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Russ is always looking for a good book, movie, play, or conversation. Music, drawing, and history are favorite pursuits.
He recommends:
A gritty suspense novel spun from Moscow's show trials of the 30's. Shades of Orwell, Camus, Kafka, and Fallada here. A true believer is arrested. In prison, his willingness to create a living hell for a future utopia is confronted by Stalin's demand that he not only obey but willingly agree--to his own execution. Unsettling and thought-provoking page turner.
~ recommended April, 2013
A highly readable account of the Persian Wars that inspired Herodotus. Tom Holland is a popular historian who can marshal the facts in an even-handed presentation while animating them with a novelist's dramatic flair for color, detail, and personality. Insightful, entertaining, and perceptively relevant.
~ recommended January, 2013
A dark, unnerving fairy tale revolving around two drastically different modes of perception: the poetic world of folktales and fables embodied by the gentle bard O'Brien versus the dispassionate scientific method of scholar and surgeon John Hunter, the giant's nemesis. Their fateful game of cat and mouse plays out in a vividly-sketched London during the Enlightenment. A moving and unsettling drama of character and ideas.
~ recommended October, 2012
This novel evokes an idyllic summer in 1900. An English countryside setting provides the backdrop for a clandestine love affair and the emotional catastrophe that follows. Part of the collateral damage is a child's fragile innocence. A moody and haunting chamber piece just right for late summer and early fall.
~ recommended August, 2012
No matter how bumpy his life got, Williams wrote every day. Many of his most famous plays began as short stories and character sketches--and this volume provides an excellent sampling of them. He had a keen eye, a generous heart and a robust sense of humor. All of which he brought to bear in these depictions of bruised drifters, fading neurotics and gritty opportunists.
An unflinchingly frank and unfailingly compassionate portfolio from a neglected master.
~ recommended March, 2012
The story of Ocatavian (Cleopatra's nemesis) and his evolution into Caesar Augustus, master of Rome and the ancient world. John Williams, author of <em>Stoner</em>, distills an epic amount of material into this neat little novel. A trenchant chronicle of one man's rise to absolute power and its inevitable consequences.(Winner of the National Book award and worthy companion piece to Schiff's best-selling <em>Cleopatra</em>).
~ recommended January, 2012
The Brookline Booksmith Book Club has been sharing great books for 10 years. It normally meets on the 2nd Monday of each month, at 7:30 pm in our Writer's and Reader's Room. No need to sign up, just show up.
Brookline Booksmith 279 Harvard St Brookline, MA 02446-2908 617-566-6660 thestore@brooklinebooksmith.com
Russ is always looking for a good book, movie, play, or conversation. Music, drawing, and history are favorite pursuits. 
