Day After Night

Day After Night, Anita Diamant's newest is coming out in September, and it's Diamant at her best. This novel follows Jewish survivors after WWII as they try to make their way to Israel, but are held by the British military at an interment camp for illegal immigrants While held at Atlit, the interment camp, four young women come together and in their own unique voices tell the story of their survival from the Nazis. The end of the novel details the rescue from Atlit that was made in October 1945, freeing 200 prisoners. If you are looking for historical fiction, this is a great book.

Await your reply

Await your reply, by the great Dan Choan, I must warn you doesn't come out for a full month (August 25th, I think). But it's worth picking up when it does. In seemingly three separate plot lines, Choan fleshes out the story of Miles, a young man searching for his twin brother, Lucy, a recent high school graduate running away with her history teacher, and Ryan, a Northwestern student who after screwing up his college career goes to live with his biological father. The characters are interesting and well done, and the underlying mystery in the book kept me inthralled throughout. An exceptionally well done mystery.

The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death

Have I mentioned that I adore Laurie Notaro? I love her. She's the author of 5 humorous essay books and one fiction novel. I love them all completely. Her newest one is no exception, it is funny, wickedly beautifully funny. I often find myself reading her essays and tears running down my face as I laugh. She is a klutzy, honest, warm and can turn an incident that has happened to many of us into something truly brilliantly funny. This is for all of us who can't quiet keep it together, and don't seem to mind that much, just so long as we can have a beer and laugh about it. Try her first book The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club. I picked it up on a whim at my local bookstore when it first came out, and I have been pushing Laurie ever since to my friends. Perhaps the reason I haven't liked the last few books I've read was because there was a new Notaro sitting on my shelf waiting for me to start it, or because I had just read it and now find anything without a pitch perfect sense of humor annoying. Girls, seriously, need a laugh, go get it.

Shanghi Girls

I had high hopes for Shanghi girls by Lisa See. I even stopped at the Bookstall in Winnetka the day after she was there to buy a full priced sign book (If you've never been, go to the Bookstall, Roberta and her staff are amazingly knowledgeable and they have the best author signings. They always have an amazing collection of signed books), and I don't like to buy full priced books. Despite liking See's other books, this one wasn't very good. It's the story of two sisters in Shanghi before World War II, their arranged marriages to American and the life they find in L.A. I wasn't all that impressed with the main characters, and the rest of the characters were never fully realized. Read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan instead.