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on my bookshelf
{favorites new and old}

Hats & Eyeglasses by Martha Frankel (Tarcher/Penguin) A memoir that reads as if Martha has always been your best friend—who just forgot to tell you about how growing up in a fun-loving family of gamblers led her into a secret, addictive love affair with online poker and dealt her some of the most heartbreaking and hilarious hands life or fate had to offer. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll read it again—and love it more!
www.marthafrankel.com
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead) If anyone ever told me I’d be enthralled with an epic novel accessorized with footnotes about the Dominican Republic and riddled with unknown Spanish phrases, I’d say, “no way!” But I’d be so wrong. Filled with humor and humanity, this wild ride read about a family curse and a nerdy hero’s indomitable quest for love is nothing short of dazzling.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton) Absolutely breathtaking! An ingenious, virtuoso novel of lost love that crisscrosses lives, spans generations, and—with bittersweet humor—leaves you feeling witness to a literary miracle of faith, hope, and destiny. I adored it.
Lush Life by Richard Price (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) If you were a fan of “The Wire,” this book is like discovering a lost episode. While you’re reading it, you think you’re watching it. It is page-turning terrific.
Flipping Out: A Lomax & Biggs Mystery by Marshall Karp (St. Martin’s Minotaur) If you haven’t met Marshall Karp’s snapper-happy LAPD detective duo of Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs in their earlier adventures (The Rabbit Factory and Blood Thirsty), you should. Meanwhile, start with this murderously fun-fueled caper about house flipping, double crossing, and a killer into expanding a cops’ dead wives club. Guilty pleasure guaranteed.
www.lomaxandbiggs.com
The Devil’s Backbone by Kim Wozencraft (St Martin’s Press) If you’re looking for thrillers charged with psychological suspense, knockout plot twists and written in mind-blowing prose, read Kim Wozencraft. This former undercover narcotics cop (author of Rush ), has lived on both sides of the law and her addictively gritty novels spare neither.
www.kimwozencraft.com
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver (Harper Perennial) A “What If” novel that I would hate myself if I had missed. Lionel Shriver (prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin) uses a parallel-universe structure—in a unique double narrative—to follow one woman’s life as it unfolds like seamlessly sliding doors with her choice of two completely different men.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Picador) It won the Pulitzer Prize! It deserved the Pulitzer Prize! It is one of my all-time favorite novels. This is a book I often wish I’d never read so that I could re-experience the wonder and pleasure of reading it for the first time.
   
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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