Jamie
How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
“I just finished this and it’s really great. It’s about a time machine repair man who is looking for his father. It’s sadder than I thought it would be, nostalgic and touching. But there are also elements of science and physics, enough to tell that the author knows what he’s talking about. He threw in some Star Wars references, too, like Luke Skywalker’s son who’s all angsty because he can’t be like his dad. It was a lot of fun, I really liked it.”
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Merrilee
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
“I picked this up thinking it would be interesting to read for a couple of pages, and then four hours later I’m on the last page. It’s about a woman who just graduated from Cordon Bleu in Paris and everyone’s asking her what’s she doing next and when she’s opening a restaurant. What she ends up doing instead is sort of conducting a sociology experiment. She’s inspired one night when she follows a woman around a grocery store and sees her fill her cart with nothing but boxes and cans. She stalks the woman around the store and then convinces her to put it all back and fill up her cart with natural food. After that, she posts online that she’s looking for female students to teach them how to cook. She starts with a group of women who are afraid to hold a knife, and then eight months later, she’s got them cutting up chickens and doing the whole thing. In the end, she’s taking lessons on canning from one of the students! This book goes hand in hand with Michael Pollan’s Food Rules.”
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Flippo
Lord of the Barnyard by Tristan Egolf
“So far this is really good. It’s about a loner misanthrope-type growing up in the corn belt. Later on he gets into a lot more trouble. Adam (fellow BookPerson) has been pressuring me to read this book for a long time. It reminds us both of where we grew up.”
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Stephanya
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
“I read the first book, The Magicians, on a recent trip to Italy, and the whole time I was torn between not wanting to put the book down and, ‘Hey! It’s the Colosseum! Hey! It’s the Vatican!’ I coldn’t wait to get home and start The Magician King.’
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Meg
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
“This is definitely a page turner. You’re constantly trying to get the full story, in a good way. And by the time the full story becomes clear, you can’t believe what it actually is. I had no clue going into this book. When it hit me it was like two o’clock in the morning and I was like, ‘Why?!?!'”
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