How is it that I am recommending a book with sadness in the title for my happy book club choices blog?  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender is a fantastical tale of Rose who can taste the emotions of people who prepared the food she eats. This isn’t as enchanting as it sounds, because Rose's mother is unhappy, and all the emotions flood over her daughter. Rose is also trying to figure out the mystery around her brother, who also has an unusual talent.  Underneath the story of fantastical gifts, Lemon Cake is a portrait of a girl being overwhelmed by the world. Watching her learn to cope is a realistic and moving experience. 

Two literary choices set in warm places

Brazil and Egypt.  I enjoy learning about other places through novels, and in winter it's those warm settings that appeal!  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett is the story of Marina, a scientist searching for her missing lab partner Anders in Brazil.   First Marina has to find intelligent, single minded Dr. Swenson who lives deep in the Amazon pursuing her research.   The first half of the novel is slow as Marina's locked up character is revealed.  The reader experiences the same waiting frustration as Marina as she navigates Dr. Swenson's blockades.  Then it's up the river into a female version of Heart of Darkness.  The plot speeds up as the story explores the clash of western and native culture, whether the end justifies the means, and the pull of motherhood.  The novel ends suddenly, with many plot threads still to be worked through.  If you like deep exploration of character like in Patchett's Bel Canto, you will enjoy this book.

Anatomy of a Disappearance opens in Alexandria, Egypt.  Author Hisham Matar gives us Nuri, a young boy mourning the death of his mother.  He falls in love with a beautiful woman named Mona, whom his political dissident father weds.  It is an uneasy trio of characters full of hidden motivations.  When his father is kidnapped and disappears, Nuri struggles to understand.  He slowly unravels the truth, and learns to live with the huge absence of his father.  This is also a novel of characters facing terrible challenges.

Run away to the Night Circus

Do you enjoy Cirque du Soleil shows?  If yes, you will want to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  It tells the story of Celia and Marco, two magicians dueling with magic inside a travelling circus at the turn of the 20^th century. Although the love story follows well worn patterns, there are unique supporting characters. 

 This novel is more about looking around and enjoying the circus experience instead of following a plot through to a conclusion.  Now I’m done, what I remember are the imaginative descriptions of the circus itself.  What remains vivid are the bonfire in the courtyard, the bright red scarves of the devoted fans the Reveurs, the hot chocolate with cinnamon, and the various tents with their magical offerings.

If you enjoy being read to, I recommend listening to the book CD of this story, read by Jim Dale.  He’s the versatile voice actor who read 146  different characters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  He creates a separate voice for each person, extending their characterization.  It’s like the way an illustrator can develop characters in ways not outlined in the plot. 

An interesting sideline about this bestseller is that there is a Night Circus game on Twitter so that you can connect with other readers to extend the reading experience.  The use of social media and online gaming is fascinating to watch.  How will we take the solitary joy of reading and make it a social experience?   I’m sticking with my friends in book club.  But then, I’m all about the food.  And now to put some cinnamon in my hot chocolate….

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

The Imperfectionists is a collection of short stories about a set of characters working at an English language newspaper in Rome.  Some book club members disliked the jumping around among characters, and would have preferred a more linear plot with developing characters.  Others enjoyed it, citing the excellent character studies and easily readable sections.  The perfect one chapter before bedtime book!  It is like a Robert Altman movie, with the connections between all the various characters slowly revealed.  One thing it is not particularly about, though, is Rome!  The Italian setting didn't figure very heavily in the story at all.  The book lead to interesting discussions about the impending digital age and what it will mean for newspapers and books.  A good read, although some felt there could have been at least one functional happy relationship!

The Cellist of Sarajevo

After a summer reading things my book club wouldn't enjoy (fantasy, young adult, and then some young adult fantasy!)  we're back together again for the fall.  Our first choice was The Cellist of Sarajevo by  Steven Galloway. Not a happy story, but a happy choice in that it got us talking.  There are three fictional narratives by people living through the Yugoslav war in the 1990s.  Each of the characters react in different ways to a cellist who decides to play in the street to commemorate people killed in a bomb.  We felt that the story was accessible, easy to read, and gave us a first person idea of what it would be like to live in a war zone.  The theme of the redemption of art resonated with the group.  Sad, but highly recommended.

The happy comfort of listening to someone read aloud

I have a cold.  Therefore I want comfort- waffles and stories that don't make me think too hard.  When I was a child that meant the structured stories of the Bobbsey Twins and Famous 5.  They were a  fun escape into an entertaining and reassuring alternate world.   When I was little I had my mother stirring the bubbles out of ginger ale and reading to me  from Enid Blyton.  Now I have Flavia de Luce on my iPod.  (and my mother brings over cupcakes!)

Flavia is the 11 year old aspiring English chemist that I've mentioned before.  Her first adventure is in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  This weekend I listened to Jayne Entwistle read the second novel The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered.  An amusing character working through the plot metholdically like Agatha Christie.  When I fell asleep for a section, it didn't even matter.  I just kept on listening, secure in my knowledge that Flavia would triumph!

My friend B.T. is of the opinion that Flavia would not make a great choice for a book club because there isn't much content for discussion.  But Flavia is a perfect companion to distract one through a cold or while away some summer hours in a lawn chair.

A happy and difficult and rewarding novel

In looking for new books for this blog, I placed holds at the library randomly on novels with the subject of happiness. A most incredible book was caught in this random net. Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers is a fantastic and difficult read. It’s a multi layered story of Thassa Amzwadit, an Algerian immigrant with hyperthermia, a genetic disposition to happiness. She meets an unhappy writer, a psychologist, a journalist, and a genomicist. All these well realized characters are swirled into a chain of events as Thassa’s genes are studied and made public.


The plot, however, does not unfurl easily. It's layered with heavy debates about ethics, media, and the writing process. The author interjects with comments on how the story is going. The language is difficult and poetic. I had to read this slowly in order to digest the complex ideas. I found it a compelling and rich commentary on society’s obsessions and the direction science and industry are heading. If you liked The Elegance of the Hedgehog or Corrections by Jonathan Franzen you might find this book a treasure as I did.