frederic colier Archives - Page 11 of 14

Author du Jour: Agnès Martin-Lugand

09/13/2016 by Frederic Colier

“Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” by Agnès Martin-Lugand.

(Trans. Sandra Smith, Weinstein Books, p 242, $22.90)

Originally self-published in French, “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” became a sensation in France before an international bestsellers, and deservedly. Though written in the current fashionable trend of story of awakening or recovery in the face of brutal personal drama, think Under the Tuscan Sun, Wild, and Eat Prey Love, tragedy, this book reads like a charm, in a clear and fast-pace prose.

Diane is a young woman, who has lost both her husband and daughter (I’ll spare you how). Despairing, she moves to Ireland to escape the crushing memories surrounding her. There, of course, life slowly creeps back in, and she develops a friendship with Edward, a local photographer. Ghosts however are powerful, especially when Diane and Edward’s relationship evolves. They stand in her way. I love how the book looks at compromises, not between the alive and the dead but in the narrow scope of the grey, which is the daily dance of compromise we face to deal with pain, sorrow and laughter.

Author du Jour: Amulya Malladi

09/12/201609/12/2016 by Frederic Colier

“A House For Happy Mothers” by Amulya Malladi (Lake Union Publishing, p 329, $14.95)

Here is another book dealing with a woman, who appears to have it all, except for one thing. In this case it is not a love partner but a child who is missing to complete self- fulfillment. Delivered with mastery by Indian bestseller author, Amulya Malladi, and with engaging characters, A House For Happy Mothers deals with the tough decisions and consequences to have recourse to surrogacy. Priya, one of the main protagonists, a tech guru in Silicon Valley, has been unable to conceive. She joins the “Happy Mothers” in India, where she meets Asha, whose poverty prevents her to send her gifted child to school. Resigned Asha accept to rent her only asset, her womb, to carry Priya’s child. But the story is not a sentimental celebration about rearing a child or an exposé on the conflict arising when foreign worlds collide with each other in order to help each other. It is also a commentary on the best and the worst of the rising Indian surrogacy industry.

Author du Jour: Boris Fishman

09/12/201609/09/2016 by Frederic Colier

“Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo”
by Boris Fishman
Harper/Harper Collins, p 336,
$26.99

A sophomore release from Boris Fishman, an author who appeared on “books du Jour, the TV series when he released his first book,
“A Replacement Life.” If you forgive me the cliché, the fruit never falls too far from the tree, and you could say that it is true about “Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo.” From Russian-Belarus descent, Boris writes characters as wide as legendary Russian rivers, with the same verve and punchy style.

Here we have a couple riding together the deceiving roads of life. The dislocation erupts when they adopt, Max, an eight-year-old boy from Montana, who little by little regresses to a feral state. Not what the couple had bargained for. It is precisely the dislocation that their son brings up that highlight the parent’s own sense of inner dilemma. Who are those Slavic transplants straddling a dual culture and languages, constantly playing a tug of war between belonging here and having the heart at times somewhere else? Perhaps it is this dislocation that will allow the family to survive and for the members to fine-tune how they see life in the future. But first they may have to visit part of themselves, which may not be too be comfortable, just to see who they are inside.

Books du Jour, Ep #212, “The First Time They Did it”

08/26/201608/26/2016 by Frederic Colier

Episode #212 “The First Time They Did It”

Only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

“The first time they did it” is about first timers. Regardless how old they are and where they come from, how and when they did it is a topic they do not shy away from. As a matter of fact, they are quite loquacious discussing the topic, exposing their weaknesses and frustration and the moment of bliss round the corner waiting to greet them. But before “graduating,” they shared similar painstaking journeys of perseverance and painstaking apprenticeship.

Susan Strecker, “Night Blindness” offers a rare exploration of the singular, unparalleled love between a daughter and her cancer-riddled father, and writes with unflinching honesty about the dynamics of a family in crisis, and the fallout of a single rash act: how responsible was she in the death of her brother?

Helen Wan, “The Partner Track” took the world by storm with its new take on the office politics/law firm novel that follows a Golden Girl employee who has passed the apprentice stage and is now facing mature and relatable issues. But textbook and reality are two worlds apart, and soon our Chinese American prodigy has to wade across the deep waters of damage control as she herself drowned in a her own romantic life.

John Benditt, “The Boatmaker” tells the tale of a fierce complicated silent man who wakes from a fever dream compelled to build a boat and sail away from the small island where he was born. The boat carries him to a bigger island, where he becomes locked in a drunken and violent affair whose explosion propels him to the mainland. Hence begins a long journey of discovery, part fable and part allegory.

Thank you to City Winery NY

Books du Jour, EP #211, “Jazzing Up the Tune”

08/05/2016 by Frederic Colier

Episode #211 “Jazzing Up the Tune”

Only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

The ears don’t lie. They know when something sounds phony. But what about authors writing about music? This week’s episode takes a look at the crossroad of music and literature, in all its form: rhyme, rhythm, lyricism, repetitions, and of course the theme of music itself, not only in the lives of the characters depicted but also in the authors’.

Rick Moody, “On Celestial Music.” A dazzling selection of essays about music. Moody’s anatomy of the word cool reminds us that in the postwar 1940’s, the word was infused with the feeling of jazz music, whereas now it is merely a synonym for neat. The collection laments the loss in contemporary music, without failing to inspire us and dive into the music that enhances our lives.

Mary Morris, “The Jazz Palace.” In the midst of boomtown Chicago, two Jewish families suffer terrible blows. They have lost their boys on the SS Eastland, which sank in 1915. But Benny Lehrman, the only son left, has no interest in saving the family business and making hats. His true passion is piano—especially jazz.

Julia Titus, “Poetry Readers for Russian Learners.” Through the poetry of 19^th and 20^th Centuries Russian authors, including Pushkin and Akhmatova, the book helps all level of Russian learners refine their language skills. Poems have their own music and rhythm, singing to the witnesses of history, clamoring human insights and the muffling of tragic biographies.

Thank you to City Winery NY

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