Literanista
October 1, 2009
Exciting new reads:
Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo – Takes you from the Hollywood Hills into Columbia (not stereotyped or romanticized) as the protagonist searches for the truth about her mother’s life and last days. Written by renowned journalist and former concert pianist, Leila Cobo, who is a native of Cali, Colombia. She is currently the Executive Director of Latin Content & Programming for Billboard, she is a frequent contributor to NPR. Learn more at Leilacobo.com.
Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel by Audrey Niffenegger – “Following her breakout bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Niffenegger returns with Her Fearful Symmetry, a haunting tale about the complications of love, identity, and sibling rivalry.” “The endurance of love animates this Gothic story set in and around Highgate Cemetery, in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her estate, including an apartment overlooking the graveyard, to the twin daughters of her twin sister, from whom she has been estranged for twenty years.”
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell – A collection of the best of his writing from The New Yorker, including the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, the secrets of Cesar Millan, the “dog whisperer” who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand, and explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and “hindsight bias.” “Good writing,” Gladwell says in his preface, “does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else’s head.” “His mother, Joyce, a Jamaican-born psychotherapist, Gladwell has said, is his role model as a writer.”
