The Museum of Abandoned Secrets
This book is quite interesting, especially for people (like me) who already have an interest in Eastern Europe. You learn a lot about Ukrainian history, especially of the World War II, postwar, Communist, and post-Communist eras. It also has a certain puzzle aspect that is quite appealing. I found myself, for example, waking up one morning remembering something I'd read earlier in the book and realizing "Oh yes, that's who the father of Boozerov (one of the characters) must be!" On the other hand, it is very long (about 800 pages), so you really have to commit to it--it took me almost two months to finish. Also, the plot engine--the two protagonists in the novel's present dream about events in World War II that happened to one of their relatives--seems a bit contrived. On the whole, I would recommend it but not unless you already have some interest in this part of the world.
The Age of Miracles
Lately it seems like many of the books I read and like fit in between the genres of literary fiction and science fiction. This is one of those books--about what would happen on earth if the axis changed its tilt. At the same time, it's also a coming-of-age story--the narrator is a middle-schooler who describes both the changes happening all around her and how they affect her and her fellow schoolmates. I found it to be gripping, even though you know from the outset that there's most probably not going to be some deus ex machina that stops the earth's "slowing," as it's called in the book, and so things can't really end well.
Notorious Nineteen (Stephanie Plum, #19)
As always with this series, there were a few times when it was so funny I laughed out loud. Nevertheless, the ending seemed a bit rushed and not quite thought out.
Salvation of a Saint
This is the second of a really fun Japanese mystery series. Usually I'm not crazy about mysteries where you know who the perp is right from the start, but somehow Higashino makes it work. The suspense comes in seeing if the cops will figure out who the murderer is. They rely on the help of "Detective Galileo," a physics professor, who comes through usually by using his powers of logical thinking. As usual for me in Japanese books, part of the pleasure comes in getting a feel for Japanese society, even though I've never been there. Both this book and the first in the series, "The Devotion of Suspect X" are quite interesting--I recommend the series.
Tworki
A very poetic book, very well translated by Benjamin Paloff, who is a poet himself. This isn't a "light" read, and you shouldn't pick it up unless you want something you can sink your teeth into. It's set in a mental hospital where the protagonist (himself a budding writer) works as a bookkeeper during World War II. The mental hospital is a place that is sheltered from the war, but the war manages to intrude anyway, despite the hero's best efforts to protect his friends from it.
Pornografia
Gombrowicz is a unique writer, very difficult to translate into English. This book was translated by a winner of the Polish government's "Found in Translation" award, which she won partly on the basis of this translation. What I find interesting about Gombrowicz is that his two biggest insights into human nature--that even as adults we all feel immature and that people's personalities change depending on whom they interact with--are turned by him into very interesting and provocative novels and plays. "Pornografia" engages both these themes as it minutely dissects the consciousness of its narrator, who is named, not coincidentally, "Witold Gombrowicz." It's a brilliant book, but it's sort of hard to describe what its appeal is--it's definitely NOT pornography (although that is indeed the meaning of the Polish word "pornografia"). Just really good, provocative writing, about stuff that most American books are not about, I guess.
How to Get into the Twin Palms
A wacky, wild book about a young woman with some serious self-esteem issues who has an affair with a wildly inappropriate Russian man. Very interesting portrait of a person caught between two cultures--the old world and the new--who can't seem to find her place in either. Also interesting was the portrait of a Los Angeles that few outside the Eastern European immigrant community know, and the heroine's very ambiguous feelings about the City of Angels.
The Last Supper
A little bit meandering, and I felt like to really appreciate it, I would have had to be as learned as the author about early Christian history. But it touches on some other things that interest me more, such as the Yugoslavian conflict and post-Communism in Poland, plus it's mostly set in the area of Poland where I lived for four years, so I enjoyed it.
Lit: A Memoir
Super well-written and brave. I'm a little allergic to spiritual stuff, but I guess if you're as screwed-up as Mary Karr was at this point in her life, whatever works to get you off whatever it is you're on is good.
The Coming Spring
This book is by Stefan Zeromski--Bill Johnston is the translator. It's a strange book, with a plot that's all over the place, starting in Baku before and during the Russian revolution, and ending in Warsaw during the interwar period, with a long middle section that takes place on a large Polish estate in the country. The central character is an impetuous young man who sympathizes with Bolshevism but keeps getting his Bolshevik sympathies tested by the realities of Bolshevism, whether in the new Soviet Union or in secretive meetings in Warsaw. Nevertheless, he's also turned off by the conservatism of the Polish upper classes and their inability or unwillingness to solve the problems of poverty and of minorities. His ill-fated affair with an upper-class widow who marries another man solely because that man is wealthy turns the tide at the end. It's quite involving, but somehow rather unsatisfying perhaps because the hero is sort of a knucklehead. I would recommend it, though, to people who are interested in the history of the between-the-wars period in Eastern Europe.
Nowolipie Street
An interesting picture of prewar middle-class Jewish life in Warsaw, and how it kept changing the closer it got to World War II. Well-translated.
Night Rounds (Inspector Irene Huss Investigation)
For fans of the Scandinavian mystery, this series, featuring Inspector Irene Huss, is always a fun read, and a lot less preposterous than the Girl with a Dragon Tatoo series. I always like the picture it affords of Swedish society, and Irene is a much more believable character than most mystery detectives.
God's Horse and The Atheists' School
This is a beautifully written and translated autobiographical novel (actually it's a translation of 2 books in one volume). The author, a Polish Jew, survived World War II in hiding with his mother. These early sections are riveting, as even though you, the reader, know he survives, you don't know how many of his relatives and friends do or don't. After the war his mother marries a rising star in the Communist Party, and he becomes a pampered young "prince," although he is ambivalent about this status. This is one of the few books (at least that have been translated into English) that deal with the Stalinist period in Poland in a somewhat sympathetic way, so it's very interesting from the historical point of view. It's also a coming-of-age story of a young man who went through a hellish time as a small child and is struggling to make sense of his memories, of his place in the world, and of what he should believe in.
Don't Cry, Tai Lake (Inspector Chen Cao Series #7)
I love this series about Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai police force. As always, there are many insights into the changing nature of modern-day China while it still maintains its Communist system. Inspector Chen is a great character who writes poetry and translates English mysteries into Chinese, as well as solves mysteries. This book had maybe a bit too much poetry for my taste, but I understood why after reading the acknowledgments at the end. Otherwise great!
Explosive Eighteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Stephanie Plum Novels)
Since about Book 5 of this series, I've thought I should give it up--it's pretty silly, after all. I didn't even go see the movie made of "One for the Money." However, I always go back, and I always find myself chuckling out loud at the preposterous situations Stephanie gets herself into and the wacky exploits of her sidekicks, Lula and Grandma Mazur. As usual, with this series, the first half to two-thirds is better than the last part that resolves the whole case, which is usually a bit of a let-down (despite the presence of Lula and a rocket launcher).
The Pull of Gravity
A very interesting portrayal of the Philippine subculture of bar girls and their clients. Surprisingly engaging, considering that you know the end from the very beginning. I wasn't quite convinced by the portrait of the evil cousin Mariella and in the end the narrator, Jay, doesn't seem all that sympathetic either (although possibly I'd feel differently about him if I were a man). But definitely a good read.