Book of the Month – Page 5 – Princeton Writes

Book of the Month: A Promised Land by Barack Obama (2020)

admin2020-12-14T14:13:07-05:00

Book of the Month: A Promised Land by Barack Obama (2020) Critical Evaluation "Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. It is not merely that this book avoids being ponderous, as might be expected, even forgiven, of a hefty memoir, but that it is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places, the detail granular and vivid. From Southeast Asia to a forgotten school in South Carolina, he evokes the sense of place with a light but sure hand.” Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda, "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Barack Obama’s ‘A Promised Land’," The New York [...]

Book of the Month: A Promised Land by Barack Obama (2020)admin2020-12-14T14:13:07-05:00

Book of the Month: The Library Book by Susan Orlean(2018)

admin2020-09-21T12:32:31-04:00

Book of the Month: The Library Book by Susan Orlean (2018) Critical Evaluation "The most cinematic thing that’s ever occurred inside the Los Angeles Central Library appears to be this one fire, and even the fire wasn’t all that cinematic, as fires go. Afterward, the most compelling related dramas were the various efforts to dry the books. Really, no one should search this material for a movie. But — and here’s both the mystery and the charm of Susan Orlean — it has made for a lovely book. Or rather, two books. The first is about the fire itself — which [...]

Book of the Month: The Library Book by Susan Orlean(2018)admin2020-09-21T12:32:31-04:00

Book of the Month: Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (2009)

admin2020-09-21T10:44:45-04:00

Book of the Month: Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (2009) Critical Evaluation "Cromwell is the picaresque hero of the novel — tolerant, passionate, intellectually inquisitive, humane. We follow his winding quest in vivid present-tense flashbacks, drawn up from his own prodigious memory: how he left home before he was 15, escaping the boot of his abusive father, a brewer and blacksmith who beat him as if he were 'a sheet of metal'; how he dreamed of becoming a soldier and went to France because 'France is where they have wars.' Cromwell learns banking in Florence, trading in Antwerp. He marries, has [...]

Book of the Month: Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (2009)admin2020-09-21T10:44:45-04:00

Book of the Month: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (2019)

admin2020-05-19T14:51:30-04:00

Book of the Month: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (2019) Critical Evaluation "When a writer sets a fantasy novel in our dusty old real world, the general approach is: “Everything cruddy just like it is now, except, also magic!” The intrusion of magic is then generally used to make sense of inexplicable or terrible things in our world, for example, why the stock market does stuff. And cancer. It also is used to explain the sadness that young people feel. If only there were an enormous secret lurking just out of sight, providing meaning and conveying specialness upon the knower. … [...]

Book of the Month: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (2019)admin2020-05-19T14:51:30-04:00

Book of the Month: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994)

admin2020-05-19T16:09:04-04:00

Book of the Month: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994) Critical Evaluation "Julia Alvarez’s shimmering second novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” is based on the real story of the four Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic, known there as Las Mariposas , the butterflies. That was their code name in the underground opposition to dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, and on Nov. 25, 1960, Trujillo agents murdered three of the sisters, the ones who had become national symbols of resistance. The fourth sister, Dede, survived, and Alvarez begins to tell their story in Dede’s tired, exasperated voice [...]

Book of the Month: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994)admin2020-05-19T16:09:04-04:00

Book of the Month: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2008)

admin2020-05-14T13:55:56-04:00

Book of the Month: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2008) Critical Evaluation "One of the delightful things about the way ''Bel Canto'' unfolds is the way Ann Patchett uses the ordeal of entrapment to locate unexpected resources in her characters, like Roxane's new leadership potential. Another surprising quality to emerge, in a book that works both as a paean to art and beauty and a subtly sly comedy of manners, is the flair that the host shows for running the household, once he realizes that being taken hostage has ruined his political career. ''With a dish towel knotted around his waist, [...]

Book of the Month: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2008)admin2020-05-14T13:55:56-04:00

Book of the Month: Writers and Lovers by Lily King (2020)

admin2020-05-12T13:12:53-04:00

Book of the Month: Writers and Lovers by Lily King (2020) Critical Evaluation "Please don’t do this. Don’t write a novel about trying to write a novel. It’s cliche and insular and lazy. Just don’t do it. Unless it’s this novel — this wonderful, witty, heartfelt novel by Lily King titled “Writers & Lovers.” Charles, Ron, “Lily King’s ‘Writers & Lovers’ delivers pure joy" The Washington Post, March 4, 2020 First Excerpt “I have a pact with myself not to think about money in the morning,” she says. “I’m like a teenager trying not to think about [...]

Book of the Month: Writers and Lovers by Lily King (2020)admin2020-05-12T13:12:53-04:00

Book of the Month: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1865)

admin2020-05-12T12:56:59-04:00

Book of the Month: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1865) Critical Evaluation "1 People change. The characters in War and Peace endure extreme experiences, and emerge at the end as quite different people. The miracle of the book is that the Natasha who falls in love with anyone and everyone in the ballrooms of the opening is recognisably the same woman who withdraws from society at the end. 2 There is no hero and no heroine. This is the story of a group of people living within a society. Andrei Bolkonsky is not Tolstoy’s hero, and Natasha is not a romantic heroine. [...]

Book of the Month: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1865)admin2020-05-12T12:56:59-04:00

Book of the Month: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (2019)

admin2020-04-14T13:39:22-04:00

Book of the Month: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (2019) Critical Evaluation "Temper tantrums and meltdowns. They're a bane of parenting. Often at the most inconvenient moment possible, your kid — tired, hungry, beyond reason — just loses it. And it's your job to keep your cool and calm them down. After all, you're the grownup. Well, here's cold comfort: It could be worse. In Kevin Wilson's third novel, Nothing to See Here, kids spontaneously combust — literally — when angered or upset. Their flareups don't cause injury to themselves, but they can be seriously damaging to people and property [...]

Book of the Month: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (2019)admin2020-04-14T13:39:22-04:00

Book of the Month: There There by Tommy Orange (2018)

admin2020-03-31T15:12:12-04:00

Book of the Month: There There by Tommy Orange (2018) Critical Evaluation "The title of Tommy Orange’s bold debut novel is a reference to Gertrude Stein’s line about the city of her childhood, Oakland, California: “there is no there there”, she wrote. Oakland happens also to be Orange’s home town and provides the setting for the book, which has attracted many admiring reviews in the US. The novel centres on the interconnected lives of a group of Native Americans – or Indians, as they call themselves, determined to reclaim a term more often used disparagingly. Orange, himself a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho [...]

Book of the Month: There There by Tommy Orange (2018)admin2020-03-31T15:12:12-04:00

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