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23 reviews
RABIH ALAMEDDINE

PICADOR, 1998

buy this book
This book is brilliant, able to be humorous and entertaining even as it takes you into some of the darkest moments of our time. The juxtaposition of the AIDS crisis in America and the War in Lebanon is an effective choice, it creates a new perspective to two very emotionally difficult and recent parts of our history that we are still collectively coming to terms with. as a gay lebanese-american i ...

Under the Frog : A Novel

22 reviews
Tibor Fischer

Picador, 2001

Sorry for the cliche, but you'll laugh & you'll cry...
I don't remember how I came across this book in the first place, but by the second page I was laughing out loud, read the whole thing in one sitting and immediately went back to the beginning and started reading again. Why's it so good? First of all, it's packed with Fischer's unique sense of humor. Read the first couple sample pages; if you're not laughing, you probably won't enjoy the rest ...

The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco

21 reviews
Joshua Gamson

Picador, 2006

The Fabulous Sylvester
The Fabulous Sylvester is a fascinating recounting of the life of Sylvester, the dance scene and Sylvester's career. This book explores the life of Sylvester from his early childhood days to his development into an international dance icon. This book does not sugarcoat any part of Sylvester's life. It is detailed and honest and shows us all aspects of his life and career. This book is as ...

Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood

17 reviews
Martin Booth

Picador, 2006

Golden Throughout
I read this book because I love Hong Kong and its history. I was totally unprepared for Booth's parents and adored Joyce. How cannot you not like someone so lively, loving, accepting (except of Ken) and adventuresome? While the family (Ken, Joyce and Martin) are exploring Algiers, Joyce buys some dates from a market stall, and Ken pitches a fit because they are probably unsanitary. He asks, ...

Defying Hitler: A Memoir

24 reviews
Sebastian Haffner

Picador, 2003

A gripping account with deep human insights into a fascist takeover
This is a powerful story of the rise of the Nazi movement with scary parallels to modern day events. The question has often been asked how the Germans could allow this to happen and Haffner does an amazing job at describing how. Along with a controlled media, one method was to turn the volume of fear and intimidation one little almost imperceptible increment at the time. Most people just laughed ...

The Pianist

102 reviews
Wladyslaw Szpilman

Picador, 1999

FINALLY: TRUTH & OBJECTIVITY ON THE HOLOCAUST FOR POLES AND JEWS. GOOD POLES,JEWS,GERMANS,AS WELL AS, BAD - PERIOD!!!
Polish filmaker Roman Polanski who was born and raised in Poland by Catholic parents, was there to see what it was really like, unlike many others who were never there, but make ignorent anti-Polish judgements. It's funny how those who were actually there, like Wladislaw, tell a completely different story that the Hollywood/Media tells. Wladyslaw told the truth. Read the book, and see the movie. ...

THE KIDNAPPING OF EDGARDO MORTARA

28 reviews
David I. Kertzer

(London), Picador, (1997). Reprint. Cloth, fine in d/w, pp. xi, 350. ISBN 0 330 34878 7., 1997

The Inquisition Kidnaps a Jewish Boy - in 1858!
A Jewish family's illiterate Catholic housekeeper sprinkles well-water over an infant child and furtively mumbles the baptismal sacrament. When the Inquisitor learns of the deed, he orders the kidnapping of the then six-year-old Jewish boy. This foul deed is almost certainly sanctioned by the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy. The police forcibly remove the child from his family's Bologna ...

Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett

19 reviews
Jennifer Gonnerman

Picador, 2005

Life on the Outside, Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
An important book. Several years ago, I read a lengthy rave review about this book in "The New York Times" and bought it. It's about "breaking the cycle" of imprisonment and poverty in families. At a time when governments do little other than epitomize Benjamin Franklin's definition of insanity ("doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results") this book makes clear why we ...

The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty

17 reviews
Sebastian Barry

Picador (UK), 1998

Where does Ireland get all these great authors?
The Irish have always been known as great storytellers, but now they're all turning into great writers as well, and it seems they're coming out of the woodwork. Sebastian Barry's The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty places the protagonist in the small village of Sligo where he is an innocent among angry partisans. When he chooses to alleviate his problems of employment by taking a job with the Royal ...

