Jhumpa Lahiri's first book Interpreter of Maladies absolutely stunned me with its gorgeous short stories (and I do not read short stories very often).  It stunned a lot of people because it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000.  Then she wrote The Namesake, a novel that became a well-received movie.  Now Lahiri's third book, another collection of short stories, reconfirms her tremendous talent.  Unaccustomed Earth; stories  (the title comes from Nathaniel Hawthorne)  presents eight lengthy short stories.  She writes about immigrants from India and their emotionally complex relationships with their American raised children. My favorite was Hema and Kaushik (Part Two of the book) which consists of three related short stories, together long enough to be a novella.    Seamlessly written and extremely readable with wonderful human detail, Lahiri's eight stories are a pleasure to read.  If you haven't sampled Jhumpa Lahiri yet, you don't know what you are missing!

One of the bona fide benefits of working in a library is the daily conversations about books.  A co-worker recently raved about the 1995 novel A Fine Balance and I decided to give it a try.  Over 600 pages, it appears daunting but it truly is a masterpiece and a genuine page turner.   A Fine Balance is the tale of four ordinary people in India during the mid-1970s.  The government has declared a State of Emergency and the heart-wrenching lives of these people (two tailors, a widow and a young student) gave me insight into the reality of the working poor in India.  The New York Times said about this gripping novel, "Those who continue to harp on the decline of the novel... ought to consider Rohinton Mistry.  He needs no infusion of magic realism to vivify the real.  The real world, through his eyes, is magical."  If you seek a unforgettable novel, look no further.  I am forever grateful to my colleague Mitzi... thanks for the recommendation!

It was so exciting to see one of my favorite authors in person!  Ann Patchett appeared as the Talking Volumes guest Tuesday night at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.  Even though the airline lost her luggage and she had to wear her traveling clothes, Ann radiated good humor all evening.  Kerri Miller from MPR interviewed her and the two seemed like old friends.  Ann was articulate and charming as she discussed her writing career, her complex friendship with writer Lucy Grealy (Truth and Beauty), her love of opera, and her most famous work Bel Canto.  She also captivated the audience with two readings from her new novel Run.  Library Journal gave Run a starred review.  Again, the reserve list is long but get yourself on it if you enjoy character driven fiction by a master story-teller.

Author Nick Hornby praised Joshua Ferris' debut novel Then We Came to the End by saying it's "The Office meets Kafka."    Set in Chicago at a nameless advertising agency at the end of the '90s boom, the novel explores ongoing layoffs with employees coming to their ends one by one.   Ferris'  workplace observations are related by an anonymous narrator in a clever first person plural voice "we" ... Publishers Weekly gave Then We Came to the End a starred review calling it "wildly funny."  If you have ever worked in an office you may agree with Ferris when he says the thing about every office is this,  "even if you don't know everyone very well or at all, everyone has an opinion about you and everyone else."  

Somehow I stumbled upon a first novel by Allison Winn Scotch called the Department of Lost & Found.  I am so glad I did.  At first I thought it was the perfect summer read but it is much more than that.  I found myself jotting down some of the sentences because they were so wise and wonderful.  Natalie Miller is thirty, very driven in her career as a senior aide to a New York senator.  One day Natalie's world collapses when her boyfriend dumps her and she is diagnosed with breast cancer.  Yes, this sounds depressing but surprisingly, the book is not a downer.  Natalie's journey to reinvent herself takes many turns, including contacting five boyfriends from her past to see what went wrong with those relationships.  She also develops a strong urge to watch the Price is Right (and ends up on the show as a contestant) while recovering from her illness.  This book is funny and sad and just plain great.  I can't wait to read Scotch's next book.

One of my favorite local authors is Pete Hautman, who mostly writes young adult novels (well worth reading) but occasionally pens clever and somewhat whacky mysteries. One of his latest is Doohickey and it’s a great summer read. Nick Fashon, the main character, has just lost his clothing shop and apartment in a suspicious fire, but sees promise in a contraption – the HandyMate – invented by his recently deceased granddad. The plot twists and turns from there, offering lots of fun from Hautman’s deadpan humor, likable eccentric characters and comic mystery.   Readers who like Carl Hiaasen will enjoy this one.