Eva Thorvald’s mother leaves her in infancy in the care of Eva’s father who is a cook in a Minnesota restaurant.  Whenever he tries a new dish, he imagines how baby Eva will enjoy it.  She inherits his keen palate and love of cooking, and after years of hardship, Eva becomes a well-known and innovative chef in Minneapolis.  Along the way, she meets an assortment of homespun characters.

This is Stradal’s first novel, and hopefully his works will improve the more he creates.  Although I didn’t dislike Kitchens of the Great Midwest, it did nothing for me. The descriptions of food fell flat, the characters were one dimensional and at times the plot was disjointed.

Although this is the most recently published book by Japan’s most popular author, it is actually the first two works he ever wrote.  Written between 1969 and 1979, these two novellas share most of the same characters.  Like most of Murakami’s works, the plot is almost impossible to describe while his prose is succinct and casual.  These are not nearly as good as some of his later works, however; one can see the beginnings of a great author.

For me, the introduction was the most interesting part.  In it Murakami describes how he decided he was a writer as well as the process he used to invent his own style.

For those of you who do not like long, slow reads that touch on uncomfortable subjects, skip this blog.  For the rest, this novel was one of the best works of fiction I have read in the last decade. In a nutshell, it follows the lives of four friends from the time they are in college until they are in their late 50’s.  Of these four, the work focuses on Jude St. Francis, and orphan who, up until the age of fifteen, experiences an enormous amount of physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

Yanagihara’s writing is so accurate and realistically descriptive that there were times I almost felt I was sharing experiences with Jude and his friends.

Warning:  There are parts of this book that are emotionally difficult to read, especially sections that describe many types of abuse including cutting and rape.

A work of historical fiction centered on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sisi.  The novel begins when Sisi leaves her rural life in Bavaria to accompany her mother and sister, Helene, to Austria where they have been summoned to meet the Austrian Prince, Franz Joseph.  He is betrothed to Helene but falls in love with Sisi and marries her, much to the dismay of his mother.  The book ends with Elisabeth’s coronation in Hungary.  Sisi goes on to live another thirty-one years which leads me to believe Pataki plans on writing a sequel.

The Accidental Empress is a fast, easy read that piqued my interest in the Hapsburg Empire.

I was a big fan of David Mitchell.   I thought Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet were excellent.  I thought The Bone Clocks was interesting but weird.  His newest novel is weird but not interesting.  So as not to give anything away to those who want to read it, Slade House is about twins, Jonah and Norah Grayer, who every nine years need to prey on an unsuspecting citizen to continue their lives of immortality.  Each chapter is devoted to a different victim, and since each character is not delved into, I found it hard to empathize with anyone in this strange, unrealistic, read.

I admire Jonathan Franzen’s fiction; however, many people I know find him frustrating, annoying and/or outrageous.  If you are a fan, you won’t be able to put Purity down; if you’re not, don’t bother picking it up.

Purity is the name of a young woman who would much preferred being called Pip.  Franzen’s novel follows her from Santa Cruz to Oakland to Bolivia to Denver.  Along the way, she encounters a cast of complex, memorable characters who are drawn to her for different reasons.

There are times when some of the subplots appear tangential or confusing.  Don’t worry, eventually everything comes together and Pip’s journey becomes clear.

I have been meaning to read this book since it first came out even though I suspected that some of the content would upset me.  Krakauer’s main premise is that a vast majority of “acquaintance rape” cases at The University of Montana when reported never got further than the Missoula police department.  Although he zeroes in on Montana, Krakauer makes it clear that this type of sexual assault is prevalent on a number of college campuses.  He delves deeply into three such cases, and in each instance, the alleged assault and what ensues is startling, shocking and infuriating.  This work of nonfiction, using direct, straight forward, nondramatic prose, describes a touchy, controversial subject that is slowly being acknowledged and dealt with by a number of colleges and cities across the country.

Mahboubeh Malacouti, an elderly woman, is perusing her garden in Los Angeles, thinking back to events that led up to her birth.  Her mother dies when she is quite young of “women’s problems”, and she is raised by her father and her aunt in a Jewish home in Iran.  The Malacouti’s are wealthy, thanks in large part to her Uncle Asher’s business smarts.  However, with all of his brains and money, Asher cannot produce an heir.  He and his wife will try almost anything to have a child.

This debut novel, which draws on the author’s family history, gets better and better with each chapter.

A beautiful, heart-warming novel about Todd Aaron, an autistic man who has been institutionalized for all of his adult life.  Todd is the narrator, so it is through his eyes, ears and voice that the reader experiences life at Payton Living Center as well as snippets of his childhood.  Todd also introduces his readers to Raykene, his favorite worker at the Center, Mike, his least favorite worker, Tommy Doon, his angry roommate, his parents, his brother, his sister-in-law and several other well-drawn characters.

Best Boy is a novel I could pick up again in several years and discover new and fascinating things within it.

Michael Turner, a successful author, moves from a small town in Wales to London after the sudden death of his wife whom he had recently married.  In London, he becomes friendly with his neighbors, Josh and Samantha Nelson.  However, Michael’s appearance at the wrong place and the wrong time forces all three to re-evaluate themselves and their relationship to each other.

Sheers is good at building suspense and getting his readers involved in the moral dilemmas that unfold in the novel.  An easy read that would be good for a semi-long plane ride.