The Beautiful Room Is Empty

17 reviews
Edmund White

Alfred A. Knopf, 1988

The Beautiful Room
Edmund White's 'Beautiful Room' is a moving, wonderful story, crafted around the late teens to late twenties of the narrator, known only as 'Bunny' to his friend Lou, one of the many lively, memorable characters encountered along the way, as well as Tex, a flaboyant bookstore owner, who gives 'Bunny' his earliest education in 'gay slang.' 'Bunny', at the beginning of the novel, is a prep-school ...

Blackburn: A Novel

16 reviews
Bradley Denton

Picador, 1995

Cheer For The Killer
Generally, when a serious book set in modern America features a person who murders twenty people, that person is not the star, you don't find yourself cheering him on, and you aren't sad when the killing spree comes to an end. In Blackburn, Bradley Denton makes all of that happen. Blackburn follows the life of Jimmy Blackburn, told through a series of nineteen stories spanning his life. The ...

Faith at War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu

14 reviews
Yaroslav Trofimov

Picador, 2006

Simple, personal and full of facts -- an up-close perspective of the Islamic world view
I have always fantasized about being a world traveling journalist living a life of adventure and bringing my unique point of view to my readers. Alas, that is not to be. However, I certainly have a deep appreciation for up-close and personal viewpoints of world events. That's why I absolutely loved this book and devoured the entire thing in one big orgy of uninterrupted reading. Subtitled ...

Selected Stories (Picador Books)

14 reviews
Andre Dubus

Picador, 1990

Worth reading again and again . . .
I just finished reading Dubus's Selected Stories for the fourth time. I've also read his other books, and I'm glad to report that Dubus is one of the few writers whose work can be read again and again with increased pleasure, a rare enough thing. So many kinds of stories are packed into this volume -- short stories and novellas, deep character studies ("A Father's Story"), topical stories ...

The History of Luminous Motion

14 reviews
Scott Bradfield

Picador USA, 1996

What a great surprise..
I accidentally found this book while browsing the stacks of a local bookstore and was really surprised that I hadn't heard of the book or the author. Not many writers have the ability to startle me with such a wonderful writing style coupled with a zesty storyline. This is one of those books whose words are placed together with great feeling and care, resulting in a sharp, clear and ...

A Flag for Sunrise

13 reviews
Robert Stone

Picador, 1998

A Third World Apocalypse...
The incendiary hint of Revolution simmers on the surface of a South American country beset by poverty and the all-consuming appetite of corporate gluttony. The rolling green hills and sparkling beaches of Tecan are perfect for exploitation. The land is already littered with an assortment of "investors" jockeying for inside information. Revolution spells opportunity, out with the old regime, in ...

Trespassing: A Novel

14 reviews
Uzma Aslam Khan

Picador, 2005

Beautifullly Written, Unapologetically Truthful - A Powerful Combination!
An amazing story of love, lust, power, greed, self-preservation, and self-loathing. The author does an amazing job of challenging our own value system by pushing us to see how all of these powerful states of being emanate from the universal "need to belong". Trespassing is a scintillating tale of the existential angst experienced by its characters, as well as an poignant cautionary essay on how ...

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

17 reviews
Orlando Figes

Picador, 2008

More Anecdotal Evidence of Communism's Crimes
It amazes me that with all the information that has been released from the Russian archives with regards to the Stalinist period that there are still influential people in the west who minimize or excuse the crimes of Stalin's regime. Oh, there are people around who deny the crimes of Hitler as well. The difference is that those who deny the crimes of Hitler are ostracized and in some countries ...

The Pity of It All : A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933

15 reviews
Amos Elon

Picador, 2003

Simply Marvelous
The author describes the history of German Jewry in such an eloquent, informed and story-telling way that is just fascinating. Easy to read too. Excellent buy.

The Invention of Clouds

15 reviews
Richard Hamblyn

Picador, 2001

Reading Atop Cloud Nine
Luke Howard was an amateur in the true sense of the word; Luke Howard named the clouds for the love of them. Richard Hamblyn does a fine job telling the story of Luke Howard's life, his naming of the clouds, and Howard's milieu in the book The Invention Of Clouds. Howard, a Quaker and a pharmacist, went from unknown working man to celebrity when he presented his paper "On The Modifications Of ...

The Garden Angel: A Novel

16 reviews
Mindy Friddle

Picador, 2005

Superb debut novel
Just finished reading The Garden Angel.....and really dragged out those final pages, because I didn't want it to end! Wonderful debut novel with prose that flows, characters that made me feel like I knew them personally and Friddle displayed a terrific sense of place. I highly recommend this novel and honestly have to say it's been ages since I enjoyed a story as much as this one. ...

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