Space Station Mir

12. Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni Honeymoon in Tehran is marked with a certain maturity in hindsight that Lipstick Jihad lacked. At first, Moaveni returns to the singles whorl and Westernized cultural revolution perspective that characterized her first book. However, this book is deliberately political and faithfully follows the rise and fall of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's popularity and particulars of his policy and administration whenever possible. It is my impression that is hard to write anything but a personal perspective on the government of Iran. As Moaveni explains toward the end, no one really knows who has the upper hand when, how, or why. The government contains too many conflicting agencies and parties, all overlooked by various schools of mullahs. One gets the sense that Moaveni is looking over her own beliefs and motivations in hindsight. Her behavior in Iran and decision to live there were strongly influenced by her childhood needs for a sense of belonging and cult...

I was surprised a couple of weekends ago, while traversing the narrow commodity-laden streets of Downtown Crossing, to run across the famed Brattle Bookshop ! I encountered them when I attended the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair back in November. This was the first time I had been to their location though. Practically an entire store is housed outside the shop, partly in bookcases built into the brick of an alleyway. Antique books were to be had for cheap, I remember skimming the memoirs of a countess, published in 1809, on a $5 book rack. There were also volumes of the Everyman library, all manner of cookbooks, and a wealth of old biographies. I didn't even really get to explore the actual premises, though centenarian books reclined on red velvet in the window display. I wanted to, but I thought it might be too tempting. I've promised myself I will buy no new books until I have finished every single book in my room. This includes The History of God and The Theory ...

11. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon Michael Chabon is a modern-day Nabokov, and I don't mean that as a compliment. Like the Russian pedantic, Chabon is too obsessed with coaxing a pondiferous meaning out of each sentence for his work to flow as a whole. His prose is littered with adjectives and dubious compounds. Such a style tends to make me want to skip around in search of a plot, and often ends up making me despise that pretentious narrator. All of Chabon's characters in this book are wordy and self-centered. If I don't like the characters, I rarely like a book. That said, Chabon's Grady Tripp is no Humbert Humbert. He's done (and does) some bad things, but I never ended up hating him. Wonder Boys starts to improve toward the final third of the book. Usually, a book will start out well and go downhill from there, but I found this to be the opposite. Once I figured out the point of the book, and the main theme, how authors become their characters and vice versa, it...

10. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende I went into this book with certain expectations, but also having been just previously bowled over by Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell . This book is on a much calmer, somewhat mystical level, so I got into it slowly, less rabidly. In the past couple of years, I read both The House of the Spirits and Eva Luna. Allende hasn't disappointed me yet. Her books share some very strong common elements; focus on character development, "magical realism" (I think the term is ambiguous, but it will do for now), and some form of political activism. Daughter of Fortune fits the bill. I would say, however, that this is lighter than her other books, and the main character, Eliza Sommers, is the most "normal" of all her protagonists I've met so far. Allende also limited the cast of characters to a comparative few this time. Eliza grows up as an orphan in Chile. She is the adopted daughter of a rich British lady, Miss Rose Sommers. Her...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/07/shakespeare-and-company-bookshop-paris

9. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke "What kind of magic can make a nearly 800 page book seem too short?" USA Today claims on the back cover. Despite the fact that my version at least was over 1000 pages (in rather small print too), I would have to agree it was not long enough. I wish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was the literally Never Ending Story. Mr. Norrell is the first practical magician in York for nearly three hundred years. To guard his distinction, he swiftly and capably disbands the York Society of theoretical magicians in less than one hundred pages. I appreciate the time Clarke takes in the first couple hundred pages to slowly introduce and develop characters. Her style here reminded me strongly of Tolkien, in the best way. I know many people are not such avid fans of description, I have heard this section described as "boring." But, I promise, those are the same people who complain of Lord of the Rings . It all depends on what you...