http://kristinrohan.com/2007/04/26/a-novel-book-club-recommendation-from-carol/

Carol is Sassy Sonya’s friend. She’s my book dealer and always gives me good recommendations. Here’s her latest reco for me – and now for you – my 3 readers. I like Carol because she’s always friendly and knowledgeable. She loves to read and talk about reading. I LOVE THAT. We always pick up exactly where we left off, except I never get enough time to spend with her. So Carol – at Sonya’s next party, I’m ready for some chit chat.

Carol’s Books:

Check out the trilogy by John Burdett (Bangkok 8, …Tattoo and …Haunts).

If you have read Cassandra, you may also enjoy The Birth of Venus.

And the feminine take on Camelot by Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon. (Okay, so I read this and it rocks – so do all the related books – if you like Camelot, you will like this. It’s still one of the most meaningful books I’ve read besides Mary Magdalene.

I am excited to see Carol at the Alameda Antique Fair on September 2. I hope she has her fancy hat and red wagon, because there are a lot of treasures — including books — so it will be a hoot.

Anyhoo – Carol gave me some awesome recommendations – Thanks, Carol –

Okay, go to it and keep those cards and letters coming…….

-Cassandra by Christa Wolf
In this volume, the distinguished East German writer
Christa Wolf retells the story of the fall of Troy,
but from the point of view of the woman whose
visionary powers earned her contempt and scorn.
Written as a result of the author’s Greek travels and
studies, Cassandra speaks to us in a pressing
monologue whose inner focal points are patriarchy and
war. In the four accompanying pieces, which take the
form of travel reports, journal entries, and a letter,
Wolf describes the novel’s genesis. Incisive and
intelligent, the entire volume represents an urgent
call to examine the past in order to insure a future.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374519048/104-4062189-9803904?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

-all the poetry by Odysseus Elytis (sometimes spelled
Odysseas); best is translated by Kimon Friar but it
tends to be out of print & hard to come by (but so
worth the search!)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=Ju3G0mZCcI&isbn=0877221138&itm=11

And from Amazon:
Despite having won the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1979, Odysseus Elytis–probably the greatest Greek
poet of the 20th century–remained an obscure figure
to the English-reading world. But with this posthumous
edition (Elytis died in 1996 at the age of 84),
translators Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris have given
English-reading poetry lovers a chance to discover
what all the fuss was about. Elytis’s poems are
passionate and subtle, rich with Greek history and
myth, yet are also thoroughly modern in their
sensibility. Any excerpt from a lifetime’s worth of
work is inadequate, but these lines from “Verb the
Dark” give you a taste of Elytis’s depth: “So then,
what we called ’sky’ is not; ‘love’ is not; ‘eternal’
is not. Things do not / Obey their names.”
801849241/104-4062189-9803904?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

I LOVE TO READ – i love almost more than anything. i cannot get enough words in my brain. so you can imagine, that being in a book club is the most exciting things to me. i’ve been in book clubs before, and they were social and enjoyable and all that but i really wanted to be in a club where we discussed the book to death! and i think i found one!
my friends and i are starting in april and i am going to be the bookkeeper – keeper of the lists – how exciting – i always like to know what is happening – so here it is. i’ll comment on these books periodically (haha – get it?) but if my fans want to send other recommended books, please do. i’m sure i’ll have time to read ALL the emails.

tada! in no particular order (please pardon me if some of these are wrong – i haven’t cross-referenced them on the wide world of tubes:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
THE LEGEND OF FIRE HORSE WOMAM, JEANNE WAKATSUKI HOUSTON
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, CORMAC McCARTHY
BLINK, MALCOLM GLADWELL
GILEAD, MARILYN ROBINSON
ALL OVER CREATION, RUTH OZEKI
THE BOOK OF SALT, MONIQUE TRUONG
HANNAHCOULTER, WENDELL BERRY
JANE AUSTIN BOOK CLUB, KAREN JOY FOWLER
THE PASSION OF ARTEMESIA, SUSAN VREELAND
CATFISH AND MANDALA, ANDREW X. PHAM
SUITE FRANCAISE, IRENE NEMIROVSKY
FIDELITY, WENDELL BERRY (THAT DISTANT LAND
Short Stories)
MARCH, GERALDINE BROOKS
THE BLUEST EYE, TONI MORRISON**
THE GLASS CASTLE: A MEMOIR, JEANNETTE WALLS
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, SARA GRUEN

Plainsong – Kent Haruf – our guest writer, Lauren Cutter, has read this book and has this to say: Just finished reading Plainsong, by Kent Haruf. I loved it! It drew me in from the first page. The characters were very real, though experiencing a life so different from my own, they felt authentic. I’m a little sad that it’s done, but thankfully I have two more books by the same author.

Thanks, Lauren – I think I’ll check it out!