing into another time after each murder, untraceable-until one of his victims survives.

Determined to bring her would-be killer to justice, Kirby joins the Chicago Sun-Times to work with the ex-homicide reporter, Dan Velasquez, who covered her case. Soon Kirby finds herself closing in on the impossible truth . . .

THE SHINING GIRLS is a masterful twist on the serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing heroine in pursuit of a deadly criminal.

"A grisly crime thriller meets sci-fi action meets historical fiction in a wildly inventive summer page-turner." (Entertainment Weekly)

"One of the scariest and best-written thrillers of the year, not to mention the most memorable portrait of a serial killer since Henry H. Holmes in....Erik Larson's 2003 nonfiction bestseller The Devil in the White City." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"A triumph ... [T]he smart and spunky Kirby Mizrachi is as exciting to follow as any in recent genre fiction ... [E]ach chapter in which [Harper] appears holds a reader's attention, especially the sharply described murder scenes - some of which read as much like starkly rendered battlefield deaths out of Homer as forensic reconstructions of terrible crimes ... This book means business." (NPR.org)

"Beukes is so profusely talented - capable of wit, darkness, and emotion on a single page - that a blockbuster seems inevitable....The Shining Girls marks her arrival as a major writer of popular fiction." (USA Today)

"The premise is pure Stephen King, but Beukes gives it an intricate, lyrical treatment all her own." (Time)

"THE SHINING GIRLS is utterly original, beautifully written, and I must say, it creeped the holy bejasus out of me. This is something special." (Tana French)

"A tremendous work of suspense fiction. What's more, it's a fabulous piece of both time-travel and serial killer fiction, using the intersection of those two themes to explore questions of free will, predestination, and causality in a mind-melting, heart-pounding mashup that delivers on its promise." (Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing)

"I loved THE SHINING GIRLS. It really is a new kind of thriller, sitting somewhere between The Time Traveller's Wife and The Silence of The Lambs. A dark, relentless, time-twisting, page-turning murder story guaranteed to give you heart palpitations. It shines." (Matt Haig, author of The Radleys)

"THE SHINING GIRLS is enthralling and dazzlingly inventive. Lauren Beukes risks everything with a startlingly original structure, that's perfectly executed. A huge accomplishment."

(Deon Meyer)

"Very smart...completely kick-ass. Beukes' handling of the joints between the realistic and the fantastic is masterful, and those are always my favorite parts, in this kind of story. Not the weirdness (which is itself superb here, and very ample) but the segue to it. The liminal instant." (William Gibson)

"Imagine Poe and Steinbeck in a knife fight where Poe wins and writes Jack the Ripper's version of The Grapes of Wrath. Lauren Beukes's THE SHINING GIRLS is even scarier than that."

(Richard Kadrey)

"A compelling roller coaster read." (Florida Times-Union)

"One of this summer's hottest books." (Wired) 

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