Beaufort Books » Fiction

BEAUcoup Books Lover- The First Post!

Beaufort Books — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:19:12 +0000

I’m happy to introduce myself, world! Gratefully, and with excitement, I am the new Beaufort Books intern. And like the others before me, I will be blogging for your enjoyment.

I feel that for you to really get to know me, you’ll have to get acquainted with some of the things swirling in my head at the moment. I tend to get obsessed with a book, or author, or movie, or TV show, or play, and tell everyone I can about them, until a new obsession finds its way into my hands. At the moment, there are a few sharing the spotlight.

First, I recently read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. The book is exquisite. She writes as if she is painting a canvas in your head, so after just a few strokes, your mind is filled with a gigantic mural. Set in the 1920′s, the book is a historically accurate picture of a traveling circus moving through the Depression. The history, combined with the passion and drama, makes the book impossible to put down. I especially love the main character Jacob’s relationship with the animals of the circus, and the elephant Rosie in particular. Gruen gives Rosie such heart and personality that she is possibly my favorite character of the book. I won’t tell you any more because you have to read it for yourself. But please read it. Seriously.

Second, to continue the theme of animals in literature, I read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stern. Be prepared with a tissue when reading this book, especially if you have or ever have had a dog. The book is written from the perspective of Enzo, a wise terrier who takes his role as protector of the family seriously. The book flies by, but every moment is worth it. Stern manages to personify every thing that every person has ever wished to be true of their loyal family pet in Enzo, creating the sweetest character I have met in a long time.

Third, my new obsession is the production of Capsule 33, created and performed by Thaddeus Phillips at The Barrow Street Theatre in the West Village. (You should know now that I love theater almost as much as I love books, so theater opinions are bound to creep in.) The show was unique and completely ingenious. Thaddeus Phillips created a set that is one hundred percent self-sustaining for a show that discusses society’s lack of imagination and general laziness in conserving what the earth has to offer. The show is set in the Nagakin capsule tower in Tokyo that is scheduled to implode, but Milo Dikanovic and his rubber ducky Fumio refuse to leave. The show is profoundly human while stuck in an isolated, mechanical world. Between Phillips’s unbelievable performance and the set’s ability to twist and turn into anything imaginable, you are almost afraid to blink for fear of missing something. And you’ll leave with new tidbits of information after learning about Nikola Tesla, listening to philosophy and history, and being re-introduced to some of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches in a tangible new way.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned for more to come!

B.E.A.U.tiful – she be sweet like banana

Beaufort Books — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:36:04 +0000

I’ve decided to dedicate a post to West African Literature. This is in preparation for the 2nd Annual Ghana Day Parade in NYC August 21st. It is also a result of people in the U.S. and Ghana who are slow at uploading their photos which has made me long for Ghana.

Since I am a voracious reader and we did not have internet in our dorms (mostly because of the latter then the former), I read some books for fun. Unfortunately I did not take the African Literature course at Ashesi or NYU for scheduling reasons, so I obviously did not get the full force of the literature. But I think I have a fair sample. *note: this is all fiction, I read a good bit about philosophy but chose not to include those titles*

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. This is a classic. I first read it in 9th grade and was indifferent to it. Reading it while in West Africa made some of the cultural nuances make more sense. I was able to appreciate the novel more.

Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. This book was reminiscent of Things Fall Apart, and why I wrote my philosophy research paper comparing the views on religion in the post-colonial world. She is a great writer and really conveyed a sense of the current post-colonial world. It was like an update of Achebe. I’ve also heard her book Half of a Yellow Sun is good.

Amma Darko’s Not Without Flowers and Faceless. These were the first two novels I read and I thought they were fantastic. While Faceless is more of a mystery story, Fofo’s search to find out who killed her sister, Not Without Flowers is a more intricate look into the family, life, and culture of Ghana. Both books have intertwining stories, with endings that took me completely by surprise.

I would suggest reading any of these books. But then again, I rarely find a book I wouldn’t recommend.

Also, I would like to note, that while abroad I watched the Ghana Music Awards, which for $40 I could have attended. All the performers who were from Ghana, born and raised, were dressed sophisticatedly in suits and ties. The performers from Ghana who were heavily influenced by American and British style were dressed unimpressively with baggy pants, large shirts, and lots of bling. In all honesty, I preferred the performers dressed in suits – they looked so much better than the bums.

Currently: Book – Can You Keep A Secret? I’m re-reading my first book of Sophie Kinsella’s. It’s not bad for some very light reading. T.V. – Drop Dead Diva a light show which sometimes has deeper meaning, but is overall light and funny. Movie – The Invention of Lying wasn’t bad but it didn’t capture my attention. I was really trying to watch another Ricky Gervais movie Ghost Town and ended up with this.

