The School of Essential Ingredients

Erica Bauermeister's first novel is a feast for the senses. And torture if you are hungry while reading it. Through the chapters you meet all the members of a cooking class taught by an extraordinary restaurateur. One night they make ravioli "no thicker than paper, their edges crinkled, their surfaces kissed with melted butter, scattered with bits of shallots and hazelnuts, like rice thrown at a wedding." Bauermeister captures moment after moment of her characters being healed by the intersection of food and emotions. For fans of Like Water for Chocolate and The God of Small Things. -- Jenny H.

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Corner Shop

“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Roopa Farooki addresses the relative truth of this Oscar Wilde quote through three generations of the Khalil family. Lucky, a gifted young soccer player, dreams of winning the World Cup for England. His French-born mother, Delphine, struggles with her identity as a housewife and with her attraction to her father-in-law, Zaki, with whom she'd once had an affair. Zaki himself yearns for a life beyond his shop. Corner Shop is uneven but still charming--particularly when the slightly clueless, but honest and honorable, Lucky is the focal point.
--Katy S.

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Step-Ball-Change

By Jeanne Ray. Caroline and Tom are comfortable--they are happily married and good parents to their four successful adult children. Their lives are upended when, suddenly and simultaneously, their daughter announces she will marry and Caroline’s newly-separated sister comes to stay with them. I picked up Step-Ball-Change while I was on vacation, and it was the perfect choice for a long bus ride--the characters are endearing, the writing snappy, and the conflicts and dramas engaging but not earth-shattering. --Katy S.

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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Written by David Wroblewski, this Oprah pick is set in the wilds of Wisconsin near the Chequamegon National Forest. It takes place before the spread of cell phone use and is an amazingly fascinating family saga, loosely based on the Hamlet story. The Sawtelles raise special dogs that are trained before they are sold—who would have dreamed dog training could be so interesting? Edgar doesn’t fit his surname—he can see, but he can’t tell because he is mute.--Barb P.

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The Condition

Jennifer Haigh (author of Baker Towers, reviewed earlier on this blog) combines two timeless elements in this multiple point-of-view story: dysfunctional families and a summerhouse. The "condition," a genetic disorder, stunts the physical growth of daughter Gwen, and the reaction of her parents and brothers stunts the rest of their lives. Covering the 1960s to present-day, the McKotch family grows up and apart and finally--after no small amount of pain--realigns in new ways. Readalikes: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen for dysfunctional families and Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan for dysfunctional families and a summerhouse. --Jenny H.

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Then We Came to the End

In his debut novel, Joshua Ferris describes the motley crew at an advertising agency going slowly downhill. Tom Mota is a bitter, recently divorced, gun-loving copywriter who wears three polo shirts at once. Hank Neary is perpetually writing a “small, angry” novel about an ad agency. Lynn Mason is their boss, a self-possessed workaholic. The office shenanigans are fun, but the surprise is how often the story is genuinely moving. Uniquely narrated from a “we” perspective, Then We Came to the End was a 2007 National Book Award finalist. --Katy S.

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The Sugar Queen

By Sarah Addison Allen. 27-year-old Josey cares for (and is controlled by) her caustic mother, taking frequent refuge in a closet stocked with sweets of all kinds. Her claustrophobic world starts to slowly expand as she develops relationships with two women in transitional states, Della Lee and Chloe. Fans of Allen’s first novel, Garden Secrets, will also enjoy The Sugar Queen. Many of the same elements are present—strong female friendships, benign magic, and new love. The characters, again, are quirky and likeable. A comfortable read. --Katy S.

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Three Girls and Their Brother

In Theresa Rebeck’s compulsively readable first novel, Polly, Daria, and Amelia Heller become “It” girls when they are featured in a photo spread in The New Yorker. This is a funny, edgy look at celebrity and the machinations behind it. Rebeck tells the story from the perspectives of each of the girls and their brother in turn, creating distinctive, spot-on voices. You will root for these teens—they are smart and articulate, and most of the adults in their lives do not have their best interests at heart. --Katy S.

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Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

Canadian author/artist Bryan Lee O'Malley has won over graphic novel fans and phobes alike with this hilarious and sweet series. 23-year-old Toronto slacker Scott Pilgrim has met the girl of his dreams… literally; she's been using his subconscious as a shortcut on her delivery route. To date her he must fight her seven evil ex-boyfriends. But how much will this disrupt his precious little life of hanging out, practicing with his hard rock band, and the girl he's already chastely dating? A big part of the fun comes from how Scott and his friends react to kung fu fights, videogame elements, and outright wackiness in their otherwise realistic twentysomething lives. -- János

Request Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life or volume 2, volume 3, or volume 4 from the Saint Paul Public Library.

The Liar's Diary

Patry Francis writes a chameleon of a book. It begins like women's fiction: shy school secretary Jeanne's life is shook up by the new music teacher--an intriguing, beautiful artist named Ali. The story's opening pace is slow, like Jeanne's life at that point, bouncing gently from her job to her roles as doctor's wife and mother to Jamie, a 16 year-old boy who is popular, but overweight. Jamie's the light of Jeanne's life and the tension between father, mother and son are just the usual adolescent tension, isn't it? Just as the reader is lulled by the somewhat sinister lullabye of the opening chapters, violence erupts. Like Jeanne, the reader is suddenly on a roller coaster with stomach-dropping turns. The physical locations may be an idyllic suburb and a remote cabin in New Hampshire, but prepare to also travel deep into Jeanne's psyche.--Jenny H.

