I'm reading two books at the moment: one old, and one new.
The old one is Frank Conroy's
Body and Soul, a novel that follows piano prodigy Claude Rawlings as he climbs from humble beginnings to stardom in 1950s New York City. It's definitely not a fast moving book, yet it is positively engrossing. Filled with the minutiae of everyday life and peppered with bursts of fascinating musical discussion, Conroy takes a rags-to-riches tale that could be commonplace and dull and transforms it into a story to be savored. This book is actually from the 1990s and no longer on our shelves here at the Book House, but it's still available. Ask and we'll get it for you!
As for the new one, I just picked up a reader's copy of
Love Begins in Winter, a forthcoming collection of short stories by Simon van Booy. I'm just a few pages in, but I can tell I won't be putting this one aside. In beautiful, clear prose, van Booy tells ordinary stories as if they're infused with magic. The opening story, about a world-famous cellist, has such sudden and universal truths about life that I am absolutely intrigued to read more. Look for it coming in May!
The old one is Frank Conroy's Body and Soul, a novel that follows piano prodigy Claude Rawlings as he climbs from humble beginnings to stardom in 1950s New York City. It's definitely not a fast moving book, yet it is positively engrossing. Filled with the minutiae of everyday life and peppered with bursts of fascinating musical discussion, Conroy takes a rags-to-riches tale that could be commonplace and dull and transforms it into a story to be savored. This book is actually from the 1990s and no longer on our shelves here at the Book House, but it's still available. Ask and we'll get it for you!
As for the new one, I just picked up a reader's copy of Love Begins in Winter, a forthcoming collection of short stories by Simon van Booy. I'm just a few pages in, but I can tell I won't be putting this one aside. In beautiful, clear prose, van Booy tells ordinary stories as if they're infused with magic. The opening story, about a world-famous cellist, has such sudden and universal truths about life that I am absolutely intrigued to read more. Look for it coming in May!
