nomadreader

The backstory: A Burning is the debut novel of Mega Majumdar, who was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She moved to the United States to attend college at Harvard University, followed by graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an editor at Catapult, and lives in New York City. The basics:  "An electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise--to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies--and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India. Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the ...

The backstory: Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my favorite writers . I've read and loved all of her books.  American Wife , a fictionalization of Laura Bush's life, is one of my all-time favorite novels (and the first one I loved so much I rated it 6 stars out of 5.) When she announced she was writing a novel imagining what might have happened if Hillary Clinton never married Bill Clinton (she famously said no twice in real life), it immediately became the most anticipated novel of the year. My thoughts: This novel is best enjoyed the less you know about it. Of course, as I read, I kept wondering: will Hillary become president? That is a compelling plot point, for sure, but it's also a deceptively simple question in what is a brilliantly complex novel. This novel is both the story of the life of one woman and the ways in which her life would be similar or different if she didn't marry Bill Clinton. As the story of the life of a fascinating, if sometimes frustrating, person,...

The basics: Snowden  is a graphic biography of Edward Snowden. Rall traces his life from birth to both understand why he chose to become a whistle blower and to shed light on what our government knows about us and how. My thoughts: I thought I had followed the story of Edward Snowden pretty carefully, but I find both him and his actions, as well as the repercussions, fascinating. I wasn't sure how much I would learn from Snowden , but I actually learned quite a lot. This book is a nice reminder that following something in real time is quite different from taking a step back, understanding the layers of context, and trying to see the bigger picture. Snowden  provides that big picture beautifully, but it's also a gripping tale that reads like fiction. I didn't expect Snowden  to be such a page-turner, but I was instantly hooked. Rall chooses his words carefully, and he uses art to powerfully tell this story. The absence of words makes those that appear more powerful, ...

The backstory: After reading ( and loving ) Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's first book, Game Change , about the 2008 U.S. presidential election, I grabbed a copy of their follow up, Double Down , which chronicles the 2012 election, as soon as my library had it. My thoughts: Admittedly, I'm fascinated by politics. I won't go as far to say I enjoy it most of the time, as I far too often find the antics and actions of politicians maddening, but I do love it in retrospect. Looking back at the minutiae of how elections are won and last, bills are passed, and scandals embraced or ruined fascinate me. Double Down  offers all of those things and more. It begins with a prologue of the first debate between Romney and Obama (remember the one when Obama bombed and Romney came off as charming and likeable?) Then the book shifts back to the beginning of the 2012 campaign. Much of what I loved about Game Change  was the lengthy piece about the Iowa caucuses in 2008. It was my firs...

The backstory: Til You Hear From Me  is the fifth novel in Pearl Cleage's West End series (my reviews of  Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do ,  Babylon Sisters ,  Baby Brother's Blues , and Seen It All and Done the Rest .) The basics: Fresh off working on Obama's 2008 campaign, Ida B. Wells Dunbar is losing hope she'll be offered a job in the administration. Meanwhile, her father, Rev. Dunbar, a famous African-American preacher and civil rights icon is still irked with Obama about the Rev. Wright fallout, is making headlines with his some unfortunate statements. At the pleading of familiar West End face Miss Iona, Ida B. comes to Atlanta to check on her father. My thoughts: I adore Pearl Cleage and her work, but I'll be honest: Til You Hear From Me  started a little rough. The story felt rushed, the writing felt either too flat or too flowery, and one character, Wes, felt flat: "Wes liked women. He didn’t consider them his equals, although like most...

The backstory: With the 2012 U.S. presidential election heating up, I decided it was finally time to read a (recent) historical account of the 2008 election--because I often like a little distance from my politics to keep my emotions in check. As one of my favorite lines in this book says: so well "Obama smirked and reprised for Axelrod another of his favorite sayings: “This shit would be really interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it.”" The basics: Game Change  is a joint effort by John Heilemann, a political writer for New York  magazine, and Mark Halperin, a political reporter for Time magazine. Both covered the 2008 election in depth at the time. In Game Change , they join forces, combine resources, and manage to interview hundreds of political operatives and campaign workers. My thoughts: I devoured John Heilemann's coverage of the 2008 election. Typically when my New York  arrives, I flip right to the Approval Matrix on the last page and then do the cros...