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Gods Behaving Badly

In Marie Phillip’s debut novel, the Greek gods have fallen on hard times. They live in a decrepit, filthy, cramped flat in London, and their powers are waning. When Aphrodite convinces her son Eros to make Apollo fall in love with a mortal, she sets into motion a course of events that involves death by lightning, the extinguishing of the sun, and a trip to the underworld. The translation of the gods’ powers into a modern context is entertaining (Dionysus owns a nightclub and Artemis is a dog-walker) and the mortal characters, Alice and Neil, are well-drawn and charming. --Katy S.

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Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Diaz tells this Dominican/American family story told from various first-person accounts. This book was written for me with my fluency in nerd speak and Spanish. Part of it takes place in New Brunswick, NJ where my brother lived for years, and also in the Dominican Republic. Good reminder of the sometimes untranslatable nature of language. This is Junot's first book in 10 years. He needs to write more quickly. --Marcus

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Prisoner of Tehran

Marina Nemat’s memoir is captivating from the first paragraph. Nemat describes her beautiful childhood, then contrasts it with her bleak teenage years. Those years were spent in Tehran's Evin prison during the Iranian Revolution. Her crime? Asking her teacher to teach calculus rather than the Koran. It is only through the intervention of one of her interrogators that her death sentence is reduced to life in prison. However, she must convert to Islam and marry him. As shifting factions fight for control of the government and the prison, her husband is assassinated. Through the intervention of his family (and a second meeting with the Ayatollah himself), Marina is released from prison. She relocates to Toronto and is finally able to embark on a normal life. --Lori L.

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Garden Spells

Sarah Addison Allen’s debut novel centers around a family of women, the Waverleys, all of whom have unusual talents. A wayward Waverley sister, young daughter in tow, returns to her hometown seeking safety from a bad relationship. She has to make peace with the family--and the town--she left behind. Though nothing about the plot will surprise readers, the characters are engaging and the ending satisfying. Fans of Alice Hoffman (especially Practical Magic), Laura Esquivel and Lorna Landvik will enjoy the strong relationships and gentle magical realism. --Katy S.

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Self Storage: A Novel

Gayle Brandeis imbues atmosphere into every page of her novel, which tells ths story of Flan, a young mother with a grad-student husband. Don't be misled by the lingerie cover. This atmosphere is unsettled as it veers between the issues of an Oprah book and some chick-lit humor. Flan supports the struggling family with finds from auctions of abandoned storage units. Funk is what she often finds in the storage units too, while searching for meaning among all the stuff. Beautifully written, the story hinges on an old copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and liberally quotes from it. The ending of the book is neither a triumph or tragedy, but it may leave you wanting to fill up on Whitman. --Jenny H.

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Maynard & Jennica

by Rudolph Delson

A novel told from the perspectives of more than thirty narrators, including a macaw and an emergency brake, could easily get a little precious, but Delson pulls it off—what begins as a series of tangentially related vignettes comes together into a fairly cohesive account of the relationship between Maynard, an eccentric independent filmmaker and native New Yorker, and Jennica, an industrious California transplant. 9/11 serves as a catalyst in their relationship but doesn’t overwhelm it. A funny and fast-paced debut novel. --Katy S.

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Legends in Exile

This volume collects the first issues of Bill Willingham's acclaimed comic book series Fables. The story introduces a secret enclave in New York City whose inhabitants are the characters of fable and folklore, refugees from a mysterious invasion of the fairy tale kingdoms. Snow White, the deputy mayor, and the Big Bad Wolf, the sheriff, reluctantly team up to investigate a bloody murder all while striving to keep their community a secret. If you liked Neil Gaiman's The Sandman or American Gods, you will surely enjoy the first five volumes of Fables available at the Saint Paul Public Library. -- János.

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Agnes and the Hitman

Agnes and the Hitman is the second joint effort from Jennifer Crusie (beloved romance writer) and Bob Mayer (former Green Beret turned action-adventure novelist). Like their first collaboration, Don’t Look Down, Agnes and the Hitman features a competent, sexy woman with a dry sense of humor and a tough government operative with a vested interest in keeping the heroine alive. The plot, involving a wedding, flamingos, anger management, and the mob, is elaborate but never out of control. The many supporting characters are substantial enough that they add to, rather than detract from, the story. A smart, well-written, romance novel. --Katy S.

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A Spot of Bother

Mark Haddon is known for his book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In A Spot of Bother, George Hall, the patriarch of a middle-class British family, is slowly becoming obsessed with his mortality. His family is too wrapped up in their own problems to notice that George occasionally has "a spot of bother." Bumping up against his unfaithful wife, his divorcee daughter and his uneasily gay son makes for poignant and funny moments. When daughter Katie announces she is marrying her boyfriend, it looks like the family could be united in disliking "that Ray," but the ensuing wedding plans instead splinter them further. Part drama, part farce, this book gives a light touch to serious problems.--Jenny H.

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The Exception

This thriller by Christian Jungersen (translated from the Danish by Anna Paterson) is set in Copenhagen where the four main characters work together at the fictional Danish Center for Information on Genocide. But there is something rotten in the State of Denmark--the group dynamic at the place is poisonous. Fast paced and action packed, the Exception explores office politics and human relations in a country where people ride their bikes to work and celebrate with champagne in the office.--Barb P.

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