The Age of Miracles

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thomson Walker was a book that scared me a little to read. It is about the slowing of the earth which makes days and nights longer with no scientific explanation. Birds die, whales beach themselves by the thousands and yet for 11 year old Julia, life as a burgeoning teenager continues on in all it's painful reality.

Friends disappear as their families flee the cities, some people choose not to join the mandated clock time and become outsiders. Julia loses her best friend, watches as her parents marriage unravels and her mother suffers from the "syndrome" and tracks her crush, Seth Moreno, from afar.

The book is well written and while anxiety-provoking, it is also thought-provoking and touching as a story about ordinary life in in-ordinary times.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

When I started reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, I kept wondering - is this fiction or non-fiction. Apparently it is categorized as "narrative non-fiction" which for me meant a true story that was entirely readable.

Boo takes us inside the world of the Annawadi slum in Mumbai. In the shadow of capitalism represented by the airport and adjoining hotels, Annawadi is a world all of its own - with rules and expectations and stories to fill a book (or more). And while the world around them deals with what seem to be bigger problems, the residents of the slum do their best to survive day to day while looking for opportunity. But sometimes those opportunities run counter to a neighbor's plans and when they intersect the results can be desperate and deadly.

Boo does a magnificent job of opening up this world to us outsiders while being empathetic and kind to the people who inhabit Annawadi.

Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac

The overview of The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac by Kris D'Agostino sounded promising. Comparing it to the work of Nick Hornby and Tom Perrota, it was called funny and about a "loopy but loving family" and the main character, Calvin Moretti, an oddball antihero.

All I found was a dysfunctional guy who doesn't want to grow up, wants to smoke pot and hang out with his loser friends and doesn't really care about anyone else.

At one point, I thought "I just want to finish this book so I can stop this guy's whining." Enough said!

I only finished it because it is for a book club in Philadelphia.