Sami Rohr Prize

Congratulations to Sana Krasikov, author of One More Year (see review posted 12/5/08), who won the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature!

I Love A Man In Uniform review

Lily Burana, author of Strip City, is back with I Love a Man in Uniform, a book about her marriage to a West Point officer. Not the most likely candidate for my blog, but that is the wonder of reading beyond your horizons! I picked this book up to pass along to my friend Ryan, an officer in the U.S. Navy, and his wife, when I had the unexpected chance to meet Burana at the author reception at Winter Institute, where she was seated next to Brandon Sanderson. That odd couple may not be as book-worthy as Burana and her husband, an officer in the U.S. Army, but it did illustrate the point (and counterpoint) of the book. Burana was all poise and no punk at the reception, but her book recounts the psychological gauntlet she had to battle through to reach that level of self-assurance. This memoir is as candid as they come, coming from a woman who’s not afraid to bare it all. Burana is a former stripper but unlike Tila Tequila she is also a capable writer, as evidenced by her work for The Washington Post and her multiple books. In today’s world of armed conflicts and PTSD, this is a book that is both pertinent and poignant.

Heroes of the Valley review

Without the recognizable name of Jonathan Stroud one might overlook Heroes of the Valley.  The title and the cover are not especially engaging, which belies the story within.  This is The Sagas of Icelanders written for young readers looking to escape the confines of typical hero stories, much like the main character.  Halli Sveinsson belongs to the House of Svein and believes all of the legends of that great hero, which makes his life as a second son all the more mundane.  Halli yearns to be a hero like Svein but doesn’t know where to begin, as the peaceful rule of law in the valley has rendered swords obsolete.  In true Norse fashion, Halli occupies his time with pranks instead.  When one of his pranks goes terribly awry Halli gets the chance to learn the truth behind the legends and what it means to be a hero.  The ho-hum title also takes on more meaning as Halli uncovers the history behind the legends.  Readers familiar with Stroud know to expect the unexpected and will still be caught off guard by the hazard Halli braves and the revelation that results!

National Book Critics Circle Award

Congratulations to Ariel Sabar, author of My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq (see review posted 7/28/08), who received the National Book Critics Circle award for autobiography!

Nothing Right review

Nothing Right by Antonya Nelson is another hardcover short story collection by an author whose work is familiar, yet it was a reading experience altogether different from In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.  The order of the stories is as significant as the content.  In Nothing Right the title story is also the lead story, and the two previously published stories I had read fell nearly at the end of the collection.  I found reading the stories in this order to be more settled, although the stories themselves jarred nerves that are generally not exposed.  These stories introduce one damaged couple after another; affairs abound in Nelson’s work, but not all of the couples are intimately involved.  It is precisely the lack of intimate involvement that is more telling in these stories about lacking, longing, and loving.  The characters’ thwarted attempts at love, be it romantic, platonic, or parental, all demonstrate the basic human desire to connect.  As the cover art suggests, it is human nature to reach out to the barbs that become inextricably lodged in our flesh.