A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being

Rating:  A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki. Penguin Books (2013), 432 pages. Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being was a finalist for the 2013 Booker prize. It has been praised in   over thirty reviews from major newspapers and magazines as “masterful,”...
Stargazing Dog

Stargazing Dog

Rating:  Stargazing Dog, by Takashi Murakami. NBM Publishing (2011), 128 pages. Stargazing Dog was first published in Japan in 2008, where it has sold over a half million copies. It’s a relatively short graphic novel that should take about a half hour to...
Gone Girl

Gone Girl

Rating:  Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Crown (2012), 419 pages. Flynn is a writer in the mystery and crime genres—two categories I almost never read. Her latest book, however, was described as a psychological portrait of a marriage—a plot I almost always want...
Dog Boy

Dog Boy

Rating:   Dog Boy, by Eva Hornung. Viking (2010), 288 pages. I don’t know if there any other novels about abandoned Russian children raised by feral dogs. (If you know of any, please let The Book Shark know!) The fact that Dog Boy may be the only such book...
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

Rating:   Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson. Random House (2011), 353 pages. I borrowed this from a friend with the understanding that it is a quiet story about two old widowed people falling in love, which admittedly doesn’t sound terribly...