Aint No Right

From the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World comes a searing, ruthlessly honest new novel about a marriage both stressed and strengthened by the demands of serious illness.

Shep Knacker has long saved for "The Afterlife": an idyllic retreat to the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be replaced with "talking, thinking, seeing, and being"—and enough sleep. When he sells his home repair business for a cool million dollars, his dream finally seems within reach. Yet Glynis, his wife of twenty-six years, has concocted endless excuses why it's never the right time to go. Weary of working as a peon for the jerk who bought his company, Shep announces he's leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her.

Just returned from a doctor's appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep can't go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. But their policy only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Shep's nest egg for The Afterlife soon cracks under the strain.

Enriched with three medical subplots that also explore the human costs of American health care, So Much for That follows the profound transformation of a marriage, for which grave illness proves an unexpected opportunity for tenderness, renewed intimacy, and dry humor. In defiance of her dark subject matter, Shriver writes a page-turner that presses the question: How much is one life worth?

Juana wrote:The way of Life by Lao Tzu

hokahey wrote:

Juana wrote:The way of Life by Lao Tzu

I believe this is one of many translations of the Tao Te Ching. A personal favorite of mine.

Larry B. wrote:
The Name of the Rose (I'm not really liking, so I will most likely not end it).

ant wrote:I'm reading "And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks" by Kerouac/Burroughs. Each writer swapped chapters and also tells the story from a different character's perspective. It's sort of a beat mystery/noir story. I like both writers so I'm finding it to be pretty good and it's a quick read.

Japhy wrote:

ant wrote:I'm reading "And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks" by Kerouac/Burroughs. Each writer swapped chapters and also tells the story from a different character's perspective. It's sort of a beat mystery/noir story. I like both writers so I'm finding it to be pretty good and it's a quick read.

I am a HUGE Kerouac fan so i'm maybe a little biased, but i absolutely love this book... and yeah, i also liked it because it is such a quick and easy read.

ant wrote:

Japhy wrote:

ant wrote:I'm reading "And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks" by Kerouac/Burroughs. Each writer swapped chapters and also tells the story from a different character's perspective. It's sort of a beat mystery/noir story. I like both writers so I'm finding it to be pretty good and it's a quick read.

I am a HUGE Kerouac fan so i'm maybe a little biased, but i absolutely love this book... and yeah, i also liked it because it is such a quick and easy read.

I'm actually a bigger Burroughs fan but I like a lot of Kerouac as well. Dharma Bums being one of my faves.

crater wrote:I just ordered these two

Larry B. wrote:

crater wrote:I just ordered these two

Downloaded it, will give it a read someday (thank you)

Winner of the 2011
Scotiabank Giller Prize

Finalist for the Man Booker Prize

Finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

Finalist for the Governor General's
Literary Award for Fiction

Synopsis:
Berlin, 1939. A young, brilliant trumpet-player, Hieronymus, is arrested in a Paris cafe. The star musician was never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black.

Fifty years later, Sidney Griffiths, the only witness that day, still refuses to speak of what he saw. When Chip Jones, his friend and fellow band member, comes to visit, recounting the discovery of a strange letter, Sid begins a slow journey towards redemption.

From the smoky bars of pre-war Berlin to the salons of Paris, Sid leads the reader through a fascinating, little-known world, and into the heart of his own guilty conscience.

Half-Blood Blues is an electric, heart-breaking story about music, race, love and loyalty, and the sacrifices we ask of ourselves, and demand of others, in the name of art.