Carol “getting ready for the move back to Baltimore” Monteiro

Mandala

Beaufort Books — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:42:21 +0000

“…News reaches the couple [Maharana Prince Jagat and his wife, Moti] that their only son, Jai, has been killed by the Chinese in a border skirmish, an inconsolable Moti sends Jagat out to bring the boy’s spirit home. On the journey, the prince becomes involved with a beautiful and mysterious young American woman. Thus begins the fatal attraction between Eastern and Western ways, one bound by rigid custom, the other temptingly ripe with freethinking….Her simple yet evocative language, well-developed characters, and timeless plot make Mandala a fascinating addition to the fiction shelf.” – Midwest Book Review

Praise for Mandala

“Oriental and ancient, modern and Jungian, a “mandala” is a cosmic and also an individual symbol…It is in effect an agreeable augury. If not a guarantee of happy endings, it is at least a promise of moral and ethical enhancement. In fact, practically everyone in this story laid in Northwest India…winds up finer, noble, a bit less mundane, an infinitesimally bit more godlike.” – The New York Times

“Buck comes up with a potential best seller in this novel about modern India. The reader will find himself caught up in the bittersweet romance between Jagat, a prince…and Brooke, an American heiress in search of identity. It is through their development that we see the inner struggle of a nation searching for its place it today’s world, yet reluctant to part with the past.” – Library Journal

About the Author: Pearl S. Buck

ISBN: 978-1-55921-037-9

Paperback, $13.95

362 Pages

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Happy Returns

Beaufort Books — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:51:14 +0000

Thirkell welcomes us back to the beloved precinct of Barsetshire in this novel set in the mid-century. Old friends and new faces join the community conversation which ranges from Sir Cecil Waring’s plans for a home for boys of naval men killed in the war to the relocation of the Priory Preparatory School; from Charles Belton’s hesitant courtship and headlong marriage to the spoiled Clarissa Graham, and to Grace Grantley’s betrothment to Lord Lufton, with much discussion in between of gardens, dogs, and other country matters.

The older generation observes the younger with affection and concern while the younger settles into its own middle age, its prospects still shadowed by the war and its aftermath. Thirkell’s marshaling of story across generations show- to quote her own praise of Lady Lufton- “all her excellent qualities to the best advantage.”

“Mrs. Thirkell is in triumphant form in her return to Barsetshire and its rituals. She is one of the subtlest of social historians, in that the reader can seldom be quite sure which of the county values she endorses and which she is laughing at.” - Times [London] Literary Supplement

“In this latest Thirkell chronicle we gladly meet once more the friends we loved and admired and laughed at in twenty-two preceding volumes.” – Saturday Review

About the Author: Angela Thirkell

The Sword of Medina

Beaufort Books — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:01:43 +0000

A’isha, the youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad, charmed him with her wit and intelligence, eventually earning the confidence and respect of her husband and the community. When Muhammad dies without a successor, A’isha and her sister wives are devastated with grief and struggle in their new roles as Mothers of the Believers without his presence. Even worse, the Muslim community is thrown into turmoil as a Bedouin army threatens its very survival.

After losing his Prophet and then his beloved wife, Ali, the Prophet’s only surviving heir, is torn. The newly chosen leadership of the faith is pressuring him to swear allegiance to them, while others urge him to seek power himself so he can lead the Muslim people as Muhammad intended. Ali fears if he does not take action, Muhammad’s successors and their corrupt advisers could endanger the survival of Islam and all of its followers.

Before dying, Muhammad left his jeweled sword, al-Ma’thur, to A’isha, telling her to use it in the jihad to come. But what if the jihad is against her own people? After twenty years of distrust and anger, can A’isha and Ali come together to preserve the future of their people and their faith–or will their hatred of each other destroy everything Muhammad worked to build? This climactic sequel to the controversial The Jewel of Medina returns to 7th century Arabia to discover whether, after fighting a civil war, a people can ever truly heal.

“Jones imbues her 7th century tale with rich personalities and honorable motives. Jones handles skillfully the adversaries’ peculiar combination of mutual respect and enmity; the rest of her fictionalized history comes alive with delicate, determined prose. Fortunately for readers, this volume was saved by Beaufort after Muslim extremists forced editors at Random House to pull the plug, making this not just a rollicking lesson in Islamic history but a victory over the forces of censorship.” – Publisher’s Weekly

About the Author: Sherry Jones
Find the Author on the web: www.authorsherryjones.com

ISBN: 978-0-8253-0520-7
Fiction: Historical
$24.95 Hardcover
432 pages 6 x 9

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A Questionable Life

Beaufort Books — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:34:08 +0000

Hard-charging Philadelphia banker Jack Oliver has always made tough choices and sacrifices to achieve success, but when his mid-sized banking group is bought out by a mega-chain, Jack finds himself knocked from the top rung to the bottom of the ladder. When the stress of the merger lands him in the hospital, he realizes that his wife and kids hate him and his mistress is only interested in the number of zeros in his paycheck. When Jack is approached by Benny, the old-fashioned president of a small Virginia bank, he doubts he could ever work for such a small-town guy after his cut-throat career.
Left without the success he once craved and the family he undervalued, Jack may discover how to reclaim what he had taken for granted and lead a new kind of ‘questionable life.’

