Musems and Women and other stories
John Updike
The title story, Museums and Women, explores the narrator's interactions with, shockingly, museums and women.
Reading
Satantango
László Krasznahorkai
The novel is set in a desolate, rain-slicked landscape where the inhabitants are trapped in a state of perpetual decay, waiting for a miracle or a catastrophe.
Palestinian Walks
Raja Shehadeh
To go on a sarha is to wander aimlessly, not restricted by time and place, going where the spirit takes you, to nourish your soul and rejuvenate yourself. This book contains six sarhat the author takes between the early 1970s to the early 2000s.
The Golden House
Salman Rushdie
In the humid, over-ripened air of a post-Obama Manhattan, where the sunlight hits the brownstones of Greenwich Village with a cloying, amber insistence, we find the "Gardens"—a private enclave of old-world quietude suddenly invaded by the operatic.
The Assault
Harry Mulisch
A singular event in the ending days of WWII sets off decades-long reverberations for the sole survivor of a Dutch family.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Matsuo Bashō
A half poetic, half discursive travel journal by the inventor of the haiku.
Stoner
John Williams
A farm boy becomes a university prof., becomes estranged from his wife, encounters office politics, etc.
The Enigma of Arrival
V.S. Naipaul
The story unfolds in the Wiltshire countryside, where the protagonist rents a modest cottage
Tomorrow x3
Gabrielle Zevin
A trio with skills that mesh and a friendship that has more ups and downs than most rollercoasters helps the pages pass quickly.
Shadow Ticket
Thomas Pynchon
Prohibition time. Facsism is on the rise globally. And the heiress of a cheese empire has gone missing. Can Hicks McTaggart solve this ticket?
What We Can Know
Ian McEwan
The characters grapple with the realization that much of what they perceive as "known" is inherently colored by their experiences and biases.
The Swimmer
John Cheever
Ned Merrill is at a party and suddenly envisions himself as a great man about to embark on a swim across the county by way of backyard pools in a tony suburban NY community.
In Xanadu
William Dalrymple
Scottish historian William Dalrymple, uses older historic narratives and maps to help guide him and fellow travelers from the Holy Land to Xanadu (Shan-tu, just north of Beijing).
Seven Empty Houses
Samanta Schweblin
Schweblin, an Argentinian writer, has written the finest story I've yet read about someone experiencing dementia…
Cuba Libre
Elmore Leonard
A cowboy suddenly finds himself running horses for someone, he's not sure who, and the cash is mucho over the market rate.
The Hunted
Elmore Leonard
An unfortunate bit of timing has our hero captured in a front page story standing amidst the rubble of a hotel bombing.
The River Between
Ngugi wa Thiong'O
Set in colonial Kenya and centered on the conflict between traditional Kikuyu culture and the influences of British colonialism and Christianity, The River Between is one of Ngugi wa Thiong'O's first novels.
Things Become Other Things
Craig Mod
The walk and the environs are the stage settings for the people Mod encounters, who share this forgotten land south of Nara - the Kii peninsula.