Summer Vacation Reading

Because a few of my closest friends consistently ask for book recommendations, I have decided to put together a list of the four top books (in my opinion) I read in the last several months. Hopefully, whoever decides to purchase or borrow (from the library, not me, I am obsessed about not loaning my books to anyone), will find them as satisfactory as I did.

A Changed Man by Francine Prose

I have read a lot of books relating to the Holocaust, some great, and some not so great (I especially hate the ones where it's apparent that the writer is just writing about it because he/she thinks the subject alone will guarantee the book will be published). AChanged Man is about a young white supremacist, Vincent Nolan, who realizes one day that he is leading a life he does not believe in, nor enjoy. So, armed with his bald head and his tattoos, he walks into the World Brotherhood Watch, an organization headed by Holocaust survivor Meyer Maslow, with the idea that he wants to help other guys like him from turning into guys like him. Meyer Maslow gives Vincent a job and the protection he needs by having him move in with single mother Bonnie Kalen, the foundation's fundraiser, and her two teen-age sons. This satire raises the question of whether change is possible. I especially like this line: The trouble with changing your attitude is that the old one doesn't disappear. It hides in the creases of your brain sending out faint signals.

An Experiment In Love by Hillary Mantel

This book came highly recommended. For the first twenty pages I wasn't sure why, as (apart from in-depth character development) nothing much seemed to be happening. Yet, every time I put it down, I was drawn back in by sentences such as this one: Their manner was weary, as if they knew everything and had seen everything, and they paused often, perhaps in the middle of a phrase, to make a snickering sound that must have been laughter. Their remarks reached no conclusion; at a certain point they would become slower, more sporadic, and finally peter out. Hey! I know people like this!! So, I continued on. The story is about the bond between three girls from three different social classes in England. It begins well in their adulthood and goes back and forth from their days at the University to their days of childhood. Food is of major importance: one girl gets fatter and fatter, one starves herself into anorexia, and the third becomes a doctor specializing in the disorder. Sex and politics also have major roles.

The People's Act of Love by James Meek

It is 1919. Yazyk is a remote Siberian town filled with a reclusive, castrated Christian sect, a remnant unit of Czech soldiers, an escaped prisoner and a cannibal on the loose, heading for them. It's an epic filled with monstrous inhumane acts executed in the name of humanity, survival and love. It was so suspenseful that I couldn't put it down. Read it in a single day. I loved it. I particularly like this line that Anna Petrovna, the ex-wife of the castrated sect's leader, says about the first time she had made love with her husband: I was afraid that if we touched each other the world would die. Read it!

Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner

This book really made me think about my relationship with God. I call myself a Christian, yet so often I find myself gravitating to do the opposite of what I know to be right.
The whole concept of God taking on human shape, and all the liturgy and ritual around that, had simply never made any sense to me. Because it was so simple: For people with bodies, important things like love had to be embodied. That's all. God had to be embodied, or else people with bodies would never in a trillion years understand about love... AND...You come, over time, to want to do the things that God wants you to do. Because you want to be close to Him. So the point is not just to be forgiven, it is to be transformed. To make a complete turning.