“In his debut novel, Lively combines his background as a bank executive and motivational speaker to deliver what reads like a self-help book disguised as fiction… [Lively] does spin a good story; especially vibrant are tense scenes of corporate greed and deceit.” – Publisher’s Weekly

About the author: Luke Lively

ISBN: 978-0-8253-0521-4
$24.95 Hardcover
Fiction
432 pages 6×9

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The New Year

Beaufort Books — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:16:13 +0000

This is a story of hope and reconciliation. The New Year is about an American father and his son living in Korea. It is not without some soul-searching and a great deal of understanding on the part of his American wife that they get together as a family.

The father is an aspiring politician in Philadelphia. Put in shock and a moral dilemma by the sudden knowledge of his son, conceived while a soldier stationed in Korea, the father weighs his political future against his responsibilities to himself and his wife. The situation is further complicated by his childless marriage.

This is very modern in its treatment of a politician’s seemingly conflicting goals of public success and conscientious personal behavior. The story confronts the disparity of two cultures: east and west and two generations. It is a very timely book for all of those reasons, but the reward of reading this book is Pearl Buck’s ability as a story teller. Marital love, parental love, alienation, adoption, and ambition are all woven into this marvelous, poignant novel.

Praise for The New Year

“The most influential Westerner to write about China since thirteenth-century Marco Polo.” – James Thomson

“Pearl’s fiction gave voice to those who has not been heard, and succeeding in credibly dramatizing people and places that had been unknown and alien to most of her readers. She had, that is to say, a gift for making the strange seem familiar.” – Peter Conn

“Ms. Buck tells us that East and West can meet on the ground of affectionate understanding and that human similarities can prevail over the gulf between cultures.” – Elizabeth Janeway

About the Author: Pearl S. Buck

ISBN: 978-1-55921-391-2
256 pages
$13.95

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Pavilion of Women

Beaufort Books — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:03:23 +0000

On her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after twenty-four years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed. Elegant and detached, Madame Wu orchestrates this change as she manages everything in the extended household of more than sixty relatives and servants. Alone in her own quarters, she relishes her freedom and reads books she has never been allowed to touch. When her son begins English lessons, she listens, and is soon learning from the “foreigner,” a free-thinking priest named Brother Andre, who will change her life. The Pavilion of Women is a thought-provoking combination of Old China, unorthodox Christianity, and liberation, written by Pearl S. Buck, a Nobel Prize winner born and raised in China. Few books raise so many questions about the nature and roles of men and women, about self-discipline and happiness. At the center is the amazing Madame Wu – brilliant, beautiful, full of contradictions and authority.

“The book is vivid and extremely interesting” – The New Yorker

“The novel leaves a vivid impression.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Miss Buck at her best… beneath the deceptive simplicity of the narrative flows the clear, swift tide of human life” – Saturday Review of Literature

About the Author: Pearl S. Buck

ISBN: 978-155921-287-8
304 pages
$13.95

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

Pavilion of Women

by Pearl S. Buck

Giveaway ends December 31, 2010.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Peony

Beaufort Books — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:54:10 +0000

Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid–an awkward role alienating her from both classes in the house, for she is more than a servant, but less than a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family’s only son. The novel follows her as she attempts to resolve their forbidden love and her devotion to her adopted family. A coming of age tale where womanhood, social rules, love and reality collide. Can Peony resolve all of these problems by the end? Another example of Buck’s literary genius, proving her worthiness for the Putlitzer Prize.

Praise for Peony

“Peony has the vividness of scene and episode and character and the colorful detail that Pearl Buck’s readers have come to expect of her novels in China.” -New York Herald Tribune

“The conflicts inherent in the Chinese and Jewish temperament are delicately and intricately traced with profound wisdom and compassionate understanding in this tale…This is an enchanting story, the theme of which is tolerance. Highly recommended.” – Library Journal

“[Ms. Buck's] zealous study has enabled her to give vivid impressions of a 4,000-year-old culture through carefully drawn minor characters and much colorful detail about such things as burial and marriage rites, and court etiquette.” – The New York Times Book Review

About the Author: Pearl S. Buck

ISBN: 978-1-55921-338-7
352 pages
$14.95

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Kinfolk

Beaufort Books — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:43:02 +0000

In Kinfolk, Buck tells us that East and West can meet on the ground of affectionate understanding and that human similarities can prevail over the gulf between cultures….She has something to say and she says it with lucid ease….If she has a mission she can also tell a story. She writes consistently and successfully to be read; she writes consistently; and she writes successfully.

Praise for Kinfolk

“Pearl Buck writes in power and illumination from her identification with her subject; so we, too, feel and share simplicity and ancient wisdom, as the human greatness of simple men and women meets every day, in occupied China with deathless tenacity.” – New York Times

About the Author: Pearl S. Buck

ISBN: 978-55921-156-7
414 pages
$15.95

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