Office Ladies and Salaried Men is a study done by Yuko Ogasawara about gender, power, and work in large corporations in Japan. She finds much of the clerical work is carried out by young women known as “office ladies” (OLs) or “flowers of the workplace.” OLs serve tea to the men and type and file …
John Scalzi’s Redshirts had me laughing out loud in public more than once. Both parody and homage, the book employs well-known sci-fi tropes to hilarious effect, while still delivering an enjoyable story: quick and fun, if not terribly deep. Considering the main focus of the book—the high death rate of low-ranked crew members serving aboard …
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I am reading The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I kept hearing a lot of buzz about this novel, and I was especially drawn to it after hearing that it was set at a small liberal arts college (a fictional one, that is, Westish College). I have been pleasantly surprised since picking this book …
I was working a shift at the Library a few weeks ago and this book caught my eye as one student was checking it out. I saw the title and was instantly attracted to it: The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World by Jay Bahadur. Prior to this book I have not seen any …
Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts was recommended to me — strongly recommended — by Prof. Levine. I tremendously enjoyed reading the book, and now I’ll pass his recommendation on to you. In the Garden of Beasts tells the story of William E. Dodd, a somewhat disillusioned history professor at the University of Chicago, …
Divergent is the first of a three part series as well as the debut novel of Veronica Roth, who is based in Chicago, Illinois. Divergent follows the protagonist, Beatrice Prior, through a future dystopian Chicago. In this new world there are five factions of society and the story opens as she approaches “Choosing Day”, where …
This novel represents a major shift for author Dennis Lehane, known best for his crime fiction. The Given Day has an epic sweep encompassing baseball, the rise of labor unions, racism, and vicious Boston politics. You’ll meet a temperamental and insecure Babe Ruth and a cold and devious young J. Edgar Hoover. I never thought …
I just finished reading Half-Blood Blues written by Esi Edugyan. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia but was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta by Ghanaian immigrant parents. This is her second novel but it could be her twenty second or her first. It is a work of outstanding clarity and deep, unfathomable mystery. It …
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I have just finished Hans Fallada’s novel Alone in Berlin (also called Every Man Dies Alone), a book which I came across by chance at a flea market in the city. For once, judging a book by its cover (and the blurb) was the right decision! First published in 1947 and set in Berlin during …
Each summer I try to read something challenging along with a few other books on my list and a few I pick up for fun. This summer I chose Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It is set in the 1840’s during our expansion into the west. The Kid is the central character who joins up …