JANUARY 2013

I expect books to take me places I can't reach on my own. An author should work harder to write it than I do to read it. That's the deal. This one delivers on marriage, love triangles, and literary theory. Eugenides digs into the mess of relationships with surgical precision. Worth your time.

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Two solid novels hit paperback this month. First: Leonardo Padura's The Man Who Loved Dogs. It's about Trotsky's assassination and how communists turned a young believer into their weapon. Dense, brutal, necessary reading. Second one's worth checking out too.

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August 2008. Cartoonist Guy Delisle moves to Jerusalem with his wife and kids. She works for Doctors Without Borders. He handles the house, the children, and somehow finds time to document everything. His eye is sharp, his drawings honest. The city reveals itself through daily routines.

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Charlie's last year of middle school ended with his best friend's suicide. High school terrifies him. So he writes letters to a stranger. Charlie's fragile, observant, raw. Chbosky nails the ache of adolescence without being precious about it. Letters feel real, pain feels earned.

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Tristan joins the hunt to please his wife. She wants to fit in their new village. He hates hunting. First shot? He kills a poor dog. Everything spirals from there. Desarthe writes tight, uncomfortable prose. Village life as nightmare. Social pressure as violence.

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Why lists? To simplify life. Loreau starts simple: we make lists constantly (shopping lists, to-dos) but never think about them. She decided to give lists the respect they deserve. Turns organizational tools into philosophy. Makes the mundane meaningful.

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Joseph Kaplan, born Prague 1910. At ten, discovers tango with his mother. Dreams of dance but chooses medicine—family tradition, long line of doctors. His politics complicate everything. Guenassia traces a life shaped by history and passion. The tango never really leaves him.

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Twenty years, the unconventional Torringtons live at Sterne—grand estate somewhere in northern England. Father's death three years back exposed financial disaster. Now the house is threatened. Jones builds atmosphere like architecture. Gothic tension meets social collapse.

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Here's to 2013. May it bring love, pleasure, health, and good humor. Discoveries that surprise you. Books that change you. Moments that matter. Let's make it count.

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