Brick Lane by Monica Ali

A captivating read from a debut novelist, Brick Lane brings the immigrant milieu of East London to vibrant life. With great poignancy, Ali illuminates a foreign world; her well-developed characters pull readers along on a deeply psychological, almost spiritual journey. Through the eyes of two Bangladeshi sisters—the plain Nazneen and the prettier Hasina—we see the divergent paths of the contemporary descendants of an ancient culture. Hasina elopes to a "love marriage," and young Nazneen, in an arranged marriage, is pledged to a much older man living in London.

Ali's skillful narrative focuses on Nazneen's stifling life with her ineffectual husband, who keeps her imprisoned in a city housing project filled with immigrants in varying degrees of assimilation. But Ali reveals a bittersweet tension between the "two kinds of love" Nazneen and her sister experience—that which begins full and overflowing, only to slowly dissipate, and another which emerges like a surprise, growing unexpectedly over years of faithful commitment. Both of these loves have their own pitfalls: Hasina's passionate romance crumbles into domestic violence, and Nazneen's marriage never quite reaches a state of wedded bliss.

Though comparisons have drawn between Ali and Zadie Smith, a better comparison might be made between this talented newcomer and the work of Amy Tan, who so deftly portrays the immigrant experience with empathy and joy.

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CyberKnight and the Hand Puppet Commandos: Origin Story by Robert J. Gold

CyberKnight and the Hand Puppet Commandos is the " Origin Story " in a series of novels that reveal the epic adventures of Dr. Daryl Daxler (known as "Dax"). From childhood puppeteer to achieving her status as a “Triple Doc” (Ph.D.'s in Astrophysics, Electronic and Parapsychology) and SETI Scientist where she makes a discovery of historic importance, Dax is thrust into the quest of a lifetime. Her development of her life-long dream to build her synthetic telepathy invention, known as the ReAmplifier, ends with results that are not what she expected. When the device links her into the “ Great Mind Wave ” and downloads the “ World Protector Kit ” (WPK) into her mind, it is only the beginning of a journey that will transform her life from purely scientific pursuits to being Earth's “ CyberKnight ”, the reluctant – at first, leader of a powerful group of miniature super heroes, the Hand Puppet Commandos - the likes of which the planet has never seen before. The...

DOUBLE CROSSED AND UNRAVELED by Kelsey Carlee

This memoir recounts the relationships that a young Kelsey experienced, such as how her whole world got turned upside down when she met Howie. It touches on her complicated relationship with her mother, and how the love she developed for Cole nearly cost her life. The plot makes a full circle from when the author was younger to the adult version of herself, as she grieved the loss of her mother and had to look back at the past to be able to call things what they really were. This book chronicles the author's unraveling through poetry, letters, and recollection as an outlet to heal her past traumas. Double Crossed and Unraveled is for every survivor of neglect and abuse. It touches on domestic violence, PTSD, sexual assault, complicated grief, addiction, and recovery. It’s easy to get lost in this "riveting" story that's difficult to set down once you begin reading. https://a.co/d/aBAoWDU

The Ishtar Cup | Murray Lee Eiland Jr.

Bart Northcote vigorously defies stereotypes. He is a Los Angeles private detective who also writes books that are loosely disguised as fiction. He has a keen sense of making money from every job, and has a voracious appetite for art. Here he is involved in tracking down the whereabouts of a fabulous antiquity, called the Ishtar Cup, which has been smuggled out of Iraq after the Gulf War. The problem is that his client, who refuses to giver her real name, wants Bart to follow one of her co-conspirators to make sure they know that they are being watched. Bart suspects he is being played, but he has no idea why. www.amazon.com/Ishtar-Cup-Bart-Northcote/dp/1517362288

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