Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck
If this book doesn’t make you want to take a road trip, I don’t know what will. The first paragraph so completely captures the urge to travel that I feel profoundly moved every time I read it. At age 58, Steinbeck sets out to rediscover America, a country he has become famous writing about but feels he no longer knows or understands. His deep love for the country and the everyday people who inhabit it is made all the more touching by his sense of the loss of the America of his childhood and his wonder and bafflement at the country it is turning into.
~ Katrina, Broadview
Walking in Circles Before Lying Down, by Merrill Markoe
Wonder why your dog turns circles before lying down, “marks” every tree, pole or bush while on a walk, licks some friends but bites others? Dawn Tarnauer’s dog, Chuck, answers this and other pressing questions when Dawn finally decides that canine company beats human anytime. Soon Dawn can even hear what Chuck and other dogs are saying. But with the combined interference of her nutty mother, her overbearing sister, Chuck and his doggy pals, even if she meets the man of her dreams, does Dawn stand a chance of keeping him? Fun fare for dog lovers.
~ Jen, Fiction
The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems, translated by Paul Schmidt
Longing glances across vodka and candles; crushed dreams and cigarettes in the dark, wet streets. Talk of a New Day, talk of the old days; the symbols clash, and the band plays on. This cozy suite of modernist poems from pre-revolutionary Russia captures a passionate promise on the edge of eternity – a plangent note echoing across the Stalinist silence that would follow.
~ David, Fiction
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