The Lacuna by Kingsolver, Barbara In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. "The Lacuna" is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities. Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico--from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City--Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence. Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach--the lacuna--between truth and public presumption. With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist--and of art itself. "The Lacuna" is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

Last Words by Carlin, George, Hendra, Tony Fifteen years ago George Carlin asked his friend and fellow comedian Tony Hendra to help him write his autobiography. Over the next decade and a half, the two friends taped hours of conversation while Carlin also wrote various accounts of his life and work. At the time of his death last year, Carlin’s work was mostly complete, but the book hadn’t been put together in its final form. Now Hendra has completed the job. Last Words not only tells George Carlin’s story but examines the evolution of his act from pure standup comedy to what can only be called performance art. During his prolific career, the comedian recorded twenty-six albums, wrote four books, and starred in fourteen HBO television specials, which earned him five Grammys and multiple Cable Ace Awards. In addition, he became a mainstay on talk shows, starred in his own situation comedy, was the host of the PBS children’s series Shining Time Station, and appeared in sixteen movies. Thanks to his routine “The 7 Words You Can’t Say on Television”, the comedian became the subject of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. With unsparing candor, Last Words details Carlin’s upbringing on the upper west side streets of New York, his years of drug abuse, multiple heart attacks, and often painful family relations. The book also recounts the professional life of a man to whom live performance was a righteous cause. Over the course of his fifty-year career, George Carlin became an American institution At the time of his passing, he had just been named the eleventh recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Last Words is a parting gift from an artist whose unsparing observational humor provided a funhouse mirror reflection of our collective lives and times. ~ recommended November, 2009

The Plague of Doves by Erdrich, Louise Louise Erdrich's complex history of the families in a North Dakota, mixed-blood reservation town reveals its secrets slowly through the unique voices of the community. These characters require us to pay attention and to move from psychological and philosophical musing to delightful storytelling full of magic and intrigue. Thoroughly enjoyable.--Kathleen Costello, Maria's Bookshop (Durango, CO)